Ch. II. SOUTH AMERICA. 323 



name of Cascarilla de Loja, or Quinquina. Of this 

 specific there are different kinds, one of which is more 

 ei?icacious than the others. M. de Jussieu, whom I 

 have already had occasion to mention more than once, 

 being sent to make botanical observations, and take 

 care of the health of the academicians, took the trou- 

 ble of making a journey to Loja, purely to examine 

 the tree which produces it; and in a full description, 

 which he drew up for the satisfaction of botanists and 

 other curious persons, enters, with his known skill and 

 accuracy, into a very minute distinction of the several 

 species, and enumerates the smallest circumstances. 

 At the same time he was pleased to inform the cor- 

 regidor of the differences, and to instruct the Indians 

 employed in cutting it to distinguish each species, 

 that the best sort only might be sent unmixed to 

 Europe. Nor was this all ; he farther instructed 

 them how to make an extract of it, and prevailed on 

 the inhabitants of that territory to use it, where its vir- 

 tues had till that time been neglected, though inter- 

 mitting fevers are there as common as in any other 

 parts. Before he undeceived them, the natives ima- 

 gined that it was exported to Europe only as an in- 

 gredient in dyeing; and though they were not entirely 

 ignorant of its virtues, they made no use of it, little 

 imagining that a simple of so hot a nature could be 

 good for them. But this ingenious physician con- 

 vinced them of their mistake by many happy effects; 

 so that now it is generally used in all kinds of fevers: 

 and persons of undoubted veracity, who have since 

 visited Loja, have given me very pleasing accounts 

 of its salutary effects. ■' 



The tree which produces the cascarilla is not of 

 the largest size, its usual height being about two toises 

 and a half, and the body and branches of a propor- 

 tionate thickness. In this, hcnvever, there is some dif- 

 ference, and in that consists the goodness of the cas- 

 carilla, the largest branches not yielding the best. 



y a Ther 



