1892. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 113 
that time no basic substance had been found in plants and they 
were thought to be only capable of producing acids and organic 
salts of mineral substances; but this discovery of Sertiirner 
opened a new field of inquiry, and a search for alkaloidal bodies 
in plants led to a rich harvest for the apothecary and physician. 
Conium, strychnine, cinchonine, quinine, cocaine, atropine, vera- 
trine, and many others were soon separated from the plants that 
up to this time had been used as the active agents in the hands of 
the physician. 
The bark of a tree from Peru was known in Europe as a specific 
for fever as early as the year 1640. In 1737, La Condamine, the 
botanist, in a journey through Lima, saw the tree and described it 
in the Mémoires of the French Academy. Soon afterward Linnzus 
eave it the name of Cinchona, after the Countess of Cinchon, who, 
it is said, was the first to introduce its use into Europe. 
As early as 1803 efforts were made to separate the active principle 
from this cinchona bark, and several materials were made from it 
that were supposed to be this principle, but failed to produce the 
effects obtained by the use of the bark itself. These efforts con- 
tinued for seventeen years, when, in 1820, Pellatier and Cavento ~ 
isolated cinchonine and quinine and proved that these two substances 
would give the peculiar antifebrifuge results obtained from the 
Peruvian bark. This discovery led to the offer of a prize by the 
French Academy of Medicine of 20,000 frances to the individual 
_ who should be able to produce it artificially or without the use of 
Peruvian bark, 
When we consider that in 1823, about the time this prize was 
offered, the price of quinine was $20 per ounce, it may be readily 
understood how important such a process as its artificial production 
would prove. 
For a long time all attempts at the synthesis of quinine were 
pursued on the assumption that it was represented by the formula 
C,,H,,N,O,, and cinchonidine was taken as O©,,H,,N,O, so that the 
atom of O constituted the whole. difference. Nothing seemed 
simpler than to tack on an atom of O to the cinchonidine and con- 
vert it into quinine. When this was effected, however, the result- 
ing compound differed entirely from quinine, both in physical char- 
acter and physiological action, so that it was obvious that the theory 
was wrong. To-day the annual production of the bark is worth 
between seven and eight millions of dollars. 
In 1856, it was the desire on the part of Perkin, the English 
chemist, to obtain quinine from aniline that led to the discovery of 
the first of the aniline colors, namely, mauve. After the methods 
perfected by Liebig, Will, and Varrentrapp, the composition of ani- 
line became firmly established, and it was the study of this analysis 
that first led Perkin into the idea that quinine could probably be 
made artificially. He failed to make what he wished, but who can 
estimate the value of the industry that started when in his search 
