PERUVIAN BARK. 



spread abroad in the open air, and turned frequently 

 to dry. A tree when stripped, is not reclothed with 

 a new bark for at least eighteen or twenty years, and 

 not even then, unless a strip, however narrow, is 

 left from the root to the branches, through which 

 the sap may ascend, and invigorate the plant. 



Both history and tradition concur in stating that 

 the use of this valuable bark as a remedy for fever, 

 was known to the natives of Peru before the con- 

 quest of their country. But Spanish writers, who 

 invariably endeavour to depreciate that unoffending 

 and injured people, refuse them the credit of this 

 discovery. They tell us that a lake near the town of 

 Loxa was thickly shaded with bark trees, and that 

 some of them having been blown into it by high winds, 

 the waters became extremely bitter. That an Indian, 

 parched with a raging fever, having gone to shelter 

 himself beneath the trees, was forced by excessive 

 thirst, to drink the waters, and that having drank 

 of them, he rapidly recovered. The Indian hastened 

 to tell his neighbours, and many, encouraged by his 

 example, took the same healing draught, and were 

 as speedily relieved. Upon this, seeking to discover 

 what imparted such salutary virtues to this hitherto 

 unheeded lake, they found that several bark trees 

 had fallen into it. Subsequent experiments ascer- 

 tained that the efficacy of the tree was principally 

 confined to the bark, and as years passed on, it 

 became an important article of commerce. Still 

 for a considerable period this valuable discovery 

 was chiefly confined to the town and neighbourhood 

 of Loxa; and it was not till the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century that the virtues of the Peruvian 



