PERUVIAN OR JESUITS' BARK 



CINCHONA 



Introduction 

 into India 



if it lady was directly instrumental iit the discovery of the great merit* 

 no leas distinguished lady, the wife of a Vii India (Lord 



.\rts closely connected with its ultimate successful cult i\at in in India. 

 in 1813 lamented the fact that Cinchona was not grown in India, 

 loylo iu 1N35 recommended that the Cinchona plants should betaken to 

 I ml in .in.l thrown on the Khasia and Nilgiri hills. About the same time Fritze, 

 I iitln-r botanists advanced the claims of Java. No effort was, how- 

 niade tor i wenty years, not in fact until the heavy mortality through fever, 

 during th>- I mil. in Mutiny, forced the subject into public attention. It was, 

 A dl knoun thut a reckless and selfish process of bark-collection was 

 Iv endangering the world's future supplies of the drug. These circumstances 

 .net! to lay emphasis on the final recommendation of the Government of 

 i hat seed and plants should be procured for experimental cultivation 

 in India. In consequence, Mr. (now Sir) Clements R. Markham was entrusted 

 :ln- delicate and difficult task of procuring supplies. The subsequent 

 nts ami tinal success \\hirh he attained are matters of history, and need 

 e hero detailed. Sir Clements procured the services of several gentlemen 

 names aqp all closely associated with his own, namely Spruce, Pritchett, 

 Weir and Cross. The energetic co-operation of the Director of the Royal Gardens, 

 quilled and controlled all the subsequent efforts. Various consignments of 

 plants ami seeds were taken to Kew, and finally carried to India, certain plants 

 having in due course been established on the Nilgiri hills. So far, however, the 

 attempt to introduce the trees into Bengal had been a failure. On the other 

 the efforts of the Dutch botanists and chemists in the naturalisation of 

 and '. 1'niimiiiinH were crowned with complete success, and in 

 meiice the noble Lady Canning discussed with Dr. Thomas Anderson, of 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, the desirability of a further effort being 

 to introduce the most useful species, if possible, from Java into the moun- 

 of Bengal. Shortly after Lady Canning herself fell a victim to the scourge 

 she aimed at alleviating. Dr. Anderson was, however, deputed to Java, 

 he brought back with him a fairly large consignment of plants, some of 

 he left in Ceylon, others in the Nilgiri hills, and finally took a set to 

 it t a. Botanic Gardens and ultimately to Darjeeling. But many mistakes 

 altitude, climate, method of treatment, best stock and the like, had to 

 jrrected before a plantation could be established. Dr. Anderson lived, 

 aver, to see his labours brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and then, like 

 great lady who had sent him to Java, he died suddenly of malarial fever. 

 his laborious work was placed in the hands of a worthy successor Sir 

 K ing. It would occupy many pages to narrate even the more striking 

 of the subsequent achievements. Anderson acclimatised the plants 

 King made their cultivation and the manufacture of quinine a com- 

 cial success. Suffice it, therefore, to say that a department has been so 

 that the Government of India have long since discontinued to import 

 the hospitals have been given a limitless supply of the finest quality 

 per pound than a few years ago it sold at per ounce, and lastly, and by 

 the most remarkable accomplishment, packets of one dose are now sold in 

 Post Office, throughout the fever-stricken tracts, at the nominal cost of 

 farthing. This invaluable medicine has thus been brought to the very 

 of even the poorest peasant of India, and it is no wonder, therefore, that 

 ant vital statistics mark year by year the steady conquest of India's greatest 

 direst scourge. Truly, therefore, may it be said of Lady Canning that she 

 to save others. 



[Cf. the following works, in amplification of the enumeration given in the 

 'ry, may assist the reader to discover the fuller particulars which he 

 desire regarding the history, botany and cultivation of the Cinchona- 

 "ag plants : Lambert, Genus Cinchona, etc., incl. Vahl, Dissert., 1797-1821 ; 

 an, Monog. der China, 1826 ; Weddell, Hist. Nat. Des. Quinq., 1849 ; Par- 

 ry Returns E. Ind. Cinchona Plantations, 1852-75 ; Markham, Peruvian 

 ;) to 1880; also Travels in Peru and India, 1862, 483-520 ; Planchon, 

 Quinquinas, 1864 ; Howard, Quinology East Ind. Plantations, 1869 ; Triana, 

 Etud., Quinq., 1870 ; Campbell Walker, Rept. Oovt. Cinchona Plant., 

 Cross, Rept. C. condaminea in Ecuador, 1861 ; also Rept. Mission to S. 

 ia, etc., 1877-8 ; Bidie, Cinchona Cult, in Br. Ind., 1879 ; Moens, Kinacult. 

 -ie, 1882 ; Gorkom, Handbook Cinch. Cult. (Jackson, transl.), 1883 ; Holmes, 

 /.///./;,</. in Journ. Linn. Soc., 1886, xxi., 374-80; Nicholls, Textbook Trop. 



303 



Indian Mutiny. 



K. .Markham. 



Kcw and India. 



Java. 



Anderson and 

 King. 



Successful 



Manufacture. 



Post Office 



Packets. 



Lady Canning. 



