148 QUININE, EUCALYPTUS 



it can be purchased in halfpenny packets and the poorest can 

 get cured of his disease. 



In England the price has gone down from 105. to Is. an 

 ounce. Yet this boon was not conferred on humanity without 

 sacrifice. Two of the explorers were crippled and disabled 

 as a consequence of the paralysis which followed the fevers 

 they contracted in the forests, and one poor Indian who helped 

 to collect seeds was thrown into prison, where he was beaten 

 and starved to death. 



SOURCES OF SUPPLY. Before the war, however, in spite of 

 these sacrifices, we imported practically all our quinine from 

 foreign countries, mainly from the Netherlands (there are 

 nourishing plantations in Java) and Germany. During the 

 war our supplies came almost entirely from the Nether- 

 lands. 



OIL OF EUCALYPTUS. This is a very valuable antiseptic 

 drug, obtained from the leaves of the Eucalyptus globulus, or 

 Australian Blue Gum. This is one of the largest known trees, 

 sometimes attaining a height of over 400 feet. It has a smooth 

 greyish trunk, the outer layers of which easily peel off. Its 

 leaves are of a dull grey-green colour, long and narrow, 

 tough and leathery. They contain numerous oil-glands, 

 which help them to resist the heat, and which emit the well- 

 known peculiar odour of the Australian Bush. 



The flowers are large with very many stamens arranged in 

 rows around the edge of the calyx. The cream-coloured 

 filaments are long and delicate, with small yellow anthers 

 at their extremities. There are no petals. The upper part of 

 the bud consists of a thick knotty green lid, which drops off 

 when the flower opens. It is this lid which gives the tree its 

 name eucalyptus, well covered. 



The fruit is rather like a button in shape, hence the name 

 globulus, which means a little button. 



' The fever- destroying tree ' is another name by which it 

 is known, because when planted in malarial districts it makes 

 them less unhealthy. Its enormous roots suck up huge 



