780 



QUINA QUINSY. 



but the new actor obtained so great a share of at- 

 tention as to have gradually induced Quin to retire. 

 Hi^ last performance was Falstaff, (1753,) in which 

 diameter he is supposed never to have been exceed- 

 ed. He survived his retreat several years, which 

 he spent chiefly at Bath, where his fund of anecdote 

 and pointed sense, made him much sought after. 

 Quin, who was convivial, and too fond of the bottle, 

 was often coarse and quarrelsome on these occasions, 

 which led to two or three hostile encounters, one of 

 which proved fatal to his antagonist. He was 

 otherwise manly, sensible, and generous ; and his 

 deliverance of Thomson, although then unknown to 

 him, from an arrest, by a present of 100, is much 

 to his honour. He died at Bath, in 1766, aged 

 seventy-three. Garrick, once his rival, and after- 

 wards his friend, wrote the epitaph for his monu- 

 ment in Bath Cathedral. 



QUIN A, OR QUININA ; a vegetable alkali ex- 

 tracted from pale cinchona. It exists in transpa- 

 rent plates, which are insoluble in water, and 

 of a bitter taste. It unites with the acids, forming 

 crystallized salts. The sulphate is of a dull white 

 colour, silky and flexible. Like quina, it is soluble 

 in alcohol, and bums away without leaving any re- 

 siduum. A grain of pure sulphate of quina will 

 render nearly a pound and a half of water sensibly 

 bitter. When one grain is dissolved in about 300 

 grains of boiled distilled water, pure sulphate of qui- 

 na will, on cooling be deposited, in feathery crystals, 

 in twenty-four hours, if there be no adulteration. The 

 alkalies and their carbonates cause a precipitation 

 in water, containing a thousandth part of sulphate 

 of quina ; and a solution of tannin does so in a so- 

 lution ten times more dilute. The sulphate is com- 

 posed of quina 100, and sulphuric acid 10-9. The 

 acetate of quina is remarkable for the manner in 

 which it crystallizes. Its crystals are flat needles, 

 of a pearly appearance, which are grouped in star- 

 like bundles. The sulphate of quina in doses of 

 from six to twelve grains, has been found an effec- 

 tual remedy against intermittent fevers. It is said 

 that the red or yellow bark yields the most febrifuge 

 quina. The following is a good method for deter- 

 mining whether bark is rich in quina : Digest al- 

 cohol on it in coarse powder till it be drained ; pre- 

 cipitate the colouring matter by acetate of lead ; 

 filter and separate the excess of lead by a few drops 

 of sulphuric acid ; then filter and distil ; when sul- 

 phate of quina will remain mixed with a fatty mat- 

 ter. Ammonia will now separate the quina. 



QUINAULT, PHILIPPE, the most distinguished 

 of French opera writers, born in 1635, was the son 

 of a baker, and had no advantages of education. 

 Excepting some instruction in regard to versification 

 by Tristan L'Hermite, he owed every thing to his 

 own industry and talent. Even before the twentieth 

 year of his age he brought out some plays, and, for 

 several years, continued to write with success for 

 the stage. His success, however, only reno'ered him 

 a mark for the satire of Boileau, who attacked him 

 with so much bitterness as to have injured his own 

 fame. Quinault then abandoned tragedy, which he 

 felt not to be his province, and, connecting himself 

 with Lully, laboured for the opera. In this lyric 

 department of poetry, he displayed such talents as 

 to be placed above all his competitors, and to be 

 ranked, by the best judges, among the most distin- 

 guished men of the age of Louis XIV. There is 

 nothing in the French language more delicate, tender 

 and ingenious than the turn of his songs and love 

 dialogues. Boileau, and the other censurers of 

 Quinault, attributed the success of his pieces solely 

 to the merit of Lully'* music ; which, however, is 

 now forgotten, while Quinault's verse is always raad 



with pleasure. His Armide, (1686,) and his Atys, 

 are masterpieces in their kind. Quinault, who was 

 without experience in affairs of business, mar- 

 ried the widow of a rich merchant, whose estate he 

 had settled, and purchased (1671) the post of audi- 

 tor in the chamber of accounts. He was soon after 

 received into the French academy, and, in the name 

 of that body, congratulated the king on his return 

 from the campaigns of 1675 and 1677. The flat- 

 tery which he employed in his prologues obtained 

 him a pension. A melancholy, produced probably 

 by the decline of his health, disturbed the happi- 

 ness of his last years. He was filled with regret for 

 having devoted his talents to theatrical productions, 

 and determined to apply what remained of his 

 powers to the honour of God and the king. He be- 

 gan a poem upon the extirpation of Protestantism 

 in France, which, however, would only have dimi- 

 nished his reputation. He died in 1688. In society 

 Quinault was polite, amiable, and kind. Besides 

 his theatrical pieces, he was the author of several 

 occasional poems. His works were published in 

 1739 and in 1778, in five volumes, with a life pre- 

 fixed. 



QUINCE (cydonia vulgaris) a low, tortuous 

 tree, named after the ancient town of Cydon, in 

 Crete, from which place it was said to have been 

 introduced into the other parts of Europe ; but it 

 appears to grow wild in Western Asia and some of 

 the neighbouring parts of Europe. It is now culti- 

 vated throughout Europe, and in many parts of the 

 United States, for the sake of its fruit, which, 

 though hard and austere when plucked from the tree, 

 becomes excellent when boiled and eaten with 

 sugar, or preserved in sirup, or made into marma- 

 lade. Quinces, when mixed with other fruit, in 

 cookery, communicate a very pleasant flavour ; and 

 a delicious wine may be made from their juice, 

 mixed with sugar in the proportion of one quart to 

 the pound, and fermented. The leaves of the quince 

 tree are simple, alternate and entire ; the flowers 

 are large, white, sometimes with ablush of rose, 

 and are solitary at the extremity of the young 

 branches ; the divisions of the calyx are denticula- 

 ted ; and the fruit is somewhat pear-shaped, yellow- 

 ish and cottony, internally containing five cartilagi- 

 nous cells, in each of which the seeds are arranged 

 in two series to the number of eight and upwards, 

 and covered with a mucilaginous substance. This 

 character of the numerous seeds is the principal 

 circumstance in its structure, which distinguishes 

 the quince from the apple and pear. The quince 

 succeeds best in a light soil: if it be too rich, the 

 fruit becomes insipid, and if too dry, it remains 

 small and coriaceous. The Cydonia Japonica is a 

 beautiful low bush, remarkable for the brilliancy of 

 its flowers, which vary from the richest scarlet to 

 the most delicate blush colour. It is very hardy, 

 and is one of the most ornamental shrubs that can 

 be placed in a garden. It is a native of Japan. 



QUINCTILIANUS. See Quintilianus. 



QUINCUNX, in Roman antiquity, denotes any 

 thing that consists of five twelfth parts of another, 

 but particularly of the as, or pound. See As. 



QUINDECAGON, in geometry, a plane figure 

 with fifteen sides and fifteen angles, which, if the 

 sides are all equal, is termed a regular quindecagon, 

 and irregular when otherwise. 



QUININE. See Quina, and Bark, Peruvian. 



QUINQUAGESIMA; name of the Sunday be- 

 fore Lent, because fifty days before Easter ; also 

 called Esto ntihi. 



QUINQUETS; the French term for Arjrand 

 lamps. See the latter part of the article Lamp. 



QUINSY ; an inflammation of the throat ; a 



