CINCHONA 63 



su i as were experienced by cinchona during the half- 

 ce tury following its discovery in the Peruvian wilds. 

 To make a creditable summary thereof is a very diffi- 

 cult task. To condense into a short article merely the 

 principal events of its voluminous record, with full 

 references to publications regarding this South Ameri- 

 can bark, can not here be accomplished. 



The mystery shrouding the discovery of cinchona 

 has never been authoritatively cleared. In the light 

 of its present supremacy and world-renowned impor- 

 tance, the discredit and odium cast upon it in the early 

 records, when its only friends were laymen, charlatans 

 and semi-professional empiricists, seem now almost 

 incomprehensible. Past literature of more than half 

 a century voices acridly the distractions bred in the 

 ranks of the medical profession, as this strange bark, 

 a gift of the mountain fastnesses of the Peruvian trop- 

 ics, forced itself into prominence. The monstrous 

 reports concerning its harmfulness, and the divisions 

 in the profession itself as regards its usefulness, be- 

 speak toleration today, as physicians and pharmacists 

 now differ concerning fact, ideals, and ethics with 

 other drugs. 



INDIAN HISTORY: That the natives of Peru were 

 not aware of the value of cinchona in fevers, is the 

 opinion of many writers, including Humboldt, the 

 explorer, and Ulloa. 1 Humboldt (see Pharmaco- 

 gr aphid) states as follows: "At Loxa the natives would 

 rather die than have recourse to what they consider 



'A celebrated mathematician and naval officer, born at Seville in Spain, 1716. He ac- 

 companied La Condamine, Gordin and other "Savants" in the historic expedition to South 

 America to measure a degree of meridian of the equator, 1735. He gave particular attention 

 to the cinchona subject, protesting to the Spanish government against the habit of destroy- 

 ing the trees to get the bark, advising that others be planted in their stead. "Though the 

 trees are numerous, yet they have an end." 



