CINCHONA 73 



period came the fear that within a reasonable time the 

 native forests would be exterminated. Exportation 

 of the plants was naturally opposed by the Peruvian 

 government, which desired to retain the monopoly of 

 so important a product, but, in 1743, La Condamine 

 attempted to transport young plants down the Amazon 

 and thence to Paris. The box containing these was 

 washed overboard, but subsequent attempts were more 

 successful, and cinchona groves were established in 

 localities appropriate as regards climate, soil and eleva- 

 tion. Not only was the world thus saved as concerns 

 this valuable drug, but the yield of alkaloids was enor- 

 mously increased, and the price has much decreased. 

 Markham thus describes his experience in collecting 

 young cinchona plants for transportation: 



"In different parts of this ridge we collected 124 

 young C. Calisaya plants, most of them root-shoots, 

 and a few seedlings. There were also two young trees 

 bearing capsules. The C. Calisaya plants were all 

 growing out of moss which covered the rock to a thick- 

 ness of eight niches or a foot." 



PROFESSIONAL HISTORY: Incomplete would be this 

 brief history of cinchona, were no reference made to 

 the many professional distractions connected therewith. 

 Unbelievable, almost, were these. "The controver- 

 sies that arose on the subject, between learned doctors, 

 were long and acrimonious. Dr. Colmenero, a pro- 

 fessor in the University of Salamanca, wrote a work 

 in which he declared that ninety sudden deaths .had 

 been caused by its use in Madrid alone." (Markham). 

 Factional, as well as personal, were the disputes over 

 its value or harmfulness. The two sides of the con- 

 troversy can perhaps be no more forcibly presented, 



