CHAPTER IX 



CINCHONA AND OTHER DRUGS 



Cinchona. The Cinchona tree (Cinchona succirubra, offici- 

 nalis, Ledgeriana, and other species), whose bark, often known 

 to this day as Peruvian bark, yields the drug quinine, besides 

 the other less valuable alkaloids cinchonidine, etc., is a native 

 of the Andes of Peru. The drug, in the form of the powdered 

 bark, was first introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century 

 by the Jesuits, and its value became well known when in 1638 

 the Countess of Chinchon was cured of a fever by its aid. 



For a very long time the drug was entirely obtained from 

 the wild trees in Peru, which were felled and their bark re- 

 moved, but about 1860 it was realised that these wild trees 

 were getting into serious danger of extermination, and an 

 expedition, headed by Mr (now Sir) Clements Markham, was 

 sent to Peru, and after toilsome and often dangerous journeying, 

 secured a large supply of young plants and seed, which was 

 successfully introduced into India and Ceylon. Quinine at that 

 time was worth about twelve shillings an ounce, and the history 

 of its cheapening to one shilling must be mainly credited to 

 Ceylon. 



The tree was cultivated for many years at Hakgala, the 

 Government mountain garden in Ceylon, at a height of about 

 5600 feet above the sea level, but in the days when coffee was 

 prosperous no one could be persuaded to have anything to do 

 with the plants, and it was only after about ten years, as coffee 

 began to be depressed by the attacks of the leaf disease, that 

 anyone was induced to plant them, although at first they were 

 given away. Later, as the collapse of coffee began to drive the 

 planters to look out for something else, cinchona was tried, 



