RUBIACEjE. X. CINCHONA. 



475 



respecting the Countess Chinclion, vice-queen of Peru, is pro- 

 bably still more doubtful than it is generally supposed to be. 

 There certainly was a Count Chinchon, Don Geronimo Fernandez 

 de Cabrera Bobadella y Mendoza, who was Viceroy of Lima 

 from 1629 to 1639. It is very probable that his wife, after her 

 return to Spain in 1640, was the first to introduce the Cinchona 

 bark to Europe. The name of Pulvis Committissa appears even 

 more ancient than that of Pulvis Jesuilicus or Pulvis patrum. 

 But I do not believe that the Corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan 

 Lopez de Cannizares, who is said to have cured the Countess of 

 ague, received this remedy from the Indians. In Loxa there is 

 no tradition whatever of this kind, nor is it probable that the 

 discovery of the medicinal power of the Cinchona belongs to 

 the primitive natives of America ; if it is also considered that 

 these natives (like the Hindoos) adhere with unalterable pertina- 

 city to their customs, to their food, and to their nostrums ; and 

 that notwithstanding all this the use of the Cinchona bark is 

 entirely unknown to them in Loxa, Guamcabamba, and far 

 around. In the deep and hot valleys of the mountains of Cata- 

 mango, Rio Calvas, and Macara, agues are extremely common. 

 But the natives there, as well as in Loxa, of whatever cast, 

 would die rather than have recourse to Cinchona bark, which, 

 together with opiates, they place in the class of poisons, exciting 

 mortification. The Indians cure themselves by lemonades, by 

 the oleaginous aromatic peel of the small green wild lemon, 

 by infusions of Scoparia dulcis, and by strong coffee. In 

 Malacatis only, where many bark-peelers live, they begin to 

 put confidence in the Cinchona bark. In Loxa, there is no 

 document to be found which can elucidate the history of the 

 discovery of the Cinchona ; an old tradition, however, is current 

 there, that the Jesuits, at the felling of the wood, had distin- 

 guished, according to the custom of the country, the different 

 kind of trees by chewing their barks ; and that on such occa- 

 sions they had taken notice of the considerable bitterness of that 

 of the Cinchona. There being always medical practitioners 

 among the missionaries, it is said they had tried an infusion of 

 the Cinchona in the tertian ague, a complaint which is very com- 

 mon in that part of the country. This tradition is less impro- 

 bable than the assertion of European authors, and among them 

 the late writers Ruiz and Favor, who ascribe the discovery to 

 the Indians. The medicinal powers of the Cinchona was like- 

 wise entirely unknown to the inhabitants of the kingdom of New 

 Granada." 



Cinchona bark is stripped from the trunk and branches in the 

 dry season, from September to November ; it is dried by expo- 

 sure to the sun, and after being imported into Europe is sorted 

 for sale. It is brought to this country in chests, each of which 

 contains from 100 to 200 pounds weight of bark, mixed with 

 dust and other impurities. According to Humboldt, the quan- 

 tity of this drug annually exported from America is from 12,000 

 to 14,000 quintals. The kingdom of Santa Fe furnishes 2000 of 

 these, which are sent from Carthagena ; 110 are furnished by 

 Loxa, and the provinces of Huamanga, Cuenca, and Jean de 

 Bracamoros, and the thick forests of Guamcabamba and Ayavaca, 

 furnish the rest, which is shipped from Lima, Guayaquil, Payta, 

 and other ports on the South Sea. 



The pale bark of the shops, the Quina Naranjada, and Casca- 

 rillajina de Uritusinga of the Spaniards, which is obtained from 

 C. lanceolala, is preferred in South America to all the other 

 kinds of bark. It is in pieces, 5 or 6 inches long, singly or 

 doubly convoluted, externally of a greyish brown colour, to 

 which crusts of lichens often adhere, and is internally when fresh 

 broken of a bright cinnamon hue. There are often intermixed 

 with this others of a coarser texture, thicker, and nearly flat, 

 which appears to be obtained from the trunk and larger 

 branches. The fracture is smooth and even ; its powder is of a 



pale colour; its taste is bitter and astringent ; its smell peculiar 

 and aromatic. 



The yellow bark, named Quina amarilla, Cascarilla de Loxa, 

 and Cascarilla amarilla, is less rolled than the pale bark, and 

 the pieces are larger and thicker. Externally it is of a greyish 

 brown, and covered with lichens ; internally of a much deeper 

 orange than the pale bark. It has a more bitter taste, with a 

 less aromatic odour, and with scarcely any sensible degree of 

 astringency. 



The red bark is sometimes rolled, but more commonly in 

 flat thick pieces, covered with rough entire reddish brown epi- 

 dermis. It has a smooth fracture. It is composed of three 

 layers ; the inner one being of a dark ferruginous colour, it is 

 more bitter and astringent than the pale and yellow bark. 



These three kinds of bark are only distinguished in Britain ; 

 but M. Von Bergen, a drug broker of Hamburgh, who has writ- 

 ten a valuable monograph on the Cinchonas, enumerates eight 

 kinds as distinguished in commerce ; and the drug merchants of 

 Spain enumerate about 50 different kinds of bark : these are 

 probably obtained from as many species of Cinchona, or several 

 of them may be obtained from the same species the difference 

 depending upon the age, state, and habitats of the trees. 



Qualities and chemical properties. Few vegetable substances 

 have undergone so many analyses, by the most eminent chem- 

 ists, as the different varieties of Peruvian bark. The basis of 

 all of them is woody fibre, combined with which are various 

 principles capable of being abstracted by different solvents. The 

 taste of all is more or less bitter and astringent. Boiling water 

 extracts all their active principles, affording a solution of a pale 

 brown colour ; this infusion is transparent when hot, but on 

 cooling becomes turbid, and a precipitate is deposited, which is 

 soluble in alcohol. The decoction has a very astringent taste, 

 and a deep brown colour. By long boiling the virtues are nearly 

 destroyed, owing to the chemical change and precipitation of its 

 active matter. Alcohol, in all its modifications, is a powerful 

 solvent of the active principles of Cinchona. A saturated solu- 

 tion of ammonia is also a solvent of them, but acetate acid acts 

 less imperfectly than even water. Vauquelin found that an in- 

 fusion of the pale bark reddened litmus paper ; was copiously 

 precipitated by solution of galls, and in a smaller degree in yel- 

 lowish flocculent flakes by solution of isinglass. A solution of 

 tartar emetic was rendered turbid, and slowly precipitated by it; 

 solution of superacetate of lead produces quickly a copious 

 precipitate. The addition of a solution of the sulphate of iron 

 to the infusion changed the colour to a bright olive green, but was 

 scarcely precipitated. The powder macerated in sulphuric acid 

 afforded a golden yellow tincture, which reddened litmus paper, 

 and left a pellicle of bitter resin when evaporated on the surface 

 of water, to which it gave the colour of the tincture. This 

 coloured water did not precipitate the solution of galls and of 

 tartar emetic, and occasioned no precipitate on the addition of 

 the solution of sulphate of iron. With alcohol it produced a 

 deep orange coloured tincture, which precipitated sulphate of 

 iron, tartarized antimony, and tannin. The agency of the dif- 

 ferent menstrua on the red and yellow varieties of the Cinchona 

 produce nearly the same results as on the common or pale bark. 

 The filtered solution of yellow bark has a pale golden hue, with 

 a shade of red ; it is bitter, reddens litmus paper, and precipi- 

 tates solution of galls. On adding a solution of isinglass, a 

 pinkish yellow precipitate is produced ; superacetate throws 

 down a precipitate ; tartarised antimony gives a precipitate in 

 pale yellowish flakes. A solution of the sulphate of iron changes 

 its colour to a bluish green, and slowly lets fall a precipitate of 

 the same colour. The alcoholic tincture appears to be in every 

 respect the same as that afforded by the pale bark. The red 

 bark has a more nauseous taste than the barks of the other species. 

 3 P 2 



