238 QUININE. 



We are therefore happy to be able to feel that 

 owing to the exertions of Mr. Markham, and others, 

 the extinction of the Cinchona forests is now placed 

 beyond the reach of practical possibility, and that every 

 year the culture of Cinchona is extending in India, 

 and elsewhere. In many parts of India, for instance, 

 numerous flourishing plantations already exist trees 

 in the Neilgherry Hills having already attained a 

 height of from twenty to thirty feet.* While in Ceylon, 

 where large quantities of Cinchona trees have been 

 planted upon the highlands of the interior, we have 

 been given to understand that the production of bark 

 is now so large, and the price of quinine so' much 

 reduced, that its cultivation is no longer remunerative. 

 This we believe is partly due to the fact that the 

 Ceylon cinchona does not contain so large a percent- 

 age of quinine as the Indian trees. At any rate the 

 cultivation of this beautiful tree, as we regretted to 

 observe during our recent visit to that island, is now 

 comparatively neglected, though it grows so freely 

 that we have frequently noticed the seedling trees 

 propagating themselves, wild, upon portions of disused 

 or uncultivated land. 



The medical virtues of Cinchona, formerly known 

 as "Jesuit's bark," have been known from an early 

 period in American history, but the first authentic 

 instance of its medicinal use by Europeans dates from 

 1638. It was, however, not until 1820 that its valuable 

 alkaloid " Sulphate of Quinine" was discovered by 

 two young French chemists, Pierre Joseph Pelletier 

 and Joseph Bienaime Caventou, in the course of some 

 researches they were making into the subject of the 



* Encyclop. Brit. Vol. v, pp. 781 2. 



