QUININE. 239 



vegetable alkaloids. It may be that they did not at 

 first realize the priceless nature of the boon that they 

 were about to confer upon suffering humanity, but 

 however that may be, we feel it our duty to recall 

 to public recollection a circumstance which the world 

 would be ungrateful ever to forget, namely that these 

 young Frenchmen at once placed their discovery at 

 the service of the public, without any restrictions,* 

 instead of keeping it secret, so as to turn it to their 

 own personal advantage, as so many have done when 

 they have made valuable discoveries. 



This noble conduct is therefore deserving of more 

 than a mere passing mention, as we fear little was 

 ever done to mark the public appreciation due to 

 their services, as it was not till 1837 tnat a paltry 

 sum of 10,000 francs (,400) w r as awarded to them, and 

 ordered seventeen years afterwards to be divided be- 

 tween them.f And so far as w r e have been able to 

 discover that was all. We can therefore readily 

 conceive the cynical man of the world exclaiming as 

 he reads these lines "That shows what fools they 

 were not to keep the thing secret and make a fortune 

 out of it." Yet public apathy, for the last seventy 

 years, goes far in this case to justify these mercenary 

 sentiments. For was not the gift to humanity above 

 all price? 



How many of the rising generation, for instance, 

 have ever heard of Pelletier or Caventou ? How many 

 of the thousands whose lives have been saved by 

 quinine have felt gratitude to their memory? Had 



* See Dictionnaire Universel des Contemporains, par G. Vapereau, 

 4th edit., 1870 (Article " Caventou "). 



f Grand Dictionnaire Universel du XIX Szecle, par Pierre Lar- 

 rousse, Paris, 1874, Vol. xiii, p. 528. 



