50 



bark, has no particular medicinal properties ; it 

 merely renders the alkaloid more soluble. The sul- 

 phate of cinehonia is sometimes used in medicine, 

 but it is much inferior in tonic power to the sulphate 

 of quinia, which is prepared from the yellow bark. 

 In order to procure the latter salt, the yellow bark is 

 treated in a similar manner to the pale bark, in the 

 preparation of cinehonia, being first boiled in acidu- 

 lated water, then mixed with quicklime, in order to 

 precipitate the quinia, which is little soluble in water, 

 but which is easily dissolved in alcohol, and after- 

 wards combined with sulphuric acid. There is thus 

 formed a pure white salt, which crystallises in the 

 form of silky needles. This sulphate is now in ge- 

 neral use, iu consequence of possessing all the tonic 

 and febrifuge properties of bark, in a concentrated 

 state. It is capable of being administered in large 

 doses without producing nausea, and is much more 

 active and powerful than the bark itself. It is now 

 manufactured on a large scale, both in this country 

 and in France. In the year 1826, no less than 1593 

 hundred weight of bark was used by four chemists in 

 Paris, and 90,000 ounces of sulphate of quinia or 

 quinine were produced in France the same year. It 

 is sometimes adulterated with white sugar, starch, 

 sulphate of lime and boracic acid. 



Bark is employed medicinally as a stimulant tonic, 

 astringent and antiseptic. It is administered either 

 in the form of powder, infusion, decoction, tincture or 

 extract. The sulphates of cinehonia and quinia are 

 chiefly employed in the present day. Bark and its 

 alkaline preparations are used extensively in the cure 

 of intermittent fever, being given in large doses 

 during the intervals or intermissions. When given 

 in substance, bark is best administered in milk, which 

 completely covers its flavour, provided the doses be 

 swallowed the instant it is mixed with the milk. 

 Bark is also used in other febrile diseases, in rheuma- 

 tism, in dysentery and chronic diarrhoea, in gangrene 

 or mortification, in various passive haemorrhages, 

 in scrofulous states of the system, in stomach com- 

 plaints, in tic douloureux, and in various nervous and 

 convulsive diseases. It is also used as tooth powder, 

 and has a beneficial effect in strengthening the gums. 

 Cinchona and its preparations ought not to be admi- 

 nistered when there is any marked inflammatory 

 tendency, or when there are any symptoms of an 

 affection of the liver. 



Acids in their concentrated state, white vitriol, 

 lime water, corrosive sublimate, tartar emetic, rhubarb, 

 and several other substances, form precipitates with 

 cinchona, and cannot be administered in conjunction 

 with it. 



We shall next notice the genus Coffea, which con- 

 tains thirty-five known species, some of which are 

 cultivated in Europe. Coffea Arabica is the most inte- 

 resting: of the species, on account of furnishing the 

 well-known article of diet called Coffee. It is an ever- 

 green tree, originally a native of Arabia and Ethiopia, 

 whence it has been transplanted into different quarters 

 of the globe. It seems to thrive best in hilly dry soils, 

 with a mean temperature of 70 or 75. The tree 

 grows to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and has 

 an erect trunk, two or three inches in diameter. It 

 bears pure white, sweet-scented flowers, and roundish 

 berries, the size of a cherry, of a dark red colour 

 when fully ripe, and containing two seeds. These 

 seeds are somewhat oval, convex on one side, flat and 

 furrowed longitudinally on the other. They are 



CINCHONACE.E. 



covered with a membranous endocarp, to which the 

 name of parchment has been given, and which has 

 been by many botanists improperly styled an arillus. 

 The common beverage of coffee is made by the de- 

 coction or infusion of the roasted seeds, the part 

 roasted being the hard or horny albumen. 



Coffee has been introduced in comparatively recent 

 times, and was totally unknown to the earlier nations, 

 such as the Greeks and Romans. It is stated that 

 in Caffa, a district of Ethiopia, where the coffee tree 

 grows abundantly, the seeds were at a very early 

 period employed as an article of food. According 

 to Raynal, the coffee-tree was introduced from Ethi- 

 opia into Arabia, towards the end of the fifteenth 

 century. Whether this statement be correct or not, 

 it is well known that the tree has been long cultivated 

 in the neighbourhood of the Arabian town of Mocha. 

 From Arabia, coffee was early brought to Europe, 

 ,and its property of producing wakefulness, and 

 preventing sleep, seems, in the first instance, to have 

 been the circumstance which led to its use. 



Coffee-houses were established in Persia about the 

 middle of the fifteenth century. From thence coffee 

 was carried to Cairo, and ultimately to Constantinople, 

 where it was publicly sold in the year 1554. In both 

 these last mentioned cities, the use of coffee was for 

 some time prohibited, on account of peculiar religious 

 scruples. These however were soon overcome, and 

 the beverage came to be universal!}' used, particular 

 persons being appointed by government to superin- 

 tend the preparation of it. In the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century coffee found its way to Venice' 

 and in 1644 we find that it had reached Marseilles* 

 The celebrated traveller Thevenot brought it to 

 Paris in 1G57, and in 1672 a coffee-house was opened 

 in that metropolis by an Armenian named Pascal, 

 who subsequently established one in London. 



About the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 Daniel Edwards, a Turkish merchant, brought to this 

 country a Greek servant, named Pasqua, who under- 

 stood the mode of roasting and making coffee, and 

 who afterwards kept a coffee-house in George Yard, 

 Lombard Street. Coffee now becoming an important 

 article of commerce, was included in the statute- 

 book, and a duty of fourpence was laid on every 

 gallon of coffee made and sold. In the time of 

 Charles II., in consequence of various political meet- 

 ings taking place in coffee-houses, an order was issued 

 that they should be shut up ; this, however, was very 

 soon rescinded. Ray says that in 1688 London rivalled 

 Grand Cairo in the number of its coffee-houses. 



From the extensive use made of coffee it became 

 an object of importance to cultivate the tree, and 

 accordingly we find that the Dutch, so early as 1690, 

 transplanted the coffee tree from Arabia Felix to 

 their settlements in Batavia. Their example was after- 

 wards followed by the French, who introduced the 

 plant into their possessions in the Antilles. Coffee 

 becoming an object of interest to most nations, the 

 tree was soon cultivated in most parts of the East 

 and West Indies. Its produce is now known all over 

 the world, and may be said to have become one of 

 the necessaries of life. It may be here stated that, 

 though the coffee tree thrives well in the West Indies 

 and the other parts of the world into which it has 

 been transplanted, still the fruit it produces in these 

 countries is not equal in flavour to that furnished by 

 it in Arabia, and Mocha coffee still maintains its 

 eminence in the market. 



