CiiAP. 1. riiEJUDICES AGAINST IT. 7 



boeu for a long time opposed by Protestants and favoured by 

 Eoman Catholics. In 1679 Louis XIV. bought the secret 

 of preparing quinquina from Sir Kobert Talbor, an English 

 doctor, for two thousand louis-d'ors, a large pension, and a 

 title. From that time Peruvian bark seems to have been 

 recognised as the most efficacious remedy for intermittent 

 fevers. The second Lord Shaftesbury, who died in 1G99, 

 mentions in one of his letters — "Dr. Locke's and all our 

 ingenious and able doctors' method of treating fevers with 

 the Peruvian bark :" he declares his belief that it is " the 

 most innocent and effectual of all medicines ;" but he also 

 alludes to " the bugbear the world makes of it, especially the 

 tribe of inferior physicians." 



There can be no doubt that a very strong prejudice was 

 raised against it, which it took many years to conquer ; and 

 the controversies which arose on the subject between learned 

 doctors were long and acrimonious. Dr. Colmenero, a pro- 

 fessor of the University of Salamanca, wrote a work in which 

 he declared that ninety sudden deaths had been caused by its 

 use in Madrid alone.'' Chiflet (Paris, 1653) and Plempius 

 (Eome, 1656), two great enemies of novelty, prophesied the 

 early death of quinquina, and its inevitable malediction by 

 future ages; while the more enlightened Badius (Genoa, 

 1656) defended its use, and quoted more than twelve thou- 

 sand cures by the aid of this remedy, performed by the best 

 doctors of the hospitals in Italy. In 1692 Dr. IMorton, one 

 of the opponents of its use, was obliged to retract all he had 

 said against quinquina ; and it was then that it began to be 

 generally admitted as a valuable medicine. It still, however, 

 remained a subject of controversy, and as late as 1714 two 

 Italian physicians, Ramazzini and Torti,*^ held opposite views 



* Diserlacion por Dr. Don HipoUlo I " Torti's work, De Fehrihus, was 

 rnanue. | pulilishcd at Venice in 1732. 



