8 CONDAMINE'S DESCRIPTION OF CHINCHONA-TREE. Chap. I. 



on the subject. Eamazzini ^vrote against its use ^vith much 

 violence, Avliile Torti maintained that, in proper doses, it 

 ^YOuld aiTest remittent and intermittent fevers.^ 



Whilst the inestimable value of Peruvian bark was gra- 

 dually forcing conviction on the most bigoted medical con- 

 servatives of Europe, and whilst the number and efficacy of 

 cures effected by its means were bringing it into general use, 

 and consequently increasing the demand, it was long before 

 any knowledge was obtained of the tree from which it was 

 taken. In 1726 La Fontaine, at the solicitation of the 

 Duchess of Bouillon, who had been cured of a dangerous fever 

 by taking Peruvian bark, composed a poem in two cantos to 

 celebrate its virtues ; but the exquisite beauty of the leaves, 

 and the delicious fragi-ance of the flowers of the quinquina- 

 tree, with allusions to which he might have adorned his 

 poem, were still unknown in Europe. 



The first description of the quinquina-tree is due to that 

 memorable French expedition to South America, to which 

 all branches of science owe so much. The members of this 

 expedition, MM. J)e la Condamine, Godin, Bouguer, and the 

 botanist Joseph de Jussieu, sailed from Eochelle on the 16th 

 of May, 1735, to measure the arc of a degree near Quito, and 

 thus determine the shape of the earth. After a residence at 

 Quito, Jussieu set out for Loxa, to examine the quinqmna- 

 tree, in March, 1739, and in 1743 La Condamine visited 

 Loxa, and stayed for some time at Malacotas, with a Spaniard 

 whose cliief source of income was the collection of bark. He 

 obtained some young plants with the intention of taking 

 them down the river Amazons to Cayenne, and thence trans- 

 porting them to the Jardin des Plantes at Paris ; but a wave 

 waslied over his little vessel near Para, at the mouth of the 

 great river, and carried off the box in which he had pre- 



' Truite Tlie'rapeutique du Quinquina, 2iar P. Biiqiiet. raris, 185G. 



