Chai-. I. GREAT VALUE OF BARK IN FEVER. 19 



and soluble, and crystallizes iu long silky needles. It is 

 prepared by adding sulphuric acid to the sulphate.^ 



Chinchonine differs from quinine iu being less soluble iu 

 water, and being altogether insoluble in ether. It has the 

 property of right-handed rotatory polarization. 



Quhiidine also has the property of right-handed rotatory 

 polarization, and forms salts like those of quinine. It becomes 

 green by successive additions of chlorine and ammonia. 



CkincJionidine has not the jDroperty of turning green, and 

 forms a sulphate almost exactly like sulphate of quinine.^ 



The discovery of these alkaloids in the quinquina^ bark, by 

 enabling chemists to extract the healing principle, has greatly 

 increased the usefulness of the drug. In small doses they 

 promote the appetite and assist digestion ; and chinchonine is 

 equal to quinine in mild cases of intermittent fever ; but in 

 severe cases the use of quinine is absolutely necessary. Thus 

 these alkaloids not only possess tonic properties to which 

 recourse may be had under a midtitude of circumstances, but 

 also have a febrifugal virtue which is unequalled, and which 

 has rendered them almost a necessary of life in tropical 

 countries, and in low marshy situations Avhere agues prevail. 

 ]\Iany a poor fellow's life was saved in the Walcheren expedi- 

 tion by the timely arrival of a Yankee trader with some chests 

 of bark, after the supply had entirely failed in the camp.'* Dr. 



' Pereira says that, ifa substance sus- i which are taken from PeruvLau bark, 



pected to contain quina be powdered, Quina signifies hark in Qiiichua, and 



then shaken \vith ether, and afterwards quinquina is a bark jxisses-sing some 



successively treated with chlorhie and medicinal property. Quinine 1% of 



ammonia, the hquid wUl assume a coiu'se, derived from quina, chinchonine 



green colour if the slightest trace of fi-om chinchona. Tlie Spaniards cor- 



quina be present. — Mat. Med. ii. part rupted the word quina into china; and 



ii. p. 119. One or two iJounds of bark iu homoeopathy the word china is still 



suffice well for an analysis. retained. In 1735, when M. de la 



- TraiteThe'rapeutiquedu Quinquina Condamine visited Peru, the native 

 et de ses preparations, par P. Briquet, name of quina-quina was almost en- 

 Paris, 1855. Also Pereu-a's Materia ^ tirely replaced by the Spanish term 

 Medica. cascarilla, which also means bark. 



^ The word quinquina is generally | ■* Antohiography of Sir James Mac 



adopted for the mecUcal preparations Grigor, chap. xii. p. 241. 



c 2 



