46 DEFICIENT SUrPLY OF BARK, Chap. III. 



untrodden forests, while, in the mean time, the younger 

 generation is growing up in those which have abeady been 

 exhausted.^ 



The danger, therefore, is not in the actual annihilation of 

 the chinchona-trees in South America, but lest, witli the 

 increasing demand, there shoidd be long intervals of time 

 during which the supply would cease, owing to the forests 

 being exhausted, and requiring periods of rest. In many 

 districts this is already the case. The bark which comes 

 from Loxa is in the minutest quills, and in the forests of 

 Caravaya, after an interval of rest of several years, the root- 

 shoots had scarcely grown to a sufficient size to yield any- 

 thing but quUl bark. Then again the supplies of bark from 

 South America are not nearly sufficient to meet the demand, 

 and the price is kept so high as to place this inestimable 

 remedy beyond the means of millions of natives of fever- 

 visited regions. For these reasons the incalculable import- 

 ance of introducing the chinchona-plaut into other countries 

 adapted for its growth, and thus escaping from entire de- 

 pendence on the South American forests, has long occupied 

 the attention of scientific men in Europe. 



In 1839 Dr. Eoyle, in his ' Illustrations of Himalayan 

 Botany,'^ recommended the introduction of the chinchona- 

 plants into India, pointing out the Neilgheriy and Sdliet 

 hills as suitable sites for the experiment, and Lord William 

 Bentinck took some interest in the project. M. Fee had 

 previously recommended the introduction of these plants into 

 the French colonies f and in 1849 both Dr. Weddell^ and 

 jM. Delondre^ strongly urged the adoi3tion of this measure. 



' Karsten. I now solely indebted to America." — 



^ I. p. 245. Probably the idea was Ainslie's Materia Medica, p. 66 {note). 



first conceived much earher by Dr. ' Cours d'Hist. Nat. Pharm. ii. p. 



AinsMe, who, half a centmy ago, re- i 252. 



marked that it was matter of regret ' ' Histoire Naturdle des Quinquinas, 



that " it had never been attempted to i p. 13. 



rear those ai-ticles of the Materia Me- ' ^ Quinologie, par M. A. Delondre, p. 



dica in India, for which the world is 15. 



