64 



PRELIMINARIES TO INTRODUCTION OF Chap. IV. 



every influence at his command to effect this most important 

 object. But he was not destined to see the final achieve- 

 ment of a design which he seems to have had so much at 

 heart. 



In 1859 my services were accepted to superintend the col- 

 lection of chinchona plants and seeds in South America, and 

 their introduction into India ; and I was authorised by Lord 

 Stanley, then Secretary of State for India, to make such 

 arrangements as should best ensure the complete success 

 of an enterprise, the results of which were expected to add 

 materially to the resources of our Indian Empire. The 

 urgent necessity of this measure had become more apparent 

 since Dr. Eoyle's time. Then the Government of India ex- 

 pended 7000?. a year upon quinine ; but in 1857 the expen- 

 diture had risen to 12,000?., and continued to increase during 

 the following years.^ 



I at once determined to take measures for obtaining plants 

 and seeds of all the valuable species of chinchonse described in 

 a former chapter ; to arrange so that, if possible, they should 

 be collected simultaneously in the different regions separated 

 by many hundi'eds of miles from each other ; and that, 

 warned by the fatal error of the Dutch in Java, no species 

 should be introduced into India which did not possess bark of 

 well-established commercial value. In one of his reports Dr. 

 Koyle had most truly said that " the greater the number of 

 species obtained, as well as the gTeater the extent of country 

 over which the seeds are collected, the greater is the proba- 

 bility of finding soils and climates in India for their successful 



2 It appears, by a government re- 

 turn, that 2051 lbs. of quinine were 

 sent to India in 1856, and 1180 lbs. in 

 1857. 



The Frietid of India of December 

 10th, 18G0, however, quoting from the 

 Lancet, states that the consumption of 

 quinine and bark in the government 

 hospitals in India in 1857-8 was 6815 



lbs., and that in 1858-9 it amounted 

 to 5087 lbs. The writer of tlie article 

 adds that the government tb-uggists 

 in India sell quinine at \l. an oimce ; 

 but, taking the cost of an ounce of 

 quuiine at 10s., the cxpenchture on 

 this medicine, according to the above 

 figures, would amoimt to 54,520Z. in 

 1857-8, and to 40,696?. in 1858-9 ! 



