506 VALUE OF Chap. XXVill. 



once used this unfailing remedy, and experienced the power 

 it has over the fevers from which they suffer, they will, like 

 Dr. Poeppig in the wilds of Peru, approach the beautiful heal- 

 ing trees with warm feelings of gratitude,^ their fame will 

 sjjread far and wide, and the cultivation of chinchonse will, 

 I trust, be extended to its utmost limit throughout the 

 peniusula of India. 



So far as my observations extended, the impression which 

 I had previously received, that the natives can with difficulty 

 be induced to undertake the cultivation of any new plants to 

 which they have not been accustomed, was not confirmed. 

 Not to mention the potato, maize, tobacco, and capsicums, 

 which originally came from America, and are now geaeraliy 

 cultivated in India, it is a fact that in Wynaad upwards of 

 2000 acres are taken up for coffee cultivation by the natives ; 

 and in Coorg, where coffee was only introduced about six years 

 ago, I scarcely saw a single hut to which a small coffee- 

 garden was not attached. The extent to which the cassava 

 {Jatophra 3Imiihot), only lately introduced, is now cultivated 

 in Travancore, is quite remarkable ; and there is every 

 reason to suppose that the natives will be equally ready 

 to cultivate a plant possessing such extraordinary febrifugal 

 powers as the chiuchona, the value of which they will soon 

 appreciate. 



2 " Attacked with violent tertian 

 ague, and witliout any medicine, in 

 Pampa-yacu, I made use of tlie green 

 bark direct from the cliinchona-tree, 

 which I peeled from one growing a few 

 hundi-ed steps distant; and although, 

 in consequence of unavoidable ex- 

 posure in the rainy season, and the 

 very great exhaustion after eight 

 months' wild forest life, the disease 

 returned on three occasions, it was 

 each time conquered within a week. 

 The very impleasant additional eifect, 

 in this case, of the green bark, of i 223 

 producing olbstinate obstructions, de- J 



mands consideration. It might be 

 well obviated by a plentiful adthtion 

 of Epsom salts to the infrision. After 

 the first dose of this fresh and un- 

 adulterated remedy, a sensation of 

 general well-being is felt, and after 

 recovery, on the fir-st excm-sion, one 

 aiJ^jroaches the healing trees with 

 warm feelings of gratitude, whose 

 beautiful reddish blossoms appear in 

 such quantities in January, and their 

 round crowns can be distinguished at 

 listance," — Poeppig, Beise, ii. p. 



