Chap. XXTX. CONCLUSION. 519 



111 our Eastern possessions the successful cultivation of 

 quinine-yielding j:)]ants in the hills of Southern India, in 

 Ceylon, and in the Eastern Himalayas, will undoubtedly be 

 productive of the most beneficial results. Commercially this 

 measure will add a very important article to the list of Indian 

 exports ; the European community will be provided with a 

 cheap and constant supply of an article which, in tropical 

 climates, is to them a necessary of life ; and the natives of 

 fever-haunted districts may evei'j'where have the inestimable 

 healing bark growing at their doors. 



It is impossible to exaggerate the blessings which the 

 introduction of chinchona-cultivation Avill confer upon India. 

 Since quinine has been extensively used among the troops in 

 India, there has been a steady diminution of mortality ; and 

 whereas in 1830 the average i3er-centage of deaths to cases of 

 fever treated was S'66, in 1856 it was only one per cent, in 

 a body of 18,000 men scattered from Peshawur to Pegu.** 

 The present measure will not only ensure a constant and 

 cheap supply of quinine to those who already enjoy its 

 benefits, but it will also bring its use within the means of 

 millions who have hitherto been unable to procure it. JMany 

 lives will thus annually be saved by its agency. In former 

 ages its use would perhaps have changed the history of the 

 world. Alexander the Great died of the common remittent 

 fever of Babylon, merely from the want of a few doses of 

 quinine.^ Oliver Cromwell was carried oif by ague, and, 

 had Peruvian bark been administered to him, which was 

 even then known in London, the greatest and most patri- 

 otic of England's rulers would have been preserved to 

 his country. In time to come the lives of men of equal 

 importance to their generation may be saved by its use, while 

 the blessings which it will confer on the e:reat mass of 



* Qiunine and Aiitepen'oclics in their I pherson (Calcutta, 1856). 

 Therapeutic lielnfinni^, by Dr. J. Mnc- | " Ma'pheri^nn, p. 2. 



