BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE, EXETER. 423 



lot of seeds) afforded this interesting result, 1 that that of the tree 1869. 

 with lanceolate leaves contained 8 per cent, or nearly 3J times 

 as much alkaloids as that of the neighbouring trees of ordinary 

 Cinchona officinalis, nine-tenths of these alkaloids being quinine, 

 while in the others less than half was quinine. No finer quality 

 of Cinchona bark for the quinine manufacturer has probably 

 ever been met with. 



M. Lefort has rendered a good service by communicating to 

 the Society of Pharmacy of Paris, the result of a comparative 

 examination of the ipecacuanha of Brazil and of that imported Ipecacuanha. 

 of late years from New Granada. It will be perfectly in the 

 recollection of many of you that since about 20 years, the 

 price of ipecacuanha has advanced 200 to 400 per cent., a cir- 

 cumstance due partly to the increasing rarity of the plant and 

 the necessity of seeking it in regions more and more remote, 

 and partly, it is said, to the stock of the drug being in few hands, 

 and the trade being thus virtually something of a monopoly. 

 This high price of the Brazilian ipecacuanha has naturally 

 stimulated a search for the drug in other parts of tropical South 

 America and has led to its collection in New Granada. Yet the 

 drug of New Granada is not precisely similar to that of Brazil 

 nor is its botanical origin well established ; 2 and questions have 

 been raised as to whether it may be legitimately employed, some 

 authors supposing it to be weaker, others stronger than the 



1 Mr. Broughton's analysis of these barks may be thus stated : 



Bark of tree with Bark of adjoining trees 



lanceolate leaves. of Cinchona officinalis. 



Quinine 7'15 2'OG 



Cinchonine and Cinchonidine . 0'85 2*42 



Total of alkaloids per cent. 8'00 4 '48 



Sulphate of Quinine obtained crystallized 7'37 .... undetermined. 



2 The true ipecacuanha-plant is not known to occur in New Granada ; for 

 although in the description of the plants collected by Humboldt and Bon- 

 pland, Cephaelis ipecacuanha is enumerated as from the mountains of San 

 Lucar in New Granada (Kunth, Synopsis Plantarum, iii. 35), the indication 

 must be regarded as doubtful. My friend M. Triana, himself an explorer of 

 the country, has at my request sought for the San Lucar Cephaelis in the 

 herbarium of Kunth in Paris, but found that it does not contain any authentic 

 specimen of that plant. 



