BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 135 



copious, and to his surprise the disease returned 

 no more. Others affected with agues, after 

 hearing his experience, tried the same remedy 

 and experienced similar benefit. 



At first it was imagined that the salutary vir- 

 tue was dependant upon something adherent 

 in the water, but this was found to be a mistake, 

 and it was at length discovered that both the 

 bitter taste and medicinal efficacy arose from a 

 large quantity of the bark of a neighboring tree 

 that had fallen into, and was infused in the pool. 

 The tree was the celebrated Cinchona. By an 

 easy analogy the bark itself came to be em- 

 ployed, and the fever curing virtues of the 

 remedy were soon rendered known to the inha- 

 bitants of America. 



After the subjugation of Peru, the efficacy of 

 the medicine was carefully concealed from the 

 Spaniards ; but was at last, in an hour of need, 

 revealed to the Governor of Loxa by an Indian, 

 in gratitude for a signal obligation formerly con- 

 ferred. Another opportunity was not long want- 

 ing of trying its effect on an European constitu- 

 tion. The subject of experiment was of high 

 rank, being the wife of the viceroy of Peru. Her 

 disease was an ague under which she had nearly 



