CINCHONA. QUININE. 635 



tenth of the trees is it found. Barus camphor is getting scarce, 

 as the tree must be destroyed before it is ascertained whether it 

 is productive or not. About 800 piculs are annually sent to 

 China. The proportion between Malay and Chinese camphor is 

 as eighteen to one ; the former is more fragrant and not so pun- 

 gent as the latter. 



ISine hundred and eighty-three tubs of camphor were exported 

 from Java in 1843 ; G25 bales were imported in 1843, the produce 

 of the Japanese empire ; and 559 piculs exported from Canton 

 in 1844. 



The price of unrefined camphor in the Liverpool market in 

 July, 1853, was 4 to 4 10s. the cwt. There have been no im- 

 ports there direct in the last two years. 



Camphor (says Dr. Ure) is found in a great many plants and is secreted in 

 purity by several laurels ; it occurs combined with the essential oils of many 

 of the labiacce ; but it is extracted for manufacturing purposes only from the 

 Laurus Camphora, which abounds in China and Japan, as well as from a tree 

 which grows in Sumatra and Borneo, called in the country kapur barus, from 

 the name of the place where it is most common. The camphor exists, ready 

 formed, in these vegetables between the wood and the bark ; but it does not 

 exude spontaneously. On cleaving the tree Laurus Sumatrensis (Qy. Dryola- 

 lanops Camphora), masses of camphor are found in the pith. The wood of the 

 Laurus is cut into small pieces and put, with plenty of water, into large iron 

 boilers, which are covered with an earthen capital or dome, lined within with 

 rice straw. As the water boils, the camphor rises with th<* steam, and attaches 

 itself as a sublimate to the stalks, under the forflar of granulations of a grey 

 color. In this state it is picked off the straw and packed up for exportation to 

 Europe." (" Dictionary of Arts and Manufactures.") 



The price of camphor at Canton in July, 1850, was from 

 fourteen to fifteen dollars per picul. 



CINCHONA. Peruvian or Jesuit's Bark One of the most valu- 

 able and powerful astringents and tonics used in medicine, is the 

 produce of several species of cinchona, natives of the Andes, 

 from 31 north latitude to 20 south latitude, at elevations varying 

 from 1,200 to 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, and in a dry 

 rocky soil. There are at least twelve trees which are supposed 

 to furnish the barks of commerce, and great obscurity prevails as 

 to the species whence the various kinds of cinchona bark are 

 derived. The names of yellow, red, and pale bark have been very 

 vaguely applied, and are by no means well denned. Dr. Lindley 

 mentions twenty-six varieties; of \vhich twenty-one are well 

 known. The barks are met with either in thick, large, flat pieces, 

 or in thinner pieces, which curl inwards during drying, and are 

 called quilled. 



Quinine is one of the most important of the vegetable alkaline 

 bitters. It was first discovered by Vauquelin, in 1811, and its 

 preparation o\i a large scale pointed out by Pelletier and Caventon 

 in 1820. It is obtained by boiling the yellow bark (Cinchona) 

 in water and sulphuric acid, and then treating it with lime and 

 alcohol, when the quinine is precipitated in the form of a white 

 powder. Upwards of 120,000 ounces are made annually in Paris. 



