BLACK HAW 259 



and should compare the bark with 



(i) Wild Cherry bark, which has a glossy outer surface, 

 (ii) Pale Cinchona Bark, which has a more fibrous fracture 

 and (usually) rougher surface. 



Constituents. Black haw bark contains viburnin (a water-soluble 

 bitter glucoside), tannin, and a little resin. 



Uses. The drug has been used for dysmenorrhcea and asthma 

 it is supposed to prevent threatened abortion and to check hemorrhage. 



CINCHONA BARK 



(Cortex Cinchonse) 



Source, &C. The genus Cinchona embraces, according to Baillon, 

 about twenty species, all of which are indigenous to South America 

 and restricted in that country to the chain of the Andes extending 

 from western Venezuela, through New Granada, Ecuador, and 

 Peru, to Bolivia. On the spurs of this mountain range, at an elevation 

 of about 5,000 to 7,000 feet, where the climate is warm and moist, 

 the cinchona trees occur usually singly, not forming forests and 

 seldom groups. They are evergreen shrubs or trees, frequently of 

 handsome appearance and considerable size, attaining upwards of 

 100 feet in height. 



The natives of Peru and Bolivia appear to have been only imper- 

 fectly acquainted with the febrifuge properties of the bark of these 

 trees ; at least they seldom employed it. After the conquest of Peru 

 the bark found its way into Spain, probably by the aid of the Jesuits, 

 who were frequently instrumental in introducing new drugs into 

 Europe ; it was known as Countess bark, Jesuit's bark, or Peruvian 

 bark, and early in the eighteenth century the trade in it at Loxa in 

 Ecuador had assumed considerable proportions. 



About this time (1736) the expedition sent by the Paris Academy 

 of Sciences to measure a degree of the earth's surface at the equator, 

 which was accompanied by the botanist Jussieu, found trees, hitherto 

 unknown, that yielded valuable cinchona bark. The botany of these 

 trees was subsequently specially investigated by Mutis (1760), Ruiz 

 and Pavon (1778-1788), Weddell (1845-1848), and others. 



The method of collecting the bark viz. by felling the tree and 

 stripping the bark from it very soon aroused fears that the trees 

 would eventually be exterminated. Attempts were made by the 

 Jesuits to induce the bark collectors to plant young trees to replace 

 those that they destroyed, and suggestions and attempts to cultivate 

 the trees were not wanting. These eventually culminated in Mark- 

 ham's expedition to Peru and Bolivia (1859), which was successful in 

 introducing Cinchona succirubra, C. officinalis, and other species into 



