OcroseEr 19, 1899] 
NATURE 
607 
slightly later, again urged it as regards the North-west Hima- 
laya. In 1826 David Scott demonstrated to rather unwilling 
eyes in Calcutta the fact that real tea grows wild in Assam. In 
1835 Wallich, Grifith and McClelland were deputed by 
Government to visit Assam, to report on the indigenous tea. 
In the year 1838 the first consignment of Indian-grown tea was 
offered for sale in London. The consignment consisted of twelve 
chests containing 20 lbs. each. This first sample of 240 lbs. 
was favourably reported upon. Last year the exports of tea 
from India to all countries reached 157 millions of pounds, 
besides 120 millions of pounds exported from Ceylon ! 
The introduction of cinchona into India originated purely 
with the Government botanists. As everybody knows, quinine, 
and to a less extent the other alkaloids present in cinchona 
bark, are practically the only remedies for the commonest, and in 
some of its forms one of the most fatal, of all Indian diseases, viz. 
malarious fever. The sources of supply of the cinchona barks 
in their native countries in South America were known to be 
gradually failing, and the price of quinine had for long been in- 
creasing. The advisability of growing cinchona in the mountains 
of British India was therefore pressed upon Government by Dr. 
Royle in 1835, and he repeated his suggestions in 1847, 1853 
and 1856. Dr. Falconer, in his capacity of superintendent of 
the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, made a similar suggestion in 
1852 ; and his successors at Calcutta, Dr. T. Thomson and Dr. 
T. Anderson, in turn advocated the proposal. In 1858 Govern- 
ment at last took action, and, as the result of the labours of Sir 
Clements Markham and Sir W. J. Hooker, of Kew, the 
medicinal cinchonas were finally, in the period between 1861 
and 1865, successfully introduced into British India—on the 
Nilgiris under Mr. MclIvor, and on the Sikkim-Himalaya under 
Dr. T. Anderson. Various experiments on the best mode of 
utilising the alkaloids contained in red cinchona bark resulted 
in the production in 1870 by Mr. Broughton, quinologist on the 
Nilgiri plantation, of an amorphous preparation containing all 
the alkaloids of that bark. This preparation was named 
Amorphous Quinine. Somewhat later (1875) a similar pre- 
paration, under the name of Czzchona Febrifuge, was produced 
at the Sikkim plantation by Mr. C. H. Wood, the quinologist 
there ; and of these drugs about fifty-one tons have been dis- 
tributed from the Sikkim plantation up to the end of last year. 
The preparation of pure quinine from the yellow cinchona 
barks, so successfully grown in the Sikkim plantation, long 
remained a serious problem. The manufacture of quinine had 
hitherto been practically a trade secret. And when the Indian 
Government had succeeded in providing the raw material from 
which a cheap quinine might be made for distribution amongst 
its fever-stricken subjects, the knowledge of the means of 
extracting this quinine was wanting. Philanthropic platitudes 
were freely bandied about as to the immensity of the 
boon which cheap quinine would be to a fever-stricken 
population numbering so many millions. But there was a 
singular absence of any practical help in the shape of pro- 
posals, or even hints, as to how quinine was to be extracted 
from the rapidly increasing stock of crown and yellow bark. 
The officers in charge of the cinchona plantations in India had 
therefore to do their best to solve the problem for themselves. 
And it was ultimately solved by Mr. C. H. Wood, at one time 
Government quinologist in Sikkim, who suggested, and Mr. J. 
A. Gammie, deputy-superintendent of the plantation there, 
who carried into practice, a method of extraction by the use, as 
solvents of the cinchona alkaloids, of a mixture of fusel-oil and 
petroleum. The details of this process were published in the 
Calcutta Official Gazette, for the benefit of all whom it might 
concern. Very soon after the introduction of this method of 
manufacture, the Government factories in Sikkim and _ the 
Nilgiris were able to supply the whole of the Government hos- 
pitals and dispensaries in India with all the quinine required in 
them (some 5000 or 6000 pounds annually), besides providing 
an almost equal quantity for the supply of Government officers 
for charitable purposes. The latest development of the quinine 
enterprise in India has been the organisation of a scheme for the 
sale at all the post-offices in the province of Bengal, and in 
some of those of Madras, of packets each containing five grains 
of pure quinine, that being a sufficient dose for an ordinary case 
of fever ina native of India. These packets (of which some 
are on the table for distribution) are sold at one pice each, the 
pice being a coin which is equal, at the current rate of exchange, 
to one farthing sterling ! 
In conclusion, I wish to make a few remarks on the third great 
NO. 1564, VOL. 60] 
economic enterprise connected with botany in India, viz. the 
Forest Department. The necessity for taking some steps to 
preserve a continuity of supply of timber, bamboos and other 
products from the jungles which had for generations been 
exploited in the most reckless fashion, was first recognised by 
the Government of Bombay, who in 1807 appointed com- 
missioners to fix the boundaries of and to guard the forests 
in that Presidency. This scheme was abandoned in 1822, but 
was resumed in a modified form during 1839-40. Seven years 
later a regular forest service was established in Bombay, and 
Dr. Gibson wasits first hea@. Dr. Gibson in turn was succeeded 
by Mr. Dalzell—and both were botanists. In the Madras 
Presidency the first man to recognise the necessity of per- 
petuating the supply of teak for ship-building was Mr. Connolly, 
collector of Malabar, who in 1843 established a teak plantation 
at Nelumbur, which has been carried on, and annually added 
to, down to the present time. In 1847 Dr. Cleghorn (a botanist) 
was appointed to report on the conservation of the forests of 
Mysore (which contained the well-known sandal- wood), and the 
following year Lieutenant Michael (still with us as General 
Michael, a hale and hearty veteran) was appointed to organise 
and conserve the public forests in Coimbatore and Cochin. The 
crowning merit of General Michael’s administration was the 
establishment, for the first time in India, of a system of pro- 
tection against the fires which annually used to work such 
deadly havoc. In 1850 the British Association, at their Edin- 
burgh meeting, appointed a committee to consider and report 
upon the probable effects, from an economic and physical point 
of view, of the destruction of tropical forests. This committee’s 
report was submitted to the Association at the meeting at 
Ipswich in 1851. The weighty evidence collected in this 
report so impressed the Court of Directors of the East Indian 
Company that, within a few years, regular forest establishments 
were sanctioned for Madras and British Burma, the two main 
sources of the supply of teak. 
In 1856 Mr. (now Sir Dietrich) Brandis was appointed to the 
care of the forests of the latter province. These forests had been 
the object of spasmodic efforts in conservancy for many years 
previously. In 1827 Dr. Wallich reported on the teak forests, 
and five years later a small conservancy establishment was 
organised, officered by natives. This, however, was kept up 
for only three or four years. In 1837 and 1838 Dr. Helfer 
reported on these forests, and an English conservator was 
appointed. In 1842 and 1847 codes of forest laws were 
drawn up, but do not appear to have been enforced to any 
extent. In 1853 Dr. McClelland was appointed superintendent, 
but he continued to hold the office for only a short time. A few 
years after Sir Dietrich Brandis’s assumption of the charge of the 
Burmese forests, he was appointed Inspector-General of all 
the Government forests in British India; and it is to him that 
we owe for the most part the organisation of the Indian Forest 
Department as it now exists. That organisation includes two 
schools of forestry (in both of which botany is taught), one in 
connection with Coopers Hill and the other at Dehra Dun in 
Upper India. The latter has for many years been under the 
direction of a gentleman who is distinguished both as a forester 
and as a botanist. In the Coopers Hill School the higher 
grades of forest officers receive their training ; at Dehra Dun 
those of the lower grades receive theirs. The officers of the 
department on the Imperial list, according to the latest official 
returns, now number 208, divided into the grades of con- 
servator, deputy- and assistant-conservator, with a single in- 
spector-general as chief. In addition to these, there are 566 
provincial officers, ranking from rangers upwards to extra 
deputy-conservators. 
Botanists took a leading part in moulding the department in 
its earlier years; for, as already stated, its pioneers—Gibson, 
Dalzell, Cleghorn, Anderson, Stewart and Brandis—were all 
botanists. And to most people, who give even casual atten- 
tion to the matter, it appears fitting that the possession of a 
knowledge and liking for botany should form a strong charac- 
teristic of officers whose main duties are to be in the forest. And 
this belief did for some time exercise considerable influence in 
the selection of recruits for the department. But, except in the 
Dehra Dun School, it does not appear to guide the department 
any longer. For example, at the entrance examination to the 
Forest School at Coopers Hill, only three subjects are obligatory 
for a candidate, viz. mathematics, to which 3000 marks are 
allowed ; German, to which 2000 are allowed; and English, 
for which 1000 are given. Botany is one of the nine optional 
