288 
NATURE 
notoriety how well they have succeeded." It is the part 
of Van Gorkom’s treatise dealing with this matter which 
cinchona planters will be grateful to Mr. Jackson for 
putting within their reach. Two conditions of success in 
harvesting good seed are insisted upon. 
“ For seed saving, the handsomest strongest trees are 
selected, and especially amongst those whose superior 
value has been ascertained by chemical examination. 
Disappointment is inevitable where the eye and botanical 
characters alone are made use of and trusted to; she 
whole issue depends upon the certainty that varieties rich 
tn quinine are exclusively propagated. 
“The choice being made there is something else which 
must not be neglected ; it further behoves us to be per- 
fectly sure that the tree is not fertilised with foreign 
pollen, that is to say, pollen of an inferior tree or variety” 
{p. 136). 
The last condition cannot be insisted upon too forcibly, 
notwithstanding that competent botanical opinion can be 
quoted against it. In their home in South America the 
different species of Czzchona are localised at different 
points of the Andine chain. Geographical isolation 
keeps them uncrossed. But where they are brought to- 
gether in one plantation they hybridise freely. Czzchona 
robusta, which is now widely diffused in India, undoubt- 
edly first originated in Ceylon as a cross between C. 
officinalis and C. succtrubra. 
The aim of the Dutch Government being to produce a 
commercial bark of high quinine-producing quality, in 
which they have met with extraordinary success, Van 
Gorkom is somewhat disposed to criticise the different 
policy which has been pursued in British India :— 
“The Bengal Government . makes its cinchona 
culture serviceable before all things to the wants of its 
population, and thus only asks itself, how the people and 
army may be provided with febrifuges on the most advan- 
tageous terms ” (p. 229). 
He sets against this the ‘ well-known fact that 
not one half of the alkaloids possessed by the raw 
material are obtained, the greater part being lost.’’ 
Even supposing, however, that things are as bad as 
this, and not susceptible of improvement, it is still argu- 
able whether, looking at the cheapness with which red 
bark can be grown and converted into a febrifuge—the 
usefulness of which is incalculable—the theoretical waste 
is a matter for the present of much consequence. But it 
is unreasonable to suppose that the Bengal methods of 
extraction are not susceptible of improvement, though 
they will probably never reach the standard practicable 
by more expensive methods in Europe. But the objection 
of wastefulness must be measured by the circumstances. 
The proprietor of an estate in England who, with a view 
of bringing a portion of his park into tillage, began by 
burning the timber upon it, would be considered a madman. 
3ut this is habitually done in clearing a piece of tropical 
forest for cultivation, and as it is not easy to see what 
else could be done, a complaint as to the waste would 
not be much to the purpose. It might have been expected 
that Van Gorkom’s sympathies would have centered in 
the quinine-producing yellow barks which are for the 
moment most in favour. This, however, is largely due to 
the unreasonable importance which is attached to quinine 
* Acknowledgment must be made of the striking liberality with which the 
Dutch Government officials have always placed what they could spare of 
their selected seed at the disposal of planters in other countries. 
> 
[ Fan. 25, 1883 
Van Gorkom does not 
over other cinchona alkaloids. 
share this prejudice :— 
“The conviction has more and more gained ground, 
that good cinchona barks judiciously applied, frequently 
do not merely rival quinine, but even surpass it in useful 
effect ” (p. 212). 
This point of view is exceedingly important with regard 
to red bark (C. succirubra), which is the easiest of all 
species to cultivate. 
“There is no cinchona bark richer in alkaloids, and 
though C. swzccérubra is not suitable for the preparation 
of quinine, because it can only be treated with trouble 
and much expense, yet it has a preponderance of the 
secondary alkaloids. No better material for pharma- 
ceutical purposes is known, and on that account its 
propagation is desirable from every point of view” 
(p. 100). 
High class yellow barks are by no means free in their 
growth or particularly easy of cultivation. It has been 
found useful to graft them on szccirubra stocks, and the 
practice has been adopted in Sikkim and Ceylon ; Van 
Gorkom gives a useful account of the method adopted 
in Java. 
We must refrain from pursuing many other points which 
these pages suggest. Two of the concluding chapters 
deal with the possible synthesis of quinine and the com- 
merce of the barks. As to the former the author has 
little doubt of success. Two isomerous bodies, chinoline 
and chinoleine, are known, of which the former is obtained 
by the distillation of coal tar, the latter by that of quinine 
This is thought then to be the clue by which the con- 
struction of quinine from coal-tar products will be even- 
tually achieved. But he takes comfort for cinchona planters 
from two considerations. One is that the synthesis of a 
vegetable substance when effected does not always result in 
its practical commercial replacement. The synthesis of 
alizarine it is found after all does not give the dyer quite 
what the madder plant gives him. Artificial quinine then 
may—if ever produced—prove only of interest to the che- 
mist. His other consolation is based on what is said above— 
that pharmacy can never dispense with the total aggregate 
extracted products of bark, and the day may be regarded 
as indefinitely distant when the chemist will be able to 
replace these any more than such complexes as the 
contents of our tea- and coffee-pots. 
As to commerce it is interesting to learn that London 
is the most important market for bark, and Paris next. 
We fear, however, from statistics obtained from another 
source, that this country has no corresponding lead in 
the production of the manufactured products, only about 
10 per cent. of the quinine of the world being made in 
England. Yet Van Gorkom states emphatically that 
“the consumption at the present day of cinchona and its 
alkaloids, merely represents a paltry fraction of the quan- 
tity which will be required to satisfy the prescription of 
humanity in every country, and among all classes and 
races of men”? (p. 236). 
We have left ourselves but little space to notice Prof. 
Fliickiger’s handy and concise work, which, though 
of importance to cinchona planters, is primarily a phar- 
maceutical study of the subject. The bark of Cinchona 
succirubra has been recently adopted as the official bark 
of the German Pharmacopceia—a fact of no small import- 
ance to planters in British possessions, when it is remem- 
