Observations and Experiments on Peruvian Bark. 35 



This bark is generally more scarce in our market than the 

 yellow or pale, and commands a higher price : within a short 

 period however, about fifty seroons of this bark have been im- 

 ported from Guayaquil by Mr. John R. Neff, which has in a 

 small degret; influenced the price of the article. I am inform- 

 ed by a respectable druggist of this city, who has been a long 

 time established in business, that this is the only arrival in 

 quantity, of red bark, direct from South America within his 

 recollection, the supplies heretofore having been received 

 from Europe. These seroons averaged about one hundred 

 pounds each. The bark was very fresh and of a very supe- 

 rior quality. The large flat pieces and quills were indiscrim- 

 inately mixed and in some seroons in very nearly equal pro- 

 portions. This bark when first received, was of a very deep 

 and bright color, and particularly the powder produced by 

 the flat pieces ; after being exposed however, m a dry place 

 for about six months, it faded considerably, insomuch that any 

 one not in possession of the proof of the fact, would have 

 doubted, whether the powder had been produced from the 

 same bark. 



From experiments on the above bark, I procured twenty 

 per cent less cinchonine and quinine, taken together, than the 

 amount of quinine produced by the same quantity of calisaya 

 arrollenda bark ; and the proportion of cinchonine, was rath- 

 er more than half of the product of quinine. 



It will appear therefore, from what has been said, that 

 notwithstanding the great prejudices, both of eminent au- 

 thors and skilful practitioners, which have so long existed 

 in favor of the superiority of the oblongifolia, (red bark,) 

 over other species ; that it is decidedly inferior to the calis- 

 aya, (yellow bark,) as the whole product, as before stated, 

 of its active principles, does not equal that of the calisaya 

 and cinchonine, constituting rather more than half the pro- 

 duct, which, according to an eminent author, is five times 

 less active than the quinine ; this point however, I think is 

 very far from being settled. An interesting paper was read, 

 before the Academy of Medicine, at Paris, which is published 

 in the Bulletin des Sciences Medicales, for Noveml.)er, 1825, 

 in which M. Bally states that he has experimented upon 

 the sulphate of cinchonine, with a view to determine its feb- 

 rifuge qualities. He administered this sulfihate in twenty 

 seven cases of intermittent fevers, of different types, in doses 

 of two grain pills, giving three or four m the interval of par- 



