60 COMMERCIAL BOTANT. 



forty years which passed between the appearance of the two 

 editions a complete change had taken place in medical and 

 therapeutical science, and the editor of the new edition, in 

 reference to this change, stated his reason for retaining in a 

 condensed form the opinions of ancient writers on the 

 subject-matter under consideration, that they were every 

 year becoming less known, and only to be found in the pages 

 of old and rare books. Thirteen years have now passed 

 since the preface was written to this new edition, and things 

 have probably altered as much in this short period as in 

 the whole forty years previously — new drags are being dis- 

 covered almost weekly, or some fresh property detected in 

 old sources that was not previously known to exist. By 

 far the largest proportion of new medicinal plants find their 

 way from America, some of which have attained an acknow- 

 ledged pharmaceutical reputation, while many have been 

 found, upon careful trial and experiments in the cure of 

 certain diseases for which they had been recommended, to 

 possess no real or active properties. 



Before, however, treating of new drugs in detail, it will 

 be more in place here briefly to review the greatest work of 

 introduction of any useful plant in India and many of our 

 colonies that has been efl^ected in any previous century — we 

 allude, of course, to the introduction and establishment of 

 the cinchonas. The history of this great work has been so 

 often and so fully x-ecorded by the many pereons engaged in 

 it that we shall content ourselves with a mere sketch or 

 outline. 



The reputation of cinchona bark for the cure of fever 

 was at an early period known to the Spanish Jesuits, and 

 when the Countess of Chiuchon, wife of the Viceroy of 

 Peru, fell ill with fever, the bark was administered to her, 

 and speedily efiected a cure ; its wonderful properties soon 

 liccame known, and in 1638 its reputation spread through- 

 out Spain under the name of Jesuits' bark, and for many 



