46 



western horned pheasant (ceriomis melanocephalus), found on the 

 slopes of the north-western Himalayas, and easily domesticated. 

 The Nepalese pucras is among the most beautiful of all. There is 

 also the tragopan, or singular horned pheasant (phasianus satyrus), 

 which is a most valuable and interesting creature, besides many 

 varieties of ceriomis. But king of all pheasants, and by far the 

 most gorgeous member of this family, is the famous mortal, or 

 Impeyan pheasant (lophopliorm Impeyaniis), whose name signifies 

 the " bird of gold " in its native country. It is not possible by any 

 description to convey any idea of the exquisite hues of this 

 beautiful bird. Its colour is a dark purple, changing into green and 

 gold. It is as big as a hen turkey, of most tender and delicate 

 flesh, and easily domesticated. Unquestionably it is the most 

 valuable of all the Hymalayan birds for the purposes of the accli- 

 matiser, and I trust that it will not be long before our society is able 

 to exhibit some specimens of it in the Eoyal Park. I have already 

 exceeded my allotted bounds, and will say no more than to urge 

 upon the immediate attention of the society the peculiar claims ol 

 the game-birds of India to be added to the scanty list of the game- 

 birds of Australia. There is scarcely any of the birds I have here 

 mentioned which could not be adapted to some part or other of this 

 colony, and I believe that they are worth all the money which w< 

 can possibly expend in their introduction. 



SOME ACCOUNT OF THE QUININE- YIELDING 

 CHINCHONA. 



Read by A. J. Duffield, Esq., at a Meeting held July 19, 1S64. 



There is perhaps no drug which has rendered greater service to 

 man than the febrifugal alkaloid known as quinine, or Peruvian 

 bark ; and among the many noble results of the art of acclimatisation 

 may be reckoned that of transplanting chinchona, or quinine-yielding 

 trees, from Peru to Java by the Dutch, and still more successfully 

 to India by ourselves. Quinine is a word derived from the compound 

 Quichua word "quina-quina," which signifies bark of bark; the 

 word quina was corrupted by the Spaniards into china, which still 

 retains its place among homoeopathists, but in Peru it is now called 

 cascarilla, which also means bark. About two centuries and a hali 

 ago, when the name of Jesuit was suggestive of all that is chivalrous 

 in apostolic Christianity, there lay stretched on a bed in a monastery 

 at Malacotas, a district in Peru some 300 miles south of the equator, 

 a member of that order suffering the terrible agonies of terciana. 

 Very likely the Jesuit father had cured many diseases, and healed 

 many ■wounds of the Indians of that region, for Jesuits then were 

 masters of many noble arts ; and so when he needed help and sym- 

 pathy in his misery it came in the form of gratitude from these 

 people, who revealed to him the secret of this precious bark. A few 

 years Jater, the Countess de Chinchona, the wife of the Viceroy oi 



