Drugs and Medicinal Plants. 



206 



[March, 1910. 



eate and the inimical attitude of the 

 Bandong Quinine Factory thereto. 

 According to the current number of the 

 "Java Bode," this circular has now been 

 issued. It reviews the recent history of 

 the cinchona-market, pointing out that, 

 owing to over-production, the price of 

 bark has fallen steadily for many years. 

 This fall in price was continuous until 

 the opening of the Bandong factory, 

 which at first worked in opposition to 

 European and American quinine-makers, 

 and bought bark from planters at a 

 fixed and remunerative price. In recent 

 years, however, the Directors of the 

 factory have found that, owing to the 

 low price of bark and the great popu- 

 larity of their quinine tablets iu the 

 East, they are in a position to make 

 huge profits, and they have disregard- 

 ed the interest of planters more and 

 more, and this attitude has finally 

 culminated in their refusal to join the 

 proposed syndicate, which has for its 

 main object the maintenance of a 

 minimum price of six cents per unit for 

 bark. The Bond proposes that, if this 

 attitude is persisted in by the Bandong 

 factory, planters should refuse to sell 

 bark to it, and that, if necessary, 

 they should start a new factory of 

 their own in Java. It now appears that 

 since this circular was issued to planters, 

 Heer van Leersum, the Director of the 

 Government Cinchona Plantations in 

 Java, has received a letter from the 

 factory directors. The contents of this 

 letter he has refused to make public, on 

 the ground that it is an official docu- 

 ment : but it is believed that the letter 

 indicates that the directors are more 

 favourably disposed towards the pro- 

 posed syndicate than has been gener- 

 ally supposed. The possibility of raising 

 the price of bark by joint action is not 

 the only problem agitating planters in 

 Java. We referred briefly in our issues 

 of October 16 (p. 625) and November 13 

 (p. 571) to the lack of uniformity in re- 



sults obtained by well-known bark- 

 analysts, and this matter is discussed by 

 Heer van Riemsdijk in a letter published 

 in "De Indisehe Mercuur " of December 

 21 last. In the course of this he gives 

 data showing how important this 

 question is from a planter's point of 

 view. Recently he consigned a parcel 

 of 10,100 kilos of bark to the Bandong 

 factory. Samples of this bark were 

 analysed by van Ketel, who returned 8*54 

 per cent, quinine. A control analysis 

 by Moens and van der Sleen showed 9'84 

 per cent, quinine. The factory analysis 

 gave only 8'09 per cent, ot alkaloid, 

 while van Leersum, who was called in to 

 arbitrate, found 81 per cent. In a 

 second similar parcel van Ketel found 

 9-50 per cent., Moens and van der Sleen 

 returned 981 percent., while the factory 

 and van Leersum reported 871 per cent. 

 Heer van Riemsdijk produces each year 

 about 360,000 kilos of bark, and he cal- 

 culates that if van Kefel's figures are 

 correct, he loses about 18,000 florins annu- 

 ally, while if Moens and van der Sleen's 

 results are taken, his loss is about 39,600 

 florins. Commenting on van Gorkom's 

 statement that no analyses of cinchona 

 are published in the London market, 

 Heer van Riemsdijk states that British 

 quinine-makers buy bark on their own 

 analyses, but these appear to be satis- 

 factory to brokers and planters, since 

 no complaints appear to be made. Van 

 Gorkom, referring to this letter in the 

 same journal, says he is in agreement 

 with Heer van Riemsdijk on the main 

 question of the neel for a standard 

 method of analysis, but doubts if this 

 will be arrived at by the method of 

 offering a prize, which is the plan adopt- 

 ed by the Preantjer Cinchona Bond on 

 Heer van Reimsdijk's suggestions ; and 

 adds that it would be interesting to 

 hear what the private analysts to whom 

 Heer van Riemsdijk sent samples of his 

 barks have to say on the general 

 question of methods of analysis, 



EDIBLE PRODUCTS. 



CACAO CULTURE IN GERMAN 

 SAMOA. 



Robert Louis Stevenson's Interest in 

 the Industry. 



(Prom the Tropical Life, Vol. V., No. 12, 

 December, 1909.) 



Previous to the hoisting of the Ger- 

 man flag in Western Samoa some small 

 areas of cacao had been set out, but the 

 commercial production of the bean had 



not so far been worthy of record. Dur- 

 ing the last year of his life, Stevenson 

 was greatly interested in this culture, 

 and occasionally for exercise, or pos- 

 sibly for mere change, he would join 

 his native boys and weed away until his 

 weak frame told him he had gone far 

 enough. As was expected at the time, 

 his ideas of cacao culture were radically 

 wrong, and the considerable area which 

 he had set out came to no good end, 

 very few of the plants surviving to 

 this day. This experience came also to 



