FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN TROPICAL MEDICINE 25 



Espinlas, possibly due to the bite or sting of some venomous 

 animal ; Cameras de Sangre, or dysentery ; erysipelas, which probably 

 included filariasis; and Tihoso, or scurvy. In 1642 Bontius wrote 

 his work, ' De Medicina Indorum.' Chalmers and Archibald have 

 drawn attention to the description of dracontiasis, dermatophiliasis, 

 epidemic gangrenous rectitis in South America; simple continued 

 fever, malarial fevers, dysenteries, smallpox, climatic bubo in 

 India; malaria, endemic yellow fever, dengue, smallpox, filariasis, 

 diarrhoeas, dysentery, and yaws in West Africa, as indicated by 

 D. L. F. in 1726 and by Aubrey in 1729; but these and many 

 others are briefly mentioned at the end of this chapter under the 

 heading ' Special Works on Tropical Medicine,' and need not be 

 further described here. 



It is not possible for us to trace out in detail the history of treat- 

 ment, but we may briefly mention a few points with regard to 

 quinine, arsenic, antimony, thymol, and emetine. 



Treatment — Quinine.- — In the seventeenth century the epoch- 

 making discovery of the value of cinchona-bark in the treatment of 

 malarial fevers took place. 



In 1638 the Countess of Chinchon, wife of the fourth Count, 

 Viceroy of Peru, after nine years' residence in that country, was 

 seized with tertian malarial fever. Don Lopez de Canizaries, the 

 Corregidor of Loxa, hearing of this, sent her a parcel of the bark 

 of a tree called by the Indians of Loxa ' quina-quina.' The dupli- 

 cation of the name of the tree is said to indicate that it has medical 

 properties. 



The value of this bark in the treatment of fever appears to have 

 been only known locally, but was understood by the Spaniards in 

 Loxa as far back as 1600. How the Indians became acquainted 

 with the bark is not known, and the tales of the curing of their 

 fevers by drinking the water of a lake into which a cinchona-tree 

 had fallen, or of a sick puma chewing the bark, are considered to be 

 myths invented later in Europe. 



Dr. Don Juan de Vega administered the bark to the Countess, 

 who quickly recovered, and four years later returned to Europe 

 with a large supply of it, which she distributed to persons suffering 

 from fever on her estates near Madrid. Hence the bark was often 

 known SiS Pulvis comitissce. In 1670 Jesuit missionaries sent some 

 of the bark to Rome, whence it was distributed throughout Europe 

 by Cardinal de Lugo. Hence the names ' Jesuit's ' or ' Cardinal's ' 

 bark. 



Linnaeus named the tree after the Countess, but spelt her name 

 wrongly, calling it Cinchona officinalis, A curious strife now rose 

 in Europe as to whether fever should be treated by bark or not, 

 but the labours of Morton and Sydenham, together with the dramatic 

 cure of the Grand Dauphin, enabled its true value to be known. 

 The tree has since that time been introduced into several parts of 

 the world, and grows well in India, Ceylon, and Java. 



Finally in 1820 Pellet ier and Caventou prepared the alkaloid 



