JAN. — MAR. 1857.] Peruvian Bark-tree. 
219 
M. Weddell has likewise given interesting details of the present 
condition of the Cinchona forests and of the measures adopted by 
the Bolivian Government to regulate the trade. The discovery of 
quinine in 1820 gave a new impulse to the bark trade of Upper 
Peru from which province alone the Calisaya bark, yielding by 
far the largest proportion of quinine, is obtained. In 1830 Gene- 
ral Santa Cruz, then President of the Bolivian Republic attempted 
to check the wasteful destruction of the forests by a series of ill- 
digested measures which only tended to aggravate the evil. In 
1845 a monopoly was given to a commercial house, a principal con- 
dition of which was that the exports should not exceed 20,000 
quintals (2,000,000lbs.) di^ring the five years for which it was grant- 
ted. The stipulation was not observed. Other monopolies fol- 
lowed and in the last two years of M. Weddell's stay (1849-50) the 
quantity of bark brought into the market from Bolivia alone was 
3,000, OOOlbs. No wonder then that he foretells the utter extinc- 
tion of the trade at no very distant period. It appears that the 
bark from the lower part of the tree is more valuable than that grow- 
ing higher up. Many trees were observed by him in the course of 
his excursions, to have been barked only as high as the arm 
could reach. Others which had been cut down were stripped only 
on the upper side because the cascarilleros would not take the trou- 
ble to turn them ! As a proof of the progressive diminution of the 
tree he cites the fact that whereas the Calisaya was, at a compara- 
tively recent period to be found every where in the neighbourhood of 
the most populous tracts, it is impossible now to see a tree of 2 or 
3 feet in diameter without penetrating several days' journey into 
the deepest parts of the forests. 
never observed, and complaints have been made that the quantity allowed to be 
exported has been greatly exceeded. What would it be, then, if the restrictions 
were entirely removed, as they are iu most other parts, and especially in Peru, 
where the exportation, during some years, has attained to an extent which is al- 
most incredible ? 
" In New Granada, at the time when the commerce of cinchona bark was carri- 
ed to the greatest extent, that is to say at the commencement of this century, the 
quantity exported from Carthagena alone amounted in one year, 1808, to the 
enormous extent of 1,200,000 pounds. In the present day, on the contrary, 
scarcely any is exported. 
