April i, 1800. 1 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
697 
9. Financial Result of the Year's Working.— Collecting 
the figures above given, the financial result of the 
year's working is seen to be a profit of B27, 843-15-9. 
This shows a net profit on the transactions of the 
year of E27,843-15 9— a result which, in the face of 
the unprecedentedly low prices for cinchona products 
which have ruled duriug the year, may, I trust, be 
considered as financially satisfactory. The chief cause 
of the extraordinarily low price which has for some 
titue ml9d for cinchona hark, and as a consequence 
for quinine and the other cinchona alkaloids, is the 
immense exportation of bark from Ceylon. When 
Coffee, which for a long time was the stsp'e pro- 
duction of Ceylon, began some years ago to Tail be- 
cause of a disease which attacked the coffee tree, 
cinchona was largely substituted by the pi inters .Of 
that colony for the failing staple. And some idea 
of the extent to which this was done may be ga- 
thered from the following figures. During the year 
ending 30th September 1&80 (using round numbers), 
one and-a-quart-er milllion pounds of cinchona bark 
were exported from Ceylon to London. Daring the 
year 1883-?! the quantity rose to eleven mil'ions, 
and the following year the quantity was about tho 
same. During 1885-86, fifteen million pounds, and 
during 1886-87, fourteen million pounds were exported. 
In 1887-88 the quantity fell to eleven millions, and 
during the current year it is expected to show a 
further fall. The explanation of all this is simply 
that, when cinchona began to fail from disease and 
depreciation in quality, the Ceylon planters turned 
their attention to tea-planting with such energy that 
they cut down their cinchona trees to make way for tea 
bushes ; and, not being able to hold their bark, they 
were obliged to force it on the London market, to be 
sold for what it would fetch. The result has been an 
enormous fall in price, bark having been freely obtain- 
able in London for several years past at prices con- 
siderably below the cost of production ; and quinine 
having, as a consequence, fallen to a figure far below 
any thing previously heard of. The exportation of 
bark from Java has also greatly increased of lite years. 
South American bark, which a few years ago was our 
only source of quinine, his practically been driven out 
of the market. And the world has thus been drawing 
its supplies of quinine for some time past, chiefly from 
bark grown in British and Dutch colonies in Asia. The 
efforts of the Governments of Great Britain and 
Holland, to secure for their tropical subjects a cheap 
remedy for the commonest of all tropical diseases, 
have thus culminated in a more triumphant success 
than was ever anticipated. But this state of affairs 
cannot last much longer. Ceylon planters will not go 
on planting cinchona trees to sell their product at a loss. 
As a matter of fact, planting has already ceased ; and 
exportations are beginning to diminish. And, in the 
course of a year or two, the price of cinchona products 
must rise. The invention of the new oil process of 
Messrs. Wood and Gammie, and the free publication of 
it by Government, will no doubt contribute materially 
to mamtaining them permanently below the rates 
which have been hitherto considered as normal prices, 
because this invention makes it possible for any intelli- 
gent planter to mtike quinine on his own estate. From 
the general depression of the cinchona industry, the 
Government estate could not hope to escape ; and from 
a commercial point of view, the past year has not been 
80 good as many previous years when prices were high. 
But inasmuch as quinine has been materially cheapened 
(and thus put more within reach of the masses), the 
result is, I think, gratifying. 
10. The crop of bark for the coming year will be 
regulated by the domand for quinine and febrifuge. 
And, as by the new process of manufacture a much 
larger outturn of alkaloid is obtained from the bark, 
the annual draft in the plantation for raw material 
should now begin to diminish. 
11. The sum of R2,150 received from the settlors 
within the cinchona reserve for land rent and graz- 
ing dues was paid into the Darjeeling Treasury, and no 
credit is taken for them in the plantation accounts. 
12. The growth of the fuel plantation has been 
remarkably good, and the experiment, bo far as it has i 
88 
/tone, has been an unmitigated success. A small addition 
to its area was made during the current year. From 
the older parts of this plantation it will soon be possible 
to thin out a good many poles for building sheds and 
coolies' huts. 
13. For the seven months of the year under review, 
I was absent on furlough, and mv duties were per- 
formed by Mr. J. Gammie, the Deputy Superinten- 
dent. Mr. Gammie's service are already too well 
known to Government to require anything more than 
mention by me. Mr. Pantling, Mr. Parkes, and Mr. 
Gammie, junior, conducted their respective duties to 
Mr. Gammie's satisfaction and to mine. The head- 
writer in the Cinchona office. B tboo Gopal Chandra 
Dat'a, and the second writer, Baboo Devendranath 
Basu, and the other members of the office staff, have 
also worked diligently and well. 
14. The usual statistical returns, together with Mr, 
Wood's memorandum ou the new process for making 
quinine, are submitted as appendices. 
Appkndix A. 
Memorandum on the Fused Oil Process of Manufacturing 
Quirririr, by I H. Wood, Esq, res., p.i.c, die, 
die , late Government Quinologist to the 
Government of Bengal. 
At the time I received the appointmeut of Quinologist 
under the Government of Bengal (1873), I was in- 
structed by the Secretary of State to give my chief 
attention to the production on a large scale of a cheap 
and efficient febrifuge from the cinchona bark grown 
in B' it'sh Sikkim ; and I was specially directed to 
consider the suitability of the method which had been 
proposed by Dr. DeVrij for this purpose. It was in 
accordance with these instructions that the manufacture 
of the preparation now known as " cinchona febrifuge " 
was established at Mongpoo. This preparation is made 
exclusively from the bark of 0. succinibra, which at 
that period was the principal product of the plantations. 
The process selected for its manufacture was not well 
adapted for extracting the alkaloids from the more 
valuable bark of C. ealisaya. Several varieties of this 
species, however, were then under extensive cultiva- 
tion, and a considerable supply of bark from this source 
was likely to follow. The manufacture of cinchona 
febrifuge from the produce of 0. succinibra being well 
established, it became important to make arrangements 
for working up the ealisaya bark by some other method. 
It was obvious that the most satisfactory way of 
utilizing this bark would be to prepare from it pure 
sulphate of quinine; but this could not be economically 
done with such crude appliances as sufficed for the 
manufacture of febrifuge. A suitable building fur- 
nished with the requisite machinery and apparatus 
was considered to be essential, and representations to 
this effect were made to Government by Dr. King 
and myself. Accordingly, in 1879, the Government of 
Bengal had agreed to sanction the formation of 
a small factory for the manufacture of pure 
quinine from the ealisaya bark. Experiments which 
had been in progress for some time had enabled 
me to select a process for the purpose which promised 
to give satisfactory results. This process was to receive 
an extended trial in the utw factory. The principal 
details of the method of working had been settled, 
and rough sketches of the apparatus made. The 
solvent I proposed employing in ex'raeting the alkaloids 
from the bark was the " fusel oil " of commerce. This 
substance is a bye product obtained in the manufac- 
ture of spirit, and could be then purchased in Lon- 
don at about, Oil, per ga'lon. I presume it has acquired 
the name of "oil," because it floats on water, hut its 
chief chemical component is amylic alcohol. There 
was no likelihood of any difficulty in the importation 
of fusel oil from Europe for use in the process ; hut 
should any unforeseen obstacle arise wherebv fusel 
oil could not be got, ordinary spirit was to he used in the 
extraction, and Government had sanctioned its exemp- 
tion from duty for such purpose. I had abundant evidence 
that the whole of the alkaloids could be advantageously 
obtained from the bark by the process I had selected ; 
