April r, 1890.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 699 
he extracted alkaloids are provided. Sucoirubra bark 
can be as readily extracted by this method as any 
oither; and it seems that frjm the acid solution of 
the total alkaloids so obtained, "cinchona febrifuge" 
cau be prepared equal in every respect to that hitherto 
prepared by the acid process, and with the advautage 
of a greatly increased yield. 
Comparing this process of extraction with others 
that have been tried in India, the chief advantages 
it pre3mts appear to be— (1) that the alkaloids are 
completely extracted from the bark in a much greater 
state of purity, so that the final operations for ob- 
taining pure and finished products are much simpli- 
fied ; (2) that the whole process of extraction can be 
performed at common temperatures; (3) that the 
apparatus and appliances required are all of a simple 
character, and therefore well suited for use on the 
plantations. 
No very exact estimate can yet be formed of the 
cost of manufacturing quinine and other alkalosis by 
this process. It is only now slowly passing from the 
experimental stage, which is necesiarily an expensive 
one. Further improvements conducing to greater eco- 
nomy are probable. But even as it is I gather from 
Dr. King, under whose skilful superintendence all 
efforts at local manufacture have been so ably fostered, 
that quinine can be produced on the plantations at 
a cost not exceeding the present uoprecedentouly low 
market price of the valuable medicine. 
The German New Guinea Company has recently 
been making trials with a view to growing cotton 
in Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, and I hear that their 
efforts have been highly successful. A sample of 
the new produce found a good market and realised 
much above the average price. In March about 
500 cwt. are expected of the new article. — Cor., L. and 
C. Express, Feb. 21st. 
Gum Arabic in Persia. — It is well known how the 
recent wars in tho Soudan and the isolation of those 
tracts have affected the supply of gum. The effects 
of this are now being felt in Persia, where gum is 
now being extensively collected from the wild almond, 
"gavan," and other shrubs and trees, and measures 
are being taken to prevent the wholesale destruction 
of Such woods. — Chemist and Druggist, March 1st. 
Capital Wanted von Bolivian Cinchona Plan" 
tations. — A letter has been sent to the French 
Agricultural Society from La Paz, Bolivia, stating 
that in the Yungas district cinchonas are cultivated 
which afford as much as 8 and 10 per cent, of 
quinine. The younger barks are best, the alkaloids 
therein inoreasing in proportion until the trees 
are six years old, after which the valuable cons- 
tituents decrease aa steadily, fine-looking flat old 
barks, about 4 inches in width, sometimes contain- 
ing only 1| per cent of alkaloids. The richest 
sorts are quilla about the size, of the finger. Shoots 
springing in groat numbers from old trees which 
have been cut down invariably hold considerably 
more quinino than the parent tree. Hence the 
once accepted opiniou that older barks are best 
is erroneous. On the contrary, tho younger ones, 
or canutas, are preferable ; whilo to secure the 
largest yield cinchonas should be grown from seed, 
and cut down when between sit and twelve years 
old. The idea of growing cinchona forests is, for 
the same reason, an unwise one. The letter goes 
on to urge Europeans to come to Bolivia and there 
purohaso land3, which can be had very cheaply, 
for developing the cinchona industry on a substantial 
basis. The communication, although perhaps not 
disinterested, is of eome interest as affording an 
insight into the modern Bolivian methods, which 
in many ways differ from the East Indian mode 
of conducting cinchona plantations.— Chemist and 
Druggist, 
Dear Quinine at Homu. — An Uva correspondent 
writes: — "I do not think I told you that inquiring 
at the retail chemists for quinine by the ounce, I 
found their prices ranged from 3s to 12s in London, 
6s in Torquay, and 5s to 5s 6d in Winchester. On 
the 12s man telling me his price, I said : ' ) ou are 
of course aware that quinine is selling at consider- 
ably below 2s the ounce at Mincing Lane.' 'Ye3, so 
it is,' was the reply. Quinine alone was the 
remedy — all the substitutes were found useless — 
againBt the influenza." And yet the quinine people 
seem not to have risen to the occasion : did they 
placard all the big towns with "Penny Quinine — 
the only preventive of Influenza" &c. &o, ? We 
trow not — or the market would have got into a 
better position. 
"DYSPEPSIA IN TOWN FOLK 
Probably few things do more to determine a 
man's disposition than the state of his digestion. 
The ancient philosphers maintained that they could 
produce any given disposition by controlling the 
diet. Certain kinds of minds go with certain kinds 
of bodies, and, in a large measure, is the bo ly 
influenced by the diet. Compare the fat, well-fed, 
phlegmatic priest with the active, under-fed, nervous 
needle-woman ; compare the hardy and enduring 
eaters of whale blubbers with the eaters of fruit . 
compare the adipose beer-drinker with the tor- 
mented g'utton : and in all these cases, and, in- 
deed many others, there will be seen marked 
differences. On the whole, generally speaking, 
there are no people fed so well, as a class, as the 
dwellers in towns. More meat is e iten in London 
than in any city in the world, an I its inhabitants show 
great force. The general strain put upon ttiem 
requires that they live well ; but with all this strain 
the digestion is some.wh.at enfeebled, and the food 
necessary to feep up the body taxes the digestive 
organs too. But there are o'.her things. Sanitary 
science teaches that only a certain number of peo- 
ple can live, without detriment to themselves, on 
an acre of ground. In large towns this principle is 
entirely disregarded, and all the dwellers have to 
participate in paying the penalty, either with their 
own health and shortened days, or with that of 
their children yet unborn. One fact is significant: 
the ozone rn.it with ia the air after a thunderstorm 
is valuable, in that it exerts a purifying action upon 
the atmosphere. In London it is quite impossible 
to find traces of this ozone. 
We say that dyspepsia is an accompaniment of 
civilization, and the proposition is so plain th&t he 
who runs may read. Its symptoms are mu'titorm, 
but one thing is an unmistakable evidence of its 
presence, which is the subjective foeling that one 
has a stomach. To feel you have a stomach is 
dyspepsia. It is a disease whose pains are relent- 
less and unmanning, and whose consequences are 
grievous to be borne. In most cases, consumption, 
cancer of the stomach, ulcer of the stomach, and, 
in infants, rickets, scrofula, and general wasting, 
are preceded by dysp piic conditions. 
What is the cure ? There is no one thing will 
cure it. Pepsin Tabloids, one or two after°each 
meal, are the best digestive aid, and if there be 
flatulence, these should be accompanied with five 
..or six Charcoal Tabloids. One point should ever 
be borne in mind : ns long as there is constipa- 
tion the dyspepsia cannot improve, and, to correct 
this, Cascara Sagrada is admirable. It does not 
aggravate the trouble the longer it is given, but 
on the other hand, eventually overcomes. At first, 
a Tabloid may be required two or three times a day, 
but a period sjon arrives when less and less, and 
Anally none, is needed. For acidity, half a dozen 
Soda Tabloids, swallowed with a draught, — ••Hculch,'' 
Loudon, 
