December I, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
38* 
THE CHEAPNESS OE QUININE AND THE 
OPIUM TRAFFIC. 
(From oar Special Correspondent*) 
Tho following letter which 1 have addressed to 
the Secretary of a well-known London Socioty 
carries its own explanation. Tt is on a subject 
in whioh I have long boon interested, and with 
a large sale of quinine (50,000 ounces) in the City 
the other day at Is 4d tho ounce, thoro is im- 
monso need that tho virtues as well as the cheap- 
ness of this valuable febrifuge and tonic should 
bo made known to the masses, and especially in 
the quarters I have pointed out : — 
Boyal Colonial ln.stitute, Northumberland Avenue, 
mh October 1887. 
The Secretary to the Sooioty for the Suppression of 
the Opium Trade, 
(Rev. F, Storrs Turner, h. a.,) 
(juoun Anne's Mansions, ,S. W. 
Sih, — I venture to address you on a subject which, 
though not directly connected with the suppression of 
the opium trade, has nevertheless in some respects a 
very c >nsiderable bearing on the objects which all 
luemhers of your Society must have at heart. To make 
iny.<olf clear, 1 would ijegin by referring to the re- 
lation which exists between the desire for, and consump- 
tion of opium amoDg any pooplo and the more or less 
prevalence of maiarial or other fever of a low depress- 
ing type. 
In many of the low-lying districts of Ohiua, I believe, 
this is especially the case. My own observation has 
been confined to a visit paid to the neighbourhood of 
Canton ; but I think sutliciout may be gathered from 
the accounts of travellers and the experience of resid- 
ents in China to show that the cravLg for opium in the 
first instance, in many parts, is due to the prevalence 
of a low type of fever. The same thing has been realized 
for some years back in more than one district in 
Kuglaud. 
It appears to be indisputable that the consumption of 
opium, iu tho form ot laudanum especially, has been 
very large in the Fen districts of Cambridge and Lin- 
colnshire and aloug the banks of the Thames, more 
particularly about Gravesend. These are just the situ- 
ations where a malarial ur depressing type of fever 
might bo supposed to prevail, In the London Spectator 
of July 5c.li, 1879, it was stated by the editors: "We 
have rcasou to believe that in parts of England, at all 
events, laudanum is much drunk by women instead of 
alcohol. . . Wc arc afraid to state the quantity of 
laudanum which one wholesale chemist informed as 
ho sent uuuually to his Lincolnshire customers." 
This remark elicited a letter to the editors which 
appeared in their succeeding issuo and from which I 
quote as follows : — 
" I am a country chemist, of the lower grade, one of 
four (of whom 1 am not the chief) in two contiguous 
villages, which together have not more than 4,500 in. 
habitants. I sell, as nearly as I can judge, about two 
gallons of laudauuin per month, solely by retail; be- 
sides, say, some lu or 20 oz. of opium itself. Most of 
this is sold to women of the poorer class who must 
pinch (humselvea seriously in many ways to purchase 
this luxury. Most of them are evidently ashamed of 
their habit of opium-eating, or laudanum taking, as 
tho caso may bo, but some quite otherwise. Mauy will 
cousumo an ounce of opium every week, and some con- 
siderably more. One man I know who will take at a 
dose twenty grains of muriate of morphia, — and this 
dose, 1 believe, ho has occasionally swallowed twice 
in one day. 
" l'hi'81' arc LicN. As to the explanation of them, 
lam hardly prepared to speak of that. The 'crave,' 
(your WOW, sir,) I believe to be a natural one, at 
least in these parts. How first induced, if induced at 
all, l know not. It is apparently partly of a physical, 
partly of a moral origiu. Womou of low vitality, and 
poor spirit si -mi in it t v Mibjr, t U> it. Opium is their 
refuge from tho dumps ; In fact, us yon suppose it 
supplies to them the place of alcoholic liquors. May 
I conclude with a question ? Is tho trade iu this 
drug an immoral one P— J am, sir, Aic, &c, 
A LiNcoL.vsiiiu DiaooiM. 
Now I think it would bo found that as respects 
the Fen districts of Lincolnshire and Cambridge and 
the neighbourhood of Gravesend, the craving which 
has resulted in a largo consumption of opium in ouo 
form or other, has had its origin in local climatic 
causes, although the practice may have now grown 
far boyond the necessities of tho case. And tho same 
may probably be said of the low-lying marshy districts 
of China. 
My object in dwelling on these circumstances is to 
call your attention to the importaut bearing which 
a well-known, and now comparatively cheap, drug, 
namely, sulphate of quinine, (or even the cheaper and 
inferior alkaloids extracted from tho cinchona bark) 
should have on the original causes (as I doom them) 
for this craviug for laudanum or opium, and more 
especially on tho influence of quinine in removing (he 
craving for what may become tho very injurious and 
dangerous practice of opium-eating or smoking, or of 
laudanum drinking. 
My attention was first directed to this point by a 
certain curious experience related by my friend, 5lr. 
Archibald Colquhoun, in his work " Across Ohryte." 
I have not the book before me as I write, but 
I think my relation of the facts recorded wdl be 
found generally very nearly correct. Mr. Oolquhoun 
found, in passing up the river beyond Canton on 
his way across Southern China to Burmah, that 
at several Mandarins' barriers on tho river, where 
a levy on all travellers and especially traders — a re- 
gular '' squeeze" — was made, that, when offering gifts 
to the chief official iu order to minimize the delay 
and expense, more store was laid by a few grains 
of quinine than by his most polished and attractive 
Birmingham goods. More than once Mr. Colquhoun 
was asked by the maudariu if ho hud any cure for 
the taste of the black smoke poison (opium) and, on his 
replying in the negative, the second question would 
at once be " Have you any quinine ?" — showing that 
the Chinese, even in theso romote inland districts, 
fully realized tho efficacy of quinine iu superseding 
the need for opium and possibly in ouring the taste 
and desire for it. 
Ho much is this known that American Missionaries re- 
turning from furlough, often bring back packages of 
quinino pills for tho use of their converts and poor 
pooplo generally in China, k mowing well that 
nothing is more appreciated or more valuable for 
securing health. 
I have said enough, I hope, to show the importance 
of quinine as a health-giving substitute for, if not 
remedy and preventative of the taste for opium. 
Wherever fever prevails, there can be no better pro- 
phylactic aud tonic than quinine, and where, unfor- 
tunately, the tusto for deleterious drugs, such as 
opium and laudanum, prevails, it would appear to 
be very important to treat patients with quinine, 
or to make known how much suporior sulphato of 
qUinine, or even tho inferior alkaloids from cinchona 
bark are to opium in any form, for alleviating the 
evil consequences of malaria aud fover depression 
and for restoring tono and health. 
You will now begin to understand, sir, wherein I 
would ask the aid of your Socioty. Only a tewyoars 
back, it would have been of little use in this way to 
recommend quinino or ciuchona alkaloids to the atten- 
tion of poor people, its cost being almost prohibitory 
foruso8avein special prescriptions. But the experi- 
ment begun iu lSlil by Mr. Clements Markham (under 
tho auspices of tho Indian Government) in introduc- 
ing tho cultivation of cinchona plants from America 
on tho hills of India aud Ceylon, has produced a 
great revolution in tho market, increasing tho pro- 
duction of bark, especially from Ceylon which sends 
to Loudon as much as all tho rest of tho world, 
(India, Java and South America), so that the price of 
Howard's sulphato of quinine in place of being Ids 
to 15s per ounce and sometimes even 18s per 02. is 
now down to about 2s (id por oz.* The rapid rise of 
tho trade from Ceylon may be judged from the fact 
* A large quantity of a good brand [has just been 
sold in Mincing Lmio for la 4d per o». — J- F. 
