December i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
395 
In a future report to the Conference I hope to be 
able to give the results of a large number of analyses 
of the Ledger hybrid, a cross between two species of 
cinchona, the 0. Ledyeriana and 0, succirubra. 
The PRESIDENT, in proposing a vote of thanks to 
Mr. Hooper, said the Conference might be congratu- 
lated on being tho medium of the publication of two 
such Valuable papers. 
Mr. (Ikovks asked whether the result of the hybri- 
dization would not be affected bv the selection of the 
parents, — whether t lie male parent should be of one 
kind or another. The paper did not state anything on 
that point, but he should imagine, though he knew 
nothing about hybridisation, that it would affect the 
result very materially. 
Dr. l'^i-i. said it was somewhat difficult to offer any 
remarks on a paper which went into such a mass of detail; 
but incidentally be should like to printout that the mode 
in which thes ii ;o: s had been placed before the meet- 
ing illustrated in a striking manner the disastrous conse- 
quences of ihe enterprise which had been pushed 
forward with so much unusual zeal by the Government 
in India. The introduction of cinchona cultivation in 
India seemed to h ve been marked by mishaps. The 
seleotion of sucoirubra plants under the influence of 
the rod bark craze, which prevaile I some years ago, 
bad bei ii perhaps the mo<i pernicious step which had 
been taken. The bark of the tret s of that typo culti- 
vated in India had certainly shown an improvement ou 
the red bark brought from South America, but it was 
characterized by the preeence of such a large propor- 
tion of tho more worthless alkaloids that practically 
rod bark was at present almost worthless as a source 
of quinine. The cultivation of other kinds of bark, 
010 WD especially, had resulted in a very much more 
favourable production of alkaloids, not only in regard 
to the total quantity, but in their relation to each other. 
The reputation of the officinalis barks, which used to be 
known :is Loza bark, was almost gone as an alkaloid- 
yielding bark ; hut when that tree was grown in India 
ii produced bark yielding two, three, four, and some- 
times as much as seven or eight per cent, of sulphate 
of ipiinine. Ilowover, ollicial prejudice was in favour of 
the red bark, which ha I been largely cultivated, an l 
wherever that was the case it had not only produced 
DMk comparatively valueless in itself, but it bad spread 
a degrading intl-ronce round all the neighbouring plant- 
ations, and so the hybrid referred to In the paper had 
h tii brought, into existence. He could not regard 
the BgDMI given as having any value beyond showing 
the unfortunate result which hnd almost brought about 
the ruin of the cinchona planter, the quiuine manu- 
facturer, Ihe I a k merchant) and everybody connected 
with the industry. C uchonidiue and cinchoninc w -re 
overflowing the 'able in much greater quantity then was 
wanted, anil lit the same time the quantity of red bark 
prawn bad increased to such . a point that it bad be- 
come literally so much a drug iu tho market that 
no use could be found for it. Moreover, the 
companion between tho barks as shown by the table 
was not accurate. The crown bark as described there 
was what would be called by everybody acquainted 
with hark a very mean specimen. The proportion of 
alkaloids yielded by crown bark of any value was from 
It to :> per cunt, of sulphate of quinine, with something 
less than 1 percent of einchonidine ; but in tho author's 
tablo there was a statement that crown bark of 
average composition gave >• < 1 i" as much ein- 
Dhonidine as quinine, wh.th was altogether 
Wrong, Passing on to the red hurk tho conditions 
Van reversed, and in favour of that craze about 
luoairubra to which he bad already referred. The 
«ei known proportions in red bark were I A per cout. 
quinine wi l, :i, I. mid ."> pur cent of cinchounlino. The 
reiir ^ent.itiiiii ni bybo lbark iwain was what be slioul I 
call a pur. I* I uuust cal one, for o-t of sj table of ana- 
lyses o' that kind wot caul ! uvulu > -,-hingyou pleased 
t ' wmi, id- ligur •» inte, but such ligures represented 
nothi ng which really existed in nature. Kiel were of 
110 kin. I of value. The introduction of fsrthagonn 
bark was another illustration of the misguided! way 
in which the cultivation of cinchona had been carried 
out. There was no reason why Carthagena bark should 
be cultivated to any extent in India as an article of 
produce. So long as it existed in South America, and 
a good price could be got for it, it was very woll to 
import it and work it, but to propagate its existence 
was not at all desirable. Tho kinds of bark fit for 
cultivation and encouragement were the crown bark 
and the calieaya, but above all things the crown as be- 
ing rich in its yield, comparatively more hardy than 
any other, less liable to decay, and in every re- 
spect the best kind of bark to use. The feeling in 
favour of BUCCi rubra had extended even to the Phar- 
macopoeia, with the result that every bark preparation 
that appeared there was iu fact an . officially adulte- 
rated article. Those preparations were made, not with 
such a drug as was formerly ordered, crown hark or 
calisaya, but with the most inferior bark that could 
be selected, which contained for every unit of quinine, 
the only really valuable constituent, 2, 3, or 4 per 
cent, of the comparatively valueless ones. 
Mr. Hodgkin said he was glad to be able to corro- 
borate in great measure what Dr. Paul had said. The 
way in which the centesimal analyses were presented 
was most fallacious, because for these percentages to 
be of any good whatever it could be necessary to 
assume that the percentage of the total alkaloids of 
the bark was the same in the various species ; but 
everybody who knew anything about the tot .1 per- 
centages of alkaloids in these barks must know that 
the percentages were not by any means equal, but 
that iu some barks they were very much higher than 
in others. With regard to the crown bark analyses tin- 
figures did not represent a typicil officinalis. If you 
took the analyses and examined the proportion that 
the quinine and einchonidine held to one another, y..,i 
could only come to the conclusion that the bark was 
a hybrid and not the (?. officinalis which the Indian 
Government hud in their own plantations. In the 
Xilgiri hills they had a plantation of the Officinalis, 
var. Vrittisinaa, cultivated from some plants his uncle, 
the late Mr. J. B. Howard, gave them some years ago, 
and largo quantities of the bark had been sent to this 
market, but the analyses shown by no means represent- 
ed that bark. Mr. Hooper had started with bark which 
was by analysis most certainly hybrid. Then he took 
the mean of that analysis aud that of a succirubra 
— which he had really no right to do because the 
total percentages varied so immensely — and proceeded 
to build up a theoretical hybrid upon it. What the 
Indian Government ought to do was to t ike a hint 
from the Java Government. They had a kind of 
" Calisaya-sucr.irnbra " hybrid which Mr. Hooper allu- 
ded to iu his paper, aud some of the private growers 
in Java had had this bark on the market for some years. 
On testinir, it gave 7 to 8 per cent, of pretty nearly 
pure sulphate of quinine- This bark, when examined 
carefully, presented the peculiar characteristics and 
marking both of the calisaya bark aud of the succirubra. 
Mr. Hooper carefully loft out any reference to what 
mi^ht be called tho celebrated Indian hybrid, the 
•-,,,/>'/,'" bark which was produced by Col. Heddonie 
wln n he wa-> director of the woods and forests. It 
did not appear from tho figures shown what the 
prireutage of alkaloids was, and therefore he could 
make no comparison between these government hybrids 
aud those which were on tho market. The robust a 
bark in the Madras forests contained 4 _tp 4j percent, 
of sulphate of quinine, and sometimes one came across 
a hybrid ft i Ceylon, which was a calisaya hybrid, 
either with the officinalis or the succirubra, which 
came up to li or 8 per cout. Those were the hybrids 
the Indian Government ought to go in for. 
Dr. Turn. mi, iu reply to Dr. Pud said. Mr. Hooper 
gave in the paper in detail the analyses of the harks, 
ami also the maxima and minima, and iu two eases 
I calculated bat rab'es of meant, lie tD Phreeb) )mi 
imply calculated out the other two So mat thoy 
migill b 00mpared j although the tables might be 
Ol IIO value in tin inselve-, it they consulted the 
tables in which the details were given, it would he 
round there was a considerable fund of information 
t.i be obtal I, 
