4°6 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1881. 
to have been the great promoters of the further in- 
troduction of the bark into Kurope, and the new medi- 
cine shared the fate of all medical or other innova- 
tions. A storm of prejudice was raised, ' it would 
kid more than it would cure,' -may be taken as a 
rough estimate of conservative thought concerning it 
in the seventeenth century, while even those who 
admitted its efficacy and valued it as a boon were 
profoundly ignorant of the tree from which it was 
taken. This being eo, we confess we turned with 
considerable curiosity to the next chapter, in which 
we learn how the people of Europe, really became 
first acquainted with the chinchona trees. Mr. Mark- 
ham tells us the first description of the quinquina 
tree is due to the memorable French expedition to 
South America which, on May 16th, 1735, sailed from 
" Roohelle," to measure an arc of the meridian 
near Qtiito, and thus determine the shape of the 
ea"th. MM De la Condamine and the botanist Joseph 
de Jussieu were amongst the principal members of the 
expedition. Both made laborious efforts to collect and 
take home young plants, but ihe fate which for some 
inscrutable reasons at ends so many early efforts be- 
fell theirs. The plants La Condamine had for eight 
months preserved wi'h loving care were washed from 
the deck of his little vessel by a wave, and Jussieu, 
after fifteen years of laborious work, was robbed 
of his large collection of plants by a servant at Buenos 
Ayres, who believed thai the boxes contained money." 
Poor Jussieu ! the blow sti uck him heavily, and he 
returned to France deprived of reason. But glancing 
over the narrative of his work, we notice that " he 
was the li st botanist who examined and sent home 
specimens of the coca plant, the beloved narcotic of 
the Peruvian Indian." 
Further on, Mr. Markham devotes a chapter 
to the history of the cultivation of the coca, a 
chapter which seems to the present writer full of 
interest. Mr. Markham states that the coca 
leaf is to the Peruvian Indian what betel is to the 
Hindu, kava to the South Sea Islander, and tobacco 
to the rest of mankind. So much, perhaps, was al- 
ready pretty generally known ; but we imagine that, 
at least outside a very limited medical circle, it was 
not known that "its use produces invigorating effects 
which are not possessed by the other stimulants." 
While reading carefully the history of the marvellous 
virtues of this plant given by Mr. Markham, the pre- 
sent writer came accidentally across a recent pre- 
scription, in which a preparation of it was given in 
minimum doses, the efficacy of which was tested, 
with good result, on headache caused by mental worry. 
On further inquiry, we found its use was the sub- 
ject of careful consideration and even administration 
amongst some of our ablest physicians. Ihe Peru- 
vians, says our author, look on it with feelings of super- 
stitious veneration, and the old lncas sacrificed it 
to the Sun. The plant can be cultivated from 5,000 
to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea; but we have 
no spare to follow the interesting details of its cul- 
tivation, we can only add Mr. Markham's testimony 
to its medicinal use. He says : — " Applied externally, 
coca moderates the rheumatic pains caused by cold, 
and cures headache. When used to excess, it 
is, like everything el.se, prejudicial to health ; 
yet of all narcotics used by man, coca is the 
least injurious, and the most soothing and 
invigorating." And he adds, " I chewed coca, not 
constantly, but very frequently, from the day of my 
departure from Sandia, and besides the agreeable, 
snot hiug feeling it produced, I found that I could en- 
dure long abstinence from food with less inconveni- 
ence than 1 should otherwise have felt, and it en- 
abled me to ascend precipitous mountain sides with a 
feeling of lightue 8 and elasticity, and without losing 
breath." 
But we have left ourselves small suace to touch 
on what, after all, is really the subject-matter of 
the work before us,— the author's labours in the, a.% 
it has proved, successful attempt to introduce the 
cultivation of cliinchona trees into British India. The 
work, as he tells us, was accompanied bv this dif- 
ficulty, from which similar undertakings have been 
free,— the plant to be transplanted had never been 
cultivated. " When tea was introduced into the Him- 
alayan districts, it had been a cultivated plant in 
China for ages, and experienced Chinese cultivators 
came with it. but the chinchona had remained a wild 
forest tree." In 1852, the proposal lo introduce 
chinchona plants into India was made officially. 
In 1852, and again in May 1853, Dr. Boyle drew 
up a Joug and valuable report on the subject ; and at 
the same moment Mr. Markham was actually explor ug 
some of the chinchona forests of Peru, in ignorance 
of any desire on the part of the Indian Government to 
procure chinchona plants, and his objects, he tel!sus, 
were of an antiquarian and ethnological character. 
But the subject of chinchona cultivation being iu S59 
brought under his notice by Mr. Heuiy Deedes, of 
the Indian Office, he gave the subject due con- 
sideration, saw the inestimable benefit that might be 
conferred on India and the world generally, and re- 
solved to undertake its execution. Mr. Markham 
was, indeed, well qualified for the gigantic task he 
set himself. He knew the region, ihe people, and 
theii languages, and having to consider wheth'-r the 
undertaking should be a private or a G'Veinmant 
one, he wisely, as we think, submitted his proposal 
to Lord Stanley, then, in 1859, First Secretary of 
State for India, and was entrusted with t oe com. 
mission he executed so thoroughly, namely, to in- 
troduce chinchoua cultivation iuto India. The plan 
for which he applied for sanction was as follows : 
"To make a collection of plants and seeds of all 
the chinchona3 known to commerce, through the 
instrumentality of qualified agents. This would en- 
tail the despatch of five agenis; to Bolivia or Cara- 
vaya for the Calisaya plants, to Huanuco in Pern 
for the grey barks, to Loxa in Ecuador for the 
brown barks, to Huaranda in Ecuador for the red 
barks, and to Popayan for the Colombian barks. 
These five agents were to work simultaurously under 
my genend superintendence, and a special steamer 
was to be supplied to convey the collections of 
plants and seeds from the five ports of Islay, Cal- 
lao, Payta, Guayaquil and Buenaventura, direct to 
India across the Pacific Ocean. If the scheme failed 
at one or more points — which, considering the enormous 
difficulties, was quite probable— my plan was to rep..at 
the work in the next season, and, if necessary, in the 
next and the next, until complete success .was se- 
cured." 
He adds fubsequen'ly : — 
"The measures which I thought necessary from the 
first, and which I have since continuously striven 
to bring to perfection, were : — 1. The introduction 
into India of a>l chinchona species known to com- 
merce, because it was uucertain which would even- 
tually prove to be best adapted fo.- cuhivation 
in the new country. Even species which do not 
yield quinine were collected, because, the other chin- 
choua alkaloids also possess febrifuge virtues. 2. The 
establishment of Government plantations wherever 
suitable sites could be found in India, to form centres 
for the distribution of plants and seeds, and for as- 
certaining the best methods of cultivation. 3. I he 
manufacture in India, of a form of the febrifuge 
combining, in the highest attainable degree, efficacy 
and cheapness ; so that there may be abundant sup- 
plies within reach of all classes of the people." 
Mr. Markham was eminently happy in thefellow- 
labourers who assisted him in his huge work ; through 
