78 4 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
[March i, 1882. 
districts of South America which Professor Fluckiger 
regards as been more favourably situated in this respect 
are, on the contrary, subjected to much greater ir- 
regularities, and at times have altogether failed in their 
supply, owing to the revolutions, and, more important 
still, to the fact of the frequent drought of the Mag- 
dalena and other rivers. 
Keplying to the statement that it is not likely that the 
planting and cultivation of cinchonas will be under- 
taken in Bolivia and Peru, I can only say that the 
cultivation of the cinchonas has already been commenced 
in those countries, and the trials which have been made 
have so far furnished satisfactory results that already 
for the past two years the produce of these plantations 
has been sold for high prices in the London market, 
thus proving the good quality of the bark. 
It cannot be denied that of late the importations of 
flat bark have not at all been rich in quinine, but Pro- 
fessor Fluckiger attaches less importance to the con- 
tents of quinine so long as there exists a, sufficient per- 
centage of other alkaloids, and of these flat barks on 
an average contained over 2 per cent, as per the analyses 
made of the last arrivals of flat bark. It is true that 
most Indian barks are richer in the amount of total 
alkaloids, but here the question arises, are the druggists 
capable of extracting the alkaloids out of the Indian 
bark? and I am inclined to doubt it. It is a known 
fact that the Indian barks at first offered great diffi- 
culties to the manufacturers of quinine, and even at 
this date there are manufacturers who for this reason 
will not work Indian bark. As a druggist's bark this 
objection applies more forcibly. On the other hand no 
bark works easier and better than the American calisaya, 
and this fact ought to bear weight to prevent its 
abandonment as an article of the official materia medica. 
It is not, however, to be forgotten that India sends us 
a great many barks very inferior in quality, and it is 
a very difficult matter for the druggist to discriminate 
between the poor and rich kinds of bark. Druggists, 
indeed, are very apt to favour a " showy"' bark, which 
in fact may be very poor in alkaloids. This remark 
applies very forcibly when Indian barks are concerned. 
On the other hand the quality of calisaya bark, more 
especially flat bark, is easily judged from external ap- 
pearance. In addition to this, druggists have been 
perfectly acquainted with the character of this kind of 
bark for many years past. 
If, after all, the flat American calisaya is to be 
abandoned on account of its not being sufficiently rich, 
why not adopt the American calisaya quill ? 
Calisaya quill has the advantage over all kinds of 
Indian barks of being much easier to extract, offering 
greater facilities for distinguishing the quality, arriving 
regularly during the whole year, and being better known 
to the druggist than any other barks, and is to be 
had in all grades from 2 per cent up to 6 per cent 
of crystallized quinine sulphate, besides a good propor- 
tion of the other alkaloids. 
As to the non-applicability of bark from the districts 
of Colombia for druggists' purposes, I am quite one 
with Professor Fluckiger, and with the opinion that 
has been expounded by others competent to treat on 
the subject, so that nothing remains to be said by me 
on this point. 
Votes of thanks having been passed to the respective 
Mf. Wellcome said that it had been clearly shown 
that the percentages of alkaloid in Cinchona suecirubra 
would differ very greatly according to the conditions 
under which Lt was grown, This was also true of other 
valuable varieties of the cinchonas, for when gro.vn at 
low altitudes, or under other unfavourable conditions, 
I he percentage of qiiinhi iviu smaller, and the propor- 
tion of lower alkaloids was likewise liable to variation. 
He did not think any one variety of bark could be 
justly adopted as an officinal standard. The quills 
which had been referred to last should certainly not, because 
there was no one variety which was more frequently 
intermixed with inferior grades, which were very difficult 
to distinguish except by assay. It would seem that the 
officinal standard that could be adopted would be any 
bark yielding upon assay a certain fixed percentage of 
total alkaloids, of which a certain fixed percentage 
should be quinia. The value of the lower alkaloids — 
particularly cinchonidia — had been more fully appreciated 
in India and America than in England. In reference 
to the new bark, Cinchona euprea, mentioned at the 
Conference last year, some light had been thrown 
upon it by the reports of Dr. Robbins, of New York, 
who had recently returned from a visit to the Columbian 
Forests. This Cinchona cuprea seems to be an excep- 
tion to the general rule, not only in its appearance and 
structure, but also in the fact that although it is grown 
at low altitudes, it is a valuable quinia bark, yielding 
about 2 per cent of quinia. It is reported that this 
yields little or none of the lower alkaloids. With refer- 
ence to the fluid extract of Cinchona of the United 
States Pharmacopoeia, he might say that in the experience 
of American pharmacists it had proved very unsatis- 
factory. It precipitated very freely and was not gener- 
ally in favour — the compound tincture being the pre- 
paration more generally used. With regard to the pro- 
cess suggested by Dr. de Vrij last year, he did not 
know how far it had been successful, but it would be 
interesting to have some information upon the subject 
from those who had given it a practical test. 
Mr. Brady called attention to the dried specimens 
which Mr. Howard had sent to illustrate his paper, and 
invited those interested to examine them. 
Dr. Paul said there could be no doubt that at the 
present time there was a need for alteration in the selec- 
tion of bark used for pharmaceutical purposes. He 
gathered from the paper which had been read, that 
there was some little difference of opinion as to the direc- 
tion in which that change should be made. The officinal 
yellow bark and the flat calisaya bark were almost in- 
variably worthless, so far as the presence of quinine was 
an element of value. The flat calisaya bark of commerce ' 
now really contained nothing more than a little cinchon- 
ine — 1£ to 2 or 3 per cent, and was not at all equal 
to the character given in the Pharmacopoeia, and it re- 
quired to be replaced. Dr. de Vrij and Professor Fliick- 
iger were very enthusiastic in recommending a total sub- 
stitution of the Indian barks for the South American, 
but that was a step of a somewhat extreme character. 
There were many reasons for approving of the introduc- 
tion of Indian grown bark, both crown bark and sueci- 
rubra. They were now very largely imported, and the 
amount of total alkaloids in them would range from 
5 to 10 per cent. In the better kinds of crown barks 
there was a very large amount of quinine, while in the 
suecirubra the cinchonidine preponderated. They were 
already finding a large application on the Continent for 
pharmaceutical purposes, and the greater quantity of 
Indian bark used pharmaceutically was sent from India. 
At the same time, as Mr. de Neuf ville had pointed out, 
two new kinds of bark came to this country from Bolivia 
and the northern parts of South America, which were 
very excellent barks for pharmaceutical uses. They were 
mostly of the character of quill calisaya, yielding 2 J to 
4 per cent of sulphate of quinine. There was an abund- 
ant supply of them, and there was no reason why they 
should not be adopted. He thought the most desirable 
course to take would be not to exclude the South Amer- 
ican bark, but to alter the kind of bark to be used as 
an officinal bark, and to supplement that with certain 
kinds of Indian grown bark. 
Mr. Groves said there seemed a tendency, in some 
quarters, to value Peruvian bark almost exclusively 
according to the proportion of alkaloids it contained. 
This doubtless was reasonable on the part of the manu- 
