946 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 
knowledge of physiology” evinced by even the best-instructed 
students. — Lancet. 
4 
CINCHONA CULTIVATION IN INDIA. 
Amongst the services which the Indian Government are 
rendering, not only to the population of India, but to the 
whole civilised world, is the successful cultivation of the 
quinqueno tree. The collection of the different varieties 
from amongst the forests of the Andes, their temporary 
removal to the Royal Gardens at Kew, and subsequent 
transference to the Neilgherry Hills, where a site had been 
selected by the botanists, forms the earlier stage of the pro- 
ceedings. The narrative of these interesting operations, 
which commenced in the year 1859, is given in Mr. Mark- 
hands f Travels in Peru/ and the blue-books of the India 
Department. The report just published, extending over the 
later period down to the present time, puts us in posses- 
sion of the correspondence between the Secretaries of State 
and the Governors of Madras and Bombay, the records of 
the proceedings of the officers and managers, general views 
of progress at various intervals, combined with other sub- 
sidiary matters, all showing the importance attached to this 
experiment. 
The opening dispatch, dated 16th June, 1866, from the 
India Office, states the object which the authorities had chiefly 
in view, viz., the maintenance of the gardens at Ootacamund 
until their produce could be generally diffused and rendered 
accessible to the greatest possible number of the poorer in- 
habitants of the country. The officers of different ranks 
were instructed to make known the uses of the bark, and, 
where practicable, to promote the cultivation of the tree by 
villagers and small holders of land in suitable situations, even 
if they should not be able to do more than plant a few trees 
around their houses ; that in all cases, where the cultivation 
should be undertaken for purposes of trade or profit, a charge 
be made for the plants; but amongst the lower classes a 
supply should be gratuitously furnished, and every other 
assistance afforded them in the prosecution of the work ; 
that an experienced chemist or analyzer should be appointed 
to investigate the various points connected with the extrac- 
tion and the use of alkaloids, and to promote the establish- 
ment of a manufactory of quinine and of the inferior pro- 
ducts of the cinchona. How far these instructions were 
