24 
QTTINOLOGY OF THE EAST INDIAN PLANTATIONS. 
No. 6. — C. lucuslefolia, Pav. 
Very thick, woody bark, coarse fibre internally. Thickness, -§ to f inch. 
Inside. Outside. 
Quinine, sulphate . . 0-85 Quinine, sulphate . . 1-37 
Do. uncryst. . . . 0'05 Do. uncryst. . . . 0-20 
■ 0-90 * 1-57 
C-inchonicine .... 0’80 Cinchonicine .... 0'85 
1-70 2-42 
Mr. Broughton writes me (under date March 16th, 1868), “ I have just repeated a capital experiment 
ot yours, that of separating the liber from the external cortical portion deprived of periderm of the bark. 
The yield in Quinine in the former and latter was nearly as 8 to 5. As the ‘ Bastzellen ’ increase with 
age, the already marked difference will doubtless be augmented. The above has been made with great care, 
and checked by crystallization and a stoichiometrical trial.” 
To prove in another method the chemical composition, especially of the liber-fibres, I subjected the 
inner and outer bark (as above) of the C. succirubra to the following comparative examination: — 
Inner, per cent. Outer, per cent. 
Soluble in caustic liquor ........ 13 23 
Soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid ...... 43 37 
Soluble in chlorine water* . 
Soluble in nitric acid; soluble in sulphuric acid with subsequent 
black coloration, and separation of carbon by addition of water . 44 40*j* 
I have in former publications fully expressed my own opinion on the subject, and I may here be 
permitted to add that continued observation and investigation have confirmed in my mind the views I have 
all along expressed, and that it is gratifying to find these confirmed by Dr. Pliickiger and Mr. Broughton. 
Mr. Broughton (letter, December 9, 1867) says, “ I have quite come to your conclusion, that the woody 
part of the liber is adverse to the existence of much alkaloid. Indeed, I believe I even extend your 
opinion.” 
My difference with the great German authorities, Schacht and Wigand, as to the woody fibre being, in 
their views of the subject, the seat of the alkaloids, was not of my seeking ; and since I became acquainted, 
not without some surprise, with the views entertained by them, I have gone over the ground again 
with some care, and with much additional confirmation of the views I continue to hold. It is to me more 
than ever evident that it would be as wise for a butcher to select cattle having the largest amount of bone 
in proportion to their flesh as the most fitted for the tables of his customers, as to reckon upon the woody 
fibre as available for the extraction of Quinine, when the woody fibres themselves, as dissolved by 
chemical means, do not afford the hope of any different constitution from woody fibre of ordinary compo- 
sition ; and would not even serve for as much in the manufacture of Quinine as the dried bones of cattle 
would for the purposes of general nutrition. 
There remains, of course, the question whether the spiral concavity in the centre of the fibres might 
not have been filled with combinations of the alkaloid, or whether the cell-walls might not have been 
impregnated with the same, as they doubtless are, at times, with colouring-matter. + It seems to me that a 
simple rule of proportion would soon settle this question. If the reader will observe the proportion which 
the liber fibres bear to the rich, renewed bark in Plate II., Pigs. 1, 2, and 3, he will find it impossible to 
imagine that one-tenth part of the whole contents of the bark in the shape of alkaloids can have been 
lodged in so small a space. 
Pinally, and, as it appears to me, conclusively, the liber fibres, after having been subjected to the 
* Gives a yellow colour for the inner, an orange colour for the outer, by addition of ammonia : no appreciable loss of weight, 
t Less slight residuum. J Vide Illustr. Nueva Quin. 
