ON THE ROOT-BAltK OF CHIN CHON A CALISAYA. 
343 
1 have noticed an unprecedented amount of admixture of the root bai'Jc, which 
is easily distinguished by its peculiar characteristics, shown by the specimen I 
have sent to the Society. The curly shape in which it is found would strike the 
eye of every observer. It is imported in serons, along with the best quality, but 
often distinguished from these by an X branded on the hide. It will probably 
find its way into consumption for the manufacture of decoctions and tinctures, 
as it is not likely to be taken, except at an extremely low price by the manufac¬ 
turers of sulphate of quinine. I have selected a very favourable specimen for 
examination, which yielded me in hydrated alkaloids of the first rough precipi¬ 
tation, 10 parts in 1000, but from this very low percentage a still further deduc¬ 
tion must be made, as the purified alkaloids gave only 8T4 parts in 1000. Of 
this not more than 3‘06 parts were obtained as a crystalline salt of quinine, and 
the remainder consisted almost entirely of the quinidine of Pasteur (crystallizing 
as an hydriodate). The substitution which thus appears to have taken place in 
the descent of the sap to the roots of quinidine for quinine demands further in¬ 
vestigation, and if confirmed by other observations is not a little curious. Ac¬ 
cording to Gerliardt the atomic constitution of quinine is C 40 H 24 N 2 0 4 + n a T- an( ^ 
of quinidine (of Pasteur), C 40 H 24 X 2 O 4 + 4 aq. One would be ready to believe 
in the conversion of one alkaloid into another in this case, were it not that the 
remarkably different and contrasted mode in which they respectively act on the 
ray of polarized light seems to indicate some more remarkable difference in the 
real structure than is manfested by ultimate analysis. It is certainly in the leaves 
that the first formation of the alkaloids takes place in the plant, and as some of 
the other constituents accompany the alkaloids unchanged (for example, kinate 
of lime and kinovic acid) through the whole course of the downward descent of 
the sap, it becomes an interesting inquiry whence so great a change as the sub- 
titution of one alkaloid for another could arise. The mother-substance which 
is found in the heartwood of Chinchona succirubra , (as I have described under 
that head) is split into two or three substances in the bark, giving rise evidently 
to the chinchona red and also (as I think), under the influence of the ammonia 
which it is easy to detect in the external portions of the plant, to the formation 
of alkaloids. Patient investigation may hereafter lead to our ascertaining the 
mode of all these changes, which are at present sufficiently obscure. 
In reference to the commercial value of the root bark of Calisaya, I have only 
to remark that the importers are greatly disappointed at the low estimation in 
which the article is held in Europe. The collectors in Bolivia had succeeded in 
passing this root-bark off as genuine Calisaya, which it (in one sense) undoubtedly 
is, and having hit upon the wasteful method of extirpating the finest species of 
Chinchona from the forests of Bolivia for the sake of a present profit, are now 
much annoyed to find that in “ killing the goose which laid the golden egg ” they 
have not even the consolation of selling the bird to advantage. 
Professor Bentley said that the practical importance of Mr. Howard’s com¬ 
munication would be at once appreciated by the meeting, when he stated that 
the average yield of crystallized disulphate of quinine in 100 parts of ordinary 
Calisaya bark, according to Pereira, Pelouze, Biegel, and others, was from 3 to 3*5 
per cent., or nearly one ounce avoirdupois of crystallized sulphate of quinine in 
2 lbs. avoirdupois of bark ■ whilst the amount of crystallized salts of quinine ob¬ 
tainable from the root-bark of Calisaya, as just described by Mr. Howard, was 
only about 3 parts in 1000. Hence it appeared that 1000 parts of the root- 
bark of Calisaya only yielded as much crystallized salts as 100 parts of ordinary 
Calisaya, indicating that the latter was, in such respects, ten times more valuable 
than the former. 
Independently of the value of Mr. Howard’s communication in a practical 
point of view, it also possessed, Professor Bentley remarked, great interest in 
