304 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 19, 1872. 
Lope before next year greatly to enlarge the area. It is 
interesting to note that whereas officinalis has done 
well in the Nilgiris, calisaya has hitherto thriven badly 
there, and is indeed now little cultivated. 
9. Grey bark, although rich in the other alkaloids, is 
found to be poor in quinine. The cultivation of the 
species yielding it (C. micrantha , nitida, and peruviana ), 
has therefore been practically abandoned for some years. 
The 29,000 old trees in permanent plantation look well, 
and are growing rapidly. 
10. D isease .—In his evidence given before the Cin¬ 
chona Commission in February last year, Mr. Mclvor, 
Superintendent of the Nilgiri Plantations, gave rather 
an alarming account of a disease prevalent at Rungbee, 
and expressed it as his opinion that there were on the 
plantation at the time his evidence was taken (28th 
February, 1871), 100,000 plants at the age of from four 
to six years which would die before the end of the year, 
and that this disease would make the formation of a 
permanent cinchona plantation at Rungbee or Rishap 
impossible. The same gentleman has since entered into 
greater detail on this subject in a report addressed to 
the Madras Government, and which, having been noticed 
in an English scientific periodical, has apparently got 
into circulation in England. 
11. Opinions of this sort, so strongly expressed by 
such an eminent cinchona cultivator, naturally led me 
to examine the whole plantation carefully and with 
some anxiety. Since doing so I have had the advantage 
of going over all the Government and most of the 
private cinchona gardens on the Nilgiris in company 
with Mr. Mclvor, and I must candidly say I cannot 
agree with him in his gloomy views regarding either 
the present condition or probable future of the cinchona 
enterprise in Sikkim. The four to six-year old plants 
particularly referred to by Mr. Mclvor have been most 
carefully watched. They form some of the best pieces 
of the plantation, and I am glad to say that at the end 
of March, 1872,—that is, thirteen months after Mr. 
Mclvor’s prophecy was made,—they were not only in 
life, but growing vigorously, and that the dreadful mor¬ 
tality predicted by Mr. Mclvor does not seem even now 
to be impending. In his report Mr. Mclvor enters on 
some calculations illustrative of his anticipations as to 
the small outturn of bark which will be yielded at 
Rungbee owing to this disease and to other causes ; and 
concerning one of the finest plots of trees on the plan¬ 
tation he writes as follows 
“ On the thirty acres of red bark near the Rishap bunga¬ 
low, already mentioned as being the finest and most 
uniform on the Sikkim plantations, each alternate row 
of plants was cut down when three and half years old. 
The produce obtained from these plants was 40 maunds 
(equal to 3200 lb.) of dry stem and branch bark. The 
quantity of bark on the trees left standing on the 
ground would thus be 40 maunds also. Previous to 
the alternate line of trees being removed, about 20 
maunds (equal to 1600 lb.) of bark from thinnings had 
been obtained from the same piece of ground. I thus 
estimate that if these 30 acres had been entirely cut 
down, they would have yielded a total produce of 100 
maunds or 8000 lb. of dried stem and branch bark, or 
273 lb. per acre.” Now these thirty acres were a few 
months ago carefully pruned and slightly thinned, and 
the bark obtained from the primings and thinnings was 
daily weighed. It amounted to no less than 26,459 lb. 
when wet, which is equal to more than 8000 lb. when 
dry. In other words, the bark actually obtained in the 
course of an ordinary cultural operation, undertaken 
without reference to bark, and by which the trees are 
supposed to have benefited, is equal to more than twice 
the amount, which, according to Mr. Mclvor’s estimate, 
would have been got by cutting them all down for the 
sake of their bark. Nor has the pruning knife been 
used severely, for the ground on which the trees stand is 
still in deep shade from their spreading heads. Mr. 
Mclvor prefaces his report to the Madras Government 
by saying, u I would respectfully call attention to the 
fact that I visited the Himalayan plantations at a sea¬ 
son of the year when the plants are in the worst con¬ 
dition. My observations were made during a short 
stay and at an unfavourable time, and my impressions 
as to the condition of cinchona cultivation in the north 
of India might have been somewhat modified had my 
visit been made at a more favourable season.” Ho ad¬ 
vances his opinion, that “ permanent plantations of these 
species (C. succirubra and C. calisaya) cannot be formed in 
British Sikkim,” “ with the deepest regret,” and I have 
no doubt whatever will be very glad to learn that the 
two predictions concerning these plantations in which 
he enters on special details have not been fulfilled. 
(To be continued.') 
HEAT AND THIRST, AND SOME OF THEIR 
POPULAR ANTIDOTES. 
(By the Author of a “ Report on Cheap Wines.’') 
(Continued from p. 88.) 
There are some personages of a dogmatical and cate¬ 
gorical frame of mind, who are always perplexing their 
neighbours with classifications and distinctions, and who 
are pleased to draw a line between food and physic, or 
between food and stimulants. The difference, however, 
really lies in the application rather than in the absolute 
nature of things. A dietary should embrace all that is 
needful, not only for life but for health and comfort, and 
(above all things) for the exhilaration and enjoyment of 
soul and body; and this whether the circumstances be 
ordinary or extraordinary—in rest and idleness, or in 
great fatigue and exhaustion. Hence it is not enough 
for the quenching of thirst to have water merely. We 
want that which shall make water pleasant to the palate, 
and we may make it the means of introducing those 
supplementary and occasional forms of food which we 
vulgarly call physic. 
In the shape of mineral waters, we have such things 
ready to our hands, whether they come from some 
“ Deus,” or “ Melior natura,” as Ovid says, or whether 
due to the fortuitous concourse of atoms. If medicine 
be a supplement to food, then it ought to be taken with 
food, if sufficiently palatable and congenial to the stomach 
not to interfere with the enjoyments of the table. 
Of table waters in common use, it is unnecessary to 
reckon up the common soda-water and the real soda- 
water, such as is made by Ellis or Hooper, the common 
Brighton seltzer of the pastrycook and that which is 
made by scientific chemists, at Brighton and elsewhere. 
The German (real Nassau) seltzer-water is also well 
enough known, but not so much prescribed as it deserves 
to be, from its mild, soothing, milky, nourishing taste, 
and sedative effects on the throat and lungs. The ob¬ 
jection commonly raised against these waters is, that 
they are debilitating, that they tend to wash people out. 
But it must be borne in mind that the most debilitated 
persons may be thirsty, that dryness at the mouth may 
be caused by tonics, and that the skin may be dry and 
unrefreshing and the kidneys overloaded, and that some 
such remedy as the seltzer-water, which unites the 
gently piquant with the sedative in an admirable man¬ 
ner, may make the patient very grateful to the prac¬ 
titioner who recommends it. Seltzer-water and milk, 
equal parts, suit well in cases of irritable throat-cough, 
acute bronchitis, etc. But it is not everybody that likes 
seltzer-water, and they who do may like a change, and 
no practitioner is ever the worse for two strings to his 
bow. 
Amongst table waters of the decided alkaline sort, I 
need not mention the Vichy , which is a whit too power¬ 
ful for general use. The Vais (Precieuse) is a delicious 
