974 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 3, 1871. 
through a coloured liquid. Tho spectrum-analysis of 
blood docs not deserve the highest degree of confidence.” 
This conclusion is likely to be zealousl} r contro¬ 
verted by the admirers of spectroscopy, though the 
late supposed discovery of a new element through its 
aid, and by two philosophers simultaneously, is per¬ 
haps calculated to raise some doubt as to the spec¬ 
troscope being a safe guide in such important cases. 
INDIAN QUININE. 
The Indian papers give a very unsatisfactory ac¬ 
count of the results obtained in the manufacture of 
bark alkaloids lately attempted by the Government. 
The subject is of such importance that wo extract 
the following documents from the Calcutta Observer 
and the Englishman. We believe the statements made 
are in the main correct. There seems to be some little 
discrepancy as regards the issue of the impure pro¬ 
duct, but we have been promised further information 
on the matter from Professor 1)e Yhij, which will no 
doubt put it in a proper light. 
“Does the Government of India eat pickles? Wc 
know that a late member of that Government, who is 
now obtaining a considerable amount of public attention, 
devoted much of his time to the study of that important 
condiment. We see no internal evidence of its still 
finding a place in the dietary scale of tho members, at 
all events of tho Legislative Council; and we, therefore, 
venture to request the serious attention of Government 
to the humane caution which Messrs. Crosse and Black- 
well are in the habit of affixing by labels to their bottles, 
warning the public against being unduly attracted by 
the beautiful green of the preparations of other vendors 
into poisoning themselves with copper. We must, then, 
ask them if they are aware that they are issuing under 
their sanction a preparation by ihe side of which the 
dangers of green pickles sink into insignificance. We 
understand that the officer in charge of the Government 
cinchona gardens has produced, with immense satisfac¬ 
tion to himself and the Government, a preparation which 
' he is pleased to call ‘ amorphous quinine’; if this prepa¬ 
ration has one quality of which ho is more proud than an¬ 
other, it is its beautiful green colour, so soothing to the eye 
of a fevered patient, so suggestive of the luxuriant growth 
of the Government gardens, and, we are afraid wo must 
add, of the skill of its manufacturing agents. This plea- 
sant-looking drug has been largely issued to the heads of 
departments for experiments in the public hospitals and 
dispensaries. If some fortunate accident had not pre¬ 
vented its actual use, there is reason to fear that the re¬ 
sult of the experiment would have shown itself in a 
large increase in the death-rates of our hospitals, which 
would no doubt in due course, and according to well- 
established precedent, have been attributed to inappro¬ 
priate buildings or insufficient ventilation. But, happily, 
Government has been saved from being placed in the 
position of a druggist ignorantly compounding and dis¬ 
pensing poison by the discovery made by Dr. Simpson, 
who is now sitting on the cinchona committee, that this 
green drug is little more than a cunningly-devised mix¬ 
ture of copper stewpan and hark, displaying, it must at 
all events be admitted, considerable skill in the dissolv¬ 
ing of the stewpans. We trust that the escape will 
teach the Government that it is not real economy to 
entrust the more delicate chemical operations to a Eu¬ 
ropean gardener assisted by Booteah coolies. If a pri¬ 
vate manufacturer have a business of this sort in hand, 
his first endeavour will be to secure tho best available 
skill for its superintendence ; but the financial policy of 
the present day takes an opposite view, and thinks con¬ 
trol of expenditure, without the slightest regard for 
future profit or loss or consequences in any form, is all 
that it has to look to.”— Calcutta Observer. 
“ It is stated that the new product of the cinchona bark, 
lately furnished by the Superintendent of tho Darjeeling: 
plantations for distribution to medical officers, is largely 
contaminated with poisonous quantities of copper. This; 
gentleman had prepared a substance which he believed 
to contain the whole of the cinchona alkaloids jumbled 
up together, and forwarded it with a view to its febrifuge 
and anti-periodic powers being subjected to crucial trial 
in some of tho large hospitals. He supposed that this 
compound contained all the febrifuge principles of bark ; 
and the reason assigned for stopping short of isolating 
the various alkaloids, such as quinine, quinidine, cin- 
chonidine and cinchonine, is economy of manufacture. 
Hence the attempt to introduce this substance of un¬ 
known chemical composition and strength. Such an 
attempt is essentially a retrograde step in science, and 
could only have been initiated by ignorance of the mo¬ 
dern tendency and principles of therapeutics, the whole 
scope of which has been to procure the separation of the 
active principles of drugs in a manageable form, so that 
their doses may be fixed with certainty, and the powei’3 
of those doses ascertained with the greatest attainable 
exactitude. This has already been done with reference 
to elaterium and morphia, and also with reference to 
quinine, quinidine, cinchonidine, and cinchonine; yet 
Mr. Clarke now asks medical men to go back to the old 
system, in defiance of tho teachings of organic chemistry 
and therapeutics, and to substitute imperfection for per¬ 
fection, uncertainty for certainty, in a matter, concerning 
the welfare and lives of thousands of human beings. 
“If there cannot be found in India scientific talent 
sufficient for tho isolation of the cinchona alkaloids in a 
pure form—and we believe that such is available—by all 
means let the process of manufacture be stopped at a 
stage when all the alkaloids arc believed to have been 
concentrated in a small compass. But let the substance 
thus obtained be sent to Europe for sale to the manufac¬ 
turers, w T ho know how to properly work the mixed mass. 
In the name of humanity wo protest against this raw 
compound being foisted upon the hospitals of this coun¬ 
try,—a proposal as unscientific and unsound as it would 
be to substitute opium or the squirting cucumber for 
morphia or elaterium, on the ground that a saving would 
be effected thereby in the manufacture. Tho gentleman, 
from whom the idea emanates, although holding a quasi¬ 
medical appointment, is not a medical man, or he would 
have shrunk from the risks to human life which would 
inevitably follow the practical adoption of his scheme. 
The powder has been used in Madras, where the fevers 
are of a very mild type, and, as was to bo expected, ar 
fair number of recoveries are noted. So it was with tho 
! “Jesuits’ Bark” in the seventeenth century. But just 
as the latter had to be abandoned for quinine, so it would 
bo folly and cruelty now to return from the pure form of 
the medicine to Mr. Clarke’s raw material. The dangers 
of such a course are increased by the medical ignorance; 
of the present superintendent. Tho substance which he. 
has supplied for hospital use is found upon analysis to 
contain 20 per cent, of the poisonous carbonate of copper, 
or 10lr per cent, of the metallic copper! The presenco 
of dangerous adulteration in such quantities indicates, 
either gross incapacity, or almost criminal carelessness 
in the preparation of the drug. Fortunately, the timely 
discovery of the poisonous admixture had been made, we- 
believe, by a member of the Cinchona Commission before. 
: the powder was issued from the medical stores for trial.. 
Had this discovery not been made in time, a large quan¬ 
tity would have been distributed, and disastrous con¬ 
sequences must have resulted from large doses of a poisom 
cumulative in its operation, and deadly in its effects. 
“The announcement of this fact, we hope, will make 
the Government pause before they commit the extraction 
of the cinchona alkaloids to persons unacquainted with 
the delicate chemical processes requisite for their suc¬ 
cessful isolation and purification.— The Calcutta English¬ 
man .” 
