October 14,1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
337 
plantations in February last, lie at once recognized our 
hybrid as C. uritasinga , with which the analysis of the 
bark well agrees; but shortly after arrived Mr. Brough¬ 
ton, who doubted very much whether the plant could be 
C. uritasinga. 
In the absence of flowers and fruit, no botanical deter¬ 
mination can be attempted, and the similarity of the 
leaves of different species of young plants, as above 
stated, is so close, that the identification of this “ hybrid ” 
must still remain a problem to be solved. It is, however, 
■doubtless destined to prove one of the most valuable 
species at Rungbee. 
During the cold weather 1870-71 about 12,500 lb. of 
■dry succirubra bark have been obtained from the thin¬ 
ning of the plantations. Of this, 5000 lb. of the thickest 
bark have been sent for sale in the London market, and 
the remaining 7500 lb. have been boiled at Rungbee. 
. Owing to the imperfect working of the screw-press used 
in the manufacture, more bark could not have been cut 
unless we had been prepared to sacrifice all the thinner 
bark, which (being worth only about sixpence per pound) 
would scarcely pay for transit to England. To take 
three trees out of four (as was originally proposed), would 
have given us about 300 lb. of bark per 1200 trees, which 
was the estimate I formerly put forward. As, however, 
•our means of working the bark were limited, only every 
■alternate rank of trees was thinned out, and a consider¬ 
able area of the 1867 planting was not touched at all. I 
am not sure that this curtailment of the thinning wili 
be any loss ultimately. In this estimate of 300 lb. per 
acre of thinnings at the end of the fourth season out, it 
must be observed, however, that only 150 lb. of the best 
is worth Is. 9d. per pound in London, the remainder is 
barely worth working up on the spot. The alteration 
proposed by the cinchona commission is that next year 
a portion of the prime bark should be worked up with 
the thinner bark at Rungbee, in order to give the pro- 
■cess of manufacture a fair chance of proving remunera¬ 
tive. 
After visiting the manufactory of cinchona bark at 
the Government Nilghiri plantations, by the orders of 
the Bengal Government in April, 1870, I came to the 
•opinion that Mr. Broughton’s method of preparing the 
alkaloids from red bark was an excellent one, and I was 
.authorized by Government to introduce this process of 
manufacture experimentally at Rungbee. A sum of Rs. 
11,250, for the expense of machinery, was placed at my 
-disposal for the year ended 31st March, 1871. 
The machinery which I have got under this sanction 
•consists mainly of the following items :— 
Rs. As. P. 
Boilers, cones, and presses made at the 
Government dockyard, and charged 
for merely by a book credit there. 
Grand total expended up to 31st 
March, 1871.5111 0 0 
Further expenditure estimated requisite 
to complete the machinery now in 
hand. 400 0 0 
A Coffey fractional still, with rectifier, 
cost (in England).1043 7 6 
Scales and a hot filter, obtained from 
Messrs. T. E. Thomson and Co. . . 154 10 6 
Carriage of machinery, and smaller ex¬ 
penses . 490 9 6 
TofalRs. . .719911 6 
I am glad to believe that the whole of this machinery 
’(except the hot filter) is well adapted for the manufac¬ 
ture in question. 
The only serious difficulty in carrying out the work of 
manufacture has been with the press. A large part of 
the expenditure at the dockyard, viz. about Rs. 2000, 
.has been laid out on a hydraulic press, now ready for 
dispatch to Rungbee. The engineer at the dockyard 
has taken great pains with this press, which was seen in 
an advanced state by Mr. Broughton, and I am sanguine 
that it will answer the expectations formed of it. 
The outlay on house accommodation for the manufac¬ 
tory has been very small, as bamboo sheds are inexpen¬ 
sively raised by the hill men. In the distilling-house 
there is much alcohol and many large fires, and I have 
lately replaced this shed by a brick building. 
The stripping of bark can only be carried on advan¬ 
tageously in the autumn and spring, as during the rains 
the bark produces a much smaller percentage of alka¬ 
loid. During the working season, now nearly past, 
about 7500 lb. (dry) of the twig bark has been boiled 
down, and the first (lime) precipitate formed therefrom. 
The first sample of # alkaloid sent down from Rungbee, 
made by the two gardeners (Messrs. Gammie and Eicr- 
mann) and myself, was tried experimentally in the Cal¬ 
cutta hospitals, and found by Drs. Brougham and Mac- 
namara excellent, and apparently of equal therapeutic 
value with the commercial sulphate of quinine. The 
second sample, of alkaloid manufactured at Rungbee was 
also found by analysis to be good. The third sample 
sent down to the medical store-keepei’, Calcutta, has 
been discovered to contain 10 5 per cent, of metallic 
copper, and the cinchona commission recommended that 
the two gardeners in charge should cease working, and 
the distillation process has been accordingly stopped for 
the present. It was not understood to be possible that 
copper could appear in the resulting alkaloid, except in 
minute quantity ; and even now that this serious acci¬ 
dent has occurred, Mr. Broughton states (in the cinchona 
commission proceedings) that he can hardly conceive 
how it did occur. 
I wish merely to remark here that, in my opinion, the 
occurrence of this accident has nothing whatever to do 
with the merits of Mr. Broughton’s process. That pro¬ 
cess is the only one before us for obtaining the alkaloid 
economically from red bark, except the suggestion of 
steeping the bark cold; and I think it extremely im¬ 
probable that the latter plan will eventually prove suc¬ 
cessful, since Mr. Broughton has discarded it after giving 
it what he considers a satisfactory trial. 
The cost of working 1000 lb. of wet bark by Mr. 
Broughton’s process at Rungbee has been reduced to 
Rs. 25, exclusive of cost of European superintendence. 
Great credit is due to Messrs. Gammie and Biermann for 
their ingenuity and perseverance in bringingthecost down 
so low. Mr. Gammie is particularly successful in executive 
work in any department to which he puts his hand, and 
Mr. Biermann is a man of superior education, as well as 
naturally clear-headed. It is considered by the cinchona 
commission that if the expense of carrying out Mr. 
Broughton’s process of manufacture proves no greater 
than it has in their hands, no other process can possibly 
compete with it at Rungbee; and the cinchona commis¬ 
sion have accordingly recommended that this process of 
manufacture be employed next season. It is perhaps 
hardly necessary to explain that, in conducting the work 
so as to give no copper in the result, a rather less cost is 
incurred. 
The lime precipitate may be kept uninjured any 
length of time, and nearly the whole precipitate from 
the season’s working remains thus now stored at Rung¬ 
bee. Also none of the proceeds of sale of bark have yet 
been actually received, partly owing to the death of 
Dr. T. Anderson, to whose agents the earlier small 
consignments took place. I did not budget for any 
receipts from the plantation for the year ended 31st 
March, 1871, but I estimate that nearly Rs. 8000 worth 
of bark had been dispatched from the plantation by that 
date. . , 
The cinchona budget grant for the year ended 31st 
March, 1871, was Rs. 64,741. The total amount drawn 
was Rs. 53,746-2-1, exclusive of the book credit of Rs. o 111 
for machinery. Subtracting from this Rs. 53,746-2-1, 
