THE FHAHMACOP(EIA PEOCESS FOE CITEATE OF QUININE. 
19 
employed the wood of several dead cinchona plants at my disposal for the pre¬ 
paration of this acid, which, by order of the Governor-General, was, at my 
request, experimentally tried by the medical staff of the Army. The official 
report on these experiments was so favourable, that the chief of the medical 
staff, Dr. "Wassink, requested a further supply, in order to continue the experi¬ 
ments on a larger scale. As I had no more material at disposal with which 
to prepare quinovic acid, I wrote to my friend Mr. A. Delondre, at Havre de 
Grace, who was kind enough to send me not less than five kilogrammes of 
the crude acid from his manufactory of quinine. Although my laboratory in 
Java was perfectly adapted for all kinds of chemical researches, the purifica¬ 
tion of such a quantity of a substance famous for its bulky volume gave me 
not a little trouble, but at length I succeeded in preparing two kilogrammes of 
quinovic acid sufficiently pure for medical use. This quantity was used by 
the medical staff of the Army for experiments on a larger scale in the hospitals 
of Java and Sumatra. The general report on these experiments, the result of 
which was very favourable, has been sent by the chief of the medical staff*, 
Major-General Dr. G. Wassink, to the Governor-General of Dutch India, 
under date 5th March, 1863. It appears from this report that the quinovic 
acid has been used in the hospital of the west-coast of Sumatra in sixty-five 
cases of intermittent fever with or without complications, and in the great 
majority of cases with perfect success. In the hospital at Samarang, it has 
been used with the same success in forty-five cases, and it is with great satis¬ 
faction that I quote the following passage from the report respecting the ex¬ 
periments at Samarang:— 
“ The application of quinovic acid in diarrhoea and dysentery was made in 
consequence of the observation of its physiological action in diminishing the 
secretion of the intestines, which was attributed to a diminution of the peri¬ 
staltic motion. In this aspect also the results were very satisfactory, and it is 
therefore a new property of the quinovic acid discovered, which agrees with 
the tonic properties which have been ascribed to it by Dr. de Vry.” 
It appears therefore not only that my suggestion about the tonic properties 
of the quinovic acid is well founded, but also that it is a remedy against 
intermittent fever. I therefore venture the suggestion to use the leaves of 
cinchona in British India against jungle-fever, which is in many districts a 
real plague. If the leaves are collected in the different cinchona plantations, 
which can be done without great cost, a tincture could be prepared from them 
with proof spirit, in which menstruum quinovic acid is easily dissolved, but 
not chlorophyll and some other inactive substances. I have much expectation 
that the proper use of such a tincture as a prophylactic would prevent many 
cases of jungle-fever in the localities where they are endemic. As the manu¬ 
facturers of quinine throw away every year some hundred pounds of a sub¬ 
stance containing quinovic acid, there is abundance of material for further ex¬ 
periments. I have found besides that the so-called ncmcleic acid, discovered 
by Mr. C. Bernelot Moens, military pharmaceutist at Batavia, in a species of 
Nauclea, is identical with quinovic acid; and as, according to my investiga¬ 
tions, all the species of Nauclea, which are plentiful in the forest of J ava, con¬ 
tain this acid in their bark, we have here another source whence an abun¬ 
dant supply could be obtained. 
The Hague, April 23rd, 1864. 
ON THE BOOT-BABK OF THE CHINCHONHh 
BY J. E. HOWARD, E.L.S. 
[ A letter from a gentleman owning a district in New' Granada, containing 
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