Mam 
'••Wnv w.; y-^ 
r- -'J. v 
VOL. XXVI. NO. 21 
WHOLE NO. 1191. 
PRICE SIX CENTS 
82.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873. by I>7d. T. Moor*. in the office of the Librarian of CongreBB,"aTwHshuiirto^T 
grading of tho Grand Boulevards,— 
Eds. Rubai..] 
We have sought to improve the san¬ 
itary condition of every province; 
fever still assorts its supremacy, in 
the saline marshes of the Sonder- 
tmnds, athwart the rich flats of Ben¬ 
gal, along tho courses of the great 
rivers, in cultivated as well as waste 
districts, in the great towns as well 
as among tho rice-swamps, it, holds 
sway. Tho habits of tho natives, as 
well as the climate, the heat, the rap¬ 
id decay of organic and inorganic 
matter, tho moisture, and tho chemical opera¬ 
tions of nature which never cease, favor the 
wasting malady. Small wonder, then, that tho 
British Government should seek to introduce 
tho cultivation, of tho olnolmua tree, and thus 
to secure for tho inhabitants the inestimable 
blessing of a cheap and abundant supply of tho 
only kuownspeolfio for fever. 
Tho work was originated a few years ago, 
but great difficulty was at lirst experienced in 
obtaining seeds or young plants, tho South 
Americans being unwilling to part with their 
monopoly of the drug. By perseverance, how¬ 
ever. the materials for a plantation were at 
length procured; and, after some experiments 
to ascertain the requirements of the tree and 
the conditions most likely to develop its medi¬ 
cinal properties, a number of plantations were 
established in different parts of India, under 
the direction of Dr 
CINCHONA PLANTATIONS AT DARJEELING, 
We copy tho following excellent article from 
an English paper:—Jt has often been asserted 
that there is evidence of benevolent design in 
the distribution of natural productions, and 
that the maladies incidental to any given re¬ 
gion are most effectively dealt with by tho use 
of those remedies which the country itself af¬ 
fords. Wo are by no means inclined to dispute 
this us a general rule, but the trees of the cin¬ 
chona family furnish a notable exception. They 
are indigenous only In certain parts of South 
America, while the malarious fevers which their 
alkaloids alone can conquer are not by any 
mean# confined to thoso districts, or even to 
that continent. The terrible scourge was at 
one time very general in our own country, and 
it lingered until recently among t he fens of our 
Eastern counties, gradually retiring as Improve¬ 
ments werp made hi the drainage and cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil. But in Tndia, where there are 
vast tracts of country subject to frequent in¬ 
undations, and in a stage of cultivation which 
as yet has scarcely changed them from their 
natural condition of jungle, but which has 
brought to them a population which the mere 
jungle could never have sustained, the forms 
of fever incidental to defective land drainage 
are still met with in groat severity. 
Some idea of their fearful ravages may he 
gathered from an official report of tho recent 
sufferings of the inhabitants of Burdwan, about 
100 miles north-west of Calcutta. Whole vil¬ 
lages were depopulated, and in tho town itself 
almost every human being was more or less af¬ 
fected bv fever. On one occasion the magis¬ 
trate received a letter from every official sub¬ 
ordinate, claiming to be put upon the sick list, 
and in the gaol the fever-stricken warders were 
tended by the prisoners whom they were sup¬ 
posed to have in charge. Prompt and liberal 
measures were taken for the relief of tho suf¬ 
ferers. Dispensaries were established under 
native doctors and European supervision, and 
food, clothing, and blankets wero distributed 
to those who were unable to work. Duringthe 
month of April alone, although the fever was 
then subsiding, 114,0411 persons sought relief at 
the district dispensaries, and the Government 
of Bengal, anticipating a fresh outbreak as the 
season advances, has supplied six elephants for 
the use of the medical supervisors, besides a 
large store of quinine. What is hore recorded 
of Burdwan is but a sample of what is going on 
in other districts. The curse of India is fever; 
wherever you look over the broad face of the 
country, there is not a territory unvisited by 
the deadly malady. It is no less at home in 
the populous city than in the thick jungle. We 
have made canals, and their course is immedi¬ 
ately marked by fever, enlarged spleen, and 
various diseases. 
[Our readers will observe that India is not 
particularly different to ourowncountry in re¬ 
gard to fevers, those diseases alwaysappeariiig 
with improvement or the stirring up and dry¬ 
ing of the soil. No fever and ague was km wn 
in the Easterner WesternStatesuntiltheland 
was plowed, swamps drained and roads made. 
The same thing is constantly occurring in 
our older-cities to this day; not a street isgrad- 
ed through a hill of compact clay, loam, or veg¬ 
etable mold, which does not result in producing 
fevers in the neighborhood. Even among the 
hills and rooks at the north end of Manhattan 
Island, where the fever and ague was almost 
unknown, more than fifteen hundred cases oc¬ 
curred the past Summer in consequence of the 
Ivjng, the superintendent 
of the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta. 
According to that gentleman's report, two 
species of tho cinchona are now thoroughly es¬ 
tablished and doing well, the different kinds 
flourishing bust in different localities. At first 
the plants Increase slowly; but as soon as their 
leafy heads are large enough to furnish shade 
they start upwards with great vigor. The rea¬ 
son is interesting, and characteristic of India, 
where t he friend and enemy of nil things is tho 
sun. “The plant has to throw out lino super¬ 
ficial rootlets, which ramify close to the sur¬ 
face of the ground, and for the very life of 
which protection from the sun’s rays is neces¬ 
sary.” 
Our sketch was taken at one of the most suc¬ 
cessful of these plantations, situated at Dar¬ 
jeeling, in British Sikkim, on the sides of tho 
Himalayas. There, in a beautiful valley, thou¬ 
sands of feet above the sea level, the cultivator 
nurtures the healing plant. The vale is so com¬ 
pletely shut in that the air where the cinchona 
grows is rarely stirred even by the gentlest 
breeze; frost is unknown,and hailstormsalono 
injure tho thin, broad leaves of the trees; 
which flourish in long belts of verdure, us care¬ 
fully watched and tended as children. 
The cinchona plantations do not as yet yield 
a profit; but that Government would be foolish. 
Indeed which would grudge the cost of such an 
undertaking. We have often been accused of 
making India subservient to our national ag¬ 
grandisement, and of treating the natives harsh¬ 
ly; but in placing in their hands the means of 
defense against their moat subtle enemy we 
have conferred upon them a boon for which 
they may well he grateful. 
Our readers may possibly bo interested in a 
description of the cinchona, of which there are 
several kinds. The tr*s are sometimes of great 
magnitude; but as an aftergrowth springs from 
their roots when they have boon felled, they 
often appear only as large shrubs. They are 
all evergreens, and the flowers, which in some 
kinds are white, and in others purplish, are 
very fragrant, and resemble thoso of lilac or 
privet. The bark is known by various names 
—Peruvian Bark, Jesuits’ Bark, China, Quina, 
Quinquina, Cinchona Bark, etc. With regard 
to the discovery of its medicinal virtues, tra¬ 
dition affirms that the natives of Peru had for 
ages been in the habit, when sick, of drinking 
the water of a bitter stream, until at last some 
curious person discovered that this water de¬ 
rived its quality from the bark of a certain tree, 
the trunks of which were washed by the cur¬ 
rent. This being known, ty make a decoction 
of tho bark was of course a simple method, 
and in most cases more convenient than going 
to the river to drink. The name Cinchona 
was given to the genus by Linn.eus in compli¬ 
ment to the Countess del Cinchon, the wife of a 
Spanish viceroy of Peru, who iu 103!) brought it 
CINCHONA PLANTATION AT DARJEELING, BENGAL. 
