C I N C 
has been apprehended. Condamine however afierts, that 
the young trees do not die by lofing their bark, but fend 
out frelh (hoots from the bifej and, as the trees which 
hand to any coniiderable age, probably increafe by feed, 
the fear that this valuable bark may be exhaufted feems 
to be groundlefs. 
We have no fatisfaflory account at what time, or by 
what means, the medicinal efficacy of the Peruvian bark 
was firff: difcovered. Some of the tales which are com¬ 
monly related, have too fabulous an air to juftify the 
recital of them here. Geoffrey relates, that the uie of the 
bark was firff: learned from the following circumftance : 
Some cinchona-trees, being thrown by the winds into a 
pool of water, lay there till the water became fo bitter 
that every body refuled to drink it, till one of the neigh¬ 
bouring inhabitants being feized with a violent paroxyfm 
of fever, and finding no other water to quench his thirft, 
was forced to drink of this, by which means he became 
perfedlly cured ; and afterwards relating his cafe to others, 
they made ufe'of the fame remedy. The ufe of this ex¬ 
cellent medicine was very little known till about the year 
£638, when a fignal cure having been performed by it 
on the Spanilh viceroy’s lady, the countefs del Cinchon, 
at Lima, it came into general ufe; and hence was diftin- 
guifned by the appellation of puluis comitijfce , cortex china 
china or chinchina, kina kina or kinkina, quina qnina or 
quinquina. The countefs, on her recovery, is faid to have * 
diftributed a large quantity of the bark among the jefuits, 
in whofe hands it acquired ftill greater reputation, and 
by them it was. firff; introduced into Europe, and thence 
called jefuits' bark, cortex f. pulvis jefuiticus, pulvis patrum , 
and alfo cardinal de Lugo's ponvder ; that charitable pre¬ 
late having bought a large quantity of it at a great ex¬ 
pence for the ufe of the poor at Rome. 
This bark is brought to us in pieces of different fizes, 
fome rolled up into ffiort quills, and others flat, Thofe 
who affeft to be nice in the choice of their drugs, prefer 
fuch pieces as are rolled up about the fize of a common 
quill. The outfide is brownifh, and fometimes whitifh ; 
the infide of a fine ferruginous brown. To the tafte it is 
aftringent and bitter, and it has an advantage over other 
bitters in being aromatic. To enumerate its virtues would 
require the extent of a volume. Morton, the contem¬ 
porary of Sydenham, was one of the firlt who made con¬ 
siderable ufe of the bark. From us it was carried into 
France, where the dauphin was cured by it. Boerhaave 
restrains the ufe of the bark, with almoit innumerable 
cautions, while Hoffman and others are as bouhdlefs in 
its praife; and indeed all the prejudices in its disfavour 
are entirely done away, and its character has long been 
univerfally eftablifhed. This bark gives out its virtues 
both to cold and boiling water; but the deco&ion is 
thicker, and gives out its take more readily. Its princi¬ 
pal ufe however is in fubftance, and it may be employed 
in very coniiderable doles with the molt perfect fecurity. 
Sometimes it is neceffary to join opiates with it, in order 
to prevent its palling off" too fuddenly by adding as a pur¬ 
gative. A very elegant tindture of the bark is kept in 
the (hops under the title of Huxham's tinhlure: in which 
preparation the bark is rendered ltill more efficacious by 
the addition of orange-peel and fnake-root. 
It is not only in fevers of every kind that the bark is 
fo highly fn.ccefsful a remedy, but alfo in numerous other 
cafes, and particularly in mortifications. It has alfo been 
much ufed of late in cafes of acute rheumatifm, efpeci- 
ally after the violence of the difeafe has in fome degree 
been moderated by the antiphlogiftic treatment, or when 
an evident remillion lias taken place. In the fluor albas, 
profluvia, and haemorrhages of every kind, the decoftion 
of the bark is of excellent ufe ; and the tindhire taken in 
water of various parts, as chalybeate, &c. is extremely 
ufeful in cafes of decayed appetite. In flrort, if any 
medicine del'erved the title of a panacea, the bark would 
have the fairelt claim. Cales however fometimes occur 
VoL. IV. No. 223. 
H O N A. 601 
in which its liberal exhibition is found hurtful; v'z, 
where fymptoms of congeftion, or topical inflammation, 
of.the head appear, which are (hewn by the rednefs of the 
eyes, phrenitic delirium, See. It has alfo been fometimes 
acculed of caufing a degree of difficulty of breathing. 
The other fpecies of cinchona approach in fome degree 
to the virtues of the Peruvian or common officinal bark, 
but feem lei's efficacious, and their power iefs perfe&ly 
afeertained in practice. The red hark indeed has been 
often confidered as of ltill higher efficacy than the com¬ 
mon, and has been thought to be the bark which, ac¬ 
cording to Arrot, the Spaniards called cafcarilla colorada, 
and was probably the kind brought originally to Europe, 
and which proved fo fuccefsful in the hands of Sydenham, 
Morton, and Lifter; it appearing from the teftimony of 
the oldeft prariitioners, that the bark firlt employed was 
of a much higher colour than the common bark. 
A new variety of the cinchona, called yellow bark, was 
difcovered, and deferibed as being fuperior in efficacy to 
the reft, by Dr.Relph, phyfician to Guy’s hofpital, who 
publilhed his account of it in 1794. We call' it new, 
becaufe the doitor difeovers no traces of the kind in 
queftion, except in the account given by Murray, in his 
Apparatus Medicani. of what he terms cortex Chinee regius , 
feu flaajus. This appears to be, in fa6t, the fame with 
the yellow bark lately introduced into this country, and 
which Dr.Relph thus defcribes :—“ This bark, though 
denominated yellow, is only to be underftood as approach¬ 
ing nearer to that colour, than any other fpecies of Peru¬ 
vian bark imported into this country, efpecially when re¬ 
duced to powder. It confifts of flattilh irregular pieces, 
of a cinnamon colour, inclining to red, and having in 
certain diredlions of the light, a peculiar fparklirig ap¬ 
pearance on the furface. They are very generally diverted 
of the cuticle, of a fibrous texture, dry, and rigid to the 
feel, and ealily rubbed into powder between the fingers 
and thumb ; neither remarkably weighty, nor the con¬ 
trary. They have little odour, but to the tafte manifeft 
intenle bitternefs, with a moderate (hare of aftringency, 
together with a certain flavour correfponding unequivo¬ 
cally to thole of the cinchona officinalis. The external 
furface of this bark, is of a fomewhat deeper colour than 
that of the internal, and in fome fpecimens it is as deep 
as that of the red bark. The pieces vary much in lize; 
fome of them are about two inches and a half in length, 
an inch in breadth, aiid the fixth of an inch in thicknefs; 
while others are ltill fmaller, and fome are to be found 
from twelve to eighteen inches in length, with the breadth 
and thicknefs in proportion. I have alio feen whole cherts 
of this bark, the pieces of which were nearly cylindrical, 
and as completely covered with outer coat, as the moli 
perfeft fpecimens of common bark. The epidermis of 
the large pieces of the yellow bark, is of a reddifh brown 
colour, rough, and of a fomewhat fpongy texture ; but 
that of the lmaller fpecies is of a grey colour, harder, and 
much more compact.” We have no certain information 
in what part of Spanilh America the fpecies of cinchona, 
producing this bark, grows; but there is reafon to ima¬ 
gine that it is in the interior regions, at a great diftance 
from Lima; and therefore its price mull always be greater 
than that of the common forts. With relpeft to the 
modes of exhibiting it, and to the cales in which it is 
proper, it feems enough to lay, that, wherever and in 
whatever manner the red or common bark is given, the 
yellow bark may be lubftituted with a chance of greater 
efficacy. It remains, if poffible, to fecure a regular fup- 
ply of this drug, in its genuine and perfect ftate, that it 
may not, by adulterations and l'ophiftications, lol'e that 
charafterto which it feems jultly entitled ; which appears, 
in a great nveafure, to have been the cafe with the fo 
much extolled red bark. 
2. Cinchona pubel’cens, or pubefeent cinchona : leaves 
ovate, elongated at the bale, pubefeent underneath, cap- 
fules cylindrical. The branches of this are pubefeent to- 
7 O wards 
