310       MANUFACTURE  OF  QUININE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
as  it  raises  a  question  affecting  the  European  makers  of  this  im- 
portant medicine,  I  hope  you  will  allow  me  space  for  a  few 
observations. 
The  different  medicinal  effects  of  the  alkaloids  obtained  from 
cinchona  barks  (I  refer  especially  to  quinine,  quinidine,  and  ein- 
chonine) deserve  a  more  careful  study  than  has  yet  been  bestowed 
upon  them,  in  this  country  at  least.*  Results  well  worth  the 
trial  might  also  be  obtained  by  their  exhibition  in  combination, 
as  is  so  often  practised  with  other  medicinal  substances.  The 
barks  most  valued  for  medicinal  use  as  such,  vary  greatly  in  their 
active  constituents.  The  species  which  first  came  into  notice 
(cinchona  condaminea)  is  extremely  rich  in  alkaloids,  containing 
large  quantities  of  each  of  the  three  above  mentioned,  besides 
their  uncrystallizable  modifications. 
i;  In  the  mean  time  one  very  important  principle'must  by  no 
means  be  lost  sight  of,  that  a  practitioner  should  always  know 
what  he  is  administering,  and  on  this  ground  the  substitution  of 
even  a  more  efficacious  remedy  under  the  old  name  would  be 
totally  unwarrantable. 
To  turn  then  to  the  question  of  quinine  as  at  present  in  the 
market. 
I  should  observe  that  it  is  only  the  genus  Cinchona,  as  defined 
by  the  accurate  and  indefatigable  Mr.  Weddell,  which  has  been 
proved  to  afford  any  of  the  above-mentioned  alkaloids,  the  genera 
most  nearly  allied,  and  which  at  first  sight  resemble  the  cinchona 
most  closely,  being  apparently  quite  destitute  of  them.  Of  this 
genus  the  species  and  varieties  are  extremely  numerous,  and  ail 
investigation  only  brings  continually  new  ones  into  view. 
The  "Monopoly,"  or  best  Bolivian  Yellow  Bark,  consists  of 
two  at  least,  and  probably  three,  distinct  species,  of  nearly  equal 
commercial  value,  besides  an  occasional  admixture  of  spurious 
sorts.    These  species  are  the  Cinchona  Calisaya  (three  or  four 
*I  beg  to  refer  to  a  very  laborious  and  valuable  "work  published  last  year 
by  M.  Briquet,  "  Traite  Therapeutique  der  Quinqxiinia  et  de  ses  Prepara- 
tiones."  This  author,  however,  was  not  acquainted  with  quinidine.  He 
estimates  einchonine  as  one-third  or  one-fourth  weaker  than  quinine,  a 
result  which  he  says  is  confirmed  by  observers,  who  have  been  obliged  to 
give  sixty  for  eighty  centigrammes  of  einchonine,  to  arrest  fever  which 
would  have  yielded  to  forty  or  fifty  centigrammes  of  sulphate  of  quinine. 
