ROOT  BARK  OF  CINCHONA  CALISAYA. 
127 
NOTE  ON  THE  ROOT  BARK  OF  CINCHONA  CALISAYA. 
By  John  Eliot  Howard,  F.  L.  S. 
In  almost  every  recent  importation  of  the  finest  Calisaya 
bark  from  Bolivia,  I  have  noticed  an  unprecedented  amount  of 
admixture  of  the  root  bark,  which  is  easily  distinguished  by  its 
peculiar  characteristics,  shown  by  the  specimen  I  have  sent  to 
the  Society.    The  curly  shape  in  which  it  is  found  would 
strike  the  eye  of  every  observer.    It  is  imported  in  serons, 
along  with  the  best  quality,  but  often  distinguished  from  these 
by  an  X  branded  on  the  hide.     It  will  probably  find  its  way 
into  consumption  for  the  manufacture  of  decoctions  and  tinc- 
tures, as  it  is  not  likely  to  be  taken,  except  at  an  extremely 
low  price  by  the  manufacturers  of  sulphate  of  quinine.    I  have 
selected  a  very  favorable  specimen  for  examination,  which 
yielded  me  in  hydrated  alkaloids  of  the  first  rough  precipita- 
tion, 10  parts  in  1,000,  but  from  this  very  low  percentage  a 
still  further  deduction  must  be  made,  as  the  purified  alkaloids 
gave  only  8-14  parts  in  1,000.     Of  this  not  more  than  3-06 
parts  were  obtained  as  a  crystalline  salt  of  quinine,  and  the 
remainder  consisted  almost  entirely  of  the  quinidine  of  Pasteur 
(crystallizing  as  a  hydriodate).     The  substitution  which  thus 
appears  to  have  taken  place  in  the  descent  of  the  sap  to  the 
roots  of  quinidine  for  quinine  demands  further  investigation, 
and  if  confirmed  by  other  observations  is  not  a  little  curious. 
According  to  Gerhardt  the  atomic  constitution  of  quinine  is 
O40H24N2O4  -f  n  aq.,  and  of  quinidine  (of  Pasteur),  O40H24N2 
04-f4  aq.    One  would  be  ready  to  belive  in  the  conversion  of 
<7ne  alkaloid  into  another  in  this  case,  were  it  not  that  the 
remarkably  different  and  contrasted  mode  in  which  they  re- 
spectively act  on  the  ray  of  polarized  light  seems  to  indicate 
some  more  remarkable  difference  in  the  real  structure  than  is 
manifested  by  ultimate  analysis.    It  is  certainly  in  the  leaves 
that  the  first  formation  of  the  alkaloids  takes  place  in  the 
plant,  and  as  some  of  the  other  constituents  accompany  the 
alkaloids  unchanged  (for  example,  kinate  of  lime  and  kinovic 
acid)  through  the  whole  course  of  the  downward  descent  of  the 
sap,  it  becomes  an  interesting  inquiry  whence  so  great  a  change 
as  the  substitution  of  one  alkaloid  for  another  could  arise.  The 
mother  substance  which  is  found  in  the  heartwood  of  Cinchona 
succirubra,  (as  I  have  described  under  that  head)  is  split  into 
