290 
PHARMACY  OF  THE  CINCHONAS. 
other  acids,  is  to  facilitate  its  easy  and  definite  administration 
in  large  doses  without  embarrassing  the  stomach  with  the  greater 
volume  of  the  bark  or  its  preparations,  and  as  these  large  and 
accurately  adjusted  doses  are  only  required  as  antiperiodics, — or 
at  least  only  outside  of  and  beyond  the  sphere  of  tonics  proper, 
— the  ordinary  salts  of  quinia  should  be  reserved  for  such 
uses,  and  be  replaced  to  a  large  extent  by  preparations  of  the 
bark.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  of  eminent  pathologists  and 
eminent  diagnosticians,  but  far  less  common  to  hear  of  eminent 
therapeutists,  yet  the  latter  class  can  alone  be  successful  practi- 
tioners of  medicine,  whilst  of  these  some  of  the  most  successful, 
both  of  the  past  and  present,  are  found  using  their  natural  reme- 
dies in  their  simplest  form,  and  reasonably,  if  not  wisely  doubt- 
ing whether  convenience  of  administration  be  not  often  attained 
at  the  cost  of  medicinal  efficacy  and  certainty.  Without  being 
justly  charged  with  going  back  in  pharmacy, — and  even  while 
urging  its  more  rapid  progress, — it  may  be  doubted  whether  any 
more  effective  or  more  certain  preparations  of  the  Cinchonas  than 
the  simple  infusions  of  the  Pharmacopoeia  can  ever  be  used,  pro- 
vided the  quality  of  the  bark  can  be  assured.  These  are  by  no 
means  inelegant  preparations,  may  be  easily  aromatized  at  plea 
sure,  and  can  only  be  discredited  by  a  squeamishness  on  the  part 
of  patients  which  is  too  much  encouraged  by  the  money-making 
devices  of  the  pharmacist. 
There  is  another  important  reason  why  physicians  are  not  jus- 
tified in  the  use  of  quinia  salts  as  ordinary  tonics.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  Cinchona  forests  which  yield  the  best  varieties 
are  becoming  rapidly  exhausted  through  the  large  demands  upon 
them,  and  the  wasteful  methods  of  collecting  the  barks,  and  year 
after  year  the  richer  and  more  valuable  Cinchonas  are  becoming 
dearer  and  more  difficult  to  obtain.  This  has  made  it  necessary 
for  quinia  manufacturers  to  give  up  the  use,  in  a  great  measure, 
of  these  more  valuable  species,  and  substitute  the  cheaper  kinds, 
which  yield  a  smaller  proportion  of  the  alkaloid.  Now,  although 
quinia  is  the  chief  if  not  the  only  antiperiodic  ingredient  in  the 
Cinchonas,  it  has  never  been  reasonably  doubted  that  the  other 
alkaloids,  the  acids,  and  the  astringents  of  the  barks  are  impor- 
tant and  valuable  tonics,  if  not  equal  to  quinia  in  this  respect. 
