462 
Effect  of  Altitude  on  Red  Bark.  | 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
Quinine    Qui-     Cincho-   Cinclao-   Quini-  Amor-  Total 
sulphate,   nine,     nidine.      nine.      dine,    phous.  alkaloids. 
A.  Large  quill  grown  ) 
at  Hakgala,  5,500  [  2-75  2*06  3-47 
feet,      .       .  J 
B.  Small  quill  grown  ^ 
at  Peradeniya,  [  0  62  0*47  O'OS 
1,500  feet,     .  J 
0-  61     Trace     0-66  6*80 
1-  67      0-30      1-06  3-55 
A  comparison  of  these  very  different  analyses  suggests  many  observa- 
tions. And  at  first  sight  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  influence  for 
good  of  elevation  in  the  production  of  the  alkaloids  as  a  whole,  nearly 
double  as  much  being  produced  in  the  higher  locality.  Mr.  Howard 
remarks  that  as  far  as  the  appearance  of  the  bark  is  concerned  the  contrary 
was  the  case,  that  from  the  low  elevation  being  the  "more  attractive  to 
those  who  judge  merely  by  the  eye." 
The  large  amount  of  quinine  in  analysis  A  is  also  noteworthy  in  red 
bark  from  a  tree  nearly  twenty  years  old,  as  showing  that  there  is  no 
necessary  diminution  of  that  alkaloid  after  eight  or  nine  years,  as  Mr. 
Broughton  was  led  to  believe. 
It  is,  however,  as  regards  the  proportions  of  the  alkaloids  that  the  com- 
parison will  be  found  most  instructive  In  A  we  have  of  quinine  over  2  per 
cent.,  and  of  cinchonidine  nearly  3^  per  cent.,  whilst  there  is  but  0*61  of 
cinchonine  and  a  mere  trace  of  quinidine  :  in  B  the  change  is  very  remark- 
able: quinine  has  sunk  to  less  than  ^  per  cent.,  and  cinchonidine  to  little 
more  than  a  trace  (0*05  per  cent.),  whilst  on  the  other  hand,  cinchonine  h^s 
increased  to  1*67  per  cent. — that  is,  about  two  and  a  half  times  as  much  as 
in  A— and  there  is  also  an  appreciable  amount  (0-30  per  cent.)  of  quinidine. 
It  has  been  remarked^  that  the  natural  or  physiological  relationship  of  the 
four  principal  alkaloids  of  cinchona  bark  is  not  expressed  by  their  chemical 
constitution  and  terminology.  Quinine  and  quinidine  are,  as  is  well 
known,  isomeric  chemical  bodies,  i.  e.,  both  have  the  same  empiric  formula 
of  composition,  C2oIl24N202,  and  cinchonine  and  cinchonidine  are  similarly 
related,  their  common  formula  being  C2oH2iN20.  But  in  nature  it  would 
appear  that  the  pairs  are  differently  composed,  and  it  is  customary  to  find 
associated  ^in  |the  tissues,  quinine  and  cinchonidine  and  cinchonine  and 
quinidine  and  not  the  isomeric  couples.  It  is  indeed  highly  probable  that, 
under  conditions  of  oxidation  and  deoxidation  at  present  not  understood, 
the  units  in  each  of  these  naturally  associated  pairs  are  mutually  converti- 
ble. The  analyses  before  us  bring  out  this  association  in  a  very  marked 
manner. 
The  relationship  of  the  alkaloids,  to  which  attention  is  here  called,  is  also 
indicated  by  the  action  of  their  solutions  on  a  ray  of  polarized  light.  Quinine 
and  cinchonidine  deflect  this  to  the  left  and  are  Isevo-rotatory,  whilst  cincho- 
nine and  quinidine  have  a  right  hand  or  dextro-rotatory  action. 
As  to  the  causes  which  in  the  case  before  us  have  led  to  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  quinine  and  cinchonidine  in  the  low-grown  bark,  and  their 
partial  substitution  by  cinchonine  and  quinidine  we  have  little  to  guide  us, 
1  Mr.  Howard  especially  called  attention  to  this  so  long  ago  as  1866  (see  "Prpc.  Bot. 
Congress  in  London,"  p.  198). 
