2o6 
Cincho-^inine. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\       May,  1875. 
article,  and  more  particularly  with  the  evident  variation  of  its  compo- 
sition. The  considerable  amount  of  sulphuric  acid,  4*8  per  cent.,  de- 
termined in  one  sample,  makes  it  evident  that  the  article  is  made  by 
mixing  the  sulphates  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids  in  a  certain  proportion, 
decomposing  them  with  ammonia  and  either  expressing  or  washing  the 
precipitate  with  water  to  remove  the  mother  liquor.  The  most  valu- 
able cinchona  alkaloids  being  somewhat  soluble  in  water,  and  much 
more  freely  in  ammonia,  it  is  very  evident  that,  with  slight  variations  in 
the  strength  of  the  ammonia  or  in  the  temperature  of  the  water,  the 
amount  of  these  alkaloids  left  in  the  precipitate  must  vary.  And  since 
the  washing  is  evidently  cautiously  performed  (cincho-quinine  still  con- 
tains a  little  ammonium  sulphate),  it  seems  even  probable  that  different 
portions  of  the  same  lot  may  vary  in  composition,  the  outer  layers  where 
the  water  evaporates  necessarily  containing  a  somewhat  larger  amount 
of  quinia  and  quinidia. 
Regarding  the  remedial  value  of  cincho-quinine,  we  do  not  know 
that  that  has  been  questioned  ;  but  the  possibility  of  its  being  equal  to 
quinia  in  therapeutical  eff'ects  has  been  denied,  and,  from  its  compo- 
sition, it  is  evident  that  its  apparent  cheapness,  as  compared  with  the 
price  of  quinia  only,  becomes  the  reverse  as  compared  with  the  price 
of  cinchonia.  The  medical  commission  appointed  by  the  Madras  Gov- 
ernment, in  1866,  to  test  the  relative  value  of  the  cinchona  alkaloids, 
treated  2,472  cases  of  paroxysmal  malarious  fevers,  and  reported  the 
number  of  failures  for  every  1000  cases  treated  with  quinidia  to  be  6  ; 
with  quinia,  7  ;  with  cinchonidia,  10,  and  with  cinchonia,  23.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  they  reported  the  remedial  value  in  doses  of  the 
same  weight  to  be  as  follows  :  3  doses  of  quinia  to  be  equal  in  effect 
to  5  doses  of  quinidia,  to  7  doses  of  cinchonidia  and  to  7  doses  of  cin- 
chonia. We  have  not  been  able  to  find  the  record  of  any  experiments 
made  with  the  mixed  alkaloids,  and  while  it  is  possible,  it  may  be  re- 
garded as  improbable,  that  the  combination  of  cinchonia  with  the  more 
valuable  alkaloids  should  increase  its  efficacy  to  a  greater  extent  than 
must  be  ascribed  to  the  latter. 
From  these  considerations,  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  cin- 
cho-quinine is  an  arbitrary  mixture  of  the  four  cinchona  alkaloids,  and 
that  its  therapeutical  value  is  fully  represented  by  mixing  an  equivalent 
weight  of  sulphate  of  cinchonia  with  about  2  per  cent,  each  of  the 
sulphates  of  quinia,  quinidia  and  cinchonidia.  If,  now,  through  this 
controversy,  the  attention  of  the  medical  profession  shall  have  been 
