Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
May,  1875.  J 
Cinchona  or  Chine hona. 
217 
ferent,  that  of  senna  being  of  a  rich  brown,  and  the  other  scarcely 
darker  than  almond  oil.  Both  were  neutral  to  test  paper,  and  with 
acetate  of  lead,  tincture  of  galls,  and  solution  of  perchloride  of  iron 
gave  similar  precipitates,  those  from  the  Cassia  brevipes  being  rather 
paler  and  more  scanty  than  those  from  the  Tinnevelly  senna.  The 
taste  and  odor  of  both  were  similar. 
Having  tried  a  quantity  of  infusion  equal  to  \  of  an  ounce  of  the 
leaflets,  I  found  it  to  be  without  any  effect  whatever,  while  a  'similar 
quantity  of  infusion  of  Tinnevelly  senna  acted  as  a  decided  purgative. 
This  experiment,  however,  only  proved  that  Cassia  brevipes^  D.  C, 
is  not  purgative  in  \  of  an  ounce  doses.  I  therefore  tried  the  effect  of 
a  quantity  of  its  infusion  equal  to  ^  an  ounce  of  the  leaves,  but  with 
the  same  result  as  before.  Hence  I  conclude  that  this  new  variety  of 
senna  is  useless  as  a  purgative,  and  can  by  no  means  replace  or  enter 
into  competition  with  the  official  senna,  even  if  it  should  be  offered  at 
a  much  lower  price  ;  and  that  should  it,  hereafter,  occur  mixed  with 
ordinary  senna,  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  an  adulteration. — Pharm, 
Jour,  and  Trans, ^  Feb.  6,  1875. 
CINCHONA,  OR  CHINCHONA?- 
In  his  recently  published  "  Memoir  of  the  Lady  Ana  de  Osorio, 
Countess  of  Chinchon,"  Mr.  Clements  R.  Markham  has  revived  the 
discussion  of  a  question  which,  so  far  as  preponderance  of  practice  can 
determine  anything,  might  now  be  supposed  to  have  been  satisfactorily 
settled.  It  is  whether  the  orthography  "  Chinchona  "  or  "  Cinchona 
should  obtain  for  this  now  famous  genus.  Reservmg  for  a  future  op- 
portunity a  criticism  of  Mr.  Markham's  book,  we  briefly  indicate  here 
his  views  upon  this  subject. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Linnaeus,  in  naming  the  genus,  sought 
to  connect  with  it  the  name  of  this  lady,  who  is  reputed  to  have  first 
made  the  healing  virtues  of  the  bark  known  to  Europe.  Whether  he 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  lady's  name  is  not  so  clear.  Mr.  Mark- 
ham  thinks  he  was  not,  but  that  he  received  his  knowledge  of  the 
Countess  of  Chinchon  through  a  French  source,  and  was  thus  misled 
into  calling  the  genus  Cinchona  in  the  "  Genera  Plantarum  "  of  1742. 
He  further  thinks  that  Linnaeus  showed  his  uncertainty  by  the  orthog- 
*  From  the  "Pharmaceutical  Journal,"  February  13th,  1 875,  communicated  by 
Daniel  Hanbury. 
