CULTURE  OF  CINCHONA  IN  JAVA. 
INTRODUCTION  OF  THE  CULTURE  OF  CINCHONA  INTO 
JAVA* 
There  are,  in  various  countries,  certain  raw  products  which 
cannot  be  collected — or,  more  properly,  which  never  are  collected 
— without  the  complete  extirpation  of  the  plants  which  afford 
them.  The  gutta-percha  trees  of  the  Indian  Archipelago  are  a 
lamentable  example  of  this ;  and  another,  even  more  lamentable, 
the  cinchona  forests  of  the  South  American  Andes.  The  annihila- 
tion of  the  latter  goes  on  with  such  giant  strides,  that  the  noble 
cinchona  forests  will,  in  a  few  years,  cease  to  exist.  The  in- 
habitants of  the  Andes  never  think  of  future  plants,  and  the 
duty  recently  laid  by  the  State  of  Ecuador  upon  the  exportation 
of  the  bark  will  not  diminish  the  demand,  and  can,  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances,  put  only  a  partial  check  on  the 
evil.  Even  for  the  propagation  of  the  species  the  needful  seeds 
will  be  scarcely  obtainable — perhaps,  indeed,  no  longer  so ; 
meanwhile,  there  is  no  doubt  the  use  of  quinine  will  continue,  as 
at  present,  on  the  increase.  How  great  would  be  the  difficulty, 
if  the  supply  at  last  ceased  ! — if  the  poor  fever-patient  asked  in 
vain  for  the  remedy  which  now  brings  him  such  speedy  relief — 
if  the  physician  had  to  seek,  perhaps  without  success,  for  some 
new  agent  to  subdue  fever ! 
A  German  savant  has  the  merit  of  having  foreseen  this  un- 
desirable state  of  things,  and  of  having  proposed  a  practical 
method  of  warding  off  the  impending  evil.  Professor  Dr.  Miquel, 
of  Amsterdam,  in  the  year  1846,  threw  out  the  idea  of  introduc- 
ing the  culture  of  the  cinchona  into  the  mountainous  districts  of 
Java,  and,  for  the  promotion  of  this  object,  presented  to  the 
Ministry  of  the  Dutch  Colonies  a  memorial,  in  which  he  demon- 
strated the  possibility  of  such  introduction,  which  later  experi- 
ments on  the  island  have  completely  confirmed.  The  ministry 
willingly  took  up  the  memorial,  and  consented  unconditionally, 
according  to  the  proposition,  to  send  a  qualified,  careful  person 
to  Peru,  in  order  to  import  thence  into  Java,  by  way  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  a  whole  ship-load  of  plants  and  seeds.  M.  Hass- 
karl  was  charged  with  the  expedition  ;  and,  before  one  year  had 
elapsed,  arrived  safely  with  his  cargo  in  Java,  where  he  found 
*  Bonplandia,  Dec.  15th,  1856; 
