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ceeded. But that he, considering that he was nearly in the 
same parallel of latitude in which that valuable tree is found, 
and seeing that the sulphate of quinine, which was then sell- 
ing at 18s, per drachm, was frequently adulterated, and esti- 
mating, too, the importance of that medicine, without which 
our fleets and armies could not exist within the tropics, he 
turned his whole attention towards the discovery of the cin- 
chonas in the wide spreading forests that surrounded him. 
"After many fruitless trials, I discovered in the bark of a 
magnificent variety of the laurel, abounding in the interior 
forests in this country, and called by the native Indians Be- 
beeru, all the sensible qualities of the cinchonas. I therefore 
subjected it to analysis, and found that it also possessed the 
chemical properties of the officinal bark, with only some 
slight shades of difference, and particularly in its habits with 
the acids. A concentrated solution of what I would beg leave 
to call the Sulphate of Bebeerine, was prepared and first exhi- 
bited in intermittent fever, and it was found to possess the 
medical qualities of quinine in a very eminent degree. It 
seemed, however, to be more directly febrifuge, and to act 
rather as what is understood by a specific, than by exciting a 
counter morbid action in the system, which it is well known 
the exhibition of quinine in tropical fevers very frequently 
produces. The trials that have hitherto been made of the sul- 
phate of bebeerine have been very limited, but they have been 
very successful. I tried it in many cases of intermittent and 
remittent fever, and found it equally efficacious with sulphate 
of quinine; nay it frequently cured the fever when quinine 
failed. I have communications from many eminent practi- 
tioners in the West Indies, and they all assure me that they 
have found the sulphate of bebeerine as valuable a remedy, if 
not more so, as the sulphate of quinine; and that it had never 
produced any irritation of the stomach, nor that alarming 
symptom of deafness and determination to the head which so 
frequently follows the exhibition of quinine in large doses." 
I was further informed that from the want of a suitable 
apparatus, Mr. Rodie had only been able to prepare a very 
