Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/849

* CINCHONA. 747 the species by which the ditl'erent varieties of tincluina bark known in commerce are produceJ. The coinniun commercial names are derived part- ly from the color of the barks, and paiHly from the districts in which they are prodnccd, or the ports where they are shipped. It appears that calisaya bark, also called Toyal' or ■yellow' bark, one of the very best kinds — mostly shipped from Arica, Chile — is chielly the produce of t'inchona calisaya, a larirc tree frrowinfr in hot mountain valleys of Bolivia and the south of Peru. Other kinds met with in the trade are crown, loxa, or pale bark, derived from Cinchona otlicinalis and its varieties; red bark, from Cinchona suc- eirubra; Colombia bark, from Cinchona cordi- folia : and pale bark from Cinchona nitida anil Cinchona micrantha. Yellow bark is also pro- duced by the variety ledgeriana of Cinchona calisaya. The varieties of this and Cinchona sueeirubra are the ones most met with in culti- vation. In South America the cutting and peeling of cinchona-trees is carried on by Indians, who go in parties, and pursue their occupation during the whole of the dry season. The trees were formerly felled as near the root as possible, that none of the bark might be lost. The bark, being stripped off, is carefully dried : the quilled form of the thinner bark is acquired in drying. The bark is made up into packages of various sizes, but averaging about 1.50 pounds weight, closely wrapped in woolen cloth, and afterwards in hides, to be conveyed on mules' backs to the towns. These packages are called 'drums' or 'seroons,' and are exported in this form. At present less wasteful methods are employed, and the bark is removed so as not to destroy the trees. Strips of bark are sometimes removed and the wounds covered with moss, thus increas- ing the total yield. A nimiber of spurious kinds of Peruvian or cinchona bark are either sent into the market separately, or are employed for adulterating the genuine kinds. They are bitter barks, and have, in greater or less degree, febrifusal properties, but are chemically and medicinally very differ- ent from true cinchona bark. They are produced by trees of genera very closely allied to Cinchona. W hile cinchona-trees have been becoming every year more scarce in their native regions, little attempt has been made to cultivate them there, notwithstanding the constantly increasing de- mand for the bark : the Dutch have recently made extensive plantations of them in .Tava, and the same ha.s been done in British India, from seeds and plants obtaineil from South America by Mr. Clements Markham. Cinchona is also cultivated extensively in .Jamaica. .Japan. Ceylon, etc. For the cultivation of cinchona a good soil and open subsoil are necessary. It seems to thrive best at a considerable elevation above the sea, where the temjieraturr' ranges from CyH" to G.5° F. It will endure slight frost or a temperature of 100° where shaded. In a wild state, the bark often contains 5 per cent, or less of total alkaloids: but in cultivation, where only part of the bark is removed and the denuded area covered and kept moist, as much as 2.5 per cent, of alkaloids has been obtained, nearly half of which was genuine. The Indians of Peru call the cinchona-trees 'kina.' whence are derived the names 'china,' 'quina,' etc. It is not certain that they knew Vol. IV —48. CINCHONA. (he use of the bark before the arrival of the Spaniards. It is a medicine of great value in the cure of intermittent fevers (q.v.l, etc., and diseases atten<Ied with much febrile debility : also in certain forms of neuralgia (ii-v.), and other diseases of the nervous system. It seems to have been first imported into Europe in IG39 by the Countess del Cinchon or Chinchon, the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, who had l)een cured of an obstinate intermittent fever by means of it. The .Jesuit missionaries afterwards car- ried it to Rome, and distributed it through their several stations, and thus it acquired the name of 'Jesuits' bark.' Cardinal Juan de Lugo hav- ing been particularly active in recommending and distributing it, it was also known as 'Car- dinal de Lugo's powder.' It attained great celebrity in Spain and Italy, being sold at high prices by the .Jesuits, by whom it was lauded as an infallible remedy. Its mode of action not being well understood, and the cases to whicn it was applicable not well defined, it seems, in the first instance, to have been employed with- out due discrimination, and to have fallen very much into the hands of empirics. Falling into disuse in Europe, it was again brought into notice by Sir Robert Talbor, or Talbot, an Kng- lishman, who brought it to England in 1071, and acquired great celebrity through the (Hire of in- termittent fevers by means of it, and from whom Louis XIV. purchased his secret in 1082. A ])ouud of bark at that time cost 100 louis d"or. Talbor seems to have had the acuteness to dis- cern and systematically to avail himself of the healing virtues of the neglected Jesuits' bark, which he mixed with other substances, so as to conceal its taste and odor. Soon afterwards, both llorton and Sydenham, the most celebrated English physicians of their time, adopted the new remedy; and its use, from this period, gradually extended, both in England and France. As it came into general use, it became a most important article of export from Peru ; but for a long time the value of the bark to be procured in Xew Granada remained unknown, and in order to maintain a commercial monopoly, extraor- dinary methods were employed to prevent it from becoming known at a comparatively recent I)eriod of Spanish rule in America. The discov- ery of the alkaloids on which Its properties chiefly depend was made early in the nineteenth century. The chief active principles are the alkaloids, quinine, cinchonine Iqq.v.), iiuinidine, cinchoni- dlne. and (|uiiiamine. The relative proportion of the different alkaloids varies widely with the kind of bark and its age when taken from the tree. Some species produce a large amount of quinine and little of other alkaloids, and vice versa. Cinchona bark itself has in later times fallen into comparative disuse, owing to the discovery of the alkaloid quinine, which is now extensively in use in medicine in the form of sulphate or disulphate of quinine, and is given in doses of from 1 to 20 grains in almost all the cases to which the bark was supposed to be ap- plicable. For notes on the production, cultiva- tion, etc.. of cinchona, consult: Mueller. Extra- Tropiral Plantu (Melbourne. 1895) ; Markham, Peruvian Bark (London, 1880) ; King, ifaiiual of Cinchona Cultivation in India (Calcutta, 18761 ; Lambert, Description of the Oenus Ci»t-