The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-04-04

| up. The Judge asked
!" Guilty, or not guilty?" l7A
Lansing, in behalf of the prisoner,
broke the silence with the words 4,
Not guilty" and added, "I would
| accuse Albert Firstone of the crime
| charged upon my clientp'
/ sat next to the criminal when the
announcement was made, and as the
eyes of the court were turned upon
Y him, his self-possession left him. And
when Lansing asked that he should be
taken into custody, the poor fellow fell
over in fit, and was taken out by a
policeman.
Cinchona Plantations at Darjeeling.
1t has often been asserted that there
is evider ce of benevolent design in the
distribution of natural productions; and
that the maladies Incidental to any
given region are most effectively
deal with by the use of those remedies
whlch the country itself affords. We
are by no means inclined to dispute this
as general rule, but the trees of the
CinchOna family furnish a notable ex-
ceptiOn. They are Indigenous only in
certain parts of South America, while
the malariOus fevers which their aka
lOids alone can conquer are not by any
means confined to those districts, or even
to that continent. In India, where there
are vast tracts of country subject to
frequent inundations, and in a state of
Civilizations which as yet has scarcely
changed them from their natural con-
dition of jungle, but which has brought
to them population which the mere
1cfo {hn
forms of fever Incidental to defective
land-drainage are still met with in great
severity. Some idea of their fearful
ravages may be gathered from an official
report of the recent sufferings of the in
habitants of Burdwan, about one hun
dred miles northwest of Calcutta.
Whole villages were depopulated, and
in the town itself almost every human
being was more or less affected by fever.
Prompt and liberal measures were taken
for the relief of the sufferers. Dispen-
saries were established under native
doctors and European supervision, and
food, clothing, and blankets, were dis
tributed to those who were unable to
work. What is here recorded of Burd-
wan is but sample of what is going on
in other districts. The curse of India
broad face of the country, there is nLt
territory unyisited by the deadly malady.
It is no less at home in that populous
city than in thick Jungle. Small wonder,
then, that the British Government should
seek to introduce the cultivation of the
cinchona-tree, and thus to secure for the
inhabitants the inestimable blessing of
a cheap and abundant supply of the
g..
was originated a few years ago, but
great difficulty was at first experienced
in obtaining seeds or young plants, the
South Americans being unwilling to
part with their monopoly of the drug.
By perseverance, however, the materials
for plantation were at length procur-
ed and, after some meexperiments to ascer-
tain the requirements of the tree and
conditions most likely to develop its
medicinal properties, number of plan
tations were established in different
parts of India, under the direction of
DR.. King, the superintendent of the |
Bontanical Gardens at Calcutta. Our |
sketches were taken at one of the most |
successful of these plantations, situated |
at Darjeeling, in British Sikkim, on the |
sides of the Himalayas. There, in a |
beautiful valley, thousands of feet above |
the sea-level, the cultivator nurtures |
the healing plant. The vale is so COM
pletely shut in that the air where the |
cinchona grows is rarely stirred even by |
the gentlest breeze; frost is unkno Wn,
and hail-storms alone iniure the thin, |
broad leaves of the trees, which flourish |
in long belts of verdure, as carefully |
and tended as children. Our |
readers may possibly be interested in a |
description of the cinchona, of which |
there are several kinds. The trees are
sometimes of great magnitude; but, as
an afte-growth springs from their roots |
when they are felled, they often appear
only as large shrubs. They are all ever
green's, and the flowers, which in some
kinds are white, and in others purplish,
are very fragrant, and resemble those of
lilac or privet. The bark is known by
various times-Peruvian Bark, Jesuits'
Bark, China. Quinas Quinquina, Chin
chona Bark, etc. With regard to the |
discovery of its medicinal virtues, tradi
ton affrms that the natives of Peru had
for ages been in the habit, when sick, of
the water of a bitter stream,
until at last some curious person dis
covered that this water derived its quail
ty from the bark of certain tree, the
trunks of which were washed by the
current This being known, to make
lecoctiOn of the bark was, of course, a
simple method, and in most cases more
than going to the river to
drink The name CinchOna was given
to the genus by Linn@us, in compli-
ment to the Countess del Cinchon, the
wife of Spanish viceroy of Peru, who,
in 1889, first brought it to Europe. The
Jesuit missionaries afterward carried it
10 Rome, and thus it acquired the name
Of Jesuits' Bark. 1t attained great cele-
Ority in Spain and Italy, but, euriously
enough, the Protestants would have
nothing to do with it. Falling, how
,ver, into disuse in Europe, it was again
brought into notice by Sir Robert Tai
Dor, or Talbot, who brought it to this
country in 1852, and soon became famous
or the cures he effected by its means.
The new remedy was adopted by both
Norton and Sydenham, the most cele-
)rated physicians of the age, and its use
oon after became general, in spite of
he opposition of the medical faculty in
france. The discovery of the alkalOids,
N which its properties mainly depend,
vas a new era in the history of this
Medicine, and did not take place until
he beginning of the present century.
The chief principle is quinine, the guam
ity varying in different specimens from
hree to four per cent. Quinine is very
in water, and is therefore
enerally used in the form of sulphate
r disulphate. which dissolves in alcohol
nd water, and is prescribed readily in
lmost all the cases to which the bark
,as supposed to be applicable, the use
the bark itself being almost entirely
- london Gr0Dhic.
How Glover Improves the Soil.
Prof. Voelcker thus explains the ac-
on of clover in increasing the fertility
soils: All who are practically ac-
TAINTED with the subject must have
cen that the best crops of wheat are
reduced by being preceded by crops of
lover grown for seed. have came to
ne conclusion that the very best pre-
aration, the very best manure, is a
ood crop of clover. A vast amount of