American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-02-01
CinchOna.

tits doubtful whether the aboriginal in
habitants of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador,
were acquainted with the virtues of the
cinchOna plant as a febrifuge. 1t seems
probable, nevertheless, that the Indians of
Loxa, two hundred and thirty miles south
Of Peru. were aware of the qualities of
the bark, for there its use was first male
known to Europeans. 1t was forty years
after the pacificatiOn of Peru. however,
hef re any communication of the remedial
secret was made to the Spaniards. Joseph
de Jussieu reports that in 1000 a Jesuit,
who had fever at Malacotas, was cured
by Peruvian bark. In 1898 the countess
Ana of Chinchon was suffering. from ter
tan fever and ague at Lima, whittier she
had accompanied the viceroy, her hus-
band. The corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan
Lopez de CaniZaZes, sent a parcel of pow
dered quinquina bark to her physician,
Juan de Vega, assuring him that it was a
sovereign and infallible remedy for s'ter-
tiana." 1t was administered to the count
ess, VINO was sixty-two years of age, and
effected a complete cure. This countess,
returning with her husband to Spain in
1640. brought with her a quantity of the
healing bark. Hence it was sometimes
called ''coun'ess' bark" and countess
powder" Her famous cure induces. Lin
n9us, long after, to name the whole se-
nus of quinine-bearing trees, in her hon.
first has usually been dropped, and the
word is now almost invariably spelled in
that way, instead of the more etymologi-
cal Chinchona." The Jesuits after
ward made great and effective use
of it in their missionary expeditions,
and it was ludicrous result of their
patronage that its use should have
tants and favored by Catholics. In 1879,
Louis XIV. bought the secret of prepar-
ing quinquina from Sir Robert Talboy, an
English Doctor, for two thousand
louisd'or large pension and title.
Under the Grand Monarch it was used at
dessert, mingled with Spanish wine. The
delay of its discovery until the seven
world numbers of valuable lives. Had
Alexander the Great, who died of the
COMMON remittent fever of Babylon, been
acquainted with cinchona bark, his death
would have been averted and the partition
of the Macedonian empire indefinitely
postponed. Oliver Cromwell was carried
off by an ague, which the administration
of quinine would easily have cured. The
Dlgotry of medical science, even after its
efficacy was known and proved, for long
time retarded its dissemination. In 1926,
La Fontaine, at the instance of the lady
who owed her life to it, the countess of
Bullion, composed poem in two cantos
to celebrate its virtues; but the remarka-
BILE beauty of the leaves of the cinchona
and the delicious fragrance of its flowers
with illusions with which he might have
adorned his verses, were still unknown in
Europe.
The cinchonas under favorable circum-
stances become large trees: at present,
however, in any of the explored and ex-
plotted regions of their growth, the shoots
or suckers of the plants are all that re-
main. Wherever they abound they form
the handsomest foliage of the forest. The
leaves are lanceolate, glossy and wildly
green, traversed by rich crimson veins
the flowers hang in clus ering pellicles,
like lilacs, OF deep rose-coIor, and fill the
vicinity with rich perfllme.-Janua,y LIP
1iucott