The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-10-03
HOW Qunn1nE Is s E
Made the Basis for More Than Three.
fourths Of the Prescriptions Put Up BY

Made the Basis for More Than Three
tourths Of the Prescription Put Up by
Druggists.
New York Mail and Express.
IF all drugs of the pharmacopeia, ex-
cept opium and quinine could be
dumped into the sea, I believe mankind
would be the gamer in more ways than
one."
1t was in this strain that an old-school
physician expressed his disgust for the
healing art in the presence of a report
er for the Mail and Express.
"Then you consider opium and quiz
nine the staple drugs.
"Assuredly. Quinine especially SO.
More than three-fourths of all the pre-
scriptions written to-day have for their
basis quinine. It is used as q tonic, as
o sedative, as an irritant, as an antiph-
logistic, in fact, I can not say what it is
not used for. Why, the advertisements
OF the druggists show conclusively that
it is the most important drug known.
You can read everywhere, Great re-
auctions in quinine.'"
And have these great reductions
been made in price, the quality or the
weight?"
"ln the price without doubt. You
q buy the best article now for 81 an
ounce. Ten years ago the same article
sold for IS. Half that sum has been
paid for it within the past five years. "
"Then the demand is falling OFF,"
"On the contrary, the demand is
greater than ever. The real cause OF
the reduction is, I think. the throwing
of immense lots of the drug upon the
market. When Congress removed the
ten per cent. duty, the surplus of the
foreign market was rushed over here.
Then, too, the failures of Alexander
Bochringer & Co., the largest manu-
facturers of q%uinine in the world, and
G. @. Myer & Co., the largest dealers
in chinchona bark, have had much to do
with lessening the prices. In onse-
quence OF those and other failures there
is no less than loo, 1000 pounds of quin-
inc in London which will soon be forced
to a sale by brokers who have advanced
money upon it and took the drug as
collateral"
"Then quinine will be cheaper still 2"
II think not. Bottom has been
reached and before long poor 'fever'n
ager' patients will have to pay for their
quinine. The estimated product OF
quinine of the world, I believe, is L.
600 900 pounds a year. Counting that
it takes thirty-six pounds of bark to get
one pound Of quinine, this would neces-
state the gathering of sc, 600, 900 pounds
of bark. l understand, however, that
there is Mexican bark which yields
the same amount of quinine to one-
half the amount Of bark, and if this is
SO prices may not go up so quickly as
they otherwise would. Though called
the Peruvian bark, that from which
qninine is made does not necessarily
come from Peru. Much of it comes
from Ceylon, Liberia and Java, and it
is limited that before long it will be
successfully cultivated In the United
States"
us the bark expensive?"
ut varies in price from 25 cents to 81
an ounce. But besides qu%inine, which
is the fifth essence of the bark, %cinchona,
cinchenidea and other products arc got
ten from it. Until recently Germany
and Italy were the greatest producers
of quinlne but OF present the leading
manufactures in the world are located
Philadelphia"