The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-08
HISTORY OF QUININE.
How It Was First Discovered-Nam
After a Spanish Princess.
From the Chicago Herald.

COLulu uulCdVGu W Tue NOFLu all IQaI ne
knows, and practically all that is known,
concerning that life-saving alkaloid-
quinine. AS was BETTING such an in
teresting subject and such an interesting
lecturer, the duke was accorded the
Royal Institution, London's scientific
holy of holes, in which to eXpOund
his theories and disseminate the
fruits of his research. The Marquis of
Lorne runs Fife very close in the digging
up of popular subjects and it is race
between them as to who is the better
hand in working up paper which is
both interesting and couched in language
understood by the masses. Fife, how
ever, has held his own so far, and the
British public has quite come to regard
him as a good all-rouud man. who
although a royal princess husband
walks about with his eyes open. and
allows few matters of interest to escape
him.
On the subject of quinine the duke says
that if it is not exactly a household
medicine" during the past few years it
has certainly become a household word.
and perhaps no other drug has a history
more varied and interesting Peruvian
bark first appeared in the London phar-
macoppia in 1917. 1t was, however, used
in England at least as early as the year
1865, and was advertised for sale in 1858
as The excellent Iowder called by the
name OF Jesuits powder, brought over by
one James Thomson, merchant of Ant
werp."
NAMED AFTER SPANISH COUNTESS.
But what is now universally known as
quinine-One of the most important of the
alkaloids-was not discovered till 1911;
nor was it obtained in pure state by
complete separation from the other con-
1ff % 1na. g
terWard. Quite unScientitically, quinine
may be described as the base, or essential
principle, of the bark of certain individ-
uals among the CinchOna family of trees.
This bark was first in reduced into Eu-
rope in 1852, though it is generally said to
have been unknown there before the re-
turn to Madrid of the Countess of Gin
chon. the wife of the Viceroy of Peru, in
1910 This lady, from whom the bark
producing trees derive their botanical
name, had been cured by it of fever
contracted in Lima in 1888, and her ply
sician, by whom she was accompanied to
Europe, not unnaturally made much Of
the working medicine.
TRIED ON CHARLES II. WITH SUCCESS.
But the Jesuits who had settled in Peru
were quite aware of it's virtues al an
earlier date They were, at all events,
the chief agents of its distribution in Eu-
rope, the powder obtained from the bark
being then generally known as "Jesuits'
powder" In Madrid it was called
countess powder. and in Rome pulvis
patrum. From the latter city it speedily
found its way to Brussels and Antwerp,
where it was sold for its weight in silver,
or about ten times the then price of
opium. In 1868 twenty doses Of the pow
der were sent from Rome to Paris at a
| cost of $3.50, and Cardinal Mazarin
recommended. its use in danger
Gus illness of Louis XIV That
Peruvian bark was administered to the
French king is undoubted but an inter-
esting piece of historical evidence points
to different source as the means Of its
init oductiou TO that court. InlB79 well
known London physician named Tabor
cured Charles Ii. of a tertian fever. with
| the now famous bark which he regarded
in the hands of skilled persons 'as u noble
and safe medicine" Compared with the
nature of the elixir" which had been in
all good faith compounded for James [.
for a similar distemper the new drug was
indeed worthy of admiration. The fame
of Charles physician extended TO France
and Louis XIV.'s surgeon published an
account of Talbors treatment which was
translated into English, entitled Tai
| boris Wonderful Secret for Curing of
| Agues and Feyers."
OLD NosTRUMs AND MAGIC SPECIFICS.
The prevalence and severity of these
| diseases, down TO the end of the seven
teenth century, caused them to be re-
| garded as national scourges for which the
fever bark" was accepted as almost a
! miraculous panacea. Nor does this esti-
mate of its powers appear eXtravagant
! when the ludicrous and often barbarous
/ nature of the remedies which it gradually
/ superseded are taken into consideration
"Plasters and possets" were among
| the prevailing uostrums; but their
! ingredients were rather suggestive
! of the contents of witch s
cauldron than of the benefcent applca-
tions of later days. Fever was to be
cured by music and ague by electricity,
/ while the placing of the fourth book of
the Iliad under the long-sudering pa
TENTS head was supposed to be of magi-
1 cal value in both disorders. Above all,
fear was thought to be especially neces-
sary in the trcatement of ague, and the
description of many of the methods then
( used seems 10 have been well calculated
TO inspire it.
VIRTUES OF BARK DISCOVERED BY ACCT.
DENT. -...
Humboldt doubted whether the cura.
! tive nature of the bark was originally
/ known TO the PefuVldnS, out the prOOa-
! bility seems to be that its qualities were
! fully understood by the natives long be
! fore the Spaniards landed on their shores
| Tier is a tradition that the properties OF
! the bark were first practically realized
by fever-stricken Indian, who bein
| left behind in the forest by his compan
| ions drank of stream which flowed
| through it, and which had been i'm preg-
mated by the bark of the over-hanying
cinchoua trees. His cure was so speedy
! that it was looked upon as miraculous, and
| the Indians focked to the stream TO par
take of its supposed occult Yir ues it is
also asserted that the pumas and jaguars
of the mountain forests are in the habit
of guawing the cinchona trees, and this is
the more worthy of belief as it is known
that the instinct of many domestic ami
mails, as PROBABLY of all wild ones, leads
them TO seek particular herbs for medi
cinal purposes. Moreover, savages Of the
lowest type resort specifically to various
kinds Of vegetable ''bitters" as a cure fol
fever and ague.