The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-06-09
rHe HISTORY OF QulN,NE.
How 1t Was First Discovered Name
After n SnaniAh Princess.


banker to boot, has recently commit
nicated TO the world all that he knows.
aud practically all that is known, con.
corning that life-saving alkaloid, qui.
nine. AS was beftting such an inter-
esting subject and such an interesting
lecturer the duke was accorded the
Royal Institution, London's scientific
holy of holies, 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 n race be-
tween them us to who is the better
land in working up paper which is
both interesting and couched in lam
guage understood by the masses. Fife,
however, has held his own so far and
the British public has quite come to
regard him as good all-round man,
who, although y royal princess hus.
band, 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 'house-
hold medicine" during the past few
years it has certainly become q house.
hold word. And perhaps no other drug
has history more varied and interest
ing. Peruvian bark first appeared in
the London pharmacopmia in 1877. 1t
was, however, used in England at
least as early as the year 1866, and was
advertised for sale in 1858 as 1.-THE en-
cellent powder called by the name of
Jesuits' powder, brought over by one
james Thomson, a merchant of Ant.
werp."
But what is now universally known
as quinine--one of the most important
of the alllaloids-was not discovered
till 1911; nor was it obtained in pure
state by complete separat ton from the
other constituents of the bark until
ten years afterward. Quite unscien.
titically, quinine may be described as
the base, or essential principle, of the
bark of certain individuals among the
cinchona family of trees This bark
was first introduced into Europe in
1882, though it is generally said to have
been unknown there before the return
to Madrid of the Countess of Cinchon.
the wife of the Niceroy 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
physician. by whom she was accom-
panied to Europe, not unnaturally
made much of the wondcr-worltine
medicine.
But the ,Tesuits who had settled in
Peru We're quite aware of its virtues al
.t,,%0
events, the chief agents of it's distrbu
tion in Europe, the powder obtained
from the bark being then generally
known as "Jesuits' powder" In Mad
rid it was called Countess powder, ant
in Rome Pulvis Patrum. From the lat
ter city it speedily found its way t,
Brussels and Antwerp, where it wa
sold for its weight in silver, or abou
. ten times the then price of opium. Ii
1868 twenty doses of the powder wer,
sent from Rome to Paris ut Il cost O
$3.50, and Cardinal Mazarin recon
mended its use in a dangerous Hines
of Louis NV. That Peruvian bark wa
| administered to the French king is un
doubted, hut an interesting piece o
historical evidence points to a differen
source as the means of its introduction
, to that court. In 1879 Il well-knowl
: London physician named Tabor curet
Charles III. of u tertian fever, with tn
now famous bark, which he regarde,
, in the hands of skilled persons ''as
noble and safe medicine" Compares
with the nature of the elixir whicl
had been in all good faith compounde
for James 1. for similar distemper
the new drug was indeed worthy o
admiration. The fame of Charles ply
sician extended to France and Loui
NIV.'s surgeon published an accoup
, of Tabor treatment, which was trans
lated into English. entitled Tabor
Wonderful Secret for Curing OF Aguc
!, and Fevers"
. The prevalence and severity of thes
diseases, down to the end of the seveI
: teenth century, caused them to he re
, garded as national scourges for whic
! the "fever bark" was accepted as a
most miraculous panacea. Nor doe
. this estimate of its powers appear e.
, travagant when the ludicrous an
p often burbarous nature of the renedic
, which it gradually superseded are take
4
= possets" We're amoug the prevailin
l nostrums; but their ingredients wel
: rather suggestive of the contents of
, witch cauldron than of the beneticeu
: applications of later days. Fever WA
> TO be cured by music and ague by ele,
tricity, while the placing of the fourt
3 hook of the Iliad under the long-sutfel
z ing patients head was supposed to
y of magical value in both disorder.
= Above all, fear was thought to be e.
pecially necessary in the treatment {
, ague, and the description of many {
the methods then used seems to hav
. been we'll calculated to inspire it,
Humbolt doubted whether the cur;
tive nature of the bark was original
2 known to the Peruvinns. but the prol
3 ability seems to be that it's quaiitie
+ were fully understood by the native
n long before the Spaniards landed o
G their shores. There is u tradition th;i
= the properties of the bark were frs
y practically realized by Il fever-striclse
Indian. who. being left behind in tn
c forest by his companions, drank OF
4 stream which flowed through it, an
y which had been inpregnated by tn
Z bark of the over-hanging cinchon
I trees. His cure WAS so speedy thl
9 IL was looked upon as miraculous an
the indians ilocSed To- the stream I
partale of its supposed occult virtu,,
u it is also asserted that the pumas II /
u juguurs of the mountain forests are i
v the habit of gnawi ~ the cinchoa
E trees. and this is the more worthy :
: belief IA, it is known chat the insti;lc