Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-06-08
DISCOVERY OF QUININE.
THE FAMOUS DRUG HAS A ROMAN.
TIC AND VARIED HISTORY.
It's First Appearance in England
Named After a Spanish Princess
Its Virtues Discovered by Accident

politician and a banker to
boot, has recently conmuni-
Gated to the world all that he knows,
and practically all that is known, con-
corning that life-saving alkaloid, qui-
nine. The Duke says that if quinine
is not exactly "household medicine,
during the past few years it has GER
tainly become a household word. And
perhaps no other drug has n history
more varied and interesting. Peru
Wan bark first appeared in the London
pharmacopdia in 1877. 1t was, how
ever, used in England at least as early
as the year 1866, and was advertised
for sale in 1868 as 1.-The excellent pow
der called by the name of Jesnits'
powder, brought over by one James
Thomson, a merchant of Antwerp"
But what is now universally known
rs uuinine-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 constituents of the bark until
ten years afterward. Quite unscien-
tifcally, 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
1852, though it is generally said to
have been unknown there before the
return to Madrid of the Countess of
Cinchon, 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 physician, by whom she was
accompanied to Europe, not unnatu-
rally made much of the wonderwork-
ing medicine.
But the Jesuits who had settled in
Peru were quite aware of its virtues
at an earlier date. They were, at all
events, the chief agents Of its distri-
button in Europe, the powder obtained
from the bark being then generally
known rs "Jesuits' Powder" In
Madrid it was called Countess Pow
der, and in Rome Pulvis Patrum.
From the latter city it speedily found
it's way to Brussels and Antwerp, where
it was sold for it's weight in silver, or
ABOUT Ten llneS Gut pucn vi
opium. In 1868 twenty doses of the
powder were sent from Rome to Paris
at cost of $3.50, and Cardinal MAJ
arin recommended its use in a danger
Gus illness of Louis XIV. That Peru
Wan bark WAS administered to the
French king is undoubted, but an in
teresting piece of historical evidence
points to q different source as the
means of its introduction to that court.
In 1879 a we'll known London physi-
clan named Tabor cured Charles H.
of tertian fever, with the now famous
bark, which he regarded in the hands
of skilled persons cas- noble and safe
medicine. Compared with the nature
of the "elixir," which had been in all
good faith compounded for James l.
for a similar distemper, the new drug
was indeed worthy Of admiration. The
fame of Charles's physician extended
to France and Louis XIV's surgeon
published an account of Tabor s treat
ment, which was translated into Eng
lish, entitled "Talbor's Wonderful
Secret for Curing of Agues and Fevers."
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 clever bark was accepted as al
most miraculous panacea. Nor does
this estimate Of it's powers appear ex-
traYagant when the ludIcrOus and
often barbar0us nature of the rene
dies which it gradually superseded
are taken into consideration. ''Plais-
ters and possets" were among the pre-
vailing nostrums, but their ingredients
were rather suggestive of the contents
of a wich's cauldron than of the ben
Efficient applications of later days.
Fever was to be cured by music and
ague by electricity, while the placing
of the fourth book of the Illiad under
the long-suffering patients head was
supposed to be of magical value in
both disorders. Above all, fear was
thought to be especially necessary in
the treatment of ague, and the de-
scription of many of the methods then
lated to inspire it.
Humboldt doubted whether the
curative nature of the bark was orig
inally known to the Peruvians, but the
probability seems to be that its quail
ties were fully understood by the ma
tives long before the Spaniards landed
on their shores. There is tradition
that the properties of the bark were
first practically realized by fever
stricken Indian, who, being left be-
hind in the forest by his companions
drank of a stream which flowed
through it, and which had been i'm
pregnated by the bark of the over
hanging cinchona trees. His cure was
SO speedy that it was looked upon as
miraculous, and the Indians focked to
the stream to partake of its supposed
occult virtues. It is also asserted
that the pumas and jaguats of the
mountain forests are in the habit Of
knawing the cinchona trees, and this
is the more worthy of belief as it is
known that the instinct of many do
nestle animals, as probably of all
wild ones, leads them to seek particu-
lar herbs for medicinal purposes.
Moreover, savages of the lowest type
resort specifically to various kinds of
vegetable "bitters'' as a cure for fever
and ague.
Makes Flies Its Prey.