The record-union., 1899-01-10

only in one locality, and so dlStrCsteu
by them that it was never carried III
the wallets of their itinerant Doctors
so that it is said with some show OF
truth that Peru is the only country
where Peruvian bark is not used-lt
first came into notice in 1858, when the
Countess Chinchony wife of the Viceroy
of Peru, lay i'll at Lima of a tertian
fever. The corregidor of Loxa, hear
ing of her illness, and knowing the re-
puted virtues Of the quina bark, sent
her a parcel of one Of its varieties,
which, administered by her physician,
brought about rapid and complete
cure.
The variety of bark, however, was
one that abounds in cinchonidine, and
it was probably this alkaloid and not
uuinine. that cured the Countess. Two
years afterward the woman returned
to Spain bringing with her supply or
the precious quina for the use of the
sick on her husbands estates, and its
reputation gradually spread under the
name of the Countess powder. In
1910 the Jesuits sent some parcels Of
the powdered bark to Rome to be dis
tributed by Cardinal De Lugo, whence
it became known as cardinals powder
and Jesuit's bark, with the ridiculous
result that no Protestants would have
anything to do with it.
One of the oft quoted absurdities of
this early trade was that to insure a
monopoly-always a monopoly-the
Jesuits persuaded the Pope to draw a
line across South America beyond
which no tree should be recognized as
yielding Quinine. 1t might be an I'M
mistakable cinchona, all the same, but
a cinchona it could not possibly be, as
it had had the audacity to grow beyond
the Popes line; and any one who re-
fused to accept the evidence of his
senses was promptly treated as he
retic
The Jesuits were jubilant, and sold
the bark at high prices in Catholic
countries, Wanting it as an infallible
remedy, under the name of Puavis pat
rum. It was John Tabor, an English
apothecary, who broke down the pre-
JUDGE against it. BY the number of
cures he effected by it's means, without
revealing it's name, he became promi-
nent enough to be knighted by Charles
II. in 1851; and next year, as physician
in ordinary. he cured the King of a ter
tan fever. Passing over to France the
same year he cured the Dauphin and a
few other personages in high places,
and sold the secret of its preparation
to Louis XIV. for 1900 louis dor, a
pension and a title.
The preparation does not seem to
have extended very far, for it was not
until 1915 that the bark was systemati-
cally analysed, and after that five
years elapsed before the alkaloid quiz
nine was found in it. Notwithstand-
ing Talbor's success the doctors fought
bitterly over the new drug, those of
Paris more truculently than all, the
older men refusing to admit that it
possessed any good qualities whatever,
and one of them going SO far as to as
sert that quinquina, as it had come to
be called, was responsible for ninety
sudden deaths in Madrid alone. But
1t made its way, all the same, helped
along by Sydenham and Morton, though
the prejudice against it had not quite
died out in the early part of the pres
ent century, when in the Walcheren ex-
petition many a poor fellows life was
saved by the timely arrival of a Yam
kee trader with some chests of bark
after the supply had entirely failed in
the camp.-Leisure Hour.