The age-herald., 1901-09-05
oUiNINE AS CAUSE OF WAR.
India, Java and Bolivia Having Big
 uuarreI Over the Drug.

From the Brooklyn Eagle.
 India, Java and Bolivia have become involved in trade war over quinine, and as India means England, while Java stands for Holland, the triangular strug- gle is likely to be interesting. Holland declares that it owns the only real. gen. uine blow in the bottle brand of quinine, and that 1t comes from Java. England insists that the Indian variety is the bet ter brand and that the Javanese article is deficient as fever cure. Bolivia with Peru to back her-laughs at the pre- tensions of both countries, saying that South America is the home of the tree from which quinine Is obtained and that the Indian and Javanese varieties are merely transplanted weddings from the native forests.
 To this triangular battle of the real quinine another issue may be joined, with Germany at its head. The Ger man chemists, deploring the high prices and heavy duty placed upon real qui- nine. have long been trying to produce 1t rtificially-syntheticall they call it.. They have succeeded so we'll that most of the cheap quinine sold in the United States Is artificial. According to the chemists who manufacture 1t the artifi- cial drug is just as good as the real, but most physicians Insist that nature Is a better chemist than the Germans and decry the imitation brand. The artificial quinine-which, like nearly every other new product. Is one of the derivatives of coal tar-has, however. grown to be such an important manufacture that Germany Is taking a good deal of interest in it's success.
 The German government. therefore. considers itself affected by the quarrel among the three countries producing the genuine drug and has instituted cam paign having for its object the demon- stration of the alleged fact that the Bo- livian and Perlvin forests are worked out: that the Indian variety does not contain true quinine, and that the Javan- csc article is so poorly prepared that 1t can never show two samples alike. Inci- dentally to this three-sided attack there the advantages of the auinine produced by the coal tar tree, Wnlcn IS Sald 10 be standard and superior.
 The quarrel over the quinine question is really based upon the question of which country shall supply the drug market of the world with quinine. At present Lon don is the chief market for the Indian and South American products-although some of the latter is handled in New York while Amsterdam Is the principal mar ket for the Javanese brand. Berlin does a large business in the artificial product It should be remembered that quinine is an elaborate product. There is no such thing as quinine tree. for instance. The drug Is obtained from a tree known vari- ously as Cinchona Officinalis, Cinchona Succirubra, Cinchona Calisaya, etc. The first enumerated might abe translated as ''official quinine." the second as red juiced quinine," and the third as Cali saya quinine."
 The tree from which quinine Is pro- duced is an evergreen. which sometimes grows to height of 80 feet. The tree is valued solely on account of the medicinal properties of Its bark. which has been known since 1888 as a valuable tonic ana febrifuge-or fever cure. At first 1t was known as cinchona bark, because the wife of the Governor of Peru. the Countess of Chinchon, was the first per- son of note to be cured by the drug.