The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-11-08

Java Has Euppinnted south America
Methods Of Manufacture.
The one staple drug that Is now
used the world over Is quinine.
Wherever there is fever or malaria
there natures antldote stands ready
10 relieve the sufferer From Patago-
MIA to Alaska and from Ceylon to ST.
IBERIA the prescription used oftenest
is the white powder that is the prod
uet Of the cinchona tree. The dis
covery OF quinine by the Spaniards
in South America is an old story, but
It SIS not generally known that the
worlds present supply Of Quinine
comes from the island of Java where
the cinchona tree Is not Indigenous,
but was introduced only after many
failures and with infinite toll and pa
tience on the part of the Dutch gov
eminent.
Fifty years ago a Dutchman named
Hasskarl was sent to South America
to obtain slips and seeds of the quiz
nine tree. After many adventures and
two years of wandering near the head
waters Of the Amazon, Hasskarl re-
turned to Java with Is saplings. They
we're planted and lourished remarka-
bly, well, but when the bark was first
taken. five years later, great was the
disappointment to find that Hasskarl
had been duped, and that the saplings
were not cinchonas at all.
Another attempt was made a few
years later, when an English mer-
chant, Mr.. Ledger, sold to the Dutch
| planters some cinchona seed he had
obtained in Bolivia Twenty thousand
4 trees grew from Ledger's seed, and
many of them are still standing.
The quinine forests are planted in
clearings in the jungle and are kept
as free from weeds as a flower garden
in this country. When a tree is six
years old it is cut down and a new
slip planted alongside of it's roots so
that the quinine supply lie never di-
minished The bark is stripped from
the trunk by Javanese women. They
cut it into short lengths and dry it,
first in the sun and later in ovens. The
dried bark is then put through a crude
mill, which cuts it into small bits.
These are shipped in bags to Amster-
dam or Bandoeng, the centre of the
quinine industry of Java.
At the factory the bark is mixed
with an alkaloid and ground again
1t is then pumped into immense tanks
filled with hot crude petroleum, which
dissolves the alkaloid from the bark
The oil in turn is washed out with
sulphuric acid to remove the alkaloid
and the crude quinine crystalizes wheI
it is cooled. The crystals are theI
placed in trays to dry. In 100-pounC
cans the finished .quinine is now ready
for the market.
The cutting down of the cinchonS
tree is the distinctive feature of Dutcl
quinine culture. The old South Amer
lean method was to peel the bark ant
then wait four or five years until i
grew on again But this process
proved too slow for cinchona gather
ers, and during the last decade thous
ands of trees have been cut dow
without any new ones being planted
in their places AS a result, the &C
cessible quinine forests of Soutl
America are greatly depleted and com
paratively little of the general sup
ply comes from the part of the worl
+ where it was discovered
Quinine of an inferior quality come
= from Ceylon, and the British govern
9 ment supplies its army and navy hos
e pitfalls from plantations of its own i
: the Himalaya mountains.