Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1905-06-23
THE MOST IMPORTANT DRUG.
Immense Value Of oulnIne-Win be Of
Special Service in Building the Canal.
rChicago Chronicai1

tChicago Chronicall
Quinine is one Of the most valuable of
all the drugs known to medical science.
No one would venture to travel in India
without it, Before its discovery 1000, 900
people died annually in India OF malarial
fever; the mortality from this cause is
now less than half that number. The
poor people-so poor that they looked up
on the fe' r as their fate and expected
no relief-are saved by the agency Of
quinine. England could not keep her Eu-
ropean soldiers in India without it.
Livingstone and other travellers in CEN
trail Africa could never have made their
discoveries without its aid. It is said OF
the great German explorer Schweinfurth
that when he lost his entire property by
fire, valuable scientific instruments among
the rest, he felt the loss of his quinine to
be the greatest OF all, and often thought
with fear of the journey that lay before
him, which. however, he persevered in.
The soldiers in the American civil war de-
pended greatly upon quinine. The pio-
neers in this country when 1t was first
settled and civilized had as hard work
fighting fever and ague in the then
swampy, malarial districts as in fighting
Indians, and quinine was even more
necessary than firearms.
The great interoceanic canal now in
process Of construction across the 18TH
mus VI ItluAINH NAG AdDoI VI NliOu-
sands Of men largely unaccustomed to the
climate and so much more susceptible
TO its ill-effect. Before the route was de-
cided upon many surveys were made and
the men, naval officers and others en-
gagged in this work, were exposed to all
conditions of weather. But through the
universal and proper use of medicine daily
as a precautionary measure the mortality
was no greater than among men In like
employ in other localities. Out Of little
over 5000 white men employed in the con-
struction Of the Panama railroad there
were only 293 deaths, and some Of these
were the result Of other than climatic
causes.
The whole world is indebted to the chin
chona tree. from which quinine is made.
Who could have foretold that this tree,
a native of the mountainous forests Of
South America, would be OF such import
ance in the advance Of civilization and
Christianity, its safe transportation from
one side of the world to the other and
the success attained in converting a wild
into a cultivated plant and naturalizing
it reads like a romance. One Of the
strange things about quinine is that it is
not used as a medicine in the practice
Of the native physicians Of Peru, Ecuador
or Colombia.
The native Indians did not even know
Of its curative property till enlightened
by the Spanlards ABOUT Z9V years ago.
They called the chinchona tree kina, from
which comes the word quinine. What do
you call it-kwine, kn-nine, keen-neen
or kin neen? What a lot Of names the
drlig has had. China bark, quina, quin-
quina, chinchona bark, quinine, cinoona,
countess powder. Jesuits bark, Cardinal
De Lugo's powder, Peruvian bark, etc.
Great fortunes have been made out Of it.
At the time when Louis XIV bought the
secret a pound OF the bark cost about $50.
As 1t came into general use II became a
most important article Of export from
Peru. Now it is successfully cultivated
in Ceylon and Java
AS a means OF guarding the system
from intermittent fever the English naval
regulations require that every man should
take a portion of the drug when the ship
is within a certain distance OF the east
or west coast OF Africa, and that 1t should
be regularly taken by those engaged in
boat-cruising along the coasts OF on the
rivers or creeks. We may say with as
much truth now as did Lambert in 1920:
THE treasures which Peru yields and
which the Spaniards sought and dug out
Of the bowels of the earth are not to be
compared for utility with the bark Of the
quinquina tree. which they for long
time ignored"