Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-06-11
QUlNINE FIENDS.
Introduction Of the Drug as Medicine
Due to Louis XIV of Franco.

Due to Louis XIV OF France.
It Is to be assumed that every one
in the civilized world has taken dose
of quinine at some time or other. 1t
is the universal drug. It's value Is
by the masses, who use
it only for colds and fevers. AS tom
ic it is unsurpassed. AS an Alternative
it has no equal in materia medica.
A distinguished surgeon has said:
"If 1 wanted to ferment barrel of
cabbage in less time than any one else
could, I would put in it an eighth Of
an ounce Of quinine. A little quinine
in disordered stomachs acts just
about as it would in the cabbage. 1t
hastens the assimilation Of the food
and restores normal conditions"
The habitual user Of quinine, how
ever, becomes slave to the drug and
thus derives little benefit from 1t, says
the Chicago Chronicle. Men with ma
laria eat it by the ounce and still re-
tain the malaria. This world Is full
of quinine fiends who pour a spoon
full into the palm of one hand and
lick it down without a grimace.
They are known to chew cinchona
bark as If it were gum. Others not
habituated must take two grains or
ten in a gelatin capsule. Before cap
sules were invented it was taken in
molasses, and the chances are that
the molasses effected the cure. Too
much quinine Is almost as bad as too
much calomel.
The world is indebted to Louis XIV
for the general introduction Of quiz
nine. In France and Italy physicians
who prescribed its use were persecu-
ted. Protestants altogether repudi-
ated it. Robert Talbot, an English
man, cured the dauphin with 1t, and
Louis LIE Grand was induced to buy
the secret. He was the only king
that ever embarked in the drug busi-
ness.
There were several pretty romances
connected with the discovery of
"kina," as the native Indians Of Peru
called the cinchona trees from which
quinine is derived. The drug has had
a lot of names-quinine, cinchona,
countess powder, Jesuit's bark, Car
dinal De Lugo's powder, Peruvian
bark, China bark, quina, quiquina,
chincona bark, ETC., and the pronun-
citation Of the word "quinine" appears
to be a matter Of geography-kwi-
nine, kwe-neen, kin-nine, keen-neen
or kin-nine, keen-neen or kin-neen-
take your choice.
The discovery Of cinchona bark Is
enveloped in mystery. The wife OF
the Spanish viceroy in Peru was
Countess Chinchon. She was cured
of an intermitten fever by drinking
an infusion of the bark, introduced II
into Madrid and bestowed her name
upon it-Chincora. We have corrupt
ed this into cinchona. That's one
story. Another is that the Jesuit
missionaries who were accustomed to
taste the bark Of every tree they hew-
ed down, discovered the precious fep-
rifuge.
A third is that certain animals
while in a fever happened to know
the bark of the cinchona tree ana
were cured. A fourth is that some
persons suffering with fever drank
copiously of a pool Of water in which
some cinchona tree had long been
soaking. charging the water with the
medicinal principle. Their speedy
cure led to an investigation which dis
covered quinine. ~
A strange fact in this connection
Is that quinine is not used as medi-
cine in the practice Of the native phy-
sicians of Peru, Ecuador or Colombia
The Indians did not even know OF us
existence until enlightened by the
spaniards about ESQ years ago.