The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1907-06-20
UNIVERSAL DRUG
VIRTUES OF ouINlNE KNOWN TO
ALL PEOPLES.
Many Stories Told of Its Introduction
to the World Of Medicine, But Its
Value Is Beyond
Dispute.

1t is to be assumed that everyone in
the civilized world has taken a dose
of quinine at some time or other. It
is the universal drug. Its value is
appreciated by the masses, who use
it only for colds and fevers. AS a
tonic it is unsurpassed. AS an alter
alive it has no equal in materia med
lea.
A distinguished surgeon has said:
IF I wanted to ferment a barrel of
cabbage in less time than anyone
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 cab
bage. It hastens the assimilation of
the food and restores normal condi-
tons"
The habitual user of quinine, how
ever, becomes a slave to the drug, and
thus derives little benefit from it.
Men with malaria eat it by the
ounce, and still retain the malaria.
The world is full of quinine fends.
who pour a spoonful 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 quinine.
In France and Italy physicians who
prescribed it's use were prosecuted.
Protestants altogether repudiated it.
Robert Talbot, an Englishman, cured
his dauphin with it, and Louis LIE
Grand was induced to buy the secret.
He was the only king that ever en-
barked in the drug business.
There are 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, Gin
chona bark, etc., and the pronuncia
ton Of the word "quinine" appears tc
be a matter of geography-kwi-nine
%kwe-neen, kin-nine, k~een-neen, or kin
neen-take your choice.
The discovery of cinchona bark is
enveloped in mystery. The wife Of
the Spanish viceroy of Peru was
Countess Chinchon. She was cured Of
al intermittent fever by drinking an
infusion of the bark, introduced it in
Madrid, and bestowed her lame upon
it-chincona. We have corrupted this
into cinchona. That's one story. An
{ other is that the Jesuit missionaries
who were accustomed to waste the
. bark of every tree they hewed down
| discovered the precious febrifuge.
A third is that certain animals
while in a fever, happened to know
the bark of the cinchona tree ant
were. cured. A fourth is that some
l person suffering with fever drank CO
, piously of a pool of water in which
some fallen cinchona trees had long
been soaking, charging the water will
the medicinal principle. Their speedy
cure led to an investigation, which
discovered quinine.
A strange fact in this connection il
that quinine is not used as medicine
in the practice of the native physician:
: of Peru, Ecuador of Colombia. The
: Indians did not even know of it's ex
istence until enlightened by the Span
! isards about $50 years ago.