The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-04-20
A QUININE FAMINE.
All Nations But Belligerents Short On
Invaluable Drug.-It's History.

much longer where are the people of
the United States to get their usual
surplus of quinine? At the breaking
out of the war sulphate of qiuinine
was selling at about 20 cents an
ounce, wholesale: A year ago it sold
for 40 cents; today it is selling for
$3.50 an ounce. When it is stated
that during the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1914, the last normal year
prior to the war, the United States
imported nearly 100000 ounces of
sulphate of quinine, then valued at
about $65O,0O0, and over 3,64S,00O
pounds of chincona bark, valued at
$464,000, it may be seen what such
a difference in price may mean to the
country.
How is the European war RESPONSE
BILE? Simply because Great Britain
controls the chincona bark industry
in her possessions of India, Ceylon
and Jamaica, and Holland the prod
uct of Java, and these are the Sec
tions of the world which have been
furnishing practically it's supply of
quinine, in the form of chincona
bark, for the last 80 or 35 years.
Great Britain is carefully husband
ing the supply of this precious speci-
fic for the use of her armies and
those of her allies, while the Dutch
must be depended upon to supply
those of the central powers. Armies
in the field need vastly larger sup
ply of quinine than would the same
number of men in ordinary occupa-
tions-hence a quinine famine for
the rest of the world If the war
continues, not only will the price con-
tinue to rise but the serious ques-
tion will be-where are we to get it
at all?
Time was when certain countries
of South America, where the chin
coma trees originated, supplied the
world, and the story of quinine and
how it was introduced into Europe is
-entertainingly told by Edward Albes
in the current number of the Bulle-
tin of the Pan-American Union,
Washington, D. C., somewhat as fol-
lows:
"Once upon time-27S years ago,
to. be more exact-in her viceroyal
castle in Lima, Peru, a lady lay i'll of
a fever. She was the Countess Anna,
wife of. the fourth Count of Chin
chon, who at the time was viceroy of
Peru. News of the lady's illness hav-
ing reached one Don Juan Lodez de
Cannizares, the Spanish Corregidor
of Loxa, who dwelt some 230 miles
south of Quito, in what is now the
Republic of Ecuador, he despatched
a parcel of a certain kind of powder
ed bark to her physician, Juan de
Vega, with the assurance that it was
a sovereign remedy and never fail
ing specific in cases of intermittent
fever. He knew this to be true both
from experience and observation, for
about years prior to this event he
had suffered from a severe attack Of
fever and had been cured by an old
Indian of Malacotas, who had thus
revealed the remarkable properties
of this bark. Since then he. had OBJ
served its effects in many other cases
so he knew whereof he spoke. The
remedy was tried, and the countess
was cured. The name given by the
aborigines to the, tree on which
grew this wonderful bark was "quina-
quina." ..1...
''In 1910 the count of Chinchon re-
turned to Spain with his wife. She
took with her a quantity of the heal
ing bark, and thus was the first per-
son to introduce it into Europe. Sub
sequently some of the Jesuit mission
aries in Brazil sent parcels of the
powdered bark to Rome, whence it
was distributed by the Cardinal de
Lugo to other members of the fra
ternity throughout Europe. 1t was
therefore often called "Jesuit's bark" :"
and sometimes cardinals bark.
Something over a hundred years af-
ter the countess of Chinchon had in
troduced it into Spain, Linneaus, the
great Swedish botanist, in making his
remarkable classification of all
known trees and plants, to commemo-
rate the service rendered to mankind
by that day, named the genus which
yields the bark Chincona, and SUBJ
sequently still further immortalized
the name by giving it to the great
family of trees and plants now known
as the Chinchonaceae, which includes
not only the Chinchonae but also the
ipecacuanas and the cOffeeS."