Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-03-13
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

The shadow of pale Spanish lady,
dead for almost three centuries, has re-
turned to the dense rain forests of the
western slopes of the Andes.
The long gap between a chemical
laboratory of the United States Public
Health Service and the Countess of
Chinchon, wife of the redoubtable Don
Luis Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera
Bobadilla y Mendoza, viceroy of Peru,
is being bridged, according to officials
of the Sanitary Bureau of the Pam
American Union, clearing house of New
World medicine.
She was dying of a strange disease in
Lima in 1888. Her Jesuit confessor, the
story goes, gave medicine to her doctor,
made from the bark of common Peru
Wan tree. 1t saved her life and two
years later she returned to Spain, carry
ing with her some Of the magic bark.
Thus she gave to the world one of the
supreme medicines of all time.
A century later the Swedish botanist,
Linaeus, tried to pay a compliment to
the long dead beauty but misspelled her
name-calling her tree the "cinchona."
Out of it came quinine.
The Andean forests remained for 200
years the only source of the magic drug.
The cinchona trees grew wild. They
were stripped of bark recklessly, and
began to grow very scarce. BY 1850 the
price of quinine was $50 an ounce and
only the rich could afford to have
malaria.
The British tried to transplant the
crop to India and failed Then Dutch
botanists obtained some seed, planted 1t
in the East Indies, developed improved
methods of cultivation and high yielding
species, and soon became essentially the
sole source of the worlds supply The
price dropped to Is cents an ounce and
the lands over which the dead lady had
ruled dropped out of the picture.
At least one of them, Bolivia, now has
made long stride back, with its native
trees. Its new product has just been
analysed by quinine chemists of the
Public Health Service at the request of
the American Sanitary Bureau and
found to be essentially equal to the
Dutch drug at its best. The comeback
has been staged almost entirely since
1882 when the government first took a
hand in it. Meanwhile, Venezuela is max
ing extensive experiments with quinine
cultivation and extraction. The Bolivian
quinine is at least SO per cent pure.
Tho nIliOipo SitIIo tim for tl,o Euo
years has been touchy point with the
United States. This country was heavy
quinine user and, with the threat of war
already seen afar, was entirely dependent
on the Orient for its supply. The Public
Health Service first called attention to
the dependence and attempted to meet
it in two ways-f1rst by accommodating
sufficient stocks for an emergency and
secondly by setting up a chemical unit
to synthesize it. if possible.
Meanwhile the Department OF Agri-
culture took hand and sent to South
America some plants of an improved,
high yielding variety of cinchona. 1t
was not considered possible that the
long neglected native tree ever seriously
WOulu VI lllS
most accomplished Dutch botanists.
The East Indian crop was guarded
zealously. Where the seedlings which
were sent to South America came from
is closely guarded secret.
But in any event the improved varie-
ties of quinine were, for the most part,
a miserable failure in the land of their
ancestors. 1t has been up to the South
American agriculturalists to develop
their own crop.
One large American firm, however, has
established large nursery in Guate-
mala for distribution of stock to pros
pective growers.
So, Sanitary Bureau officials point out.
the inestimable bequest to the world of
the fever-racked Countess Of Chinchon
bids fair to become primary American
crop again after its long exile on the
other side of the world
- &*
The sun with its nine planets is NOV
ing in an orbit around the center Of
gravity of the 1000, 600, 0O0-star Milky
Way galaxy of which it forms part
dI SpSco O1 lou q ScCOIlu IL
needs about 200,000000 years to COM
plete the circuit.
The galaxy as whole, however, does
not rotate like a cartWheel, each part
completing its circuit in the same period
of time The inner parts are moving
more rapidly than those further out.
The sun is located about third of the
way from the center of the galaxy to
its border, or a distance which would
take light, travelling at the rate Of
10000 miles a second, 10000 years to
traverse.
AS nearly as can be determined from
our viewpoint in the neighborhood OF
the sun, the speed of rotation of the
galaxy increases from the center out
wards at the rate of 1916 miles per second
for each 5000 light years of distance.
That is to say, while the sun travels
around the center at $50 miles second,
the rate for stars 5000 light years nearer
the center is about 1911 miles per second
and that for stars the same distance
in the opposite direction is only 1863
miles second.
These are the latest calculations of
astronomers of the Carnegie Institution
of Washington. based on more accurate
determinations than have hitherto been
possible. The determinations have just
been reported by DR.. Ralph E. Wilson