POSTSCRIPT. OCT. 16, 1862. LATEST INTELLIGENCE OF THE CHINCHONA PLANTS, FROM THE NEILGHERRY HILLS. Number of Chinchona plants on the Neilgherry Hills on August 31st, 1862. The total number of plants permanently placed out in the plantations, on August 31st, 1862, was 13,700, and, although only recently transplanted, they are in a very promising condition. The number placed out, at the same date, in the nurseries in the open air, and in the hardening-off frames, was 18,076, all in the finest possible state of health. The number of small plants under glass, including those used for the production of wood for propagation, was 40,792. There are four plantations for Chinchona cultivation, either cleared and planted, or about to be cleared, at Neddiwuttum and Pycarrah; besides * See page 490. b the loftier one at Dodabetta. At Neddiwuttum the "Denison Plantations" will contain about 210 acres of planted land, the "Markham Plantation" about 200 acres; and near Pycarrah about 250 acres are to be planted, of fine well-watered land, completely sheltered from the west winds, to be called the "Wood Plantation," after the Secretary of State for India: altogether about 660 acres, besides the Dodabetta site. Plants are to be disposed of to private individuals who may be desirous of undertaking the cultivation, and 22,000 had already been ordered in the beginning of September. LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM DARJEELING. Dr. Anderson, who is in charge of the Chinchona cultivation in Bengal, brought the plants to the Darjeeling Hills early in May 1862. He then had 84 plants of C. succirubra, 44 of C. micrantha, 48 of C. nitida, 2 of C. Peruviana, 5 of C. Calisaya, and 53 of C. Pahudiana. On July 26th these had been increased, by layers and cuttings, to 140 of C. succirubra, 53 of C. nitida, 43 of C. micrantha, 7 of C. Calisaya, and 3 of C. Poruviana. See page 512. LATEST INTELLIGENCE FROM CEYLON. On July 29th, 1862, Mr. Thwaites had raised 960 young plants of C. Condaminea from seeds. At the same date the plants of C. succirubra were thriving admirably, several being planted out in the hill garden, and a few at Peradenia. The other species were doing well, and Mr. Thwaites was propagating as fast as possible from cuttings. See page 509. C. PAHUDIANA.-THE DUTCH SPECIES. The C. Pahudiana, which forms the bulk of the Java plantations, is now generally acknowledged to be worthless. A tree of this species has been chemically analyzed by Professors G. F. Mülder and F. A. W. Miquel, and, in consequence of the joint report of these gentlemen, the Dutch Government have determined to put an entire stop to its cultivation. See page 56. See letter from M. Hasskarl, dated May 23rd, 1862. TRAVELS IN PERU. CHAPTER I. DISCOVERY OF PERUVIAN BARK. The Countess of Chinchon - Introduction of the use of bark into Europe M. La Condamine's first description of a Chinchona-tree-J. de JussieuDescription of the Chinchona region — The different valuable species — The discovery of quinine. THE whole world, and especially all tropical countries where intermittent fevers prevail, have long been indebted to the mountainous forests of the Andes for that inestimable febrifuge which has now become indispensable, and the demand for which is rapidly increasing, while the supply decreases, throughout all civilized countries. There is probably no drug which is more valuable to man than the febrifugal alkaloid which is extracted from the chinchona-trees of South America; and few greater blessings could be conferred on the human race than the naturalization of these trees in India, and other congenial regions, so as to render the supply more certain, cheaper, and more abundant. It will be the principal object of the following pages to relate the measures which have been adopted within the last two years to collect plants and seeds of these quinineyielding chinchonæ, in the various regions of South America, where the most valuable species are found; and to give an account of their introduction into India, and of the hill districts in that country where it is considered most likely that they will thrive. But it is necessary that the reader should have a general knowledge of these precious trees, and of their history, before he accompanies the explorers B who were sent in search of them over the cordilleras of the Andes, and into the vast untrodden forests. It would be strange indeed, if, as is generally supposed, the Indian aborigines of South America were ignorant of the virtues of Peruvian bark; yet the absence of this sovereign remedy in the wallets of itinerant native doctors who have plied their trade from father to son, since the time of the Incas, certainly gives some countenance to this idea. It seems probable, nevertheless, that the Indians were aware of the virtues of Peruvian bark in the neighbourhood of Loxa, 230 miles south of Quito, where its use was first made known to Europeans and the Indian name for the tree quina-quina, "bark of bark," indicates that it was believed to possess some special medicinal properties.' The Indians looked upon their conquerors with dislike and suspicion; it is improbable that they would be quick to impart knowledge of this nature to them; and the interval which elapsed between the discovery and settlement of the country and the first use of Peruvian bark by Europeans may thus easily be explained.2 The conquest and subsequent civil wars in Peru cannot be said to have been finally concluded until the time of the viceroy Marquis of Cañete, in 1560; and J. de Jussieu reports that a Jesuit, who had a fever at Malacotas,3 was cured by Peruvian bark in 1600. M. La Condamine also found a manuscript in the library of a convent at Loxa, in which it was stated that the Europeans of the province used the bark 1 In Quichua, when the name of a plant is reduplicated, it almost invariably implies that it possesses some medicinal quality. 2 La Condamine, Jussieu, and Ruiz all believed that the Indians were aware of the medicinal qualities of Peruvian bark, and that they imparted their knowledge to the Spaniards. Humboldt and Ulloa were of an opposite opinion. The stories of its virtues having been discovered by watching the pumas or South-American lions chewing the bark to cure their fevers, mentioned by Condamine; and of an Indian having found it out by drinking of the waters of a lake into which a chinchona-tree had fallen - told by Geoffroy-are of modern and European origin. 3 Jussieu says that it is certain that the first knowledge of the efficacy of this bark was derived from the Indians of Malacotas, some leagues south of Loxa. -Weddell, Histoire Naturelle des Quinquinas, p. 15. at about the same time. Thus an interval of only forty years intervened between the pacification of Peru and the discovery of its most valuable product. It may be added, however, that though the Indians were aware of the febrifugal qualities of this bark, they attached little importance to them, and this may be another reason for the lapse of time which occurred before the knowledge was imparted to the Spaniards. Referring to this circumstance La Condamine says, "Nul n'est saint dans son pays." This indifference to, and in many cases even prejudice against the use of the Peruvian bark, amongst the Indians, is very remarkable. Poeppig, writing in 1830, says that in the Peruvian province of Huanuco the people, who are much subject to tertian agues, have a strong repugnance to its use. The Indian thinks that the cold north alone permits the use of fever-bark; he considers it as very heating, and therefore an unfit remedy in complaints which he believes to arise from inflammation of the blood. Humboldt also notices this repugnance to using the bark amongst the natives; and Mr. Spruce makes the same observation with respect to the people of Ecuador and New Granada. He says that they refer all diseases to the influence of either heat or cold; and, confounding cause and effect, they suppose all fevers to proceed from heat. They justly believe bark to be very heating, and hence their prejudice against its use in fevers, which they treat with frescos or cooling drinks. Even in Guayaquil the prejudice against quinine is so strong that, when a physician administers it, he is obliged to call it by another name. In about 1630 Don Juan Lopez de Canizares, the Spanish Corregidor of Loxa, being ill with an intermittent fever, an Indian of Malacotas is said to have revealed to him the Poëppig, Reise. 5 Mr. Spruce's Report, p. 25. |