GAMBIER.

Botanical Origin—1. Uncaria Gambier Roxb. (Nauclea Gambir Hunter) a stout climbing shrub, supporting itself by means of its flower-stalks which are developed into strong recurved hooks.[1275] It is a native of the countries bordering the Straits of Malacca, and especially of the numerous islands at their eastern end; but according to Crawfurd[1276] it does not seem indigenous to any of the islands of the volcanic band. It also grows in Ceylon, where however no use is made of it.

2. U. acida Roxb.,[1277] probably a mere variety of the preceding, and growing in the Malayan islands, appears to be used in exactly the same manner.

History—Gambier is one of the substances to which the name of Catechu or Terra Japonica is often applied; the other is Cutch, which has been already described (p. 243). By druggists and pharmaceutists the two articles are frequently confounded, but in the great world of commerce they are reckoned as quite distinct. In many price-currents and trade-lists, Catechu is not found under that name, but only appears under the terms Cutch and Gambier.

Crawfurd asserts that gambier has been exported from time immemorial to Java from the Malacca Straits. This statement appears highly questionable. Rumphius, who resided in Amboyna during the second half of the 17th century, was a merchant, consul and naturalist; and in these capacities became thoroughly conversant with the products of the Malay Archipelago and adjacent regions, as the six folio volumes of his Herbarium Amboinense, illustrated by 587 plates, amply prove.

Among other plants, he figures[1278] Uncaria Gambier, which he terms Funis uncatus, and states to exist under two varieties, the one with broad, and the other with narrow leaves. The first form, he says, is called in Malay Daun Gatta Gambir, on account of the bitter taste of its leaves, which is perceptible in the lozenges (trochisci) called Gatta Gambir, so much so that one might suppose they were made from these leaves, which however is not the case. He further asserts that the leaves have a detergent, drying quality by reason of their bitterness, which is nevertheless not intense but quite bearable in the mouth: that they are masticated instead of Pinang [Betel-nut] with Siri [leaf of Piper Betle] and lime: that the people of Java and Bali plant the first variety near their houses for the sake of its fragrant flowers; but though they chew its leaves instead of Pinang, it must not be supposed that it is this plant from which the lozenges Gatta are compounded, for that indeed is quite different.

Thus, if we may credit Rumphius, it would seem that the important manufacture of gambier had no existence at the commencement of the last century. As to “Gatta Gambir,” his statements are scarcely in accord with those of more recent writers. We may however remark that that name is very like the Tamil Katta Kāmbu, signifying Catechu, which drug is sometimes made into little round cakes, and was certainly a large export from India to Malacca and China as early as the 16th century (p. 241).

That gambier was unknown to Europeans long after the time of Rumphius, is evident from other facts. Stevens, a merchant of Bombay, in his Compleat Guide to the East India Trade, published in 1766, quotes the prices of goods at Malacca, but makes no allusion to gambier. Nor is there any reference to it in Savary’s Dictionnaire de Commerce (ed. of 1750), in which Malacca is mentioned as the great entrepôt of the trade of India with that of China and Japan.

The first account of gambier known to us, was communicated to the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences in 1780, by a Dutch trader named Couperus. This person narrates[1279] how the plant was introduced into Malacca from Pontjan in 1758, and how gambier is made from its leaves; and names several sorts of the drug and their prices.

In 1807, a description of “the drug called Gutta Gambeer,” and of the tree from which it is made, was presented to the Linnean Society of London.[1280] The writer, William Hunter, well known for scientific observations in connection with India, states that the substance is made chiefly at Malacca, Siak and Rhio, that it is in the form of small squares, or little round cakes almost perfectly white, and that the finer sorts are used for chewing with betel leaf in the same manner as catechu, while the coarser are shipped to Batavia and China for use in tanning and dyeing.

Manufacture—The gambier plant is cultivated in plantations. These were commenced in 1819 in Singapore, where there were at one time 800 plantations; but owing to scarcity of fuel, without an abundant supply of which the manufacture is impossible, and dearness of labour, gambier-planting was in 1866 fast disappearing from the island.[1281] The official Blue Book, printed at Singapore in 1872, reports it as “much increased.” It is largely pursued on the mainland (Johore), and in the islands of the Rhio-Lingga Archipelago, lying south-east of Singapore. On the island of Bintang, the most northerly of the group, there were about 1,250 gambier-plantations in 1854.

The plantations are often formed in clearings of the jungle, where they last for a few years and are then abandoned,[1282] owing to the impoverishment of the soil and the irrepressible growth of the lalang grass (Imperata Kœnigii P. de B.), which is more difficult to eradicate than even primæval jungle. It has been found profitable to combine with the cultivation of gambier that of pepper, for which the boiled leaves of the gambier form an excellent manure.

The gambier plants are allowed to grow 8 to 10 feet high, and as their foliage is always in season, each plant is stripped 3 or 4 times in the year. The apparatus and all that belongs to the manufacture of the extract are of the most primitive description.[1283] A shallow cast-iron pan about 3 feet across is built into an earthen fireplace. Water is poured into the pan, a fire is kindled, and the leaves and young shoots, freshly plucked, are scattered in, and boiled for about an hour. At the end of this time they are thrown on to a capacious sloping trough, the lower end of which projects into the pan, and squeezed with the hand so that the absorbed liquor may run back into the boiler. The decoction is then evaporated to the consistence of a thin syrup, and baled out into buckets. When sufficiently cool it is subjected to a curious treatment:—instead of simply stirring it round, the workman pushes a stick of soft wood in a sloping direction into each bucket; and placing two such buckets before him, he works a stick up and down in each. The liquid thickens round the stick, and the thickened portion being constantly rubbed off, while at the same the whole is in motion, it gradually sets into a mass, a result which the workman affirms would never be produced by simple stirring round. Though we are not prepared to concur in the workman’s opinion, it is reasonable to suppose that his manner of treating the liquor favours the crystallization of the catechin in a more concrete form than it might otherwise assume. The thickened mass, which is said by another writer to resemble soft yellowish clay, is now placed in shallow square boxes, and when somewhat hardened is cut into cubes and dried in the shade. The leaves are boiled a second time, and finally washed in water, which water is saved for another operation.

From informations obtained in 1878 it would appear that now the prevailing part of gambier is made by means of pressure into blocks.

A plantation with five labourers contains on an average 70,000 to 80,000 shrubs, and yields 40 to 50 catties (1 catty = 1⅓ lb. = 604·8 grammes) of gambier daily.

Description—Gambier is an earthy-looking substance of light brown hue, consisting of cubes about an inch each side, more or less agglutinated, or it is in the form of entirely compact masses. The cubes are externally of a reddish-brown and compact, internally of a pale cinnamon hue, dry, porous, friable, devoid of odour, but with a bitterish astringent taste, becoming subsequently sweetish. Under the microscope, the cubes of gambier are seen to consist of very small acicular crystals.

Chemical Composition—In a chemical point of view, gambier agrees with cutch, especially with the pale variety made in Northern India (p. 242). Both substances consist mainly of Catechin,[1284] which may be obtained in the hydrated state as slender colourless needles, by exhausting gambier with cold water, and crystallizing the residue from 3 or 4 parts of hot water, which on cooling deposits nearly all the catechin. Ferric chloride strikes with the solution of catechin, even when much diluted, a green tint. If it is shaken with ferrous sulphate and an extremely small quantity of bicarbonate of sodium, a violet colour makes its appearance. The same reactions are produced by various substances of the tannic class.

The yellowish colouring matter of gambier was determined by Hlasiwetz (1867) and Löwe (1873) to be Quercetin, which is also a constituent of cutch. Quercetin is but very sparingly soluble in water, yet it is nevertheless found, in small quantity, in the aqueous extract of cutch, from which it may be removed by means of ether. As many species of Nauclea contain, according to De Vry,[1285] Quinovic Acid, it is probable that that substance may be detected in gambier.

Some fine gambier in regular cubes which we incinerated left 2·6 per cent. of ash, consisting mainly of carbonates of calcium and magnesium.

Commerce—Singapore, which is the great emporium for gambier, exported in 1871 no less than 34,248 tons, of which quantity 19,550 tons had been imported into the colony chiefly from Rhio and the Malayan Peninsula.[1286] In 1876 the export had increased to more than 50,000 tons of pressed block gambier and 2,700 tons of cubes. In 1877 it diminished to 39,117 tons, owing to difficulties which had arisen between the Chinese dealers, who supplied the drug in a rather wet state, and the European exporters. Of the above quantity 21,607 tons were shipped for London, 7,572 for Liverpool, 2,345 for Marseilles. Gambier usually fetches a lower price[1287] in the London market than cutch.

The quantity imported into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 21,155 tons, value £451,737, almost the whole being from the Straits Settlements.

Uses—Gambier, under the name of Catechu, is used medicinally as an astringent, but the quantity thus consumed is as nothing in comparison with that employed for tanning and dyeing.

CORTEX CINCHONÆ.

Botanical Origin—The genus Cinchona constitutes together with Cascarilla (including Buena and Cosmibuena), Remijia, Ladenbergia, Macrocnemum, and about 30 other nearly allied genera, the well-characterized tribe Cinchoneæ of the order Rubiaceæ. This tribe consists of shrubs or trees with opposite leaves, 2-celled ovary, capsular fruit, and numerous minute, vertical or ascending, peltate, winged, albuminous seeds.

(A.) Remarks on the genus.—The genus Cinchona is distinguished by deciduous stipules, flowers in terminal panicles, 5-toothed superior calyx, tubular corolla expanding into 5 lobes fringed at the margin. The corolla is of an agreeable weak odour, and of a rosy or purplish hue or white. The fruit is a capsule of ovoid or subcylindrical form, dehiscing from the base (the fruit-stalk also splitting) into two valves, which are held together at the apex by the thick permanent calyx. The seeds, 30 to 40 in number, are imbricated vertically; they are flat, winged all round by a broad membrane, which is very irregularly toothed or lacerated at the edge.

The Cinchonas are evergreen, with finely-veined leaves, traversed by a strong midrib. The thick leafstalk, often of a fine red, is sometimes a sixth the length of the whole leaf, but usually shorter. The leaves are ovate, obovate, or nearly circular; in some species lanceolate, rarely cordate, always entire, glabrous or more rarely hirsute, often variable as to size and form in the same species.

Among the valuable species, several are distinguished by small pits called scrobiculi, situated on the under side of the leaf, in the axils of the veins which proceed from the midrib. These pits sometimes exude an astringent juice. In some species they are replaced by tufts of hair. The young leaves are sometimes purplish on the under side; in several species the full-grown foliage assumes before falling, rich tints of crimson or orange.

The species of Cinchona are so much alike that their definition is a matter of the utmost difficulty, and only to be accomplished by resorting to a number of characters which taken singly are of no great importance. Individual species are moreover frequently connected together by well-marked and permanent intermediate forms, so that according to the expression of Howard, the whole form a continuous series, the terminal members of which are scarcely more sharply separated from the allied genera, than from plants of their own series.

As to the number and value of the species known, there is some diversity of view. Weddell, in 1870, enumerated 33 species and 18 sub-species, besides numerous varieties and sub-varieties. Bentham and Hooker, in 1873, estimated the species as about 36.

Kuntze, in the book quoted at the end of the present article, proposed to reduce all the species to the four following:

Kuntze, who has examined the living Cinchonæ as cultivated in India, is of the opinion that all the numerous forms hitherto observed, both in the wild plants and in cultivation, are merely either belonging to the above four species or deriving from them chiefly by hybridation. Though much in favour of a reduction of the species, we are not yet prepared to accept Kuntze’s arrangement.

(B.) Area, Climate and Soil.—The Cinchonas are natives of South America, where they occur exclusively on the western side of the continent between 10° N. lat. and 22° S. lat., an area which includes portions of Venezuela, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

The plants are found in the mountain regions, no species whatever being known to inhabit the low alluvial plains. In Peru and Bolivia, the region of the Cinchona forms a belt, 1300 miles in length, occupying the eastern slope of the Cordillera of the Andes.[1288] In Ecuador and New Granada, the tree is not strictly limited to the eastern slopes, but occurs on other of the Andine ranges.

The average altitude of the cinchoniferous region is given by Weddell as 5,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea-level. The highest limit, as noted by Karsten, is 11,000 feet. One valuable species, C. succirubra, occurs exceptionally as low as 2,600 feet. Generally, it may be said that the altitude of the Cinchona zone decreases in proportion as it recedes from the equator, and that the most valuable sorts are not found lower than 5,000 feet.

The climate of the tropical mountain regions in which the Cinchonas flourish, is extremely variable,—sunshine, showers, storms, and thick mist, alternating in rapid succession, yet with no very great range of temperature. A transient depression of the thermometer even to the freezing point, and not unfrequent hail-showers, may be borne without detriment by the more hardy species. Yet the mean temperature most favourable for the generality of species, appears to be 12 to 20° C. (54 to 68° F.)

Climatic agencies appear to influence the growth of Cinchona far more than the composition of the soil. Though the tree occurs in a great variety of geological formations, there is no distinct evidence that these conditions control in any marked manner either the development of the tree or the chemical constitution of its bark. Manure on the other hand, though not increasing perceptibly luxuriance of growth, has a decided effect in augmenting the richness of the bark in alkaloids.[1289]

(C.) Species yielding officinal barks.—The Cinchona Barks of commerce are produced by about a dozen species; of these barks the greater number are consumed solely in the manufacture of quinine. Those admitted for pharmaceutical use are afforded by the following species:—

1. Cinchona officinalis Hooker[1290]—A native of Ecuador and Peru, existing under several varieties. It forms a large tree, having lanceolate or ovate leaves, usually pointed, glabrous, and shining on the upper surface, and scrobiculate on the under. The flowers are small, pubescent and in short lax panicles, and are succeeded by oblong or lanceolate capsules, ½ an inch or more in length.

2. C. Calisaya Weddell—Discovered by Weddell in 1847,[1291] although its bark had been an object of commerce since the latter half of the previous century.

The tree inhabits the warmest woods of the declivities which border the valleys of Bolivia and South-eastern Peru, at an altitude of 5000 to 6000 feet above the sea-level. More precisely, the chief localities for the tree are the Bolivian provinces of Enquisivi, Yungas de la Paz, Larecaja or Sorata, Caupolican or Apolobamba, and Muñecas: thence it passes northward into the Peruvian province of Carabaya, suddenly ceasing on the confines of the valley of Sandia, although, as Weddell observed, the adjacent valleys are to all appearance precisely similar.

When well grown, C. Calisaya has a trunk often twice as thick as a man’s body, and a magnificent crown of foliage overtopping all other trees of the forest. It has ovate capsules of about the same length (½ an inch) as the elegant pinkish flowers, which are in large pyramidal panicles. The leaves are 3 to 6 inches long, of very variable form, but usually oblong and obtuse, rarely acute.

A variety named after Joseph de Jussieu who first noticed it, β. Josephiana, but known in the country as Ichu-Cascarilla or Cascarilla del Pajonal, differs from the preceding in that it is a shrub, 6 to 10 feet high, growing on the borders of mountain meadows and of thickets in the same regions as the larger form.

Other forms known in Bolivia as Calisaya zamba, morada, verde or alta, and blanca, have been distinguished by Weddell as varieties of C. Calisaya.

Towards the middle of the year 1865, Charles Ledger, an English traveller, obtained seeds of a superior Cinchona, which had been collected near Pelechuco, eastwards of the lake Titicaca, about 68° W. long. and 15° S. lat., in the Bolivian province of Caupolican. In the same year the seeds arrived in England, but were subsequently sold to the Dutch government, and raised with admirable success in Java, and a little later also in private plantations in British India. The bark of “Cinchona Ledgeriana” has since proved by far the most productive in quinine of all Cinchona Barks. The tree is a mere form of C. Calisaya.[1292]

3. C. succirubra Pavon,[1293]—a magnificent tree, 50 to 80 feet high, formerly growing in all the valleys of the Andes which debouch in the plain of Guayaquil. The tree is now almost entirely confined to the forests of Guaranda on the western declivities of Chimborazo, at 2,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the sea.

The bark appears to have been appreciated in its native country at an early period, if we may conclude that the Red Bark mentioned by La Condamine in 1737 was that under notice. It would seem, however, to have scarcely reached Europe earlier than the second half of the last century.[1294] The tree has broadly oval leaves, attaining about a foot in length, nearly glabrous above, pubescent beneath, large terminal panicles of rosy flowers, succeeded by oblong capsules 1 to 1¼ inches long.

The other species of Cinchona, the bark of which is principally consumed by the manufacturers of quinine, will be found briefly noticed, together with the foregoing, in the conspectus at page 355.

History—The early native history of Cinchona is lost in obscurity. No undoubted proofs have been handed down, to show that the aborigines of South America had any acquaintance with the medicinal properties of the bark. But traditions are not wanting.

William Arrot,[1295] a Scotch surgeon who visited Peru in the early part of the last century, states that the opinion then current at Loxa was that the qualities and use of the barks of Cinchona were known to the Indians before any Spaniard came among them. Condamine, as well as Jussieu, heard the same statements, which appear to have been generally prevalent at the close of the 17th century.

It is noteworthy, on the other hand, that though the Peruvians tenaciously adhere to their traditional customs, they make no use at the present day of Cinchona bark, but actually regard its employment with repugnance.

Humboldt[1296] declares that at Loxa the natives would rather die than have recourse to what they consider so dangerous a remedy. Pöppig[1297] (1830) found a strong prejudice to prevail among the people of Huanuco against Cinchona as a remedy for fevers, and the same fact was observed farther north by Spruce[1298] in 1861. The latter traveller narrates, that it was impossible to convince the cascarilleros of Ecuador that their Red Bark could be wanted for any other purpose than dyeing cloth; and that even at Guayaquil there was a general dislike to the use of quinine.

Markham[1299] notices the curious fact that the wallets of the native itinerant doctors, who from father to son have plied their art since the days of the Incas, never contain cinchona bark.

Although Peru was discovered in 1513, and submitted to the Spanish yoke by the middle of the century, no mention has been found of the febrifuge bark with which the name of the country is connected, earlier than the commencement of the 17th century.

Joseph de Jussieu,[1300] who visited Loxa in 1739, relates that the use of the remedy was first made known to a Jesuit missionary, who being attacked by intermittent fever, was cured by the bark administered to him by an Indian cacique at Malacotas, a village near Loxa. The date of this event is not given. The same story is related of the Spanish corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan Lopez Canizares, who is said to have been cured of fever in 1630.

Eight years later, the wife of the viceroy of Peru, Luis Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera y Bobadilla, fourth count of Chinchon, having been attacked with fever, the same corregidor of Loxa sent a packet of powdered bark to her physician Juan de Vega, assuring him of its efficacy in the treatment of “tertiana.” The drug fully bore out its reputation, and the countess Ana was cured.[1301] Upon her recovery, she caused to be collected large quantities of the bark, which she used to give away to those sick of fever, so that the medicine came to be called Polvo de la Condesa, i.e. The Countess’ Powder. It was certainly known in Spain the following year (1639), when it was first tried at Alcala de Henares near Madrid.[1302]

The introduction of Peruvian Bark into Europe is described by Chifflet, physician to the archduke Leopold of Austria, viceroy of the Netherlands and Burgundy, in his Pulvis Febrifugus Orbis Americani ventilatus, published at Brussels in 1653 (or 1651?). He says that among the wonders of the day, many reckon the tree growing in the kingdom of Peru, which the Spaniards call Polo de Calenturas, i.e. Lignum febrium. Its virtues reside chiefly in the bark, which is known as China febris, and which taken in powder drives off the febrile paroxysms. He further states, that during the last few years the bark has been imported into Spain, and thence sent to the Jesuit Cardinal Joannes de Lugo at Rome.[1303] Chifflet adds, that it has been carried from Italy to Belgium by the Jesuit Fathers going to the election of a general, but that it was also brought thither direct from Peru by Michael Belga, who had resided some years at Lima.

Chifflet, though candidly admitting the efficacy of the new drug when properly used, was not a strong advocate for it; and his publication started an acrimonious controversy, in which Honoratius Faber, a Jesuit (1655), Fonseca, physician to Pope Innocent X., Sebastiano Bado[1304] of Genoa (1656 and 1663), and Sturm (1659) appeared in defence of the febrifuge; while Plempius (1655), Glantz, an imperial physician of Ratisbon (1653), Godoy, physician to the king of Spain (1653), René Moreau (1655), Arbinet and others contended in an opposite sense.

From one of these disputants, Roland Sturm, a doctor of Louvain, who wrote in 1659,[1305] we learn that four years previously, some of the new febrifuge had been sent by the archduke Leopold to the Spanish ambassador at the Hague, and that he (Sturm) had been required to report upon it. He further states, that the medicine was known in Brussels and Antwerp as Pulvis Jesuiticus, because the Jesuit Fathers were in the habit of administering it gratis to indigent persons suffering from quartan fever; but that it was more commonly called Pulvis Peruanus or Peruvianam Febrifugum. At Rome it bore the name of Pulvis eminentissimi Cardinalis de Lugo, or Pulvis patrum; the Jesuits at Rome received it from the establishments of their order in Peru, and used to give it away to the poor in Cardinal de Lugo’s palace. In 1658 Sturm saw 20 doses sent to Paris which cost 60 florins. He gives a copy of the handbill[1306] of 1651 which the apothecaries of Rome used to distribute with the costly powder.

The drug began to be known in England about 1655.[1307] The Mercurius Politicus one of the earliest English newspapers, contains in several of its numbers for 1658,[1308] a year remarkable for the prevalence in England of an epidemic remittent fever, advertisements offering for sale—“the excellent powder known by the name of the Jesuit’s Powder”—brought over by James Thomson, merchant of Antwerp.

Brady, professor of physic at Cambridge, prescribed bark about this time; and in 1660, Willis, a physician of great eminence, reported it as coming into daily use. This is also evidenced, with regard to the continent, by the pharmaceutical tariffs of the cities of Leipzig and Frankfurt of the year 1669, where “China Chinæ” has a place. ⅛ of an ounce (a “quint”) is quoted in the latter at 50 kreuzers (about 1s. 6d.), whereas the same quantity of opium is valued at 4 kreuzers,[1309] camphor 2 kreuzers, balsam of Peru 8 kreuzers.

Among those who contributed powerfully to the diffusion of the new medicine, was Robert Talbor alias Tabor. In his “Pyretologia” (see Appendix, T.) he by no means intimates that his method of cure depends on the use of bark. On the contrary, he cautions his readers against the dangerous effects of Jesuit’s Powder when administered by unskilful persons, yet admits that, properly given, it is a “noble and safe medicine.”

Talbor’s reputation increasing, he was appointed in 1678 physician in ordinary to Charles II., and in 1679, the king being ill of tertian fever at Windsor, Talbor cured him by his secret remedy.[1310] He acquired similar favour in France, and upon Talbor’s death (1681), Louis XIV. ordered the publication of his method of cure, which accordingly appeared by Nicolas de Blegny, surgeon to the king.[1311] This was immediately translated into English, under the title of The English Remedy: or, Talbor’s Wonderful Secret for Cureing of Agues and Feavers.—Sold by the Author Sir Robert Talbor to the most Christian King and since his Death, ordered by his Majesty to be published in French, for the benefit of his subjects, and now translated into English for Publick Good (Lond. 1682).

Cinchona bark was now accepted into the domain of regular medicine, though its efficacy was by no means universally acknowledged. It first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia in 1677, under the name of Cortex Peruanus.

For the first accurate information on the botany of Cinchona, science is indebted to the French.[1312]

Charles-Marie de la Condamine, while occupied in common with Bouguer and Godin, as an astronomer from 1736 to 1743, in measuring the arc of a degree near Quito, availed himself of the opportunity to investigate the origin of the famous Peruvian Bark. On the 3rd and 4th of February, 1737, he visited the Sierra de Cajanuma, 2½ leagues from Loxa, and there collected specimens of the tree now known as Cinchona officinalis var. a. Condaminea. At that period the very large trees had already become rare, but there were still specimens having trunks thicker than a man’s body. Cajanuma was the home of the first cinchona bark brought to Europe; and in early times it enjoyed such a reputation, that certificates drawn up before a notary were provided as proof that parcels of bark were the produce of that favoured locality.

Joseph de Jussieu, botanist to the French expedition with which La Condamine was connected, gathered, near Loxa in 1739, a second Cinchona subsequently named by Vahl C. pubescens, a species of no medicinal value.

In 1742 Linnæus established the genus Cinchona,[1313] and in 1753 first described the species C. officinalis, recently restored and exactly characterized by Hooker, aided by specimens supplied to him by Mr. Howard.

The cinchona trees were believed to be confined to the region around Loxa, until 1752 when Miguel de Santisteban, superintendent of the mint at Santa Fé, discovered some species in the neighbourhood of Popayan and Pasto.

In 1761 José Celestino Mutis, physician to the Marquis de la Vega, viceroy of New Granada, arrived at Carthagena from Cadiz, and immediately set about collecting materials for writing a Flora of the country. This undertaking he carried on with untiring energy, especially from the year 1782 until the end of his life in 1808,—first for seven years at Real del Sapo and Mariquita at the foot of the Cordillera de Quindiu, and subsequently at Santa Fé de Bogotá. Mutis gave up his medical appointment in 1772, for the purpose of entering a religious order, and ten years later was entrusted by the Government with the establishment and direction of a large museum of natural history, first at Mariquita, afterwards at Santa Fé.

A position similar to that of Mutis in New Granada had also been conferred in 1777 on the botanists Hipolito Ruiz and José Pavon with regard to southern Peru, whence originated the well-known Flora Peruviana et Chilensis,[1314] as well as most important direct contributions to our knowledge on the subject of Cinchona.

About the same time (1776), Renquizo (Renquifo or Renjifo) found cinchona trees in the neighbourhood of Huanuco, in the central tract of Peru, whereby the monopoly of the district of Loxa was soon broken up.

Numerous and important quinological discoveries were subsequently made by Mutis, or rather by his pupils Caldas, Zea, and Restrepo,[1315] as well as on the other hand by Ruiz and Pavon, and their successors Tafalla and Manzanilla. Mutis did not bring his labours to any definite conclusion, and his extensive botanical collections and 5,000 coloured drawings, were sent to Madrid only in 1817, and there remained in a lamentable state of neglect.

Some of his observations first appeared in print in 1793-94, under the title of El Arcano de la Quina in the Diario, a local paper of Santa Fé, and were reprinted at Madrid in 1828 by Don Manuel Hernandez de Gregorio. The botanical descriptions of the cinchonas of New Granada, forming the fourth part of the Arcano, remained forgotten and lost to science until rescued by Markham and published in 1867.[1316] The drawings belonging to the descriptions were photographed and engraved a little later, and form part of Triana’s Nouvelles Etudes sur les Quinquinas, which appeared in 1870.

The two Peruvian botanists succeeded somewhat better in securing their results. Ruiz in 1792, in his Quinologia,[1317] and in 1801 conjointly with Pavon in a supplement thereto, brought together a portion of their important labours relating to cinchona. But an essential part called Nueva Quinologia,[1318] written between 1821 and 1826, remained unpublished; and after an oblivion of over thirty years, it came by purchase into the hands of Mr. John Eliot Howard, who published it, and with rare liberality enriched it with 27 magnificent coloured plates, mostly taken from the very specimens of Pavon lying in the herbarium of Madrid.

Between the pupils of Mutis on the one hand, and those of Ruiz and Pavon on the other, there arose an acrimonious controversy regarding their respective discoveries, which has been equitably summarized by Triana in the work just mentioned.

Production—The hardships of bark-collecting in the primeval forests of South America are of the severest kind, and undergone only by the half-civilized Indians and people of mixed race, in the pay of speculators or companies located in the towns. Those who are engaged in the business, especially the collectors themselves, are called Cascarilleros or Cascadores, from the Spanish word Cascara, bark. A major-domo at the head of the collectors directs the proceedings of the several bands in the forest itself, where provisions and afterwards the produce are stowed away in huts of slight construction.

Arrot in 1736, and Weddell and Karsten in our own day, have given from personal observation a striking picture of these operations.

The cascarillero having found his tree, has usually to free its stem from the luxuriant climbing and parasitic plants with which it is encircled. This done, he begins in most cases at once to remove, after a previous beating, the sapless layer of outer bark. In order to detach the valuable inner bark, longitudinal and transverse incisions are made as high as can be reached on the stem. The tree is then felled, and the peeling completed. In most cases, but especially if previously beaten, the bark separates easily from the wood. In many localities it has to be dried by a fire made on the floor of a hut, the bark being placed on hurdles above,—a most imperfect arrangement. In Southern Peru and Bolivia however, according to Weddell, even the thickest Calisaya bark is dried in the sun without requiring the aid of the fire.

The thinner bark as it dries rolls up into tubes or quills called canutos or canutillos, while the pieces stripped from the trunks are made to dry flat by being placed one upon another and loaded with weights, and are then known as plancha or tabla. The bark of the root was formerly neglected, but is now in several instances brought into the market.

After drying, the barks are either assorted, chiefly according to size, or all are packed without distinction in sacks or bales. In some places, as at Popayan, the bark is even stamped, in order to reduce its bulk as much as possible. The dealers in the export towns enclose the bark in serons[1319] of raw bullock-hide, which, contracting as it dries, tightly compresses the contents (100 lb. or more) of the package. In many places however wooden chests are used for the packing of bark.

Conveyance to the Coast and Commercial Statistics—The ports to which bark is conveyed for shipment to Europe are not very numerous.

Guayaquil on the Pacific coast is the most important for produce of Ecuador. The quantity shipped thence in 1871 was 7,859 quintals.[1320] Pitayo bark is largely exported from Buenaventura in the Bay of Choco further north.

Payta, the most northerly port of Peru, and Callao, the port of Lima, likewise export bark, the latter being the natural outlet for the barks of Central Peru from Huanuco to Cusco.

Islay, and more particularly Arica, receive the valuable barks of Carabaya and of the high valleys of Bolivia. In 1877 the export of Arica was equal to 5100 cwt.

The barks of Peru and Bolivia find an exceptional outlet also by the Amazon and its tributaries, and are shipped to Europe from port of Brazil. Howard[1321] has given an interesting account of one of the first attempts to utilize this eastern route, made by Senr. Pedro Rada in 1868.

There is a large export of the barks of New Granada, principally from Santa Marta, whence the shipments[1322] in 1871 were 3,415,149 lb.; and in 1872, 2,758,991 lb. From the neighbouring port of Savanilla, which represents the city of Barranquilla, the sea-terminus of the navigation of the Magdalena, the export of bark in 1871 was 1,043,835 lb., value £38,715;[1323] it amounted to 2 millions of kilogrammes in 1877. All Columbia is stated, in 1877, to have shipped 3½ millions of kilogrammes of bark; yet a good deal of the excellent barks of the Columbian State of Santander, especially those of the neighbourhood of Bucaramanga, find their way to Maracaibo, taking the name of that place.

Some Cinchona bark is also shipped from Venezuela by way of Puerto Cabello.

The quantity of bark appearing in the Annual Statement of Trade as “Peruvian Bark” imported into the United Kingdom in 1872, was 28,451 cwt., valued £285,620; of which 11,843 cwt. was shipped from New Granada, 4,668 cwt. from Ecuador, and 5,829 cwt. from Peru, the remainder being entered as from the ports of Chili, Brazil, Central America and other countries. The imports into the United Kingdom in 1876 were 26,021 cwt., valued at £272,154.

Cultivation—The reckless system of bark-cutting in the forests of South America, which has resulted in the utter extermination of the tree from many localities, has aroused the attention of the Old World, and has at length prompted serious efforts to cultivate the tree on a large scale in other countries.

The idea of cultivating Cinchonas out of their native regions was advanced by Ruiz in 1792, and by Fée of Strassburg in 1824.[1324] Royle[1325] pointed out in 1839 that suitable localities for the purpose might be found in the Neilgherry Hills and probably in many other parts of India, and argued indefatigably in favour of the introduction of the tree.

The subject was also urged in reference to Java in 1837 by Fritze, director of medical affairs in that island; in 1846 by Miquel, and subsequently by other Dutch botanists and chemists.[1326]

Living Cinchonas had been taken to Algeria as early as 1849, by the intervention of the Jesuits of Cusco, but their cultivation met with no success.

Weddell in 1848 brought cinchona seeds from South America to France, and strenuously insisted on the importance of cultivating the plant. His seeds, especially those of C. Calisaya, germinated at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and in June 1850, living seedlings were sent to Algeria; and in April 1852, through the Dutch Government, to Java.

The first important attempts at cinchona cultivation were made by the Dutch. Under the auspices of the Colonial Minister Pahud, afterwards Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, the botanist Hasskarl was despatched to Peru for the purpose of obtaining seeds and plants. His mission was so far successful, that a collection of plants contained in 21 Wardian cases, was shipped in August 1854 from Callao, in a frigate sent expressly to receive them. Notwithstanding every care, the plants did not reach Java in good condition; and when Hasskarl resigned his appointment in 1856, he bequeathed to his successor Junghuhn only 167 young cinchonas, though 400 specimens had been shipped from South America.

An impulse to the project of cinchona-planting was given in 1852 by Royle, in a report addressed to the East India Company, in which he pointed out that the Government of India were then spending more than £7,000 a year for Cinchona bark, in addition to about £25,000 for quinine.[1327]

After some unsatisfactory endeavours on the part of the British Government to obtain plants and seeds through the intervention of H. M. Consuls in South America, Mr. Markham offered his services, which were accepted. Markham, though not a professed botanist, was well qualified for the task by a previous acquaintance with the country and people of Peru and Bolivia, and by a knowledge of the Spanish and Quichua languages,—and even more so by a rare amount of zeal, intelligence, and forethought. Being fully aware of the difficulties of the undertaking, he earnestly insisted that nothing should be neglected which could ensure success; and in particular made repeated demands for a steam-vessel to convey the young plants across the Pacific to India, which unfortunately were not complied with. He further urged the desirableness of not confining operations to a single district, but of endeavouring to procure by different collectors all the more valuable species.

The prudence of this latter suggestion was evident, and Markham was enabled to engage the services of Richard Spruce, the distinguished botanist, then resident in Ecuador, who expressed his readiness to undertake a search for the Red Bark trees (C. succirubra) in the forests of Chimborazo. He also secured the co-operation of G. J. Pritchett for the neighbourhood of Huanuco, and of two skilful gardeners, John Weir and Robert Cross. The last named was employed in 1861 to procure seeds of C. officinalis from the Sierra de Cajanuma near Loxa, and in 1868-64 those of C. pitayensis from the province of Pitayo in Ecuador.[1328]

Markham reserved for himself the border-lands of Peru and Bolivia, in order to obtain C. Calisaya; and for this purpose started from Islay in March 1860. Arriving in the middle of April by way of Arequipa and Puno, at Curcero, the capital of the province of Carabaya, he made his way to the village of Sandia, near which he met with the first specimens of Cinchona in the form of the shrubby variety of C. Calisaya, termed Josephiana. He afterwards found the better variety a. vera, and also C. ovata R. et P., C. micrantha R. et P., and C. pubescens Vahl. Of these sorts, but chiefly of the first three, 456 plants were shipped at Islay in June 1860.

In consequence of the hostile attitude of the people, and the jealousy of the Bolivian Government, lest an important monopoly should be broken up, added to the difficulties arising from insalubrious climate and the want of roads, the obstacles encountered by Markham were very great, and no attempt could be made to wait for the ripening of the seeds of the Calisaya, which takes place in the month of August.[1329]

The expedition of Spruce was successful, but was also attended with much difficulty and danger, of which there are vivid pictures in the interesting narratives by himself and by Cross, published in the Parliamentary Returns of 1863 and 1866.[1330]

The service entrusted, to Pritchett was also efficiently performed; and he succeeded in bringing to Southampton six cases containing plants of C. micrantha and C. nitida, besides a large supply of seeds.

Some important supplies of plants and seed for British India have likewise been obtained from the Dutch plantations in Java. Seeds of C. lancifolia, the tree affording the valuable bark of New Granada, were procured through Dr. Karsten.

Previously to the arrival in India of the first consignment of plants, careful inquiries were instituted from a meteorological and geological point of view, as to the localities most adapted for the cultivation. This resulted in the selection for the first trial of certain spots among the Neilgherry (or Nilgiri) Hills on the south-west coast of India and in the Madras Presidency. Of this district, the chief town is Ootocamund (or Utakamand), situated about 60 miles south of Mysore and the same distance from the Indian Ocean. Here the first plantation was established in a woody ravine, 7,000 feet above the sea-level, a spot pronounced by Mr. Markham to be exceedingly analogous, as respects vegetation and climate, to the Cinchona valleys of Carabaya. Other plantations were formed in the same neighbourhood, and so rapid was the propagation, that in September 1866, there were more than 1½ millions of Cinchona plants on the Neilgherry Hills alone.[1331] The species that grows best there is C. officinalis.

The number was stated to be in 1872, 2,639,285, not counting the trees of private planters. The largest are about 30 feet high, with trunks over 3 feet in girth. The area of the Government plantations on the Neilgherry Hills is 950 acres.[1332]

Plantations have also been made in the coffee-producing districts of Wynaad, and in Coorg, Travancore and Tinnevelly, in all instances, we believe, as private speculations.

Cinchona plantations have been established by the Government of India in the valleys of the Himalaya in British Sikkim,[1333] and some have been started in the same region by private enterprise. In the former there were on the 31st March 1870, more than 1½ millions of plants permanently placed, the species growing best being C. succirubra and C. Calisaya. The Cinchona plantation of Rungbi near Darjiling (British Sikkim) covered in 1872 2,000 acres. In the Kangra valley of the Western Himalaya, plantations have been commenced, as well as in the Bombay Presidency, and in British Burma.

Ceylon offers favourable spots for the cultivation of Cinchona, in the mountain region which occupies the centre of the island, as at Hakgalle, near Neuera-Ellia, 5,000 feet above the sea, where a plantation was formed by Government in 1861. The production of bark has been taken up with spirit by the coffee-planters of Ceylon.

The Government of India has acted with the greatest liberality in distributing plants and seeds of Cinchona, and in promoting the cultivation of the tree among the people of India; and it has freely granted supplies of seed to other countries.

The plantations of Java commenced by Hasskarl, increased under Junghuhn’s management to such an extent, that in December 1862 there were 1,360,000 seedlings and young trees, among which however the more valuable species, as C. Calisaya, C. lancifolia, C. micrantha and C. succirubra, were by far the least numerous, whereas C. Pahudiana, of which the utility was by no means well established, amounted to over a million. The disproportionate multiplication of this last was chiefly due to its quickly yielding an abundance of seeds, and to its rapid and vigorous growth. Another defect in the early Dutch System of cultivation arose from the notion that the Cinchona requires to be grown in the shade of other trees, and to a less successful plan of multiplying by cuttings and layers.

These and other matters were the source of animated and often bitter discussions, which terminated on the one hand by the death of Junghuhn in 1864, and on the other by the skilful investigations of De Vry. This eminent chemist was despatched by the Government of Holland in 1857 to Java, that he might devote his chemical knowledge to the investigation of the natural productions of the island, including the then newly introduced Cinchona. It was March 16th, 1859, when Dr. de Vry laid before the governor-general, Mr. Pahud, the first crystals of sulphate of quinine he had prepared from bark grown in that island.

Under K. W. van Gorkom, who was appointed superintendent in 1864, the Dutch plantations have assumed a very prosperous state. J. C. Bernelot Moens,[1334] the present director, stated that at the end of 1878 the leading species was Calisaya in its various forms, including more than 400,000 plants of Ledger’s Calisaya. Numerous analyses of Bernelot Moens show a percentage of from 4½ to 10·6 of quinine in the latter variety. Some of them, however, in December 1878, afforded not more than 0·64 per cent. of quinine and 1·26 of cinchonidine.

The regular shipments of the barks from Java to the Amsterdam market are going on, and the barks are sold there with regard to the results of the government chemist’s analyses.

Cinchona Bark from the Indian plantations began to be brought into the London market in 1867,[1335] and now arrives in constantly increasing quantities.

The history of the transplantation of the Cinchona down to the year 1867 has been made the subject of the report of Soubeiran and Delondre mentioned at the end of the present article.

Description—(A.) Of Cinchona Barks generally—In the development of their bark, the various species of Cinchona exhibit considerable diversity. Many are distinguished from an early stage by an abundant exfoliation of the outer surface, while in others this takes place to a smaller degree, or only as the bark becomes old. The external appearance of the bark varies therefore very much, by reason of the greater or less development of the suberous coat. The barks of young stems and branches have a greyish tint more or less intense, while the outer bark of old wood displays the more characteristic shades of brown or red, especially after removal of the corky layers.

In the living bark, these colours are very pale, and only acquire their final hue by exposure to the air, and drying. Some of them however are characteristic of individual species, or at least of certain groups, so that the distinctions originated by the bark-collectors of pale, yellow, red, etc.[1336] and adopted by druggists, are not without reason.

In texture, the barks vary in an important manner by reason of diversity in anatomical structure. Their fracture especially depends upon the number, size, and arrangement of the liber-fibres, as will be shown in our description of their microscopic characters.

The taste in all species is bitter and disagreeable, and in some there is in addition a decided astringency. Most species have no marked odour, at least in the dried state. But this is not the case in that of C. officinalis, the smell of which is characteristic.

(B.) Of the Barks used in pharmacy—For pharmaceutical preparations as distinguished from the pure alkaloids and their salts, the Cinchona barks employed are chiefly of three kinds.

1. Pale Cinchona Bark, Loxa Bark, Crown Bark[1337]—This bark, which previous to the use of Quinine and for long afterwards, was the ordinary Peruvian Bark of English medicine, is only found in the form of quills, which are occasionally as much as a foot in length, but are more often only a few inches or are reduced to still smaller fragments. The quills are from ¾ down to an ⅛ of an inch in diameter, often double, and variously twisted and shrunken. The thinnest bark is scarcely stouter than writing paper; the thickest may be ⅒ of an inch or more.[1338] The pieces have a blackish brown or dark greyish external surface, variously blotched with silver-grey, and often beset with large and beautiful lichens. The surface of some of the quills is longitudinally wrinkled and moderately smooth; but in the majority it is distinctly marked by transverse cracks, and is rough and harsh to the touch. The inner side is closely striated and of a bright yellowish-brown.

The bark breaks easily with a fracture which exhibits very short fibres on the inner side. It has a well-marked odour sui generis, and an astringent bitter taste. Though chiefly afforded by C. officinalis, some other species occasionally contribute to furnish the Loxa Bark of commerce as shown in the conspectus at p. 355.

2. Calisaya Bark, Yellow Cinchona Bark.[1339]—This bark, which is the most important of those commonly used in medicine, is found in flat pieces (α.), and in quills (β.), both afforded by C. Calisaya Wedd., though usually imported separated.

α. Flat Calisaya—is in irregular flat pieces, a foot or more in length by 3 to 4 inches wide, but usually smaller, and ²/₁₀ to ⁴/₁₀ of an inch in thickness; devoid of suberous layers and consisting almost solely of liber, of uniform texture, compact and ponderous. Its colour is a rusty orange-brown, with darker stains on the outer surface. The latter is roughened with shallow longitudinal depressions, sometimes called digital furrows.[1340] The inner side has a wavy, close, fibrous texture. The bark breaks transversely with a fibrous fracture; the fibres of the broken ends are very short, easily detached, and with a lens are seen to be many of them faintly yellowish and translucent.

A well-marked variety, known as Bolivian Calisaya, is distinguished for its greater thinness, closer texture, and for containing numerous laticiferous ducts which are wanting in common flat Calisaya bark.

β. Quill Calisaya—is found in tubes ¾ to 1½ inch thick, often rolled up at both edges, thus forming double quills. They are always coated with a thick, rugged, corky layer, marked with deep longitudinal and transverse cracks, the edges of which are somewhat elevated. This suberous coat, which is silvery white or greyish, is easily detached, leaving its impression on the cinnamon-brown middle layer. The inner side is dark brown and finely fibrous. The transverse fracture is fibrous but very short. The same bark also occurs in quills of very small size, and is then not distinguishable with certainty from Loxa bark.

3. Red Cinchona Bark.—Though still retaining a place in the British Pharmacopœia, this is by far the least important of the Cinchona barks employed in pharmacy. But as the tree yielding it (C. succirubra) is now being cultivated on a large scale in India, the bark may probably come more freely into use.

Red Bark of large stems, which is the most esteemed kind, occurs in the form of flat or channelled pieces, sometimes as much as ½ an inch in thickness, coated with their suberous envelope which is rugged and warty. Its outermost layer in the young bark has a silvery appearance. The inner surface is close and fibrous and of a brick-red hue. The bark breaks with a short fibrous fracture.[1341]

(C.) Of the Barks not used in pharmacy—Among the non-officinal barks, the most important are afforded by Cinchona lancifolia Mutis and C. pitayensis Wedd., natives of the Cordilleras of Columbia.

These barks are largely imported and used for making quinine, the former under the name of Columbian, Carthagena, or Caqueta bark. It varies much in appearance, but is generally of an orange-brown; the corky coat, which scales off easily, is shining and whitish. The barks of C. lancifolia often occur in fine large quills or thick flattish pieces. Their anatomical structure agrees in all varieties which we have examined, in the remarkable number of thick-walled and tangentially-extended cells of the middle cortical layer and the medullary rays. In percentage of alkaloids, Carthagena barks are liable to great variation.

The Pitayo Barks are restricted to the south-western districts of Columbia,[1342] and are usually imported in short flattish fragments, or broken quills, of brownish rather than orange colour, mostly covered with a dull greyish or internally reddish cork. The middle cortical layer exhibits but few thick-walled cells; the liber is traversed by very wide medullary rays, and is provided with but a small number of widely scattered liber-fibres, which are rather thinner than in most other Cinchona barks. The Pitayo barks are usually rich in alkaloids, quinine prevailing. Cinchona pitayensis is one of the hardiest species of the valuable Cinchonas, and is therefore particularly suitable for cultivation, which however has not yet been carried out as largely as that of either C. officinalis or C. succirubra.

In the Conspectus on the next page, we have arranged the principal species of Cinchona, with short indications of the barks which some of them afford.[1343]

Microscopic Structure—The first examination of the minute structure of Cinchona barks is due to Weddell, whose observations have been recorded in one of his beautiful plates published in 1849.[1344] Since that time numerous other observers have laboured in the same field of research.

General Characters.—These barks, as contrasted with those of other trees, do not exhibit any great peculiarities of structure; and their features may be comprehended in the following statements. The epidermis, in the anatomical sense, occurs only in the youngest barks, which are not found in commerce. The corky layer, which replaces the epidermis, is constructed of the usual tabular cells. In some species as C. Calisaya, it separates easily, at least in the older bark, whereas in others as C. succirubra, the bark even of trunks is always coated with it. In several species the corky tissue is not only found on the surface, but strips of it occur also in the inner substance of the bark. In this case the portions of tissue external to the inner corky layers or bands are thrown off as bork-scales (periderm of Weddell). This peculiar form of suberous tissue[1345] was first examined (not in cinchona) in 1845 by H. von Mohl, who called it rhytidoma (Borke of the Germans). In C. Calisaya it is of constant occurrence, but not so usually in C. succirubra and some others; the rhytidoma therefore affords a good means of distinguishing several barks.

The inner portion of the bark exhibits a middle or primary layer (mesophlœum),[1346] made up of parenchyme; and a second inner layer or liber (endophlœum)[1347] displaying a much more complicated structure. The primary layer disappears if rhytidoma is formed: barks in which this is the case are therefore at last exclusively composed of liber, of which Flat Calisaya Bark is a good example.

CONSPECTUS OF THE PRINCIPAL
SPECIES OF CINCHONA.