QUINET, EDGAR, a French author, was b. at Bourg, in the department of Ain, Feb. 17,1803, and studied at Lyon and Paris. He made his literary debut at the age of 20 by his Tablettes du Jeff Errant, afterwhich his love of philosophy and mystic reverie led him to Germany. He studied at Heidelberg, and on his return to France published a transla tion of Herder's ldeen zur Phdosophie der Gesehichte der Menschheit, so well executed that Cousin signalized it as le debut dun grand ecrivain. From this early period dates his intimate friendship with Michelet (q.v.), the result of a community of feeling and belief. Quinet was a member of the scientific commission sent to the Morea in 1828, and while there, gathered materials for his Grece Moderne et ses Rupports arse Antiquite (Par. 1830). Although nis political enthusiasm was extremely ardent, he continued unabated his literary labors, and became a contributor to the Revue des Deux Mondes, in which Ahasuerus, perhaps his finest work, first appeared. From 1839 to 1842 he held the chair of foreign literature at Lyon. where'his lectures on the ancient civilizations excited a profound interest. From this situation he passed to the chair of Litteratures Meridionales at the college of France, expressly instituted for him by M. Villemain; and here. in company with Michelet. he assailed the Jesuits with a keen, earnest, epigrammatic eloquence that startled the chiefs of that body, and made even the government nervous, who knew the peril of being exposed to their secret hostility. In 1846 Quinet was silenced. Ile threw himself eagerly into the reform agitation that brought about the revolution of 1848, and was elected a member of the constituent and legislative assemblies, where he always voted with the extreme left ; but was expelled from France after Dec. 2. On the fall of the empire Quinet returned to France, and was reinstalled in his chair at the college of France, Nov., 1870. In 1871 lie was elected a member of the assembly. He died in 1875. Among his chief works are Allemagne et italic (1839); Histoire de la Poesie Epique (1836-37); Le Genie dm Religions (1842); Les Jesuites, along with Miehelet (1843); Les .Wrolutions &Italie (1848); Merlin l'Enchanteur (1860): La Campagne de 1815 (1862). An edition of Quinct's CEutres Completes appeared in 1878.
Crjr,WIA, or QUININE, and the other CINCHONA ALKALOIDS. In the barks of the different varieties of cinchona which are employed in the treatment of disease, several alkaloids or organic bases occur iu combination with quinic and quinotannic acids. Of
these bases, the most important are quinia and cinchonia, each of which is accompanied by (or connected with) two isomeric bases, termed respectively quiiudine and guinicinc, and cinchonidine and cinchonicine; and besides these, a base termed aricinc cr cinchocatine occurs in the bark of cinchona °mita. We shall describe (1) the chemical characters, and (2) the therapeutic action of these alkaloids.
1. Quiaia (C4.1124,N20 4) is characterized by the following properties: It crystallizes with 0 atoms of water, in the form of silky needles, from an ethereal or alcoholic solu tion allowed to evaporate spontaneously in a cool place; but when thrown down from acid solutions, it forms a whit6 curdy precipitate. It is comparatively insoluble in water, requiring about 200 parts of boiling water for its solution, but dissolves readily in alcohol and in ether, and in water acidulated with a mineral acid-. It has an intensely bitter taste, which is chiefly perceived at the hack of the mouth; it has a well-marked alkaline reaction. It combines with acids, and forms both neutral and acid salts, most of which are capable of crystallization, and all of which possess its own bitter taste. Of these salts the acid ones are far the most soluble.
The most important of its salts is the neutral sulphate, represented by the formula C4„,11,Na04. II0,S03 + 7 Aq. (It was formerly termed the disulphate, till Strecker showed that the correct formula for quinia was C N 0 and not C NO 1 It _24_ 2 _ _ 20_12_ _ 2., _ _ crystallizes in long snow-white silky needles, sparingly soluble in water (yet imparting to it a peculiar bluish tint), but dissolving freely in diluted sulphuric acid and in alcohol. The acid sulphate, C4oll24N204, 2(HO,S03), is also crystallizable, and the crystals, when dried for some time at a temperature of 212', are phosphorescent. Its solution, or an acidulated solution of the former salt, exhibits the phenomena of .fluorescence (q.v.), in a striking manner. On heating a solution of sulphate of quinia with strong_ acetic acid. and adding, drop by drop, an alcoholic solution of iodine to the hot solution, we obtain crystals of a compound represented by the formula 10 Aq. These crystals, which are formed in large flat rectangular plates, present very remark able optical properties, polarizing light as perfectly as plates of tourmaline.