The Indian: of Peru call the cinchona-trees 'king,' whence are derived the names 'china.' 'quina,' etc. It is not certain that they knew the use of the bark before the arrival of the It is a medicine of great value in the cure of intermittent fevers (q.v.), etc., and diseases attended with much febrile debility also in certain forms of neuralgia (q.v.). and other diseases of the nervous system. it seems to have been first imported into Europe in 1039 by the Countess del (Inchon or C1611(.11.111. the wife of the Viceroy of Peru. who had been cured of an obstinate intermittent fever by means of it. The Jesuit missionaries afterwards car ried it to Rome, and distributed it through their several stations, and thus it acquired the name of 'Jesuits' bark: Cardinal Juan de Lugo hav ing been particularly active in recmnmending and distributing it, it was also known as 'Car dinal de Lugo's powder.' It attained great celebrity in Spain and Italy, being sold at high prices by the Jesuits, by whom it was lauded as an infallible remedy. Its mode of action not being well understood. and the cases to Nv hien it was applicable not well defined, it seems, in the first instance, to have been employed with out due discrimination, and to have fallen very much into the hands of empiric,. Falling into disuse in Europe. it was again brought into notice by Sir Robert Talbor, or Talbot. an Eng lishman, who brought it to England in 1071. and acquired great celebrity through the cure of in termittent fevers by means of it, and from whom Louis XIV. purchased his Secret in 1682. A pound of hark at that time cost 100 louis (Pon Talbor seems to have had the acuteness to dis cern and systematically to avail 'himself of the healing virtues of the neglected Jesuits' bark, which he mixed with other substances, so as to conceal its taste and odor. Soon afterwards,
both Morton and Sydenham, the most celebrated English physicians of their time, adopted the new remedy; and its use, from this period, gradually extended, both in England and France. As it came into general rise. it became a most important article of export from Peru: Ina for a long time the value of the hark to be procured in Now Granada remained unknown, and in order to maintain a commercial monopoly, extraor dinary methods were employed to prevent it from becoming known at a comparatively recent period of Spanish rule in America. The discov ery of the alkaloids on which its properties chiefly depend was made early in the nineteenth century.
The chief active principles are the alkaloids. quinine. einehonine quinbline, cinehoni dine, and quinamine. Tiw proportion of the different alkaloids varies widely with the kind of bark and its age when taken from the tree. Some species produce a large amount of quinine and little of other alkaloids, and vice versa. Cinchona bark itself has in later times fallen into comparative disuse. owing to the discovery of the alkaloid quinine. which is now extensively in use in medicine in the forum of sulphate or disulphate of quinine, and is given in doses of from 1 to 20 grains in almost all the cases to which the bark was supposed to be ap plicable. For notes on the production. cultiva tion. etc.. of cinchona. consult: Mueller. Ext ra Tropical Plante (Melbourne. IS95) ; Markham, Pert:riga Bark (London, .ISSO) ; king. Manua( of rineh one Call (ration in ladies Caleut (a, La mbert, Dr-a-ript ion of the Geniis ('in !Amin (London, 1897) ; Kuutze. rhinchona: .n1uuographisohe Studio (Leipzig, 1878).