ROMANCE OF QUININE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 16

ROMANCE OF QUININE.

; VALUABLE MEDICINE FOR 300 YEARS. Respite the seten-league strides nf been Itnn’u qUlUwhose powers have oeen -know to civilisation for 300 years and sin U ! e le , atimg cul ' atlv e fo r malaria The r" a / iGV T Says au exchange). Ihe Countess of Chinchon wife of a V iceroy of Peru of the e aii y a rs or atelx Se !l| nte -H nth f ntUry ’ ,yin S tiesper. S; 1 mal «»a at Lima, de?ernnned to ta.re a native bark solution recommended by a subordinate official Wi have obtained the quinine balk fiom :: tribe of Incas. Unlike many unfortunate Spaniards in South Amencandommums, the Countess sur. store malaria attack. Soon the s . r .\ of her recovery spread. Jesuit missionaries got the bark from Indian t‘ ~‘ Ud t ? k i lt back ague-ridden ? r ”° pe ;, Judeed, it was first called naihfri> S ba - rk ’ and is sometimes called 1 eruvian bark to-day. Quinine’s properties made it as valuable as Inca gold. Once it sold at £4 an ounce, la-day the wo:;ld receives its quinine from Holland, not Peru, and the Dutch get-it from their mine of tropic wealth Java. Ninety-nine per cent, of quinine now comes from Java plateau groves. Quinine went to the front in 1914. Living in a damp trench is one of the world’s easiest ways to get fever. The Governments liberally supplied men on the line with quinine. They even ex-j horted them to take the medicine, j French posters contrasted the poilu who took quinine with the poilu who did not. The latter was the sickest-! looking individual imaginable,- with chest caved in, sallow- drawn cheeks, ominous circles under his eyes. The poilu who took his quinine wore a smile that told the world he was ‘‘fit as a fiddle,” as he stepped off down the street with his sweetheart on his arm In naming the t- ee from wh v h on in ine comes, the Countess of Chinchon was remembered. Linnaeus the Swedish botanist, who is resnonsiblo fo<- fch« Latin scientific names assigned to so many plants, labelled the cinchona tree, through an error in sped! in the Countess’s name. Cinchona is also the + ”afle name fo-- th" tree and hark row The cinchona tree is a seeker nf hioh altitudes. In Java, as in P/>vu. jt errows on sloops 3099 font to 90’°o r-,«c altoye sea level. where 't- can o-ef omnio rainfall. Oxidation of '->p-nl j n alkaloids iv the hartface a. brilliant red. JTioh .T.irn h'dsid.es are oftnn wift •'K- + <"* *-» **T7’r»rr r ) V t V» with oherrv bark, shiny erveen and, in blooming season, whi+e soms.