Flora Medica

CINCHONA.declaring not only that those species do not yield the barks employedin European practice, but that the bark they do yield is so inferior asto be valueless in pharmacy, a difference productive of no small embarrassmentto the merchant who imports barks for medical use. Evenin the mere physiological part of the question we have one writerasserting that bark of the best quality is obtained from the trunk andoldest branches of the Cinchona trees, and another as positivelyassuring us that " the bark of old trees, and especially those of thetrunk and larger branches form a sort of Quina Peruviana, much inferiorin efficacy to that from the suckers, and younger or middle-sizedbranches." As to Botanical differences regarding the distinctions ofspecies, the subject is if stillpossible more embroiled. Some writerswould have us believe that the Cinchonas form an exception to allknown rules, and that the most dissimilar trees, inhabiting the mostopposite climates, are either identical, or mere varieties of each other ;while others have maintained that the number of species is very considerable,and that the differences between them in structure areaccompanied by most important distinctions in the value of their bark.I need not say that under these circumstances it became necessaryto look at the genus Cinchona, in preparing an account of it for thiswork, with a much more critical eye than would have been necessaryhad the opinions and statements of writers been less conflicting.Fortunately there exists in this country more complete Botanicalevidence concerning the genus than in any other part of Europe. Myfriend and colleague Dr. A. T. Thomson, Professor of Materia Medicain University College, has a most extensive series of dried specimenstaken out of a Spanish prize during the war ;and Mr. Lambert is thefortunate possessor not only of a nearly complete set of the speciesdescribed in the Flora Peruviana, obtained from Madrid, but of severalunpublished species, and also of a MS. Compendia historico-medicocomerdal de las Quinas, from the pen of Don Hippolito Ruiz. All thesehave been unreservedly placed at my disposal for examination by their respectivepossessors, to whom I beg leave thus to offer my sincere thanks.Of course I have considered the question botanical not ly, pharmaceutically,except so far as to determine if possible the real origin of thebarks known in trade and used in the shops. Even this has obliged me toextend the account of the genus very much beyond the limits withinwhich I had wished to confine it in the present work ; but I have feltthat if I hoped my opinions to carry any weight with them, that resultcould only be obtained by showing in sufficient detail upon whatevidence they are founded. It has been my anxious wish to takethe most dispassionate view of the conflicting opinions that have necessarilybeen brought under consideration, and it is no little satisfactionto me to find that the result of my Botanical inquiries coincidesvery closely with the conclusions of the best modern pharmacologists.it appears to me that most of the confusion which has been introducedinto the history of the genus Cinchona, has arisen from theworld having formed a false estimate of the Botanical skill and consequentcredibility, of the most original writers upon the subject. It is soessential to a just estimate of the value of evidence that this should bebetter understood, that I feel obliged to occupy a page or two withremarks upon that point, by way of introduction to the account heregiven of the species and their products.Don Jose Celestino Mutis, a Spanish Botanist living at Santa Fe de407 D D 4