Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
Sir Clements Markham, whose services in introducing cinchona culture
into India and Ceylon are well known, has earnestly insisted on the
adoption of the name chinchona instead of cinchona in justice to the
lady after whom the generic title was chosen. In a Memoir of the Lady
Ana de Osorio, Countess of Chinchon, Sir Clements Markham somewhat
extravagantly exalts that “illustrious and beautiful lady,” whom he
describes as “one of the most noble benefactors of the human race.” She
may have been an excellent woman, but her advocate does not furnish
sufficient evidence of her virtues to justify such lavish praise. The
Countess was cured of a fever by the bark, and on her return to Spain
she distributed the remedy to such of her vassals as needed it. Perhaps
her physician, who brought a quantity of the bark home with him and
sold it, did more to make it generally known than she did by her gifts.
Still there is no doubt that Linnæus intended by the name he gave to
the genus to perpetuate her memory; and it is likewise true that her
name was Chinchon and not Cinchon. The latter term, Sir Clements says,
means a broad girdle or a policeman’s belt, and makes the intended
honour ridiculous. His opinion was that Linnæus had erred in ignorance,
having been misled by several French writers. Daniel Hanbury, however,
who contested some of Markham’s assertions, gave good reasons for
believing that Linnæus had adopted the term cinchona deliberately
for the sake of euphony. Anyway he shows that Mutis, the disciple of
Linnæus, who sent him the plant from which he wrote his description,
while at first writing of chinchona soon followed the spelling of the
master and continued to do so.
The name cinchona and derivatives from it are too well established to
be dislodged now for a sentimental reason, even if it were not that the
adopted name is undoubtedly easier to pronounce than the more strictly
correct one would be.
CULTIVATION OF CINCHONA IN THE EAST.
Many botanists and travellers remarked upon the reckless manner in
which the natives of Peru collected the bark. They felled the trees and
stripped them of bark without planting new ones to take the place of
those destroyed. Humboldt says that 25,000 trees were thus destroyed in
a single year.
The first attempt to transport any plants to Europe was made by La
Condamine in 1743. He had obtained some young plants and was conveying
them down the Amazon River to Cayenne, intending to transport them to
the Jardin des Plantes at Paris. At the mouth of the river a wave swept
over his little vessel and washed away his whole collection. Joseph
de Jussieu, who had accompanied La Condamine on his expedition, and
remained in the country after him for fifteen years, was robbed of his
collection at Buenos Ayres, and lost his reason as a consequence of his
misfortune.
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