HISTORY IN BOTANICAL STUDY.
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and was now known to come from Quito and Santa Fe, though
it was not till 1850 that a European botanist had an opportunity
of obtaining material of a Cinchona which yields "yellow
bark," This proved to be the hitherto undescribed species
C. Calisaya, as distinct as C. succirubra and C. officinalis are;
another species yielding "yellow bark" was described in 1872.
That Raynal should not mention "grey bark" is intelligble;
the "grey bark" of Huanuco had not been discovered in 1780.
Like "yellow bark," the "grey" is yielded by two species:
the first of these was found by Tafalla in 1797, and was named
C. micrantha by Ruiz and Pavon, the second, found a season
later, was named C. nitida: the exploitation of both began in 1799.
That the English Dictionary of Commerce should not mention
"grey bark" in 1834 is also intelligible: by 1834 it was no longer
in demand.
This was, at least in part, an indirect consequence of the
separation in 1810 from Cinchona bark by a Portugese naval
surgeon of all the alkaloids it contains; and a direct consequence
of the extension by the distinguished French chemists, Pellatier
and Caventou, of the idea of Gomez, when in 1820 they separated
from a Cinchona bark what they believed to be the most
important of these alkaloids, to which they gave the name quinine.
If France had been taught by England the value of Cinchona
bark, she repaid the debt by teaching England to separate the
Cinchona alkaloids.
The two nations have differed in other ways. No English
poet has followed La Fontaine in inditing an ode to Quinine.
No English wit has emulated the sprightly remarks of
Madame de Sevigne and Racine on the subject. No English
thinker has reflected, like Fontenelle, on the fact that while
malaria is spread throughout the globe, its remedy is confined to
the Andes of Peru, or remarked, like Voltaire, that while malaria
abounds in the marshes, its antidote is restricted to the mountains.
These reflections are, after all, only statements of fact and, now
that we know the connection between the mosquito and malaria,
the saying of Voltaire has proved the more pertinent of the two.
Yet in this country the reflection of Fontenelle has never been
considered other than profound; the remark of Voltaire has
sometimes been regarded as profane.
Without thinking the remark profound and without meaning