Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1883 — The Discovery of Quinine. [ARTICLE]

The Discovery of Quinine.

It is not generally known that to a woman the European world is indebted for the greatest febrifuge extant. The Countess of Chinchon, a noble Spanish lady, daughter of the Marquis of Astorga, and wife of the Viceroy of Peru, lay ill of a fever. The Indians of Peru had long known of the febrifugal qualities of the bark, which they called quinaquinn, bark of barks; They communicated their knowledge to a Spaniard in high authority, who consented to use it, and was cured of q fever. This gentleman, Don Juan Lopez de Canizares, imparted the information of this cure to a physician who was in attendance on the Countess of Chinchon, at the same time sending the lady a parcel of the valuable ba,rk. Consenting to use it, her fever was allayed, and when she returned to Spain she carried some of the Peruvian bark with her, and made its qualities known. Linnaeus named the genus which yielded it chinchona, in honor of the lady. In consequence of her introducing it into Europe it was called “Countess’ bark,” The Jesuits promoted greatly its introduction into Europe, hence it was sometimes called Jesuit's bark; and many attributed its introduction to them, when, in reality, they only diffused its knowledge and encouraged its use. Louis XIV. purchased the secret of preparing the qainquina from the bark from Dr. Talbor, an English physician, paying him 2,000 .louis d’ors, and granting him a pension and a title.