Quinine
See The New and Complete Dictionary of the German and English Languages composed chiefly after the German Dictionaries of Mr. Adelung and of Mr. Schwan, ed. John Ebers, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1796–99), 1:522 s.v. “China”:
die China, Chinarinde, Quinquina, the Rind or Bark of a Tree that grows at Peru and which serves to cure the Fever, Jesuits Powder; a Powder of Cortext Peruvianus.
Here an illustration of one of the many varieties from Friedrich Gottlob Hayne, Darstellung und Beschreibung der Arzneygewächse welche in die neue preussische Pharmacopöe aufgenommen sind: Nach natürlichen Familien geordnet und erläutert, ed. Joh. F. Brandt and Jul. Theod. Christ. Ratzeburg, vol. 2 (Berlin 1830), plate 78:
See also Christian F. Niceus, Pharmakologisches Lexikon oder medicinische und chirurgische Heilmittellehre in alphabetischer Ordung für Aerzte, Wundärzte und Apotheker ingleichen für Oekonomen besonders für Thierärzte, 3 vols. (Mainz, Hamburg 1800–1803), 1:422–39, s.v. “chinae cortex,” who differentiates at length between thirty different varieties, explains various means of apothecary preparation, and enumerates the following seventeen common uses (here in excerpts):
The quinine rind possesses excitatory, fortifying, and anti-putrid powers, to which the others, e.g., purgative, are subordinated. It is used:
(1) for intermittent fevers, especially those in the autumn . . .
(2) for those recovering from fevers that resemble intermittent fevers . . .
(3) for inflammatory fevers, e.g., several varieties of lung inflammation . . .
(4) for nervous fevers right at their onset . . .
(5) for putrid fevers . . .
(6) for consumption . . .
(7) eruptive fevers, such as is caused by pox . . .
(8) for all sorts of discharges, such as dysentery . . .
(9) for hemorrhaging of the passive sort, caused by general weakness, fatigue, and dissolution of the blood, cramps, and especially such as accompany intermittent fevers;
(10) for flows such as at the end of catarrhs . . .
(11) for illnesses of the nerves, such as arise after excessive intellectual strain, dissolute behavior in sexual wantonness, evacuations and exhaustion, also in the case of hypochondria and hysteria; aquaphobia, cramping and convulsive onsets . . . sardonic laughter, vehement sneezing . . .tightness of the chest . . . nervous weakness . . . dry coughs, especially when made chronic by weakness . . .
(12) for all sorts of emaciation . . .
(13) for excessive and dangerous suppuration . . .
(14) for putrid burning, as in putrid fevers . . .
(15) for cancer;
(16) in general for all illnesses that recur periodically, and
(17) for any weakness remaining after recovering from illnesses.
See also Robert Hooper, A Compendious Medical Dictionary containing an explanation of the terms in Anatomy, physiology, surgery, practice of physic, material medica, chemistry, &c. &c., 2nd ed. (London 1801), s.v. “Cinchona”:
Cinchöna (Cinchona, ae, f. so named, because in the year 1646 it effected a remarkable cure in the case of the Countess del Cinchön, the Spanish Viceroy’s lady.
In 1649 a Jesuit brought a considerable quantity of it into Italy, which was distributed by the fathers of that order; from which circumstance it was called Jesuits Bark: or, perhaps, it is named from kinkina, the Indian name). Quinquina. Cortex peruvianus. Jesuits bark. Officinal cinchona, or Peruvian bark.
The tree, which affords this valuable medicine, is the Cinshona officinalis (Cinchona foliis ellipticis subtas pubescentibus corollae, limbo lanato. Class. Pentandria. Order. Monogynia), a native of Peru. The bark is brought to us in pieces of different sizes, some rolled into short thick quills, and others flat; the outside is brownish,) and generally covered in part with a whitish moss; the inside is of a yellowish, reddish, or rusty iron colour.
The best sort breaks close and smooth, and proves friable betwixt the teeth: the inferior kinds appear, when broken, of a woody texture, and in chewing separate into fibres. The former pulverizes more easily than the latter, and looks, when powdered, of a light brownish colour, resembling that of cinnamon, or somewhat paler. If has a slight smell, approaching to mustiness, yet so much of the aromatic kind as not to be disagreeable.
Its taste is considerably bitter, adstringent, very durable in the mouth, and accompanied with some degree of aromatic warmth, but not sufficient to prevent its being ungrateful.
The medicinal properties of this drug are very considerable. It cures intermittent, remittent, nervous, and putrid fevers; putrid sore throat, scarlatina, and dysentery; stops excessive discharges, and is in general use as a tonic and stomachic; it is also of infinite service in local affections, as gangrene, scrofula, ill-conditioned ulcers, rickets, scurvy, &c and in most diseases where there is no inflammatory diathesis. The officinal preparations of this bark are the powder, the extract, the tincture, and the decoction.