Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 348 of 779 - First - Home
We Shall Here Confine Ourselves To This Observation,
That, In The Species Of The Genus Cinchona, The Antifebrile Virtues
Do
Not appear to belong to the tannin (which is only accidentally
mingled in them), or to the cinchonate of lime;
But in a resiniform
matter, soluble both by alcohol and by water, and which, it is
believed, is composed of two principles, the cinchonic bitter and
the cinchonic red.* (* In French, l'amer et le rouge cinchoniques.)
May it then be admitted, that this resiniform matter, which
possesses different degrees of energy according to the combinations
by which it is modified, is found in all febrifuge substances?
Those by which the sulphate of iron is precipitated of a green
colour, like the real cinchona, the bark of the white willow, and
the horned perisperm of the coffee-tree, do not on this account
denote identity of chemical composition;* and that identity might
even exist, without our concluding that the medical virtues were
analogous. (* The cuspare bark (Cort. Angosturae) yields with iron
a yellow precipitate; yet it is employed on the banks of the
Orinoco, and particularly at the town of St. Thomas of Angostura,
as an excellent cinchona; and on the other hand, the bark of the
common cherry tree, which has scarcely any febrifuge quality,
yields a green precipitate like the real cinchonas. Notwithstanding
the extreme imperfection of vegetable chemistry, the experiments
already made on cinchonas sufficiently show, that to judge of the
febrifuge virtues of a bark, we must not attach too much importance
either to the principle which turns to green the oxides of iron, or
to the tannin, or to the matter which precipitates infusions of
tan.) We see that specimens of sugar and tannin extracted from
plants, not of the same family, present numerous differences:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 348 of 779
Words from 94432 to 94730
of 211363