“Within the half hour he was back, carrying a shallow dish, in which were pieces of bark steeped in water. He gave the countess some of the liquid to drink and urged that the dose be repeated at intervals during two days. His instructions were followed; she became restful, slept sweetly, and the fever left her body. In a week she was up and about, and in a fortnight was out in the palace grounds.”
“Yes, true in every detail. It is vouched for in the public records of Peru.”
“Of course the drug he gave her was the essence of Peruvian bark.”
“That is why the tree is called cinchona?”
“It is, and to be more correct one should spell it ‘chinchona’ instead of ‘cinchona.’”
“From the Indian compound word ‘Quina-Quina,’ meaning ‘bark of barks.’”
“Yes. They seldom grow in clumps, and the task of finding them is often great; the native searchers, or cascarilleros, undergo great hardships in penetrating the jungle-like forests.”
“There are several processes, the most popular, I believe, being that of mixing pulverized bark thoroughly with milk of lime, then treating the substance to the action of certain chemicals, and ultimately the sulphate of quinine is produced. Different manufacturers have different processes; many of them are kept a secret. The object is to extract the maximum amount of quinine from the bark and leave as little of other ingredients in the powder as possible.”
From the subject of Peruvian bark they changed to that of the journey on the morrow, and a half hour later, with knapsacks and bags as pillows, they went to sleep in the shelter-tent. Harvey, as he closed his eyes, thought of the beautiful Countess of Chinchon, and wondered if she could have been as pretty as Señorita Bella Caceras, a girl in Callao whom he had met under most peculiar circumstances while adrift one night in the bay of that name.
They entered the forest the next day, and for a week were in its confines, threading the right bank of the Marañon and following its current.
The way along the river was easy to travel, when compared with the seemingly impassable jungle to the right and the left of the stream, but it was not without its difficulties, and many times they were compelled to stop and cut the heavy growth of vines with the small axe which Señor Cisneros had added to the outfit. At night they were bothered by mosquitoes, and the insect plague became so great one evening that they kept watch and watch, the one on duty throwing on the embers of the fire a bark which emitted a light yellow smoke which drove the pests away.