This is the story of quinine, told in an interesting style by Norman Taylor, known to garden lovers as the editor of the Garden Dictionary and other popular works but equally familiar to those interested in drugs as the director of the Cinchona Products Institute, an organization devoted to the promotion of quinine.
The history of the discovery of the medicinal value of the bark of the various species of the cinchona tree, the attempts to transport cinchona seedlings from Peru into other tropical countries principally by the Dutch and English, the conquest by the Dutch of the extraordinary cultural and genetic problems involved in the propagation of the most productive species, Cinchona ledgeriana, the international trade rivalries for the quinine market and the effect of the introduction of cinchona cultivation on the economic life of Java is a fascinating tale. Unfortunately for romanticists, Mr. Taylor tells us that the