The famous quack, Robert Talbor, sold the secret of preparing
quinquina to Louis XIV in 1679 for two thousand louis d'or, a pension
and a title. That the profession was divided in opinion on the subject
was probably due to sophistication, or to the importation of other and
inert barks. It was well into the eighteenth century before its virtues
were universally acknowledged. The tree itself was not described until
1738, and Linnaeus established the genus "Chinchona" in honor of the
Countess.(1)
(1) Clements R. Markham: Peruvian Bark, John Murray, London,
1880; Memoir of the Lady Anna di Osoria, Countess of Chinchona
and Vice-Queen of Peru, 1874.
A step in advance followed the objective study of the changes wrought in
the body by disease. To a few of these the anatomists had already called
attention. Vesalius, always keen in his description of aberrations from
the normal, was one of the first to describe internal aneurysm. The
truth is, even the best of men had little or no appreciation of the
importance of the study of these changes. Sydenham scoffs at the value
of post-mortems.
Again we have to go back to Italy for the beginning of these studies,
this time to Florence, in the glorious days of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
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