Cinchona in the Empire, Progress and Prospects of Its Cultivation

, At present at least, quinine cannot be produced synthetically. Yet it is estimated that some 800 million persons are attacked every year in the tropics by malaria, and according to Sir Ronald Ross more than two million deaths occur annually from the disease. The economic Joss due to the disease is put down by Dr. Andrew Balfour at between ?52 and ?62 millions a year. Prior to 1880 the world's supply of quinine was obtained chiefly from the cinchona forests in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, but the plant was then introduced into India and Java, and the story of the adventures and hardships of the early pioneers?Weddell, Hasskarl, Markham, Ledger, and others, is well known. In India the earliest Plantations were in the hands of private planters in the ^Tilgiris, but, as the plant did not prove an economic