re exported from
Peru. The Montanas of Huanuco, which once furnished all the apothecaries
of Europe with the "divine medicine," are beginning again to yield
supplies. From the roots of the felled trees a vigorous after-growth has
commenced. In the Montanas of Huamalies a kind of bark is found, the
nature of which is not yet defined by botanists; and from the Montanas
of Urubamba comes the highly esteemed _Cascarilla de Cuzco_, which
contains an alkaloid, named _Cusconin_.[80] Possibly the medicinal
bark may again become a flourishing branch of trade for Peru, though
it can never again recover the importance which was attached to it a
century ago. During my residence in Peru, a plan was in agitation for
establishing a quinine manufactory at Huanuco. The plan, if well
carried out, would certainly be attended with success. There is in
Bolivia an establishment of this kind conducted by a Frenchman; but
the quinine produced is very impure. The inhabitants of the Peruvian
forests drink an infusion of the green bark as a remedy against
intermitting fever. I have found it in many cases much more
efficacious than the dried kind, for less than half the usual dose
produces, in a short time, convalescence, and the patient is secure
against returning febrile attacks.

A class of Indians who live far back in the heart of the woods of
Southern Peru and Bolivia employ themselves almost exclusively in
gathering balsams and odorous gums from resinous plants, many of which
are burned in the churches as incense. They also collect various
objects, supposed to be sympathetic remedies, such as the claws of the
tapir, against falling sickness; and the teeth of poisonous snakes
which, carefully fixed in leaves, and stuck into the tubes of rushes,
are regarded as powerful specifics against headache and blindness.
Various salves, plasters, powders, seeds, roots, barks, &c., to each of
which is attributed some infallible curative power, are prepared and
brought to market by the Indians. When the rainy season sets in they
leave the forest and proceed in parties to the mountainous country. On
these occasions, contrary to the general custom of the Indians, the men,
not the women, carry the burthens. They are accompanied by the women as
far as the Sierra; for the loads, which are often very heavy, graze the
backs of the men who carry them, and the women then act as surgeons. The
injured part is first carefully washed with copaiba balsam, moistened,
t