Quina (cinchona bark) and its transfer out of Peru

Cinchona bark — quina, cascarilla — was the first specific against malaria, and the fullest Spanish account of it is the Quinología published at Madrid in 1792 by Hipólito Ruiz, first botanist of the royal expedition to Peru. He states that the Indians of Loxa knew its virtue before the Spaniards reached Peru, weighs who deserves the credit, and records what a century and a half of trade did to the forests the bark came from.