Malaria has been a scourge on humanity for many thousands of years, spread by parasites in mosquitoes. It rendered large swaths of the Earth essentially uninhabitable, killing millions of people across the world. Malaria was a serious threat for the ancient world, especially with the hegemony of the Roman Empire, possibly even assisting the fall of Rome. Unlike our modern cold and flu season, Malaria was very deadly, causing widespread panic with the major seasonal outbreaks. Large areas surrounding Rome could not be fully settled because of the danger of Malaria.
Even within the cities, a grave threat of Malaria outbreaks arose due to the great quantities of standing water for public baths and agriculture. The authorities eventually realized the dangers of standing water and ordered the creation of an entire sewer system in Rome, called the Cloaca Maxima. The drainage system reduced the magnitude of the threat sufficiently to keep Rome functional. (5) It was an enormous improvement, demonstrated in part by the abandonment of some of the cities that lacked drainage systems due to the threat of the persistent plague. Some researchers theorize that without the Cloaca Maxima, Rome may have become permanently crippled, thereby shifting the course of history. (5)
Meanwhile, in Asia the prevalence of Malaria slowed the development of Southern China, creating a noticable difference between the North and the South regions of China. Even the passage of time failed to fully blunt the threat of Malaria. Malaria dogged the soldiers of the Civil War and the workers at the Panama Canal. (6) Even during the early years of WWII, more American troops were dying because of Malaria than because of enemy action. (4) Malaria also created severe issues in colonising Africa. The Americas, significant portions of Asia, and even Australia were conquered while only about a tenth of Africa had been colonized even into the 1800s. (5) Of course Africa was home to a variety of deadly diseases, which ravaged both native and foreigner alike, but Malaria was certainly a prominent reason Africa could not be easily colonized. (5)
In essence, Malaria was a worldwide threat which forced the creation of the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the balance shifted dramatically with the introduction of large scale doses of quinine available. (5) Quinine was a compound created from the bark of the cinchona tree, known also as the quina quina tree or the ‘fever tree’. The bark was dried, turned to powder, and put with water, sweetened in the hopes of hiding the taste, then distributed as medication.(5) The actual compound of quinine wasn’t isolated until 1820. (4) When the British got ahold of this medicine, they tried combining it with gin, thus creating the gin and tonic. (3)
It was quite an effective treatment and once Dutch plantations at Java were created, there was a good supply of quinine. (4) Of course, getting that supply was quite tricky once Spain managed to establish a monopoly on the Andes supply source and it took until 1865 before the Dutch got ahold of enough seeds for their plantations at Java.(5)
But how did this start? In the 1600s, the Jesuits were in Peru trying to convert the natives and while on their theological mission, discovered the effects of the bark of a particular tree. (4) The three most notable Jesuits were Antonio de la Calancha, Agustino Salumbrino, Bernabé de Cobo, though Cardinal Juan de Lugo is another contender. (5, 4) Of the three, Antonio de la Calancha is the most certain to have some bearing on the tale. He was the first European to record the effects of the cinchona bark on fever in general, and Malaria in particular. So far, so simple.
The trick is to determine who precisely brought the Jesuit bark back to Europe.Note that the bark may also be referred to as Countess’s Bark (2) or Cardinal’s Bark (4) due to conflicting accounts of who sent the quinine bark -- not to mention titles like ‘fever bark’ or ‘Peruvian bark’ that are simply too generic and vague to be useful. (4) The countess allegedly discovered the effects of the bark while dying of malaria and either went herself or sent her husband to Europe with the cure. The largest issue with this claim is the Count’s diary, found in 1930, contradicts it (5, pg 60).
One source claimed that it was quinine was sent to Europe by an unknown monk named Agustino Sulumbrino, but he is unfortunately just that, almost entirely unknown. (2) If Agustino Salumbrino had, in fact, distributed the cure, he may have done so because Pope Urban VIII requested it. Urban had seen the effects of Malaria firsthand while he and the other cardinals had been gathered to elect the next Pope. (2) Assuming Salumbrino was responsible, the cure reached Europe in the 1630s. Another possibility is that Jesuit missionary Bernebé de Cobo was travelling to Peru and personally took samples back to Spain, then Rome in 1632.(5)
Either way, a Jesuit priest attempting to help the native Peruvians was responsible for finding the effect, and another was responsible for getting initial shipments to Europe. Once the cure arrived in Rome, Cardinal Juan de Lugo’s role was quite plain. Getting distribution well underway. He was extremely excited with the new remedy and decided to show it to suffering residents of Rome, in a sort of preliminary clinical trial. Extraordinarily pleased with the fabulous results, he went on to personally distribute the cure to the poor and recommended it be sent throughout Europe through the Catholic missions. The tree bark remedy quickly entered the Roman pharmaceutical handbook, Schedula Romana. (5)
Protestants had rather a different take. They were deeply distrustful of anything Catholic to begin with, and acknowledging the Catholics were a) correct, and b) not trying to harm them, were extremely difficult hurdles to pass over. (5) Of course, this skepticism was not solely limited to Protestants, but the most vehement skeptics were Protestant, with the frequent belief anything coming from Catholics was a vengeful scheme. In the case of quinine, some were convinced it was some kind of poison. (5) Over time, Jesuit’s bark was gradually accepted, but it took over a century and multiple high-profile cases before the remedy was accepted. (5)
Works Referenced
1) Blass, B. (April 24, 2015) Basic Principles of Drug Discovery and Development
https://books.google.com/books?id=YTvLAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA38&dq
2) Mukhtar, O. The Miraculous Fever Tree: Malaria, Medicine, and the Cure that Changed
the World [Review] (July 9th, 2003) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1126547/
3) Eplett, L. (August 20, 2015). Quinine and Empire.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/food-matters/quinine-and-empire/
4) National Academies Press (September 9th, 2004). Saving Lives, Buying Time:
Economics of Malaria Drugs in a Age of Resistance. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/
5) Loomis. J. S. (January 18, 2018) Epidemics: The Impact of Germs and Their Power
Over Humanity (pages 57-61) https://books.google.com/books?id=sDFEDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA60&lpg
6) Tale of a bark with bite (April 30, 2004) https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/tale-of-a-bark-with-bite/188411.article
Further Reading
Antonio de La Calancha
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/antonio-de-la-calancha
Economics and Ethics: Juan de Lugo’s Theory of the Just Price, or the Responsibility of Living
in Society. http://www.academia.edu/28956811/Economics_and_Ethics_Juan_de_Lugos_Theory_of_the_Just_Price_or_the_Responsibility_of_Living_in_Society
Full Text of “The cinchona barks : pharmacognostically considered”
https://archive.org/stream/b28131393/b28131393_djvu.txt
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11609a.htm
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Saturday, August 11, 2018
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
José de Acosta
José de Acosta (1539 or 1540, Medina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600, Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America.
Life
José de Acosta was born at Medina del Campo in Spain, where his parents lived in this city of the plain, about twenty-four miles from Valladolid, in Old Castile, on the left bank of the swampy river Zapardiel, and overlooked by the old castle of La Mota. He was of converso background,[2] His parents had five sons, Gerónimo, Christóval, José, Diego, and Bernardo. The Acosta brothers were fellow townsmen of the old soldier Bernal Diaz, who told the story of the conquest of Mexico, but they were many years younger than him. In 1553, at the age of thirteen, Acosta became a novice in the Society of Jesus in Medina del Campo. Four Acosta brothers joined this order. Before leaving Spain, José was lecturer in theology at Ocana, and in April 1569, was to be sent to Lima, Peru, where the Jesuits had been established in the proceeding year. According to one scholar, Acosta was "a heavy man of uncertain, melancholic temper."
Panama
At age 32, Acosta left Spain with several other Jesuits in 1570, landing at Cartagena de Indias, and finally at Nombre de Dios, then journeyed through 18 leagues of tropical forest. He was impressed by the scenery, the novel sights at every turn, and was interested, at Capira, in the clever antics of troops of monkeys. From Panama he embarked for Peru to pursue missionary work. He expected to experience unbearably intense heat in crossing the equator, but found it to be so cool in March, that he laughed at Aristotle and his philosophy.
Peru
On his arrival at Lima, he was ordered to cross the Andes, apparently to join the Viceroy of Peru in the interior. He took the route, with fourteen or fifteen companions, across the mountainous province of Huarochiri, and by the lofty pass of Pariacaca [over 14,000 ft.], where the whole party suffered severely from the effects of the rarefied atmosphere. Acosta describes these sufferings, which were to be repeated on the three other occasions of crossing the cordillera. Acosta was one of the earliest people to give a detailed description of altitude sickness, a variety of which is referred to as Acosta's disease. He also mentions an attack of snow blindness and the way in which an Indian woman cured him.
Acosta had arrived in Peru two years after Don Francisco de Toledo had come out as Viceroy in 1568. Following Toledo's beheading of the Inca Túpac Amaru, the Viceroy devoted five years to a tour through every part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and to settlement of the country, in which he was aided by Acosta, the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, and the Judge Matienza. Acosta also accompanied the Viceroy to Charcas, and was with him during his unsuccessful expedition against the fierce Chirihuana Indians.
The principal seat of the Jesuits was at that time in the little town of Juli, near the western shores of Lake Titicaca. Here a college was formed, the languages of the natives were studied, and eventually a printing press was established. Acosta probably resided at Juli during much of his stay in Peru. It was here, in all likelihood, that he observed the famous comet of 1577, from November 1 to December 8, which extended like a fiery plume from the horizon nearly to the zenith. Here, too, he devoted much of his time to the preparation of several learned works, which he later took back to Spain in manuscript, including the first two books of the Natural History of the Indies. At Juli, Father Acosta received information respecting the Amazon river from a brother who had formerly been in the famous piratical cruise of Lope de Aguirre.
Towards the close of the viceroyalty of Toledo, Father Acosta appears to have moved from the interior of Peru to Lima. Here he mentions superintending the casting of a great bell, for which there was difficulty in getting fuel for the furnace, making it necessary to fell great trees in the Rímac River valley. Viceroy Toledo was practically the founder of the University of St. Mark at Lima, where Acosta was to occupy the chair of theology. Here he was again able to display his abilities as a famed orator.
In 1571 José went to Cuzco as a visitor of the recently founded college of the Jesuits. He returned to Lima three years later to again fill the chair of theology, and was elected provincial in 1576.
In 1579 Sir Francis Drake was on the coast, and the Viceroy dispatched a fleet under Don Pedro Sarmiento, partly to chase the English pirate, and partly to explore and survey the Strait of Magellan. Acosta had conversations with the pilot of Sarmiento's fleet, and was allowed to inspect his chart, thus obtaining much hydrographic information, and particulars respecting the tides in the straits. He also conversed with the new Viceroy Don Martín Henríquez on the same subject.
Acosta founded a number of colleges, among them those of Arequipa, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Panama and La Paz, but met with considerable opposition from the Viceroy Toledo. His official duties obliged him to investigate personally a very extensive range of territory, so that he acquired a practical knowledge of the vast province, and of its aboriginal inhabitants. At the 1582 session of the Third Council of Lima, Father Acosta played a very important part and was its historian. He delivered an eloquent and learned oration at its last sitting on October 18, 1583.
Mexico
Shortly after the Third Council of Lima, he embarked with all his manuscripts, the literary labors of fifteen years, and commenced his voyage to Mexico. During the passage he was a shrewd observer of nature and knowledge seeker. He learned from an expert Portuguese pilot that there were four points of no variation on the earth, and that one of them was Corvo Island in the Azores. Acosta landed at the port of Guatulco, at the western end of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, in the Oaxaca province, then journeyed by land to Mexico City, where he resided in 1586. He had opportunities of which he diligently availed himself for collecting information touching the civilization, religion and of the Aztecs and natural products of this country. His chief informant respecting the rites and festivals of the Mexicans was brother and Prebendary, Juan de Tobar.
Return to Spain
Acosta had been called to Spain by the King in 1585, prior to being detained in Mexico. He sailed home to Spain in the fleet of 1587, which contained a precious cargo, including twelve chests of gold each weighing 100 lbs., 11,000,000 pieces of silver, and two chests of emeralds each weighing 100 lbs., in addition to loads of ginger, sarsparilla, Brazil wood and animal hides. In Spain he filled the chair of theology at the Roman college in 1594, head of the Jesuits College at Valladolid, as well as other important positions. At the time of his death in his 60th year, he was rector of the college at Salamanca.
Works
Aside from his publication of the proceedings of the provincial councils of 1567 and 1583, and several works of exclusively theological import, Acosta is best known as the writer of De Natura Novi Orbis, De promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum salute and above all, the Historia natural y moral de las Indias. The first two appeared at Salamanca in 1588, the last at Seville in 1590, and was soon after its publication translated into various languages. It is chiefly the Historia natural y moral that has established the reputation of Acosta, as this was one of the very first detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. In a form more concise than that employed by his predecessors, Francisco Lopez de Gómara and Oviedo, he treated the natural and philosophic history of the New World from a broader point of view. In it, more than a century before other Europeans learned of the Bering Strait, Acosta hypothesized that Latin America's indigenous peoples had migrated from Asia. He also divided them into three barbarian categories. The Historia also described Inca and Aztec customs and history, as well as other information such as winds and tides, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, and mineral resources in the New World.
Life
José de Acosta was born at Medina del Campo in Spain, where his parents lived in this city of the plain, about twenty-four miles from Valladolid, in Old Castile, on the left bank of the swampy river Zapardiel, and overlooked by the old castle of La Mota. He was of converso background,[2] His parents had five sons, Gerónimo, Christóval, José, Diego, and Bernardo. The Acosta brothers were fellow townsmen of the old soldier Bernal Diaz, who told the story of the conquest of Mexico, but they were many years younger than him. In 1553, at the age of thirteen, Acosta became a novice in the Society of Jesus in Medina del Campo. Four Acosta brothers joined this order. Before leaving Spain, José was lecturer in theology at Ocana, and in April 1569, was to be sent to Lima, Peru, where the Jesuits had been established in the proceeding year. According to one scholar, Acosta was "a heavy man of uncertain, melancholic temper."
Panama
At age 32, Acosta left Spain with several other Jesuits in 1570, landing at Cartagena de Indias, and finally at Nombre de Dios, then journeyed through 18 leagues of tropical forest. He was impressed by the scenery, the novel sights at every turn, and was interested, at Capira, in the clever antics of troops of monkeys. From Panama he embarked for Peru to pursue missionary work. He expected to experience unbearably intense heat in crossing the equator, but found it to be so cool in March, that he laughed at Aristotle and his philosophy.
Peru
On his arrival at Lima, he was ordered to cross the Andes, apparently to join the Viceroy of Peru in the interior. He took the route, with fourteen or fifteen companions, across the mountainous province of Huarochiri, and by the lofty pass of Pariacaca [over 14,000 ft.], where the whole party suffered severely from the effects of the rarefied atmosphere. Acosta describes these sufferings, which were to be repeated on the three other occasions of crossing the cordillera. Acosta was one of the earliest people to give a detailed description of altitude sickness, a variety of which is referred to as Acosta's disease. He also mentions an attack of snow blindness and the way in which an Indian woman cured him.
Acosta had arrived in Peru two years after Don Francisco de Toledo had come out as Viceroy in 1568. Following Toledo's beheading of the Inca Túpac Amaru, the Viceroy devoted five years to a tour through every part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and to settlement of the country, in which he was aided by Acosta, the Licentiate Polo de Ondegardo, and the Judge Matienza. Acosta also accompanied the Viceroy to Charcas, and was with him during his unsuccessful expedition against the fierce Chirihuana Indians.
The principal seat of the Jesuits was at that time in the little town of Juli, near the western shores of Lake Titicaca. Here a college was formed, the languages of the natives were studied, and eventually a printing press was established. Acosta probably resided at Juli during much of his stay in Peru. It was here, in all likelihood, that he observed the famous comet of 1577, from November 1 to December 8, which extended like a fiery plume from the horizon nearly to the zenith. Here, too, he devoted much of his time to the preparation of several learned works, which he later took back to Spain in manuscript, including the first two books of the Natural History of the Indies. At Juli, Father Acosta received information respecting the Amazon river from a brother who had formerly been in the famous piratical cruise of Lope de Aguirre.
Towards the close of the viceroyalty of Toledo, Father Acosta appears to have moved from the interior of Peru to Lima. Here he mentions superintending the casting of a great bell, for which there was difficulty in getting fuel for the furnace, making it necessary to fell great trees in the Rímac River valley. Viceroy Toledo was practically the founder of the University of St. Mark at Lima, where Acosta was to occupy the chair of theology. Here he was again able to display his abilities as a famed orator.
In 1571 José went to Cuzco as a visitor of the recently founded college of the Jesuits. He returned to Lima three years later to again fill the chair of theology, and was elected provincial in 1576.
In 1579 Sir Francis Drake was on the coast, and the Viceroy dispatched a fleet under Don Pedro Sarmiento, partly to chase the English pirate, and partly to explore and survey the Strait of Magellan. Acosta had conversations with the pilot of Sarmiento's fleet, and was allowed to inspect his chart, thus obtaining much hydrographic information, and particulars respecting the tides in the straits. He also conversed with the new Viceroy Don Martín Henríquez on the same subject.
Acosta founded a number of colleges, among them those of Arequipa, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Panama and La Paz, but met with considerable opposition from the Viceroy Toledo. His official duties obliged him to investigate personally a very extensive range of territory, so that he acquired a practical knowledge of the vast province, and of its aboriginal inhabitants. At the 1582 session of the Third Council of Lima, Father Acosta played a very important part and was its historian. He delivered an eloquent and learned oration at its last sitting on October 18, 1583.
Mexico
Shortly after the Third Council of Lima, he embarked with all his manuscripts, the literary labors of fifteen years, and commenced his voyage to Mexico. During the passage he was a shrewd observer of nature and knowledge seeker. He learned from an expert Portuguese pilot that there were four points of no variation on the earth, and that one of them was Corvo Island in the Azores. Acosta landed at the port of Guatulco, at the western end of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, in the Oaxaca province, then journeyed by land to Mexico City, where he resided in 1586. He had opportunities of which he diligently availed himself for collecting information touching the civilization, religion and of the Aztecs and natural products of this country. His chief informant respecting the rites and festivals of the Mexicans was brother and Prebendary, Juan de Tobar.
Return to Spain
Acosta had been called to Spain by the King in 1585, prior to being detained in Mexico. He sailed home to Spain in the fleet of 1587, which contained a precious cargo, including twelve chests of gold each weighing 100 lbs., 11,000,000 pieces of silver, and two chests of emeralds each weighing 100 lbs., in addition to loads of ginger, sarsparilla, Brazil wood and animal hides. In Spain he filled the chair of theology at the Roman college in 1594, head of the Jesuits College at Valladolid, as well as other important positions. At the time of his death in his 60th year, he was rector of the college at Salamanca.
Works
Aside from his publication of the proceedings of the provincial councils of 1567 and 1583, and several works of exclusively theological import, Acosta is best known as the writer of De Natura Novi Orbis, De promulgatione Evangelii apud Barbaros, sive De Procuranda Indorum salute and above all, the Historia natural y moral de las Indias. The first two appeared at Salamanca in 1588, the last at Seville in 1590, and was soon after its publication translated into various languages. It is chiefly the Historia natural y moral that has established the reputation of Acosta, as this was one of the very first detailed and realistic descriptions of the New World. In a form more concise than that employed by his predecessors, Francisco Lopez de Gómara and Oviedo, he treated the natural and philosophic history of the New World from a broader point of view. In it, more than a century before other Europeans learned of the Bering Strait, Acosta hypothesized that Latin America's indigenous peoples had migrated from Asia. He also divided them into three barbarian categories. The Historia also described Inca and Aztec customs and history, as well as other information such as winds and tides, lakes, rivers, plants, animals, and mineral resources in the New World.
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