As early as the middle of the sixteenth century
the value of coca had been discovered in South America; the
natives of Peru prized it highly, and two eminent Jesuits, Joseph
Acosta and Antonio Julian, were converted to this view. But the
conservative spirit in the Church was too strong; in 1567 the
Second Council of Lima, consisting of bishops from all parts of
South America, condemned it, and two years later came a royal
decree declaring that "the notions entertained by the natives
regarding it are an illusion of the devil."
As a pendant to this singular mistake on the part of the
older Church came another committed by many Protestants. In the
early years of the seventeenth century the Jesuit missionaries in
South America learned from the natives the value of the so-called
Peruvian bark in the treatment of ague; and in 1638, the Countess
of Cinchon, Regent of Peru, having derived great benefit from the
new remedy, it was introduced into Europe. Although its alkaloid,
quinine, is perhaps the nearest approach to a medical specific,
and has diminished the death rate in certain regions to an
amazing extent, its introduction was bitterly opposed by many
conservative members of the medical profession, and in this
opposition large numbers of ultra-Protestants joined, out of
hostility to the Roman Church.
Pages:
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845