Quinine's Predecessor : Francesco Torti and the Early History of Cinchona

"The history of cinchona has traditionally begun with the romantic - and now discredited - story of Francisca Henriquez Ribera, the Countess of Chinchon. According to legend, the Countess became seriously ill during an outbreak of fever in Lima around 1623. Her husband, the Viceroy, learning of a medicinal tree bark used by the local Indians, ordered the bark tested and administered to his wife. Following her prompt recovery, the Countess championed the use of bark among the general populace, and thousands of lives were saved. The drug became known as pulvis Comitissae, the powder of the Countess, and later - misspelled by Linnaeus - as cinchona."
"The history of cinchona has traditionally begun with the romantic - and now discredited - story of Francisca Henriquez Ribera, the Countess of Chinchon. According to legend, the Countess became seriously ill during an outbreak of fever in Lima around 1623. Her husband, the Viceroy, learning of a medicinal tree bark used by the local Indians, ordered the bark tested and administered to his wife. Following her prompt recovery, the Countess championed the use of bark among the general populace, and thousands of lives were saved. The drug became known as pulvis Comitissae, the powder of the Countess, and later - misspelled by Linnaeus - as cinchona."@en