Quinine

Malaria didn’t exist as a term until the late 1820s. Earlier it was simply described as a fever. In southeastern Spain around 50 AD, Columella noted that a marsh "always breeds animals armed with mischievous stings, which fly upon us in exceeding thick swarms." He added that, around marshes, "hidden diseases are often contracted, the causes of which, even the physicians themselves cannot thoroughly understand."

No one has speculated on the illnesses that affected Bourgmont’s camp, because his chronicler, Philippe de la Renaudiére, left no details. He did say on July 30 that Bourgmont was "very weak" with a "severe pain in the kidneys."

It usually takes ten to fifteen days for the disease to develop enough to show the first symptoms. This suggests Fort de Chartres was the epicenter. The men who came north from New Orleans weren’t ill until they’d been there some time. The only natives who were affected were the Missouri, who left there on July 3. If they lived near water, they may have carried local immunities. Renaudiére reported the first death on July 11. The Kansa and Osage apparently were not affected.

The local slaves probably came from Angola where many inherited a genetic mutation that protected them. The map below shows the modern distribution of the sickle cell genetic pattern. It would have developed where the pathogen was most common. The northern dark center is the Niger delta, the other the Congo basin. Gabon lies to the north, Angola to the south of the Congolese center of diffusion.

Renaudiére noted that on July 11, Bourgmont "has taken medicine and purged himself." On the 14th, he "bled five" Indians and on the 15th he "prepared medicine for them." The following day, he recorded "The medicines that M. de Bourgmont gave had a good effect, so that they are well satisfied."

The natives may have believed the quality of the medicine was commiserate with the power of the provider. Bourgmont was following contemporary conventions discussed in the post for 16 April 2015. When he had chills, he purged himself. When the natives had fevers, he bled them.

Renaudiére doesn’t indicate what medicine Bourgmont provided, or what he was given when he returned to Fort de Chartres. If it was efficacious, it would have been quinine bark in a liquid.

Cinchona officinalis was used by the Andean Quechua. With the viceroy’s wife in Lima was suffering from malaria in 1638, her physician took a chance and treated her with the native cure. They weren’t the same fever, but the theory of four humors posited what was good for one was good for all, because all fevers were caused by the same imbalance of fluids.

Ana Osorio Manrique recovered and carried bark back with her to Spain where she dispensed it to people living on her husband’s lowland estate southeast of Madrid. The doctor, Juan de Vega, took some back to Seville.

Jesuits responded to the demand they created by exercising their paternal control over the well being of the Quechua. They began exporting the powder to finance the order. In 1679, Louis XIV found a way to evade their monopoly, and the medicine became more available, at least to those with money or connections.

Notes: Although Frank Norall said Bourgmont had malaria, the comments on the illness at Fort de Chartres are my speculation, not established fact. Perú and México were under separate viceroys.

Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus. De Re Rustica, anonymously translated in 1745 as L. Junius Moderatus Columella of Husbandry, book 1.

Hobhouse, Henry. Seeds of Change, 1986.

Markham, Clements Robert. A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, 1874. She was the widow of the Marqués de las Salinas when she married Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera and Bobadilla, the Conde de Cinchon. After she died, he married Francisca Enriquez de Rivera. The two wives have been confused by people writing about quinine and the tale of her cure may be more legend than fact.

Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.

Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.

Graphics: Muntuwandi, "Sickle Cell Distribution," uploaded to Wikimedia Commons on 10 May 2007.