First and only edition of this botanical work on cinchona bark, very rare with all ten tables present. Heinrich von Bergen (1792-1836), who was a "Droguerie-Makler" (drug-broker) at Hamburg, gives a state of the art description of the botanical, economic and pharmaceutical history of cinchona bark. The work opens with a 72-page long list of reference literature. Among the publications are those by Pelletier and Caventou, who were the first to isolate cinchonine and quinine in 1820 (DSB X, p. 497). The 8 coloured plates depict different types of cinchona bark (seven plates) and a Peruvian mountain with cinchona trees (plate 8) titled '' Geographie der Chinchonen'' after the plate by Alexander von Humboldt.
Our copy contains all ten tables with test results of the extraction of cinchonine and quinine from different types of cinchona bark. These tables are lacking in the copies of the British Museum and the Wellcome Library. In the copy in the library of the Arnold Arboretum, the book is contains xii, 348 pages, accompanied by an oblong atlas of eight coloured plates and eight [!] tables. The explanation of the tables with their highly important conclusions (pp. 331-341) was written by Christian Heinrich Pfaff (1773-1852), a renowned professor of medicine, physics and chemistry at the University of Kiel (Poggendorf II, cols. 425-428). It is followed by an article on a procedure to extract cinchona salt from chinchona bark titled Art der Darstellung der Chinasalze aus den Chininrinden by H.L. von Santen.
With the ex libris book plate of Van der Wiele mounted on the front pastedown of the text volume and an additional manuscript title-label mounted in the upper left corner of the front board of the atlas volume. Both bindings show clear signs of wear, with loss of material around the edges and corners of the boards and the spines, large water stains on the back board of the atlas volume. The text volume is browned throughout. Otherwise in good condition. Arnold Arboretum, p. 76; BMC NH, p. 140; Nissen, BBI 144; Pritzel 655; Wellcome II, p. 147.