Once he read a pamphlet telling about some Jesuit priests who were working in Peru. They used water from a particular pond and stayed healthy. Others, who used different pond water, became sick. Those who stayed well did so, it seems, because the water of their pond was impregnated with the properties of the bark of certain nearby trees. The doctor believed the story about the so-called “Jesuit’s Bark,” or “Peruvian Bark,” and it made him a famous man, one of Missouri’s most distinguished citizens.
