“Cinchona officinalis” in Medical Botany, engraving by James Sower, London, 1793
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
The bark of the Cinchona tree, a source of quinine, was the bark in the “bark and wine” cure. Madeira wine was the wine portion of the cure. Secretary of the Treasury and leading Federalist Alexander Hamilton favored the “bark and wine” treatment for yellow fever.