The Science of Salix
Edward Stone wondered if the willow tree might have more in common with the Peruvian cinchona tree than just its damp habitat.
1763
© Derek Harper, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.
A grey willow (salix cinerea) in Shortacombe, Devon.
Introduction
Edward Stone was a mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society, so when he discovered something interesting about willow bark, he thought he would write to the President and tell him about it.
THE bark of the willow tree was used to treat fever as far back as the days of Hippocrates in the 4th century BC, but Western medicine had forgotten it until Edward Stone, walking one day past a willow tree, casually nibbled on a chip of wood.
The bitter taste and damp habitat of the willow reminded him of the Peruvian cinchona tree, from which we get quinine, and he wondered whether the willow might have similar therapeutic properties.
Stone collected about a pound of the bark, and dried it for three months next to a baker’s oven. Then he cautiously administered it to more than fifty patients suffering from stubborn fevers over the course of five years, with great success.
In 1763, Stone wrote to the Royal Society advising them of his discovery. He made no attempt to profit financially from it: that was left to German pharmaceutical company Bayer, who later refined and marketed his drug as ‘Aspirin’.
