11 Scientific Discoveries That Were Total Accidents

Speaking of quinine, the discovery of the anti-malarial was also supposedly an accident in itself.

The story goes that a Native South American Indian was lost in the Andean jungle with a high fever and shivers. Apparently he drank from a stagnant pool (always a good idea when you're feeling a bit iffy) and found that it was bitter due to the fact that the surrounding quina trees had leached their quinine into it.

Miraculously, his fever then cleared up and the shivering disappeared. He went and told the rest of his village about the discovery and it became a common fever treatment in its native Peru. It was then picked up by the first Jesuit missionaries to arrive there in the 17th Century.

There are variations on the story that include a Spanish Countess drinking from the pool, rather than the native, and taking the cure back to Spain with her.

The first known use of quinine in Europe was in Rome int he early 1600's, where malaria was endemic due to its surrounding marshy swampland. The bitter bark extract was often mixed with wine to disguise the taste, or sometimes sweetened water, giving the world the gift of tonic water to accompany their gin.