45° 
■ 
This tree, which is a native of both the Indies, and of Egypt, was 
firft cultivated in England by Mr. Philip Miller in 1731/ The pods 
of the Eaft India Caflia are of lefs diameter, fmoother, and afford a 
blacker, fweeter, and more grateful pulp than thofe which are brought 
from the Weft Indies, South America, or Egypt, and are univerfally 
prefe 
d. In Egypt it is the practice to pluck the Caffia pods 
they arrive at a ftate of maturity., and to place them in a houfe, 
from which the external air is excluded as much as poffible : the 
pods are then laid in ftrata of half a foot in depth, between which 
palm leaves are interpofed : the two following days the whole is 
fprinkled with water, in order to promote its fermentation ; and the 
fruit is fuffered to remain in this fituation forty days, when it is 
fufficiently prepared for keep 
Thofe pods, or canes, which are the heavier!:, and in which the feeds 
do not rattle on being fhaken, are commonly the beft, and contain 
the moft pulp, which is the part medicinally employed, and to be 
obtained in the manner defcribed in the pharmacopoeias. 
The beft pulp is of a bright fhining black colour, and of a fweet tafte, 
with a flight degree of acidity. " It diiTolves both in water and in 
reclined fpirit ; readily in the former, flowly and difficultly in the 
latter, and not totally in either : the part which remains undiiTolved 
appears to be of little or no activity*" d 
We are told by C. Bauhin, that fome have fuppofed the. Siliqua 
jSEgyptiaca of Theophraftus to be our Caffia Fiftula?j e but there feems 
no evidence of its being known to the ancient Greeks ; fo that it is 
h more probability thought that the ufe of this, as well as of S 
ft difcovered by the Arabian phyfic 
The pulp of Caffia has been long ufed as a laxative medicine. 
I 1 - — o — „__.—_- ^ 
and being gentle in its operation, and feldom occafioning griping or 
, •. *«* « „ 1^ ~ 1\ ^ .C x.1_ ■ 1 1 ^ 1 _ 1 .1 1- 11 J a 1 x. ^ ^.X-,. I \ A Y-on 
of the bowels, has been thought well adapted to children 
d to delicate or pregnant women. Adults, however, find it of 
-O 
O 
effect, unlefs taken in a very large dole, as an ounce or more, and 
Kew. * Vid 
See Pulparum extraiho. 
Theophrafti (1 hiil. 18.) nonnulli cenfent. Pinax. p. 403 
7. e Siliquam ^gyptiacam 
T 
■p 
Ch 
of 
Avicenna, from whom Actuarius feems to have his Kama pt\xnx. 
therefore 
