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The area under cane is about 200 ; the yield of sugar 

 by single crushing is about 2 tous to the acre, or by 

 double crushing considerably more. The Queensland 

 average is about Ij tons. The cane grown is of three 

 varieties. This season, though it was a miserably dry 

 one, some of the plants gave 12 feet of crushable 

 cane, with a circumference of 7 to 8 inches, running 

 in density more than 15° Beaume, against about 9^ 

 in Queensland. Mr. Brandt is now so far the only 

 plantation owner who has a chance of getting the 

 bonus offered by the Government of £4 per ton for 

 the first 1,250 tons of sugar grown in the Territory, 

 and his energy will certainly entitle him to that well- 

 earned reward, JMr. Brandt, from an intimate 

 knowledge of the capabilities of Queensland as a sugar- 

 growing country, points out that the Northern Ter- 

 ritory has several advantages for the sugar-grower over 

 Queensland. He remarks upon the absence in the 

 Territory of the frost, which frequently will destroy 

 a whole crop in one night. Another advantage is a 

 certaia dry season, which favours the maturing of 

 the cane, rendering unnecessary, as in Queensland, 

 occasional intervals in the crushing or complete stop- 

 page, because if the cane is wet the density will go 

 down. Consequently the Queenslanders sometimes get 

 only one crop in two years, whilst in the Northern 

 Territory one crop a year can alwaj's be depended 

 upon. Mr. Brandt further testifies that in the Nor th- 

 ern Territorj' there is an advantage in the labour, 

 which is cheaper than in Queens' and. A Chinaman 

 (used in the Northern Territory) costs oaly 2s. a day, 

 keeping himself, and they can be had at a moment's 

 notice without any diihculty, and re-engaged again in 

 the same way. In Queensland if the planter has 

 say 100 kanakas on the plantation he has to keep 

 them all the year round, whether he wants them or 

 not. They cost the employer, moreover, about 15s. 

 a week, counting everything. It should ',je added 

 that with the residue of the crushing Mr. Brandt has 

 made a number of casks of golden syrup treacle, 

 which he is having broaght down to Adelaide. — South 

 Australian Register. 



^ 



NOTES ON DEUGS IN THE COLONIAL 

 EXHIBITION. 



Medicinal Plants and Medicixes of Oeylox.. 



Amongst the many and varied exhibits of drugs and 

 medicinal substances from all parts of the British 

 dominions now to be seen at South Kensington, none 

 is so complete as that from Ceylon, and an excellent 

 handbook accompanies the exhibits, the uses of each 

 plant being given after the scientific and Sinhalese 

 names. In an introduction to native medicinal jilants 

 and medicines, the writer points out that in Sinhalese 

 medical practice disease is held to be a disturbance 

 in the eqq-ilibrium of the three humours — air, bile, and 

 phlegm — which pervade the human system. These 

 agents preside over certain vital functions, and whi.'e 

 susceptible of being aifected by temperature, diet, 

 drugs, habit, etc., react on the organs whoso functions 

 they control. Every individual is supposed to be born 

 with a predisposition to some one of these humours, 

 or to a modification of one of them in combination 

 with some proximate principle corresponding with the 

 nervous, bilious, phlegmatic, and sanguineous temper- 

 aments formerly recognised in the practice of AVestern 

 medicine. Of the five or .six hundred different causes 

 of disease recognised in Sinhalese medicine, more than 

 a fourth are ascribed to the abnormal conditions oi 

 the three humours, and the rest to to vitiation of 

 the seven proximate principles of the human body, 

 viz, blood, flesh, fat, etc. Hence, diseases are not 

 classified by their symptoms .so much as by thtir 

 causes, and accidental symptoms are not only confound- 

 ed with essential ones, but receive .special treatment 

 as distinct diseases. The treatment, accordingly, is 

 more theoretical than empirical, every symptom being 

 referred to some derange humour, which alone receives 

 attention, and has to be rectified accOidiug to the 

 rules laid down by the recognised authorities. A very 

 isomuou practice nitU uative practitiouers is to allow 



a disease to progress for some time with a view to 

 " mature " it, or " to bring it to a head," before any 

 attempt is made to remove it. A quick recovery, 

 whether under European or native treatment, is depre- 

 cated, as hkcly to lead to a relapse, since sufficient 

 time has not been allowed for the restoration of a 

 permanent, healthy equilibrium between the contending 

 humours. They have great faith in critical days, and 

 in the influence of the different phases of the moon, 

 each of which is supposed to j: 'eside over its own 

 set of organs, so that purgatives, for instance, however 

 much they may be needed in any given case, are 

 never prescribed on the day on which the moon exercises 

 its influence oa the bowels, emetics on the day on 

 which it presides over the stomach, etc. The Sinhalese 

 seldom make use of powerful or hurtful remedies. 

 In most cases the treatment only seems to change an 

 acute disease into one of chronic character, while 

 recovery from a simple affection is protracted, the 

 patient being kept half-starved on gruel, and made 

 to swallow huge quantities of infusions and decoctions 

 of medicinal herbs, villainously compounded, the num- 

 ber of ingredients in each portion increasing in direct 

 ratio with the continuance and severity of the disease. 

 A mild form of fever, for instance, would be treated 

 with a decoction of the " Five Minor Roots." Desnw 

 diuiii gangctiini.in, Uraria layopodioidm, Solanum Jac- 

 quini, Solamviii indicuni, and Tt'ihuU'.s terrestris, which 

 are believed to cure fever due to deranged phlegm, 

 catarrh, etc. A severer form would be ascribed, perhaps, 

 to deranged air, requiring the use of the "Five Major 

 Plants," — JF.<jle marmelos, Calosanthcs itidica, Gmelina 

 arhorea, Stereospermv.m suavcohns, and Premna speciosa. 

 In remittent fever, etc., all ten may be prescribed 

 together, and in typhoid fever, with head symptoms, 

 the same, with eight or ten other ingredients. When 

 conducted by intelligent and skilful practitioners, 

 native practice is not unlike the morden treatment 

 of European Medicine, viz., that of trusting to nature 

 for efforts to restore health, while placing the patient 

 un der the most favourable conditions for recovery by 

 means of suitable diet and regimen, medicinal treat- 

 ment being direciied chiefly to the relief of the more 

 urgent symptoms. It must be admitted, however, 

 that the Materia Medica of the Sinhalese will com- 

 pare favourably in many respects with the Pharma- 

 copoeia of the most enlightened countries of the West. 

 Not only is every class of medicine well represented 

 and supplied in profusion by the boundless prodigality 

 of nature in Eastern tropical climes, but some of the 

 vegetable productions are valuab'e enough to deserve 

 a place iu the medicinal resources of Western science. 



The Cevlon Collection. 



The collection exhibited in the Ceylon Court con- 

 sists of 362 specimens, all of which are indigenous 

 or wild Ceylon p'auts, and the uses of which, as, 

 recorded, have been taken from the mouths of the 

 village doctors themselves. The following is a selection 

 of those drugs which appear to be the most important : — 



Ahrus 2»'e<^((iorius (Olinda-welj. — The juice of the 

 green leaves is used as a purifier of the blood, 

 especially iu females. The root, for sore throat, 

 leprosy, stiffness of the joints, paralysis, and nervous 

 diseases ; externally it is applied to ulcers and sores, 

 This plant is a common tropical weed, and is well 

 known as the source of the jequirity seeds or crab's 

 eyes, which are sometimes used as an article of food 

 in Egypt, being harmless when eaten, but producing 

 fatal ett'ects when introduced beneath the skin. la 

 India the roots are used as a substitute for li({uorice, 



Ahutilon adaticum (Anudi'i). — The root is used in 

 mild fevers, and is considered tonic, diuretic, and 

 stimulant. The water in which the leaves have been 

 boiled is used as a wash for sore mouth, and for 

 fomentation in piles. This is a malvaceous plant 

 and like most of the order it has demulcent properties. 



Acacia cuncinna ;Hiuguru). — The juice of the wood 

 is used to cure murrain iu cattle. The pods are very 

 saponaceous, and are used as a substitute for soap. 



Acali/phaindica (Kuppa-meniya), — The whole plant is 

 used in worm complaiats; aud to expel wind, Xb^ 



