5i6 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Feb. I, 1887. 



the result was a fact almost unprecedented in anj' agri- 

 cultural enterprise, for that oue harvest resulted in a yield 

 of £000 sterliug per acre. That uaturally led to what was 

 commonly called a "boom ' iocinchona agriculture. He 

 himself came home the following year and telegraphed 

 out at once to his brother to purchase 1,000 acres suitable 

 for ciacboua. The history of the cultivation was like 

 that of many others, accompaiued by disappointments, 

 for although Oeylon planters had flooded the markets of 

 the world, they had not all been successful. If all the 

 ciuchouds planted iu Ceylon had reache t maturity there 

 would be ten times the quantity iu the market, and all 

 present would allow there was quite enough, because the 

 unit of ciuchoua for which wheu he began he used to get 

 2s. had now fallen to 2^d., aud did not show much pros- 

 pect ol lisiug. Wuat he complained of was that though 

 he had to suffer very severely in the prices realized for 

 the bark, when he went into a chemist's »hop in London 

 to buy a quarter of an ounce of quinine he had to pay an 

 en irmous price for it. He did not know if anything so 

 commerci^il were within the rauge of the Society, 

 but if it were he wished they would pay a little 

 atteution to it, because it was held out as a 

 great inducement iu the beginning. — Nevermind how 

 mucli you send, there will be the giand result of couf er- 

 ring an iuesti uableboou on humanity, because you will 

 place cheap quinine within the reach of the very poorest 

 people. He nuped for the sake, at any rate, of the cin- 

 chona growers in the East, that every effort would be 

 ma le to disseminate the use of it throughout Great 

 Britiiu. Oardamoms h id been mentioned, and he was 

 sorrj' to .say tbit they also in Ceylon had been so com- 

 pletely sacuesjful that their success led to failure, the 

 price having come down to oue-third of what it was two 

 years agi. This would shjw that they were a go-ahead 

 people in Ceylon, and what he wanted to know was what 

 othr-r drugs they could supply the Ejglish markets with. 

 Tui-y had suff -red very much in the cultivation of 

 eoliee from having ah their eggs in one basket, and he 

 WAS Very much afraid they were inclined to go to the 

 same extent in tea. He was quite sure that there were 

 many drugs which could be profitably carried out as ad- 

 juncts to other enterprises. On one point he was a little 

 in opposition to Dr. Watt, for he must say he attached 

 great value to the native remedies which were in the 

 bauds of native doctors. He had derived benefit from 

 them himself, and had thought that the scientific gentle- 

 men who came out from medical colleges to the East 

 made a great mistake iu not exchangi'ig ideas with their 

 native brethren, aud in looking down upon them too 

 much. In the use of vegetable oils, especially iu rheu- 

 matic affections, he had derived great benefit. Vey often 

 natives possessed remedies and secrets which were still 

 unknown to the Pharmacopoeia. Mr. Holmes had been 

 described by Mr. McCarthy as a persistent beggar, but 

 he must say that if so he had deceived him because 

 he came to him a day or two ago in the guise of a 

 borrower. Still he must say, after the privilege he 

 had had of being there that evening, he should be most 

 happy to present to the Museum the samples which were 

 to have returned, and as long as his connection with the 

 Ceylon Court lasted, if there were anything else Mr. 

 Holmes would like to beg or borrow he should be most 

 happy to present it to the Museum. 



Mr. Umxey drew atteution to the very fine samples 

 on the table of vanilla which came from the Seychelles, 

 aud it mi:5ht be interesting to inform the meeting 

 that Dr. Brook, whose name had been so favourably 

 referred to in the pajJer, had much benefited in the 

 harvesting and curing of his vanillas by a report which 

 appeared in the Pharmaceutical Journal some years ago. 

 It would seem, therefore, that even on this side they 

 could be of great service to gentlemen in the colonies. 

 "What made the Seychelles exhibit of more interest, also 

 was, that gome two or three years since he sent out a phar- 

 -maceutical chemist, who for many years was with the 

 old firm of Jacob Bell, and it was through him, under 

 Dr. Brook's direction, that these essential oils had been 

 placed on the table, and when in the Museum he felt 

 .sure they would be well worthy of examination. There 

 •were essential oils of geen cloves, dried cloves, green 

 tStems and dried stems, aud chemically there was very 

 jiittle difference between them. He was sorry to say tha 



in the drug market they did not always appreciate 

 these goods when they came in, for only last week a 

 large parcel of essential oil of cloves was offered at the 

 drag auction in Mincing Lane, and with very great 

 difficulty a purchaser was found, because it was thought 

 to be adulterated, coming from abroad. Another exhibit 

 was that of turtle oil, which he lookt^d upon as one of 

 the most nauseating things which could be taken. Dr. 

 Brook assured him that the natives took it in the place 

 of cod liver oil, but its power of repeating probably could 

 not be equalled. He had tried to introduce it, but no 

 one would take it up. 



Mr. David Howaud said, there were on the table some 

 of the most beautiful specimens of cinchona barks he 

 had ever seen, and they were interesting in two opposite 

 ways. One was about the most typical specimen of what 

 wa"* the very fiuest calisaya quill baik of his younger 

 days; another was calisaya bark, no doubt of a similar 

 strain, from Perak ; but you could hardly have two things 

 less resembling oue another, and after a great many 

 years' experience he shoul i have called it a very inferior 

 sample of red bark. Yet he had very little doubt that 

 the analy.sis would be very satisfactory. One could by no 

 means judge entirely by the eye. Again, there were two 

 samples from Jamaica; they were very familiar to him, 

 one of the very finest strains of succirubra bark he had 

 ever met with, and a very fine specimen of calisaya bark. 

 But in appearance the calisaya bark looked like a 

 Very nice sample of red bark, and the succirubra looked 

 like a very fair sample of calisaya. Yet botanically, and 

 as far as tests went, there was no doubt they were each 

 a most excellent strain of its own kind. Mr. Holmes 

 had mentioned the very high prices given for fine quill 

 barks for pharmaceutical purposes, and it was not entirely 

 a mistake to do so. Of course to the manufacturer any- 

 thing which would give quinine was valuable. He did 

 not much mind how much cinchotannic acid or resin 

 he had to deal with if he could get rid of it ; but on 

 the other hand for galenical preparations there was no 

 doubt that fine quills were infinitely better than barks 

 that might be much richer in alkaloid. He did not see any 

 specimens of succirubra, which was now the official bark, 

 but there was the renewed bark, a most interesting and 

 valuable specimen. With regard to the crispa he might 

 say that the knotty appearance was not essential to the 

 true crispa. In some varieties it grew with an exceedingly 

 thin epidermis. This knotty tendency was noticed by 

 Jussieu a good many years ago, but so far as it went it 

 was a disadvantage. The cork did not contain any 

 quinine, as far as could be discovered ; only mere traces 

 were found, and he believed they were derived from 

 small portions of the real bark, which it was difficult to 

 remove. The crispa with a fine thin epidermis was really 

 the best- Having forsaken his hereditary pharmacy for 

 chemistry he might put iu a word iu favour of applying 

 chemistry to some of these new drugs. There was a 

 beautiful sample of coca leaves, and there could not be 

 a better example of how chemistry and pharmacy should 

 work together than the history of cocoa and cocaine. 

 When it was first brought over it was on account of the 

 great value the natives attached to it, and the great 

 benefits they found to arise from it; but curiously enough 

 its first iutroluction into English therapeutics wa* com- 

 paratively a failure, and it did not appear to have the 

 merits ascribed to ii;- He believed it was simply because 

 they had hardly discovered what its merits were. It 

 was assumed it was simply a beneficial drug to stay 

 hunger, without having any idea how it was. Then 

 chemistry came in and cocaine was extracted. It was at 

 first a curiosity, but then its anjesthetic property was 

 noticed. He would point out, therefore, that it was en- 

 tirely owing to chemistry that it had become possible to 

 utilize this property, since a heavy dose of cocoa leaves 

 in the eye would not be wholly desirable before an 

 operatation. It appeared to him that many of these 

 comparatively unknown drugs should not be merely 

 dealt with galeiiically, but chem'cally also. If you 

 ccudd get a defiuite principle from them to operate 

 with you might, as in the case of coca leaves, tr.xca 

 the actual cause of the value which had been dis- 

 covered by the natives by long practice, and having got 

 the real cause of the value it might be applied far 

 better to pharmacy under altered circumstances than 



