^8S( 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [June i. 1887. 



PHARMACY IN CEXLON. 



The style of bu^^iness out here is much the same 

 as a country business at home ; we are '' Chemists, 

 Druggists, and General Dealers," though in some Stores 

 the Oheniist's Department forms only a small part of 

 the business. We do not get very rumunerative 

 pi-ices — Euo's Salts, 2 rupees; Clarke's Blood Mixturr^, 

 3 rupees; Cockle's pills, 2s. 9d. size, 2 rupees, 6-oz 

 ordinary mixtures, 1 rupee; 8-oz, IJ rupee. The rupee 

 being so low in value — under Is. 6d. sterling — the prices 

 arc much the same as one has been accustomed to in 

 England. Our e.^penses in importing home goods are 

 very heavy; we have a C-per-cent ad valorem duty on 

 goods coming into the colony, which, in addition to 

 agents' buying commission, shipping, landing, and 

 railway charges, and other incidnntals, together with 

 SSJ per cent premium, which we have to pay in ex- 

 changing rupees into sterling, causes an advance on 

 many goo Is of 50 to 60 per cent, over London invoice 

 jjrices. We are in the land of " spicy breezes " ; we 

 do not wish to detract from the island, but cannot 

 help thinking there has been a mistake somewhere ; 

 certainly we get breezes — incidental to a hot climate, 

 ■we suppose — the spice in them being rather conspicu- 

 ous by its absence. 



Our beautiful scenery and foliage is always admired 

 by passengers taking a trip into the interior. Indian 

 visitors, who have been accustomed to the hot and 

 parched plains, say the visit to Oeylou is a glorious 

 change for them, and admire very much the luxriant 

 growth of vegetation for which our island is so fame '. 

 Our climate is like a perpetual summer ; the year is 

 marked, not by four seasons as at home, but bv the 

 two monsoons, the one frcim the N rth-east, which 

 comes in about October, lasting *ill the following April, 

 when the South-west comes and stays till the next 

 October. The burst of the monsoons is accompanied 

 by plenty of stormy weather, when we get, thunder 

 and lightning, and rain in torrents. We have several 

 botanical gardens in Ceylon ; those at Peradeniya are 

 especially good. I will send you a little paper on what 

 I see there at a future date. I uiet Dr. Bonavia, 

 Brigade-Surgeoa of the Indian Mediciil Department, 

 a little while ago. He has been carrying on a research 

 into the properties of the orauge family, find told 

 me of the excellent results he has observed from the 

 use of " Decoctiou of Lemon. " As it may interest 

 some of your readers, I give the recipe tor the pre- 

 paration of the medicine iu full, copied from a'etter 

 by Dr. Bonavia to the Ceylon Observer. — " To make 

 decoction of lemon, take one Malta lemon, or three 

 sour limes, cut into thin slices, rind, pulp, and all, 

 add three breakfast-cupfuls of water, and bnil in an 

 enamelled saucepan until the liquid is reduced to one 

 cupful, then leave it exposed all night to the air; 

 next morning strain through muslin, and drink the 

 liquid early on an empty stomach." Dr. Bonavia 

 adds: "In quotidian fever simply, decoctiou of lemon 

 given only once a day acts like cinchona febrifuge. 

 In enlarged spleen of recent occurrence (within few 

 months) the decoction has a wonderful effect. In loss 

 of appetite and weakness after illness, decoction of 

 lemon may be prescribed with marked benefit." The 

 wholesale houses at home seem very anxious to do 

 business with their colonial customers direct. We get 

 hosts of price-lists by every mail, and occasionally a 

 traveller from the old country drops in. " Siegtl's 

 Syrup " people have been sending their almatacs through 

 the post to almost every person in Ceylon, and with- 

 in a few days after the arrival of these almanacs all 

 the Stores had run out of stock. By the time 

 new stocks arrive it may possibly happen that the 

 interest of the patent-medicine-taking public will be 

 taken up with something else. 



I notice you are altering the puhlication of The 

 Ohkmist and Drugoist to once a fortnight, and no 

 extra charge to subscribers — another instance of the 

 liberal spirit you have always shown to us ; a years' 

 numbers and the Diary, all post-fret^ for ten shillings — 

 marvellously cheap. i\lay you continue to go on and 

 prosper ! — Cinnamon.— C/;e?»t.s< mid Druggist. 



DOMESTIC REMEDIES OP THE ARABIAN 

 DESERT. 



Dr. E. Gordon Hull, in the British Medical Journil, 

 gives some particulars of observations on the diseases 

 and remtnlies current among the Bedawin of Arabia 

 Petrisa and the Arahah Valley, made during the 

 autumn and winter of 1883-84, while he was acting 

 as Honorary Medical Officer to an expedition sent out 

 by the Palestine Exploration Fund. He remarks that 

 chronic bronchitis and chronic articular rheumatism 

 are almost universal. He measured twenty-six men 

 and nearly all their shoulder-joints creaked and 

 groaned as they raised them. This will account for 

 the curious inability of the Arabs to move about, 

 or do any work in the morning before they are 

 " thawed " and rendered supple either by firy or by 

 sun. Nevertheless, the Arabs appear to be a very 

 healthy people. 



The remedies they are in the habit of u^ing are 

 not many iu number, and are usually derived from 

 those plants which are most widely distributed. As 

 a diuretic, that is, for pains in the back and gravel, 

 they use the retem, or broom (Sparfium monoftpermvm), 

 making a decoction of the top shoofs in hot water, 

 a'ld drinking it; they say it is also purgative. This 

 shrub, which provides them with fuel, and their camels 

 with a scanty nourishment, is almost universal ; we 

 saw it in flower on the way to Petra, and the in- 

 florc-cence, which is purple and white, gives out an 

 exceedingly sweet perfume. I*" has a very bitter ta-'te. 



Several species of wild me'on, of the family Bryonice, 

 allied »o the elaterium (which also grovs in these 

 parts), are in ci'mmon use as v)ur£:atives ; the native 

 method of using them is insienious. A fruit is split 

 into halves, the seeds scooped out, and the two 

 cavities filled with milk; after al'owing it to stand 

 fur some time, the liqu'd, which has absorbed some 

 of the active principle of the plant, is drunk off. 

 A milder remedy is camel's milk, which appears under 

 some circumstances to be purgative to the Arabs. 



The order Composifa funu'shes several niedininal 

 herbs of which the Arabs m^ike u^^e. The Sanfolina 

 fraqrantissima, a graceful plant of a sage-green colour, 

 bitter tnste, and strong fragrant odour, furnishes them 

 in the form of an infusion, with a carminative, good 

 f<ir cnlic and all painful affections of the a'ldomen. 

 In the bizaars of Cairo the fragrant dried heads are 

 sold for the same purposes as camomile. I was told 

 that there 'are no snakes in the districts where the 

 plant grows, and the natives believe that the odour 

 of the plant is sufiBcient to drive reptiles from a house, 

 and it is used for this purpose in Cairo and other 

 towns. 



Another plant of the same order is an artemisa, 

 or worm-wood, with a very strong aromatic odour 

 and bittter taste. The fellaheen use it to put in their 

 bedding to drive away vermin. This use of the plant 

 appears to be very universally known, witness the old 

 English rhyme: — 



When wormwood hath seed, get a handful or twain, 

 To save again.st March, to make flea to refrain : 

 Where chamber is swept, and wormwood is strewn, 

 No flea, for his life, dare bide, or be known ! 



From the seeds of some of the kinds of artemisia be 

 which g'ow in these parts, santonine appears to ob- 

 tained. In the wilderness of Judsea, near to Beersheba, 

 we found a pretty little calendula, or marigold, very 

 common. It became extremely abumlant along the 

 Mediterranean seaboard, and is used by the natives 

 as a sort of tea for tl itulence and pain in the abdomen. 

 Knowing how largely a liniment derived from this 

 plant was advertised by homoeopaths, I tried to find 

 out if Ihey used it as an external application, but 

 they did not know of its virtues as such. One of Oie 

 commonest desert plants is the zygophyllum, so culled 

 from the leaves bi-ing composed of short succ ilen 

 jointed segments; these, bruised in water, form a 

 mucilaginous liquid of which the Arabs are very fond as 

 an application for sore eyes. It has an exceedingly 

 nauseous taste, but this ifact only appears to com- 

 mend it to the notice of the camel, who devours i 

 greedily. A curious tropical plant, which we fouu 



