44 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[July 



1882. 



which are usually made. Until some change have 

 been broui,ht about iu theee matters, it is not likely 

 tbab merchants will find it to their interest to go very 

 largely into the trade. The Syndicate has been 

 placed upou more favourable terms iu both respects, 

 and returns are now being received much more quickly 

 than liel'ore, but the committee have brought these 

 complaints of private shippers to the notice of their 

 ageut-i in Melboiirne with a view to some changes 

 being made which will lead to au active continuance 

 of the trade when the time comCB for the Syndicate to 

 wit'idraw from it. 



I also understand that Mr. A. B. Inglis, who has 

 lately 1 'ft Calcutta on a visit to Australia, intends to 

 take up this subject on his arival in Melbourne. 



With regard to the Americim demand, I may state 

 that the advices of the Agents of the Syndicate are 

 mo3t encouraging as to the future prospects of the 

 trade in Indian teas. The quantity hitherto shipped 

 has not been large, and will, unfortunately, not be 

 sufficient to last till the first shipments of the new 

 crop arrive from this side, but the committee hope to 

 be able to eend forward full supplies this season. 

 Upon the strong recoinmeudation of our New York 

 Agents, the committee have sanctioned a liberal ex- 

 penditure for advertisements in all the principal news- 

 papers throughout the United States, and all that is 

 now required is, as you suggest, that gardens should 

 make ample contributions of tea to meet the demand 

 which will no doubt follow. 



A. Gr. Watson, Honorary Secretary. 



Calcutta, May 6th, 1882. 



MORE ABOUT FEVER AKD ITS CUliES. 



The Calcutta EnrjUshman contains the following 

 article ; — 



" The Indian Medical Oazeite for May contains amongst 

 other interesting articlis u precis of operations per- 

 fojmed in the wards of the First Surgeon, Medical 

 College Hospital, during the year 1881, and the report 

 of a valuable paper read before the Calcutta Medical 

 Si ciety by Babn Kakhal Dash Ghose, L.M.S., on the 

 Ufu and iibuse of quinine in fever. Criticism or notice 

 ol hospital operations are scarcely desirable in our 

 columns ; but our renders may care to know some, 

 thing about fever and qniniue from a native pract- 

 itioner who has had lo"g experience of both. In all 

 cases of intermitteut fever, Babu Rakhal Dash Ghose 

 says quinine stands pre-eminent in efficacy and success. 

 Curonic interuiittent fever, however, is seldom bene- 

 fited by quinine, and in complicated malarious fevers 

 whie.h have been neglected it is useless. Tiie fonuula 

 of Sir Ronald Martin in cases of spleen, in which 

 quuiine does little liooil beyond allaying the fever, he 

 ha., found very efftctual n most cases. 



" This recenji he varies in obstinate cases of chronic 

 iuteimitteut fever by adding Li(p: Arsnicalis. The 

 ■writer of the jiaper makes the somewhat astonish- 

 ing statement tl.at aluui^t all the diseases of Bengal 

 be ' me tinged with malaria, and that the use of 

 quiuiue in typhoid and eruptive fever of all sorts is 

 desirable, especially iu the case of the latter, when 

 the eruption lias been fully devoliped. It may be 

 within the i-ecollection of our rcaOers that two Italian 

 savants some four jears agu c'ainied to have dis- 

 covered the malarial genu in a microscopic fungus 

 found in the Pontine marshes of Italy. Since then 

 littie has been heard of the malarial germ, till re- 

 cently a M. Laveran has claimed to have found in 

 in the blood of patients suflering from malaria a 

 remarkable parasite which he afflrms is the genuine 

 cau.-ie. We give below the entire statement from the 

 Sckntijic American :— 



" Mr. A. Laveran has found in the blood of patients 

 suflering from malarial poisoning, parasitic organ- 



isms very definite in form, and mo-t r> maikable iu 

 character ; motionless, cylindrical curved bodies, trans- 

 parent and of delicate outlines, curved at the extrem- 

 ities ; transparent spherical forms provided with fine 

 filaments in rapid movement, which he believes to be 

 animalcules; and spherical or irregular bodies, which 

 appeared to be the "cadaveric" stage of these, all 

 marked with pigment granules. He has also detected 

 peculiar conditions in the blood itself. During the 

 year that has passed since he first discovered these 

 elements, M. Laveran has examiueil the blood in 192 

 patients affected with various symptoms of malarial 

 disease, and has found the organisms in ISO of them, 

 and he has convinced himself by numerous aurl 

 repeated observations th.it they are not found in the 

 blood of persons suffering from dise.ases that are not of 

 malarial origin. In general the parasitic boilies were 

 found in the blood only at certain times, a little before 

 and at the moment of the accession of the fever, and 

 they rapidly disappeared under the influence of a 

 quinine treatment. The addition of a minute quantity of 

 a dilute solution of sulphate of quinine to a dr< p of 

 blood sufficed to destroy the organisms. M. Laveran 

 believes that the absence of the organisms in most of 

 the cases (only 12 in the whole 192) in which he failed 

 to find them was due to the patients having under- 

 gone a course of treatment with quiuiue. 



" Whether the germ of malaria be a fungus, a para- 

 site, an organic germ of some sort, or a superabundance 

 of carbon dioxide and other exhal.'itions and a con- 

 sequent deficiency of oxygen iu the air breathed over 

 malarious districts, this at least is certain, that the 

 magnitude of the loss of life from what is called 

 fever in India has attained such dimensions as to 

 warrant, if not a special commission of experts to 

 examine and report on the subject, at least tliat every 

 practitioner, who has any experience of "fever," should 

 give some time to its study aud keep a note of his 

 experience that it may be compared with that of others. 



" The discussion on the paper above noted has been 

 adjourned. If we are not too late, may we suggest 

 that a committee of the Calcutta Medical Society 

 stiould be appointed to report on the fever item tha*: 

 figures so largely aud so invariably in the mortuary 

 retu rns ? " 



[There can be no doubt that the great remedy for fever 

 is quinine. Next to it in value is .arsenic, but the 

 latter requires great caution in its u-e. aud should be 

 taken only when prescribed by a physician. The ar- 

 senic eaters of Stjria become ultimately the most fear- 

 ful wrecks, more pitiable, if anything, thin the vic- 

 tims of opium and alcohol. Our readers have heard the 

 story of old .lames Reed of Rnjawella, who discoverefl 

 thu proper dose of arsenic, after twenty coolies had 

 succumbed to over-doses ! — In the severe cases of remit- 

 tent fever, where quinine fails, there is probably lesion 

 of the liver or some vital organ. — En.] 



Reana Luxurians. — An Indian correspondent writes : 

 — "Your correspondent, who has tried the seed of 

 the ' Reaua luxurians,' should try parching it or 

 roasting, when he will find it as edible as Indian 

 corn. But Reana is not worth growing for its grain, 

 as the stalk becomes hard and cattle cannot eat it 

 then ; when green, and before the seed forms, it is 

 very good for fodder: in fact nothing can be better 

 except the imphee or sorghum, which is capital 

 fodder, besides giving abundant grain, which also is 

 very good as a food grain for man and beast, if 

 boiled, or parched, or ground down to meal. The 

 Reaua h.as one advantage, that it is not poisonous 

 to cattle at any time, whereas the sorghum is poison- 

 ous at certain times of the year, before it ie full- 

 grown." 



