40 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[JuiY 



52, 



night, and was accompanied by delirium and jaundice. 

 After this the fever returned regularly at intervals of about 

 a month till May ISSO, when the carbonic acid gas treat- 

 ment was tried. Two or three doses were administered 

 at short intervals before the accession of the cold 

 stage, and on the fourth day the fever was gone, ai\d has 

 uot siuce returned. A Deputy Conservator of Forests, 

 who had been suffering from severe attacks of fever 

 every three months for two years, and had 

 tried quinine and other remedies without effect, was com- 

 pletely cured after a few days of the new treatment. 

 Other cases are mentioned in which the fever has not only 

 ceased, but the patient has seemed to resist its attacks 

 even in malarious districts for months afterwards. 



Dr. Parkin has uot described any cases demonstrating 

 the effect of this new remedy on surgical fevers, and Dr. 

 Naylor has only been able to make one experiment of this 

 nature as yet, in which the residt appeared to be successful. 

 The benefit derived by the use of the gas, in cases of 

 remittent fever was found to be in direct proportion to. the 

 proximity of the period of its administration to the retiun 

 or accession of a febrile paroxysm, provided that sufficient 

 time was allowed to administer four or five doses of the 

 remedy at intervals of about half-au-hour. In simple fever 

 the best time was during the slight remission that occiu'S at 

 some interval during the twenty-four hoiu-s. The gas is 

 administered by ilissolving three parts of bicarbonate soda 

 in water, with two parts of tartaric acid, and di-iuking 

 the mixture while effervescing. The soda and acid may, 

 however, be taken separately one after the other with 

 equally good effect. Should the new cure prove as generally 

 effectual, as Dr. Naylor hopes it will, then uot only will a 

 great boon have been coufeiTed on suffering humanity, but 

 the Government itself will reap no small advantage. At 

 present not only is there a heavy loss from cases of pro- 

 tracted fever in hospitals, particularly among soldiers in time 

 of war, but in many instances the services of valuable 

 oflncers are lost through continued fever producing organic 

 disease, and necessitating a prolonged absence on leave or .an 

 early retirement from the service. Besides this, the cost of the 

 new antidote is altogether insignificant as compared with that 

 of quinine, cinchona, and other known febrifuges, so that 

 ia every way the Government have much reason to be 

 interested in the success of the experiment. It is to be 

 hoped, therefore, that the Government wiU direct its at- 

 tention to the matter, and allow the experiment to have 

 a full and fair trial 



Certainly this demand is reasonable, but if effervesc- 

 ing draughts of bicarbouaie of soda and tartaric acid 

 have the eft'ect of being not only refreshing in hot 

 weather but a potent cure for malarious fever, then . 

 truly marvellous is it that the virtnea of the dose 

 were not earlier discovered. 



PLANTING IJN FIJI. 

 We are the more glad to get the letter of our 

 correspondent A. J. S., because we have been long 

 doomed to look in vain for anything of the slightest 

 importance in regard to coffee, leaf-ilisease, or any- 

 thing else connected with planting in that pretentious 

 wind-bag, the Fiji Times. Even when Marshall Ward's 

 elaborate reports on hemile'm vastatrix reached Fiji, 

 the only notice in the Fiji Times was that the re- 

 ports could be seen at a public institution and the 

 insertion of a parody on scientific description, which 

 the editor mi.y have deemed wonderfully witty, but 

 which we are greatly mistaken if his plautiug 

 readers found instructive or useful. If the planters 

 of Fiji are contented with 6u;h an organ as the 

 Fiji Times, that is their business. When we want 

 information about European enterprize in Fiji, we 

 certainly shall not look in its columns. We are not 

 surprized to hear that all experiments directed to 

 finding a cure for hemikia vastatrix have failed, and 



we have not the slightest confidence in Mr. Storck's 

 much vaunted remedy. Carbolic acid is uot a vol- 

 atile substance, and tl.e spores of the fundus will 

 not be killed by a difiused smell of tar. Why Mr. 

 Stoick should now make a mystery of his remedy, 

 after having fully disclosed his mode in the Gardener's 

 Chronicle, \t is difficult to see. It is clear that merely 

 for the destruction of the spores nothing can excel 

 lime and sulphur. The difficulty is to prevent fresh 

 spores being blown on to fresh foliage, and, as the 

 creation of shelter belts requires time, we fear we 

 must just tiust to time for the remedy in the shape 

 of gradually decreasing virulence. The disease will 

 run its cour.= e in Fiji as it has done in Ceylon and 

 Southern India, and if the Fiji planters are wise 

 they will dirtct their main attention to sugar. But 

 without a good supply of cheap labour nothing can 

 be profitably cultivated, and it is evident that the 

 labour difficulty is becoming a very serious one in 

 the isles of the south. If it cannot be overcome, 

 rich volcanic soil will avail but little. Violent wind 

 currents, too, form a drawback. 



Having above expressed the opinion that the odour 

 of carbolic acid, diffused in the atmosphere, is not 

 likely to kill the spores of htm,ileia vastatrix, we 

 think it only fair to give the following testimony 

 of an opposite nature, sent to us by a correspondent as 

 likely to be gratifying to Mr. Schrottky's friends: — 

 TUBERCULAR DISEASE. 



TO THE EniTOB OF THE [loKDON] " TI51ES." 



Sir, — As an item which seems to nie to support Pro- 

 fessor TyndalFs letter on tubercular disease, in the Times 

 of today, which also suggests a remedy, w-ill you allow 

 me to state in your columns that in the spring of 1871 

 I was a consumptive patient in Madeira, apparently past 

 recovery ; that I then tried the use of carbolic acid by 

 ray bedside as a ijrotection from mosquitoes, and at once 

 fouud that it had a beneficial influence on my lungs. I 

 continued its use, and in the summer came to England, 

 and have remaiucd here, quite well, ever siuce. I have 

 no doubt that the carbolic vapour inhaled destroyed the 

 Imcil/i. — I am, sir, yours faithfully, E. E. Maddison. 



Barnsley, Yorkshire, April 22nd. 



COFFEE ADULTERATION AND ADULTER- 

 ATION GENERALLY. 



A merchant writes; — "Here is another extract re 

 coffee : — 



Last week I protested against the vile mixtures which 

 are sold as coffee. Mr. Pasteur, the well-known Colonial 

 broker, has put himself at the head of a movement to 

 put an end to this abuse. He has already memorialized 

 the Treasury on the subject of the Treasury minute of 

 January last, which .allows coffee or chicory, and any other 

 vegetable matter applicable to the use of chicory or coffee, 

 to be imported, washed, ground, and mixed, under a duty 

 of 2d. per lb. The reply of the Treasury is that the 

 minute involves no altenatiou of the conditions under 

 which mixtures of coff'ec and chicory may be sold in Eng- 

 land, and that the matter should be considered rather in 

 connection with the Adulteration Acts than with the Cus- 

 toms. This, I think, is reasonable. It is not the business 

 of Custom-house officers to analyze .stuff' imported as coffee, 

 but merely to levy a duty upon it. "SVh.at really is wanted 

 is an Act prohibiting the sale of any sort of mixture 

 under the name of coft'ee or under any name 

 of which coffee forms a portion. Mr. Pasteur's facts 

 are well worthy of consideration. In February he 

 purchased thirty-seven .samples of coffee at various Lou- 

 don shops. Only in two instances was the coff'ee pure; 

 in some cases the coffee formed only 7 per cent, of the 

 mixture. The adulterations consisted of chicory, dandelion, 



