240 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [September i, 1882. 



enevolent Being should be the Creator, not only 

 of the cattle and the herbs which are good for the 

 food of man, but also of destructive parasites, in- 

 sect aud vegetable, which so often defeat man's best 

 efforts and ruin bis resources, would seem to pre- 

 sent a problem as insoluble ns the existence of moral 

 evil. In the one case, as in the other, man's duty, 

 which often becomes a' pleasure, is to fight strenu- 

 ously and valiantly against adverse influences, trust- 

 ing to overcome them, by strength not his own. In the 

 cale of tlie natural evils now under review, our im- 

 mediate duty seems to be to avail ourselves, as far as 

 possible of laws which are obvious and which to some 

 extent we can control, trusting to the operation, sooner 

 or later, of the larger and less explicable laws which 

 we cau understand only after they have operated for 

 long periods and over wide areas. We hoije we shall not 

 be misunderstood. We only disagree with "W." m 

 as far as he makes light of such specific evils as 

 fungus and grub,— the latter of which he does not 

 even mention ! We most heartily approve of his sug- 

 gestions that planters should attempt to trace out and 

 so be able to supply the conditions under which ex- 

 ceptional trees, or patches of trees, are found to resist 

 disease. We should, however, be sorry to discourage 

 any experiments at cwea for fungus or grub which 

 planters may feel inclined to institute. But as meteoro- 

 logical phenomena have been, we believe, the main 

 agents in the dfVrh>pment and continuance of these 

 two destructive pests, our main hope of relief— and 

 it is strong— is founded on the evidences receutly 

 presented of changed seasons such as we believe to 

 be adverse to the abundant existence and deadly oper- 

 ations of some of the worst enemies of the coifee tree 

 which have ever appeared in Ceylon. 



RIVAL QUININE-GROWING COLONIES. 

 The two Colonies of Jamaica aud Ceylon — separa- 

 ted by so wide a distance, but so nearly alike in 

 agricultural resources — are ruuning a close race with 

 e°ch other for first place as quinine-producing cuun- 

 tries. Ceylon, which was in the field first, naturally 

 has the advantage of longer experience ; but Mr. 

 Morris, who took with him to the West Indies all 

 the information which his career in the East had 

 enabled him to collect, has shown that Jamaica well 

 knows how to mate up for lost time. Meanwhile 

 planters growing for yirofit, aud the official hot mist 

 crowing for experimen', in Ceylon, are placing the 

 cultivation of the difl'erent varieties of cinchona on 

 the level of a science. The particular virtues of 

 snccirubra, officinalis, itdf/eriana, cnli-aya, cnrdifoUa. 

 lancifoUn, aud others are accurately weighed, and 

 their suitability for different kinds of sod exactly 

 ascertained, wiiile anything that seems to be a new 

 variety is eagerly t'-.sted at the Government Botan- 

 ical Gardens at Peradeniya. Mr. Trimen, in his 

 report on these gardens for the year 1881, states 

 that bark of excellent quality has been obtained 

 from a cinchona tree, whose exact species seems 

 in some doubt, but which is believed to be a 

 hybrid, originally brought into the island from 

 the Indian Government plantations in the Nilgu-is, 

 which has assumed a psrmauent form. What- 

 ever its orgin, its produce is proved to be very 

 valuable, and Mr. Ti-imen proposes to christen it 

 scientifically C. rohmta. He strongly urges the exer- 

 cise of the greatest care in the examination of all 

 plants raised from seed wliich do not come true to type, 

 and he recommends propagation, wherever possible, 

 by cuttings instead of from seed. One great principle 

 which distiuyuisbrs the system of Uovernment _eu- 

 couragtmi-nt in Cejlon from that adopted in Jamaica, 

 is that wliile in the former island th'i Government 

 does not enter the market as a producer of baik, the 



principal supplies of cinchona received from the latter 

 island are grown and sold by the Government. Mr. 

 Trimen thinks, and properly so, that it is not the 

 duty of the Government to enter into competition in 

 such a matter with private enterprize. Perhaps when 

 cinchona cultivation promises to be as largely adopted 

 in Jamaica as in Ceylon, the authoriiies there will 

 confine their attention to the experimental culture of 

 new varieties. — Colonies and India. 



♦ 



Vakilla from Oats. — It is well known that the 

 German chemists Thiemann aud Harmann, some time 

 ago succeeded in preparing artificial vanilline from the 

 sap of pine trees. A French chemist, M. Eugene 

 Scrullat, has discovered a way of producing the same 

 compound from common oats. The hull of the oats 

 contains a principle which is very soluble in boiling 

 water, and to which M. Scrullat has given the name 

 of Aveneine, This principle is isolated from the re- 

 sidues of manufacture of oat meal, is oxydized, and 

 becomes converted into the characteristic perfume of 

 vanilla. Whether it has all the properties of vanilline, 

 as made from the beau and the sap of the pine, remains 

 to be determined. — Oil and Drurj Nnos. 



Mysore, July 2-tth. — Weather this monsoon has 

 been exceptionally severe both as regards wind and rain. 

 During the 16 years I have gauged the latter nothing 

 like it had previously fallen. The fall liere (Igoor) 

 is .about a fair average one for the coffee districts of 

 Mysore, and is about 110 inches annu.ally, and this 

 year 145'79 inches has already fallen, of which 50'49 

 and 86 '49 respectively for June and the unfinished 

 part of July. The nearest approach to this hitherto 

 was 57 '90 in July 1876, but with only about 15 inches 

 month before and after, and again in June 1874, 50 

 inches followed by 43'69 in August. The maximum 

 annual rainfall hitherto was 14510 in 1874, and min- 

 imum 90 '67 in ISSl. We may expect monsoon rain 

 for another 3 or 4 months. 



The Treatment of Sea-Sickness.— Dr. Milau Soule 

 surgeon on the steamship "City of Sidney," lias written an 

 account of his experience with the bromide treatment of 

 sea-sickuesa a.s laid down by Dr. G. M. Beard. His testi- 

 mony to its etfieacy is very emphatic and convincing. He 

 says : About three years ago I began to use the bromides 

 in treating sea-sickness, foUnwing as nearly as possible the 

 directions given in Dr.. Beard's valuable monograph on that 

 anbject. I had then been in the service of the Pacific Mail 

 Steamship Company nearly four years, and as my field 

 for experiment was large, I had tried nearly every drug or 

 eombination of drii2;R tliat had ever been proposed for the 

 cure of alleviation of tins disagreeable malady. Repeated 

 failures and humiliating disappointments had so shaken my 

 faith in the power of drugs over this disease that I begau 

 to use the bromides with a good deal of doubt and hesit- 

 ation. Greatly to my surprise and gratification, however, I 

 found that I was able to entirely prevent or greatly alleviate 

 the disease, and not one single failure to lecord. The fol- 

 lowing is the combination I most frequently employed viz : 



Bromide of Sodium drachms four 



Bromide of Ammonium ,, two 



Peppermint w.iter fluid ozs. three. 



A teaspoouful before meals, and at bed-time ; begin 

 treatment three days before going on board. 

 When preparatory treatment has been neglected, and the 

 disease fully established, I put a teaspoouful of the above 

 in a halt-tumbler of water, and a drop of extr. ipecac, fld. 

 and give a teaspoouful every five minutes, it generally relieves 

 the patient in less than an hour. I have received several 

 letters (guinea inclosed) ft-om passengers asking me to send 

 them the above formula. Next to the brcmides, I have found 

 hyoseyamia the most successful remedji. Atropia will fre- 

 quently aford relief, but is not altogether safe as I have 

 noticed a few c ses of retention of urine to follow its u-e. 

 I eave nitrite of amyl a fair trial, but it proved a complete 

 failure. I have notes of several cases where the bromides 

 eiitiielv prevented sea-sickness during voyagesoffrom twenty 

 to thirty days, although these patients were always sick on 

 previous voyages. — Medical Record. 



