January i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



523 



asking is that in America this is the common name given 

 to the cactus plant, and in Mexico the "nopal," or cactus 

 plant, is highly esteemed as food for sheep in times of 

 drought; in fact, a Mexican shepherd thinks no pasture 

 good unless it has an abundance of nopal thickets upon 

 it. He will shrug his shoulders contemptuously, and tell 

 you that a piece of country, possibly very beautiful in 

 appearance, is -'only grassland." Every Mexican shepherd 

 carries a long sword-like knife, with which he slashes off 

 a piece of the plant as he passes, so that the sheep can 

 make a beginning upon it; then, I have been told, in spite 

 of the prickles, they will eat it to the last blade. In fact, 

 I have been told by men of experience that when pressed 

 for food sheep find a means of breaking in upon the plant 

 themselves — but, of course, they have first to be taught 

 that the plant is good for food. They are put upon it to 

 fatten, and require no water wliile fed upon it, even in 

 the hottest months; indeed, they are thought not to fatten 

 so well if they have access to water while being fed upon 

 the nopal. Working bullocks I have frequently seen fed 

 upon the plant. It is cut down and held for a few seconds 

 in the flame of a blazing fire, when the prickles are _ so 

 destroyed that cattle can eat it, and eat it they do greedily, 

 standiug round the fire waiting for it to be thrown to 

 them. If it is this plant that has found its way into 

 Queensland it may prove to be not altogether an unmixed 

 evil. The greatest drawback that I can forsee would be 

 the prickles getting into the wool. There are so many 

 varieties of the plant, too, that are useless as food for 

 stock; but the only variety I have seen in this country, 

 having an oval, round, or egg-shaped fleshy leaf, if leaf 

 it can be called, is precisely, to the eye at least, the same 

 as I have seen working cattle fed upon in Mexico. I was 

 told that sheep do not care for the younger shoots, and 

 will leave the growth of the year untouched, feeding only 

 on the older portions of the plant. — I am, &c, Bucolic. 



POISONOUS VANILLA. 

 The manifestation of symptoms of poisoning in upwards 

 of one hundred residents in Brooklyn (Lancet, September 

 G, p. 441) after eating ice cream flavoured with natural 

 vauilla recalls a similar occurrence in Vienna in 1873, the 

 report upon which by Dr. Rosenthal (Pharm. Journ., [3], 

 iv., 838, 852), although it presented no satisfactory conclusion, 

 may be advantageously referred to. The symptoms observed 

 in Brooklyn were practically the same as those in the Vienna 

 cases, consisting in severe pains in the hypogastric and 

 epigastric regions, with violent vomiting and purging and in 

 many cases serious collapse, accompanied by blueness. coldness 

 and shrinking of the skin, like that observed in cholera. 

 At first the blame was thrown upon copper derived from 

 the vessels in which the cream had been prepared, but 

 an examination of these showed that the tinning was con- 

 tinuous, whilst no metallic or other poison was detected 

 upon chemical examination. Dr. Sizer, who reports the 

 case, evidently suspects a formation of " ptomaines," 

 consequent upon the decomposition of the cream before 

 freezing, principally on the ground that a fetid odour was 

 noticed during the analysis. But the cream used for the 

 noxious product had come from two out of twenty-seven 

 packages, none of the remainder of which is known to 

 have produced injurious effects. In Vienna the same sus- 

 picion was at first eutertained, but was put out of court 

 by the fact that several persons who suffered had not 

 partaken of a cream compound at all. bu{ of a farinaceous 

 dish flavoured with vanilla. Moreover, the cream theory 

 is hardly consistent with the experience that these poison- 

 ing epidemics, of which there have now been several, do 

 not occur in connection with the eating of cream ices 

 other than those flavoured with vanilla. On the other 

 hand, rightly or wrongly, vanilla pods are widely credited 

 with occasionally possessing poisonous properties. Dr. 

 Rosenthal mentions a case where a confectioner in Altona, 

 having been compelled to give up his business in conse- 

 quence of some persons being poisoned by vanilla cream 

 ice supplied by him, disposed of his stock of vanilla to a 

 confectioner in Bergen, where the ice made with the pods 

 also proved to be poisonous. In the paper on " vanillism," 

 occurring among persons employed in handling vanilla 

 Journ. Phar. Chim. [5], x., 35), which has already been 

 referred to (before, vol. xiv., p. 423), Dr. Layet avers tha^ 



vanilla ingested into the system sometimes acts as a true 

 poison, and he associates this character with an inferior 

 variety called " vanillon," the pods of which are free from 

 rime, soft, viscous and nearly always open. He also gives 

 reasons for believing that the mould occurring on the pods 

 is sometimes poisonous. The unfavourable reputation of 

 vanilla has also made its way into the text-books, where 

 the steeping in cashew-nut oil and the methods of drying 

 have been variously credited with the mischief. It may 

 la- added that according to M. Jaillet, in the Island of 

 Reunion, the tree yielding the "pinging nut" (Jatropha 

 Curcas) is frequently used to support vanilla creepers, and 

 it has been pointed out in this Journal (xi., 430) that there 

 is nothing improbable in the occasional absorption of the 

 acrid juice of this euphorbiaceous plant to an extent 

 sufficient to affect the vauilla. — PJmrmaceutlcal Journal. 



LECTURE ON THE JOHORE FORESTS. 



Mr. James Meldrum, F. R. G. S., Commissioner to the 

 International Forestry Exhibition from his Highness the 

 Maharajah of Johore, delivered a lecture, entitled: "The 

 Johore Forests." Mr. Jack, Commissioner from New 

 Brunswick, occupied the chair, and introduced the 

 lecturer. Mr. Meldrum begau by stating that Johore forests 

 were situated on the Malayan Teninsula, at the extreme 

 south of the Asiatic continent. The territories of Johore, 

 Maur, and their dependencies consisted af about ten thou- 

 sand square miles. For a tropical country the climate of 

 Johore was exceedingly healthy, the thermometer averaging 

 about 78 degrees in the shade. This lowness of temperature 

 was no doubt owing to the vast forests of the interior, 

 which attracted the rain-clouds and retained the moisture, 

 so that when the wind blew over them the breezes were 

 comparatively cool. No epidemics, hurricanes, or cyclones 

 passed over it. Nearly the whole of the interior of Johore 

 was dense virgin forest, and as there were no roads beyond 

 a short distance from the seaboard and from the banks 

 of the rivers, there was no likelihood of the wealth of_ 

 timber now locked up being available, as it was well known 

 that timber beyond a certain distance from water carriage 

 would not pay the expense of cutting and haulage. Specim- 

 ens of 350 kinds of Johore wood were in the Forestry 

 Exhibition. The useful kinds were extensively used 

 for local works and for exportation — China, India, and 

 Mauritius being the principal markets; but considerable 

 parcels were sent to the Dutch colonies, Batavia, and other 

 parts of Java, and to Sumatra, to Australia, and to New 

 Zealand and other places. Little had been sent to Europe 

 as yet, the difficulties being the price of freight and pre- 

 judice against using a new kind of timber. Sooner or 

 later a trade would be done in some of the best kinds, 

 •such as hallow (sometimes called Johore teak and camphor 

 wood), both of those sorts having been admitted by Lloyd's 

 for all parts in ships of the highest grade. For 

 purposes where great strength was required the first 

 was excellent, aud for durability the camphor wood was 

 nottobe surpassed. Mr. Meldrum thereafter gave a detailed 

 description of the various kinds of wood found in the 

 Johore forests, and referred to the ravages committed by 

 the sea worm and white ant — the two chief agents of timber 

 destruction in the tropics. Johore steam sawmills were 

 situated at the edge of what was once a dense forest. 

 Now all around was clear, and the town of Johore Baru 

 was becoming quite an important little place, with its streets 

 of brick aud tiled houses, inhabited principally by Chinese 

 and Malays. These mills Were established in the year 1860, 

 and had gradually increased their plant, until now they 

 might be pronounced the most extensive concern of the 

 kind in Asia. His Highness the Maharajah of Johore gave 

 facilities and encouragement to a few private individuals 

 to set them agoing, and from their foundation up to the 

 present time large quantities of manufactured timber had 

 been shipped to China, India, Mauritius, Java, Ceylon, tec., 

 besides supplying the local demands. Roads, and especially 

 a railroad, were what was needed in Johore, and nowhere 

 could they be construct d cheaper. The Maharajah would 

 give all assistance, labour was cheap and so was wood, 

 whilst land could be obtained on easy terms. By 

 opeuing up Johore, Singapore trade and commerce would 

 benefit. The accomplishment of this was only a matter 

 of time. His Highness the Maharajah was an enlightened 



