,. THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY. 



upon it. This will not occur in the case of a fruit prematurely gathered. 

 (Fide Hires.) Very few raisers of vanilla, cure their crop, this being 

 a separate industry, requiring great experience, judgment and care, being- 

 restricted to the hands of a few persons and yielding a great profit. The 

 eurers purchase their beans from the producers. In curing, the fruits are 

 placed between woollen blankets in a sweating-box and left there 36 hours. 

 The exuded moisture has then to be very carefully dried off in the mid- 

 day sun, or, if the weather is bad, in ovens. This portion of the process is 

 of the most critical character imaginable. It is said that overexposure of 

 the fruits for even a small portion of an hour may result in a loss of weight 

 extending to one pound per thousand beans. On the other hand, an under- 

 exposure is likely to result in the moulding of the fruit, this frequently tak- 

 ing place after it is packed, so that the packer is ignorant thereof, and un- 

 able to take any measures to prevent it. After thus drying, the fruits are 

 again sweated and again dried, this process being repeated as often as 

 necessary until tiie fruits are quite black, and until the judgment, born of 

 experience, teaches that they are in a suitable, condition for being packed. 

 The complete process of curing requires some three or four months. This 

 curing process varies greatly in different countries, and doubtless great im- 

 provements in it still remain to be discovered. In Bourbon they go through 

 ;i preliminary sweating by exposure in tins to a steaming atmosphere for a 

 day. They are then carefully dried in the air for three or four days, in- 

 directly exposed to the sun; after which they are placed in air-tight boxes 

 with trays of calcium chloride, for nearly a month, thus completing the 

 curing process. 



Success has been attained by experiments consisting in immersing them 

 for a time in alcohol, in the manner in which tonka beans are treated. In 

 Guiana they are buried in ashes and left until they begin to shrivel, and 

 then afterward painted with olive oil. 



In Peru they are dipped into boiling water, dried for 20 days, and then 

 painted with castor oil. 



With the details of the sorting and packing process I have not time to 

 deal. Twenty-one distinct lengths are recognized by the Mexican traders. 

 The United States Consul at Vera Cruz says that a stem will yield about, 

 three pounds of dried fruit — ^ of it first class, 1-3 second class, the re- 

 mainder third clas<. 



Vanilla packers are liable to certain peculiar accidents. Owing to the 

 peculiar strain brought o bear upon the muscles of the hand in holding the 

 bundle which is being made up, muscnlar cramps are developed, and the 

 bundlers feel obliged to rest for four or five days after having worked for 

 that length of time. 



The beans are said by Mr. Hamilton, of the house of David E. Greene, 



