ALOE. 



GS3 



IS filled, the cutters return to the first and throw out the leaves, which 

 they regard as exhausted. The leaves are neither infused nor' boiled, 

 nor IS any use afterwards made of them except for manure. 



AVhen the vessels receiving the juice become filled, the latter is 

 removed to a cask and reserved for evaporation. This may be done at 

 ouce, or it may be delayed for weeks or even months, tlie juice, it is 

 said, not fermenting or spoiling. The evaporation is generally con- 

 ducted in a copper vessel ; at the bottom of this is a large ladle, into 

 which the impurities sink, and are from time to time removed as the 

 boiling goes on. As soon as the inspissation has reached the proper 

 pouit, which is determined solely by the experienced eye of the work- 

 man, the thickened juice is poured into large gourds or into boxes, and 

 allowed to harden. 



The drug is not always readily saleable in the island, but is usually 

 bought up by speculators who keep it till there is a demand for it in 

 iiingland. The cultivators are small proprietors, but little capable as to 

 imnd or means of making experiments to improve the manufacture of 

 tJie drug. ^ It is said, howevei', that occasionally a little aloes of very 

 superior kind is made for some special purpose by exposing the juice in 

 a shallow vessel to solar heat till completely dry. But such a drug is 

 stated to cost too much time and trouble to be profitable.^ The 

 manufacture of aloes in the Dutch 

 conducted in the same manner.' 



The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony has been thus described 



to us in a letter 3 from Mr. Peter MaeOwan of Gill College, Somerset 



Jiast : — The operator scratches a shallow dish-shaped hollow in the dry 



gJ'ound, spreads therein a goatskin, and then proceeds to arrange around 



t»o margin a radial series of aloe leaves, the cut ends projecting 



jnwards. Upon this, a second series is piled, and then a third— care 



oemg taken that the ends of each series overhang sufficiently, to drop 



clear into the central hollow. When tliese preparations have been made, 



the operator either "loafs about" after wild honey, or, more likely, lies 



down to sleep. The skin being nearly filled, four skewers run in and 



out at the edge square-fashion, give the means of lifting this primitive 



saucer from the ground, and emptying its contents into a cast-iron pot. 



Ahe liquid is then boiled, an operation conducted with the utmost 



carelessness. Fresh juice is added to that which has nearly acquired 



the finished consistence ; the fire is slackened or urged just as it happens, 



and the boiling is often interrupted for many hours, if neglect be more 



convenient than attention. In fact, the process is thoroughly barbarous, 



reflection; it is mostly carried on by 



West 



conducted 



Hottentots, but not by Kaffirs. " The only aloe I have 



seen used," says Mr. MacOwan, " is' the very large one with di- or 

 tn-chotomous inflorescence,—^!, ferox, I believe." Backhouse * also 



1838. 



From another correspondent, we learn that the making of aloes in 



/^ Some extremely fine Barbados aloes in ' Vndcr date May 7, 1S71, acklrcsscd to 



ie Londou lijarket in 1842 was said to myself.— D. H. _ , ^ „ a^ ■ 



ftave been manufactured iu a vacuum-pan. ' Vmt to MauriUas and South A/nm, 



..„, "?^nians, Handleidbuj tot de Pharma- 1844. 157, also 121. 



<^ogno3ie, 1865. 31 C. 



