. GUTTIFERS. 165 
_blad. He says the young leaves are acid like sorrel, and are 
_ used in cooking fish in Amboyna. Kokam butter appears to 
7 have first attracted the notice of Europeans about 1830 as a 
remedy for excoriations and chaps of the skin; in order to 
apply it, a piece is partially melted and rubbed upon the 
3 affected part. It is also of great value for the preparation 
of Nitrate of Mercury ointment, which if made in the usual 
_ manner is too fluid for hot climates ; Indian lard being very 
fluid, equal parts of it and Kokam oil will be found to make 
an ointment of good consistence and colour which keeps well. 
The bark is astringent, and the young leaves after having 
been tied up in a plantain leaf and stewed in hot ashes, are 
rubbed in cold milk and given as a remedy for dysentery. 
Description.—The fruit is spherical, about the size 
f a small apple, red, containing an acid pulp of a still 
leeper colour, in which from 5 to 8 reniform seeds are em- 
yedded ; the seeds are compressed laterally, wrinkled, about 
fan inch long by 4-10ths broad; the cotyledons are very 
ck, closely adherent, and have a sweet oily taste. Kokam 
utter is ofa yellowish white colour, firm, dry and friable in 
he hottest weather, and greasy to the touch like spermaceti; 
ts structure is crystalline ; it generally contains impurities, 
nd requires to be remelted and strained before it can be used 
or pharmaceutical purposes; the residue after this process 
onsists chiefly of particles of the fruit and seed. 
- Microscopic structure.—-The cotyledons are oomph of 
large reticulated cells containing crystalline fat. 
_ Chemical composition.—Flickiger and Hanbury give the 
ollowing account of it:—“ Purified Kokum butter, boiled 
th caustic soda, yields a fine hard soap, which, when 
at. By slow cooling and evaporation, crystals were me 
med, which, when perfectly dried, melted seat °C. 5 a ‘hey 2 
