390 ANACARDIACEZ.. 
The nut is also used to produce the appearance of a bruise in — 
support of criminal charges preferred through enmity,* and 
the juice is sometimes applied to the body out of revenge, the 
victim having first been made insensible by the administration 
of narcotics. In Sanskrit medicinal works a section is often 
devoted to the treatment of ulcerations thus produced. When 
given internally the juice of the pericarp is always mixed with 
oil or melted butter. It is the Auacardia of Serapion. The 
Arabic name for the nut is Baldédar, or Hab-el-kalb, in allusion 
to its heart-shaped form. 
Ibn Baitar says— — a 
MAL nat | sae y ror tl bo Bil 5, pail ott 
(Balddar in the Indian language is Ancardia in Greek, which 
means ‘“ heart-shaped.”) Mahometan writers order the 
juice to be always mixed with oil, butter, or some oily 
seed when used for internal adminstration. They consider 
it to be hot and dry, useful in all kinds of skin diseases, 
palsy, epilepsy, and other affections of the nervous system, 
the dose being from # to }.adirhem. Externally they apply 
it to cold swellings, such as piles ; the Tuhfat notices the use of 
the vapour of the burning pericarp for this purpose, a practice 
known in Bombay; it causes sloughing of the tumours. 
When too large a quantity has been taken, oily and mucilagi- 
nous remedies should be prescribed. Two dirhems is considered 
a poisonous dose. Some persons are much more readily affected 
by the drug than others. Garcia d’Orta remarks that the 
poisonous properties of the marking-nut have been much 
_ exaggerated by Serapion, and goes on to say that in Goa it is 
administered internally in asthma after having been steeped 
in buttermilk, and is also given as a vermifuge : and moreover 
says he, we (the Portuguese) salt the young green fruit and 
use them like olives. Ainslie gives the following account of its 
use in Southern India: “The Hindus give the juice in scrofulous, 
venereal and leprous affections in very small doses; an oil is _ 
also prepared with the nut by boiling, which is used externally 
a oud a2 
sae 
Ey ee SU EE EP Pele take eS 
Ss in Sls oe Sy ee ess are nes PS, sie ati ae 
Bos Serres hee d enapa he Sica fei Sen eae ea cs 
geoat sdawmeatnis 
in a diluted farm nen 
’ 
+s pits 5 
j * T, : 
