MYRISTWEM. 393 



from the Zerbad Islands. Ibu Sina describes both nutmegs 

 nu^ mace (Basbaseb). Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 

 !2th century, mentions both nutmegs and mace (Basb^seh) 

 as articles of import into Aden. By che end of the 12th 

 centur}^ both of these spices were well known in Continental 

 urope* 



Mir Muhummad Husain says that the Dutch keep the trade 

 in their own hands, but that he has heard that the tree is now 

 cultivated in Sounda in Southern India. Whether he was rightly 

 informed with regard to Sounda^ we are unable to say. But 

 that his information was substantially correct, there can be no 

 doubtj as Ainslie tells us that in his time the true nutmeg tree 

 was growing in the Tinnevelly District, and produced pretty 

 good fruit. The tree has also been introduced into Ceylon and 

 Zanzibar, and appears to flourish in the warm moist climates of 

 those islands. 



Mahometan doctors describe nutmegs and mace as stimulating, 

 narcotic, digestive, tonic, and aphrodisiac, useful in choleraic 

 diarrhcea, especially when roasted ; also in obstructions of tho 

 liver and spleen. A paste made with nutmegs is used as an 

 external application in nervous headache, palsy, &c.; applied round 

 the eyes it is thought to strengthen the sight. The expressed 

 oil of nutmegs is imported into India from Banda, and is known 

 as Jawitri-ka-tel (oil of mace). It was formerly exclusively 

 brought into European commerce via Holland, in oblong cakes 

 having nearly the form of common bricks, but somewhat 

 smaller, and packed in monocotyledonous leaves, commonly 

 called '' flag leaves.'* At the present time much of the oil is 

 manufactured in Europe, and put up iii tho same shape, but 

 packed in paper. When discoloured and hardened by age, the 

 oil is called ^^ Banda soap.^^ Oil of mace is manufactured by 

 exposing imperfect and broken nutmegs, reduced to a paste 

 and enclosed in a bag, to steam, and then pressing the bag 

 between heated iron plates. The yield is about 20 to 23 per 

 cent. {Brannt.) The bark of the tree is astringent {Pereira, 

 Mat. Med., ii., p. 475.) We have found nutmesrs and their 



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