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This plant was originally introduced to Jamaica from Bermudas, and is now 



found in many parts of the ifland, where it has grown without any care, 

 nerally 



It is ge 



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is thought to bealmod wholly difcharged, the leaves are taken out one by one, paued 



cultivated in the mod dry and barren foils where few other vegetables are 

 obferv'ed to grow, and thrives wherever it finds mold enough to cover a part of its 

 roots : it is propagated by the fuckers that moot from the (lumps of the old plants, 

 which they fet in little {hallow pits placed from fix to twelve inches afunder ; but 

 great care muil be taken to keep them free from weeds for a confiderable time after 

 they are planted. When the plants are grown to a perfect (late, and every thing 

 re^tdy for the manufacture of this commodity, the labourers go into the field with 

 tubs and knives, and cut oft the largefl and 'moil fucculent leaves clofe to the flalk ; 

 thefe are immediately put into the tubs, and difpofed one by the fide of another in 

 an upright pofition, that all the loofe liquor may dribble out at the wound. When this 



through the hand to clear oft any part of the juice that may yet adhere, or dick in 

 their lets open veins; and the liquor put into (hallow flat-bottomed veffels, and 

 dried gradually in the fun, until it acquires a proper confidence. What is obtain- 

 ed in this manner is generally called Succotrine Aloes, and is the cleared and mod 

 tranfparent, as well as the higheft in efleem and value : but the method of making 

 the common Aloes is not fo tedious, nor does it require fo much care; for in manu- 

 facturing this fort, all the leaves are cut off, fevered into junks, and thrown into the 

 tubs, until all the loofe liquor runs out; they are then hand-fqueezed, and the li- 

 quor mixed with a little water (about a quart to every ten quarts of the juice) to 

 make it more fit for boiling; it is then put into convenient cauldrons, and boiled 

 to a proper confidence ; which may be eafily known by dropping a fmall quantity 

 from time to time upon a plate, and obferving the thicknefs as it cools ; but this 

 is readily difcovered by the touch or the eye, after a little experience: when the li- 

 quor comes to a proper thicknefs, it is emptied out into large coolers ; and after it 

 it has acquired a convenient confidence in thefe, it is put into gourds, or fmall 

 barrels, which commonly hold from one to twenty pints a-piece. 



The Aloes is naturally purgative, and an active warm domachic ; it is an excel- 



lent medicine in all weaknefTes and obdructions of the vifcera proceeding from 

 colds, inaction, an over-load of the vefTels, or languor of the fibres; it brings on 

 the menfes and hsemorroids, promotes digedion, raifes the appetite, and drengthens 

 the domach. It is frequently prefcribed for the worms, and defervedly edeemed 

 one of the mod effectual medicines in nervous cafes proceeding from inaction, or 

 a vifcidity of the juices: it is often given with great fuccefs in many diforders of 



the head arifing from indigedion, or a foulnefs of the vifcera; but is generally or 



dered mixed up with other medicines that are more ready in their operations, and 

 of a warm or purgative narture. It is an ingredient in many cornpofitions of the 

 (hops, but is always obferved to be mod effectual when mixed with the more 



gummy juices of the plant. 



This commodity has been alfo lately put to fome mechanical ufes, and tried, 

 with great fuccefs, in thofe mixtures with which they cover the bottoms of (hips 

 trading to the Ea/I and Weft-Indies, where the water-infects are obferved to burrow 

 through all the planks that lie below the furface, in every veffel that anchors for 

 any time in the harbours of thofe leas ; and it will probably be the means of faving 

 many thoufands a year, both to the merchants, and the crown, when it is more 

 univerfally known and employed: its refinous quality renders it a very fit ingredient 

 in the compofuion, and its bitter and naufeous acrimony, a very proper defence 



againd all foils of infects. Nor can the fcarcity of the commodity prevent the gene- 

 ral ufe of it; for the Savannas, and more barren hills of Jamaica alone, would 

 produce more than could be employed for all the (hips belonging to the dominions 

 >f Great-Britain : but to render the application more effectual, a thin coat of this 

 lone may be laid within the common coat, or the planks wafhed over with a drong 

 folution of it, fome time before the common mixture is laid on. 



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