GRASS-CLOTH OF EARLY WRITERS 



" Herba 

 Taffaties 



Medicine. 



Intermittent 

 Fevers. 



Dysentery. 



CALOTROPIS 



GIGANTEA 



"Hearbe Bengalen" 



confirmed by Fitch in 1585 (Hakl. Voy., ii., 359), who gave an account of his 

 explorations of the Ganges, including Orissa (Orixa, as he calls it) where there 

 was " great store of cloth which is made of Grasse which they call yerua." That 

 vernacular name is clearly a form of the word that denotes Cnintropi.* through- 

 out Orissa and the Karnatak to this day. Doubtless also Linschoten's " Hearbe 

 Bengalen " was the same textile. I have purposely made reference to Linschoten 

 under SfHtne.rtn niven because all modern writers whom I have been able to 

 consult quote the above passages, and several others to the same effect under 

 rhea, in place of Catotrojtis, to which they most undoubtedly belong. Pyrard, 

 who visited India in 1601-10, in his chapter on Bengal (Voy.E.Ind. (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 

 i., 328-9) makes mention of the silk herb being brighter than silk itself. Coming 

 to more recent dates, Alexander Hamilton (New Ace. E. 2nd., 1727, i., 393), who in 

 1688 visited Bengal and passed up the Ganges to Benares and Patna, describes 

 Balasore as producing manufactures of cotton, silk, mixed silk and cotton, and 

 of " herba (a sort of tough grass) of which they make ginghams, pinascos, and 

 several other goods for exportation." Even so late as 1813 Milburn mentions 

 among his Bengal piece goods " herba taffaties." 



Though it is certainly most surprising that this ancient industry in silk- 

 cotton textiles should have died out completely and been all but forgotten, 

 it is a useful object-lesson of the possibilities of the future, which manufacturers 

 would do well to consider. (For other Silk-cottons, see Bomfoax, p. 168.) 



Medicine. It would take many pages to indicate even a tithe of 

 the information that exists on the varied medicinal properties of the 

 milk, the flowers, the leaves and the root-bark. The late Dr. Kanny 

 Lall Dey regarded madar as a useful medicine when given during 

 remission of intermittent fevers, and especially if these were associated 

 with eczema. The majority of Indian medical writers extol the merits 

 of the root-bark in the treatment of dysentery. In order to verify these 

 opinions, the study of madar was taken up by the Central Indigenous 

 Drugs Committee of India. Authentic parcels of the root-bark were 

 procured and made up in the form of both a powder and liquid extract. 

 These preparations were issued to a selected number of Hospitals and 

 Dispensaries throughout India, with the suggestion that they should 

 be used as alteratives and alterative tonics. By chemical tests it had 

 been previously ascertained that the bark of mature plants was prefer- 

 able to that of immature ones, since they contained a higher percentage 

 of the acid and bitter resinous matter on which the property depended. 

 Ultimately an extensive series of reports came to hand (Rept. Cent. Indig. 

 Drugs Comm., 1901, i., many passages), the combined verdict of which 

 would seem to be that as a substitute for ipecacuanha it is not so satis- 

 factory as its reputation would seem to imply. In fact in acute dysentery 

 and chronic diarrhoea it is found undesirable and certainly less efficacious 

 than ipecacuanha. When given in large doses it frequently occasioned 

 nausea and vomiting, so persistent and severe as to make the drug objec- 

 tionable if not dangerous. In small doses of say 3 to 5 grains of the 

 powder (preferably) its action on the stomach was that of a mild stimulant, 

 hence the opinion was often expressed that it might with advantage 

 be combined with cinchona in the treatment of certain fevers. As an 

 emetic the powder, in doses of 30 to 40 grains, was found very effectual. 

 In the Hemp Drugs Commission's Report (1893-4, i., 156) it is mentioned 

 that the juice of the madar is employed to enhance the potency of ganja. 

 [Of. Taleef Shereef (Playfair, transl.), 1833, 5 ; Taylor, Topog. Stat. Dacca, 

 1840, 57 ; Hooker, Him. Journ., 1854, i., 36-7 (temperature of leaves and 

 sap) ; Elliot, Fl. Andh., 1859, 74, 111, 162, 176 ; Jackson, Comm. Bot. 19th 

 Cent., 1890, 127 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 428-37 ; Kanny Lall Dey, Indig. Drugs 

 Ind., 1896, 56-7 ; Collett, Fl. Sim., 1902, 315 ; Gaz. Multan, 1901-2, 17.] 



208 



Age of Bark. 



Doubtful 

 Substitute for 

 Ipecacuanha. 



Emetic. 



