438 ALOES 



of coarse cloth nailed over it. The gourds, when filled, 

 usually weigh from 10 to 40 Ibs. Barbados aloes has a 

 liver brown colour ; a brown, opaque, earthy fracture ; 

 a disagreeable, bitter, persistent taste, and a strong and 

 disagreeable odour, especially when breathed upon an 

 odour generally likened to that of the human axilla. It is 

 hard, tough, and difficult to pulverise ; small fragments are 

 translucent, and of an orange-brown hue ; its pow r der 

 is dull olive-yellow, and darker than that of other varieties. 

 It is almost entirely soluble in alcohol (40 per cent.). 



SOCOTRINE (also known as East Indian, Bombay, or 

 Zanzibar aloes) is chiefly imported from Bombay and other 

 Indian ports. It is stated to be the product of the leaves 

 of Aloe Perryi, and probably also of other species. It 

 occurs in red-brown pieces of variable size ; darkens on 

 exposure ; breaks usually with a smooth resinous fracture ; 

 thin fragments are translucent and orange-red or orange- 

 brown ; the odour, though strong, is somewhat agreeable ; 

 the taste is bitter. 



CAPE ALOES (brought from Cape Town and Natal) is 

 chiefly got from the Aloe ferox, Africana, or Spicata, or 

 from hybrids obtained by crossing these with other varieties. 

 The better qualities have a dark-brown or olive-green 

 resinous appearance, a compact structure, a vitreous, 

 conchoidal, dark-green fracture, and a strong and rather 

 disagreeable sour odour. It is very brittle, and easily 

 reduced to a gamboge-yellow powder. The better qualities 

 of Cape are little, if at all, inferior to Barbados or to Socotrine 

 aloes. Gamgee's experiments show that, compared with 

 Barbados, Cape aloes causes equally copious but less watery 

 discharges, while its action is sooner expended. 



PROPERTIES. The several varieties have a specific gravity 

 of T364, are resinoid, rather brittle, their external surface 

 is duller and darker than a freshly-made fracture. The 

 temperature at which the juice is concentrated accounts 

 for such marked differences in opacity, as the dull opaque 

 Barbados and the translucent East Indian. All have an 

 intensely bitter and persistent taste, and a strong and more 

 or less disagreeable odour, much increased when the speci- 

 men is breathed upon or heated. When held in the hand 



