i 3 4 THE CORAL LANDS Of THE PACIFIC. 



with the affected parts. It is also recommended for coughs 

 and colds, in common with an acanthaceone herb, inhabiting 

 swamps (Adenosma triflora, Mus.), which shares its aromatic 

 properties. The people of Somo-Somo declare that the leaves 

 of the vuloJcaka (Viter trifoliata, Linn.), with which their beach 

 is thickly lined, when reduced to a pulp by chewing, are em" 

 ployed by them for stuffing hollow teeth. The leaves and 

 bark of another sea-side shrub, the sinu mataiam (Wikstrcemia 

 Indica, C. A. Meyer), are employed for coughs, the bark alone 

 for sores. 



The Fijians are also very clever in performing operations 

 with the rudest instruments, in many cases difficult amputa- 

 tions being effected with nothing better than the edge of a 

 broken glass bottle. 



A medicine which is of common repute is the oil of the 

 dllo-nut, which, with its kernel, is about the size of a walnut. 

 The oil of this nut, properly extracted, is a most marvellous 

 remedy for sprains and rheumatism. Captain A. R Winckler, 

 late of the bark The Goolwa, informed me that on his return 

 voyage from Levuka and Loma-Loma, Fiji, to London, 

 several of his men were struck down by rheumatism and 

 rheumatic fever; but, by careful treatment and external 

 application of dilonut oil, he soon rendered them fit for duty. 

 This evidence might be indefinitely enlarged, as the cures in 

 Polynesia by the oil of the dUo-nut are among the common 

 topics of conversation. 



The fruits of the Calophyllum inophyllum, the dilo-nut of 

 Fiji, runs a medical description, were imported from the 

 Mauritius under the name of 'oil seeds.' They consist of the 

 hard woody endocarp, about the size of an English oak-gall, 

 nearly globular, with a small projecting point at one end, and 

 contain a yellowish-white oily kernel According to the official 



