126 THE BANANA 



child. It is not disagreeable to take, has no bad effects, 

 and is on the whole preferable to ipecacuanha. In simple 

 cases a single dose is sufficient ; as a rule, three or four 

 doses are required to effect a cure. The patient should be 

 kept quiet and placed on low diet. The dose for an adult 

 is : Ripe bananas one ounce, the pulp of ripe tamarind 

 half an ounce, common salt quarter of an ounce ; well 

 mixed and administered immediately. It may be given 

 two or three times a day." Civil Surgeon J. H. Thornton, 

 B.A., M.B., says : " The juice of the tender roots contains* 

 a large quantity of tannin and is used with mucilage for 

 checking haemorrhages from the genital and air passages. 

 The ashes produced by burning the plant contain a large 

 amount of potash salts, and are used as an antacid in 

 acidity, heartburn, and colic. The tender fruit is used 

 for patients suffering from haemoptysis and diabetes." 

 C. T. Peters, M.B., says : " The ripe fruit is useful in 

 chronic dysentery and diarrhoea. The dried fruit of the 

 larger varieties is a valuable anti -scorbutic. The dried 

 leaves, and in fact the entire plant, are burnt, and the ashes, 

 dissolved in water and strained, yield an alkaline solution, 

 containing chiefly potash salts, which is used in curries, 

 especially as a cure for acidity and an anti-scorbutic." 

 Ainslie writes that the banana is " one of the safest of 

 fruits for such as have delicate stomachs, being entirety 

 free from acidity ; it is, moreover, very nourishing, and is 

 always prescribed as food by the Hindoo practitioners for 

 such as suffer from bile and heat of habit." 



