ALOE. G83 



is filled, the cutters return to the firet and throw out the leaves, which 

 they regard as exhausted. The leaves are neither infused nor boiled, 

 nor is any use afterwards made of them except for manure. 



When the vessels receiving the juice become filled, the latter is 

 removed to a cask and reserved for evaporation. This may be done at 

 once, or it may be delayed for weeks or even months, the juice, it is 

 said, not fermenting or spoiling. The evaporation is generally con- 

 ducted in a copper vessel ; at the bottom of this is a large ladle, into 

 which the impurities sink, and are from time to time removed as the 

 boiling goes on. As soon as the inspissation has reached the proper 

 point, which is determined solely by the experienced eye of the work- 

 man, the thickened juice is poured into large gourds or into boxes, and 

 allowed to harden. 



The drug is not always readily saleable in the island, but is usually 

 bought up by speculatoi-s who keep it till there is a demand for it in 

 England. The cultivators are small proprietors, but little capable as to 

 mind or means of making experiments to improve the manufacture of 

 the drug. It is said, however, that occasionally a little aloes of very 

 superior kind is made for some special purpose by exposing the juice in 

 a shallow vessel to solar heat till completely dry. But such a drug is 

 stated to cost too much time and trouble to be profitable.^ The 

 manufacture of aloes in the Dutch West Indian island of Curasao is 

 conducted in the same manner." 



The manufacture of aloes in the Cape Colony has been thus described 

 to us in a letter^ from Mr. Peter MacOwan of Gill College, Somerset 

 East : — The operator scratches a shallow dish-shaped hollow in the dry 

 ground, spreads therein a goatskin, and" then proceeds to arrange around 

 the margin a radial series of aloe leaves, the cut ends projecting 

 inwards. Upon this, a second series is piled, and then a third — care 

 being taken that the ends of each series overhang sufliciently, to drop 

 clear into the central hollow. When these preparations have been made, 

 the operator either " loafs about " after wild honey, or, more likely, lies 

 down to sleep. The skin being nearly filled, four skewers run in and 

 out at the edge square-fashion, give the means of lifting this primitive 

 saucer from the ground, and emptying its contents into a cast-iron pot. 

 The liquid is then boiled, an operation conducted with the utmost 

 carelessness. Fresh juice is added to that which has nearly acquired 

 the finished consistence ; the fire is slackened or urged just as it happens, 

 and the boiling is often interrupted for many hours, if neglect be more 

 convenient than attention. In fact, the process is thoroughly barbarous, 

 conducted without industry or reflection; it is mostly carried on by 

 Bastaards and Hottentots, but not by Kafiirs. " The only aloii I have 

 seen used," says Mr. MacOwan, " is the very large one with di- or 

 tri-chotomous inflorescence, — A. ferox, I believe." Backhouse* also 

 names " A loe ferox ? " as the species he saw used near Port Elizabeth 

 in 1838. 



From another correspondent, we learn that the making of aloes in 



^ Some extremely fine Barbados aloes in * Under date May 7, 1871, addressed to 



the London market in 1842 was said to myself. — D. H. 



have been manufactured in a vacuum-pan. * Vi^iit to Mauritius and South Africa, 



-Oudemans, Handleiding tot de Pharma- 1844. 157, also 121. 

 cogtiaie, 1865. 316. 



