272 JO URNAL, BOMB A Y NA TUBAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



experience of Rheede, and of those indigenous learned writers who 

 gathered for him their ancient knowledge as found prevalent on the 

 Malabar Coast, from whence he wrote in days gone-by, I may say that 

 I cannot but congratulate myself, at the present day, in my own ex- 

 perience as regards the poisonous nature of the root-bark, nay even the 

 entire root, on this side of Western India. Rheede wrote in his day, 

 strengthened by the researches of his native co-workers. I am writ- 

 ino- in my day with the help of past experience, but without the 

 special help of any co-worker. I wish I had the help to-day that 

 Rheede commanded when he worked on the Malabar Coast. All the 

 more do I express this wish, for I feel that there will be some who will 

 question my taste in including this plant under the " poisonous head." 

 But I fear no contradiction, as I crave for more co-operation in deter- 

 minino- the poisonous nature of the root-bark oi Alangium Lamarckii ; 

 and I wish to specially point out a dangerous property in the root-bark 

 which has not been yet experienced or specifically recognized by the 

 recoo-nized writers on Indian Toxicology who have preceded me. 

 Rheede notes that the fruits are seldom eaten. *' For," says he, ^' they 

 heat the blood exceedingly." "Heating the blood" is a popular 

 expression in India, and as I fear Rheede was only copying an expres- 

 sion of those natives of Malabar who helped him in his botanical 

 researches, he has fallen into a popular error which is easily pardonable. 

 Nevertheless such an error is misleading to a student of Fharmaco- 

 locy and Physiology trained in an English or European school in the 

 nineteenth century. I am not yet able to understand what the term 

 " heating the blood " means. Perhaps it is my ignorance, and Rheede 

 in his day knew bettei*. All I can say is that, without the slightest fear 

 of heatincf their blood, the Thana boys devour the fruit greedily. It is 

 a distinct seasonal treat to them, judging from the avidity with which 

 they devour the ripe fruit. Rheede's native reporters might have 

 represented to him, according to their lights, possibly dim, that their 

 native brethren "seldom ate" the fruit in Malabar. Possibly the 

 tastes of their brethren in Malabar differed from those of my co- 

 inhabitants of Thana. But that does not go to prove that the fruit of 

 Alangium Lamarckii should he declared absolutely inedible. In support 

 of mv vieio regarding the edible nature of the fruit, I may quote 

 DeCandolle. He says pointedly that the fruits of the entire iV. 0. 



