254 JOURNAL, BOMBA Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



Vol. VI, 1875-76, 3rd Series), I find the following remarks which are 

 well worth quoting : — " The marking-nuts which often come to this 

 country mixed with the myrobolans, contain between the inner and 

 outer layers of the shell or pericarp a remarkably caustic blackish 

 oily fluid which is apt to blister or greatly inflame the lips of those 

 who attempt to crack the nuts.* In persons of erysipelatous tendency, 

 the inflammation is often considerable and even dangerous." In one 

 of his earlier papers contributed to the " London Pharmaceutical 

 Journal" so far back as 1878 (p. 1003, Vol. VIII, 3rd Series), Dr. 

 Dymock observes as follows : — " Garcia d'Orta remarks that the 

 poisonous properties of the marking-nut have been much exag- 

 gerated by Serapion, and goes on to say that in Goa it is administered 

 internally after having been steeped in butter-milk* and is also 

 given as a vermifuge ; and, moreover, says he, we (the Portuguese) salt 

 the young green fruit and use them like olives." I have this to 

 observe regarding the remarks of Garcia d'Orta. I have not the means 

 of knowing at the present moment to what extent and where Serapion 

 has exaggerated the poisonous properties of the marking-nut. All I can 

 say is that those poisonous properties are very grave indeed topically 

 in many men. If the oil of the seed is administered in Goa internally 

 for asthma, and for the matter of that for any other complaint, or 

 no complaint whatsoever after the seeds are steeped in butter-milk, I can 

 safely say that the oleaginous or fatty principle of the butter-milk well- 

 nigh renders the poisonous property of the resinous juice harmless by 

 dissolving it out, inasmuch as it is now well established that the volatile 

 oil parts from its host (the seed), and leaves it harmless when much diluted 

 in oil. Moreover, I do not believe that the Portuguese stomach is in any 

 way different from the ordinary human stomach if it can digest with- 

 out suffering the salted young green fruit of the marking-nut as a 

 substitute for olives, with the prior aid of common salt, which possibly 

 renders the acrid properties of the seed inert, by dissolving out the 

 poisonous element and changing it chemically. During the process of 

 salting probably the volatile principle escapes. There is no reason why 

 the chlorine of the chloride of sodium should not act upon the consti- 

 tuent elements of the marking-nut. 



* The italics are mine.— K* R. K. 



