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find the medicine of great service, others equally reliable have 
found it inert, and the conclusion is unavoidable that the proper- 
ties of the different lots of drug have varied, from some as, yet 
undetermined cause. 
An unimportant though interesting use of the cactus as 
depends upon the peculiar manner in which its woody zo 
constructed. Its wood does not form a continuous eae as 
in the case of ordinary shrubs and trees, but consists of narrow 
bands which run spirally around the stem, in both directions, 
leaving lozenge-shaped openings at the intersections, these being 
occupied by a continuation of the soft tissue of the center, which 
connects the latter with that of the bark. In the young state 
these woody bands are small and the openings between them 
large, but with age the former gradually widen until at length 
the latter may be entirely eliminated, the woody zone becoming 
complete. Such stems, when of proper form and convenient 
size, are cleaned of their bark, the pith removed, the interstices 
cleaned out and the saan skeleton then bleached or stained 
for use as an odd walking stick 
One of the uses of certain species of prickly pear cactus, formerly 
of vast importance, has been largely minimized by the discovery 
of the anilin dyes, namely, its use for the feeding and cultivation 
of the cochineal insect. Had it not been for the substitution of 
anilin for cochineal coloring, the demand for cochineal wou 
this time have been so great that enormous areas covered by 
cactus, and now practically useless, would have been required in 
the cochineal industry. 
We now come to the more important uses of the Cactaceae, 
namely those relating to nutrition. It cannot be claimed that 
cactus pulp is a highly nutritious vegetable Air but this 
act by no means implies that its uses for food or fodder are 
unimportant. On the contrary, the conditions are a as to 
render the possible importance of these plants for fodder so great 
as to be almost beyond one’s conception. It is well known that 
one of the greatest problems that now face political economists 
is that of finding some way of enlarging our meat supplies, so as 
to meet the increasing necessities of the human race. The pro- 
