60 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [March, 1911, 
placed side by side with one of the potato, both calculated on 
the dry material, shows this similarity :— 
Yam. Potato. 
Fat = oe Oe 46 
Albuminoids.. Ce S87 10:14 
- Carbohydrates Ve ree | 
Fibre *: s16; 8479 
5°94 4°61 
It has long been known that the tubers of various species 
of Dioscorea contain a bitter and acrid principle which renders 
them unfit, in a raw state, for edible purposes. Some tubers 
are used medicinally, either powdered and applied to sorés or 
as a plaster, or in a fresh state, to disperse swellings. Occasion- 
ally the tubers are given internally with some spice and sugar 
for syphilis, dysentery and diarrhoea. In Sanskrit the tuber 
is the name of ‘ Pashpoli’’ or « strangle cake ’’ on account 
of its causing great irritation in the mouth and throat, vomit- 
ing of blood and a sense of suffocation. The bruised root of 
D. sikkimensis is used as a fish poison among the Lepchas of 
Sikkim, and, according to Dr. Thwaites, the tubers of wild 
Yam are used in 
very variable composition dependi 
plant or the nature of its growth 
-G. Boorsma of Buitenzorg was one of the first to 
hese roots are u 
by the natives after removing the 
