264 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



is done as follows : " The pods are gathered during the summer months, accord- 

 ing to their maturity. The pods must be fully ripe, which is known by their 

 fragility, or easily breaking on a small pressure between the finger and 

 thumb. The fruit taken out of the pod, cleared from fragments of shell, is 

 placed in casks, in layers, and boiling syrup from the tache, or first copper 

 in the boiling house, is poured in, just before it begins to granulate, till the 

 cask is filled ; the syrup pervades every part, quite to the bottom, and when 

 cool, the cask is headed for sale." Dr. Wright {Med. Plants, Jam.), says 

 that a better plan is to place alternate layers of tamarinds and powdered 

 sugar in a stone jar. 



As found in the shops, tamarinds consist of a soft, dark-coloured pulp, 

 mixed with seeds, and many fibres. They have an agreeable, acidulated 

 taste, and are considered as very cooling, and to assuage thirst ; hence tra- 

 vellers, before leaving Cairo to cross the deserts, are always advised to add 

 them to their stores. Vauquelin (A?m. de Chim.), found them to contain 

 citric, malic, and tartaric acids, bitartrate of potash, sugar, gum, pectin, and 

 a large quantity of parenchymatous matter. 



Medical Properties, fyc. — Tamarinds are cooling and laxative, and are 

 therefore often administered in febrile complaints for a double purpose. They 

 are also added to purgative remedies to increase their effects and disguise their 

 taste ; but their principal use in this country is as a refreshing drink, for 

 which purpose boiling water is added to them, and when cold, the whole 

 strained to separate the seeds and fibres. Tamarind whey is also a favourite 

 mode of exhibiting this article ; this is made by boiling a couple of ounces of 

 the pulp with two pints of milk, and straining. 



The Hindoo practitioners use the tamarind-pulp as a laxative, but in Am- 

 boyna, according to Rumphius, it is considered injurious where the stomach 

 is disordered, or obstructions in the spleen exist, unless aromatics be con- 

 joined to it. A decoction of the leaves are likewise used by the Vytians as 

 an external application, in cases requiring repellent fomentations, and inter- 

 nally, they are employed by the Tamool doctors in jaundice. The stones or 

 seeds are prescribed in the same country in dysenteric complaints, and as 

 they possess much astringency, probably with benefit in the latter stages of 

 the complaint. These seeds, in time of scarcity, are eaten by the poor in 

 India ; they are first toasted, and then soaked for a few hours in water, when 

 the hard skin comes off, leaving the bean white and soft ; they are said to 

 taste somewhat like the common bean, and are boiled or fried for use. 



Copaifera. — Linn. 



Calyx with 4 sepals united at base, ebracteolate. Petals none. Stamens 10, distinct, 

 nearly equal. Style filiform. Legume 2-valved, 1-seeded. ' 



This genus consists of several species of large trees, peculiar to South 

 America, having abruptly-pinnate leaves, with coriaceous, somewhat unequal, 

 ovate leaflets. The flowers are paniculate. But one species was known to 

 Linnaeus, and was for a long time thought to be the only source from whence 

 the balsam was obtained. The researches of Martius, Hayne, and others, 

 have recently shown that the species are numerous, and that they all abound 

 in an analogous balsamic juice, and moreover, that it is probable the commer- 

 cial article is obtained indiscriminately from them all, though the quality differs 

 according to the tree furnishing it, that from the C. officinalis being inferior 

 to the others ; as this was, however, the first described, and is the type of the 

 genus, it will be noticed in more detail than the others. 



