SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 255 



Jamaica, but they are not noticed as having the same quality of bark. A 



very tastefully-made bonnet was recently manufactured with much ingenuity 



by a poor widow lady of Jamaica from the sheathing leaves or husk of tbe 



seed of the Indian corn. It was adorned with lace bark (some dyed), 



artificial flowers, and the seeds of the orange, and presented to her Majesty 



the Queen, with the hope of her acceptance. 



The bark of Daphne papyracea, or cannabina, in Nepaul, and D. chinensis 



and Indica, in China and the Eastern Archipelago, have the same properties 



as the Laqetta Lintearia. 



W. T. M. 



Scientific Notes* 



Curing Meat. — Mr. H. Clark, of South Carolina, points out a mode of 

 curing meat in the hottest climates, which has been practised in most of the 

 Southern States for fifteen or twenty years at least. The plan is to dig a 

 hole in the earth, from four to six feet deep, and large enough for the 

 amount of meat you have to cure ; lay boards on the bottom, and on this 

 pack your meat in salt — the usual quantity — and then cover the hole with 

 boards and earth, keeping it in this condition till the meat is sufficiently 

 salted. By this mode of preserving, no person need lose a pound of meat 

 in the warmest climate. Large quantities of pyrolignous acid are manu- 

 factured in Philadelphia and sent to Cincinnatti, for the purpose of curing 

 hams. It gives them the same flavour as those which are smoked, and it 

 may answer just as well. 



A New Stimulant. — The decoction of the leaves of the coca, or Peruvian 

 Erythoxylon, recently introduced iuto Europe, is exciting attention as pos- 

 sessing a peculiar stimulating power, and favouring digestion more than any 

 other known beverage. These leaves, chewed in moderate doses of from 

 four to six grains, excite the nervous system, and enable those who use 

 them to make great muscular exertion, and to resist the effect of an un- 

 healthy climate, imparting a sense of cheerfulness and happiness. In larger 

 doses coca would occasion fever, hallucinations, delirium. Its exciting 

 power over the heart is twice that of coffee, four times that of tea. It has 

 no equal in its power of stimulation, in cases of forced abstinence. Dr. 

 Mantegazza, of Milan, states that although he has a weak constitution, he 

 has been enabled, by the use of coca, to follow his usual studies uninter- 

 ruptedly for forty hours, without taking any other aliment but two ounces 

 of coca chewed during that time. He adds that he felt no fatigue after this 

 experiment. The Indians of Bolivia and Peru travel four days at a time 

 without taking food, their only provision consisting in a little bag of coca. 

 It is regularly administered to the men who work in the silver mines, and 

 who, without it, could not resist the hard labour and bad diet to which 

 they are subjected. — Scientific American. 



