40 THE PIASSABA FIBRE OF COMMERCE, ETC. 



The General Manager of the British Sperm Candle Company, Fairfield 

 Works, Bow, thus writes respecting the cahoun oil in the ' Journal of the 

 Society of Arts ;' — 



" I have formed a very favourable opinion of the value of the cahoun 

 nut oil (of which you were so kind as to send me a specimen) as regards its 

 application to the manufacture of candles. I forward to you herewith a 

 pair of candles which contain fifty per cent, of the oil ; and having burnt 

 another, I find that the light is white and steady. I consider the cahoun- 

 ttivt oil superior to cocoa-nut oil for making composition candles ; for the 

 odour is more pleasant, and the compound is less oily. The best cocoa-nut 

 oil is now selling in London at 21. lis. a cwt., and I think there Avould be 

 no difficulty in selling the cahoun-nut oil at a higher rate in very large 

 quantities." 



Mr Temple also received the following testimony to the merits of this 

 oil from Mr G. F. Wilson, F.R.S., the scientific Director of Price and Co.'s 

 Candle Works, Belmont : — 



"January % 1857. 



"My Dear Sir, — We have now the pleasure to send you the results of 

 a few experiments made to ascertain the exact commercial value of cahoun 

 oil, which we find to be that of the highest quality of cocoa-nut oil, that 

 which comes from the Malabar coast, and is selling at the present time at 

 51?. 10s. per ton. We send you specimens of the oil separated into its 

 liquid and solid constituents, coccinine and oleine, and a little of the oil 

 made into soap, which has all the very peculiar and characteristic proper- 

 ties of soap made from cocoa-nut oil. You may now rely upon cahoun oil 

 being marketable in this country in any quantity at the price of the finest 

 and purest cocoa-nut oiL 



"Yours, &c, "G. F. Wilson. 



"R. Temple, Esq." 



-* 



All we know of the economical properties of the other species com- 

 posing the genus Attalea is, that their leaves, like those of most palms, are 

 used for thatch, and that their seeds are eaten by the natives of the 

 countries in which they grow. The fruit of the Attalea excelsa, the 

 urucuri of the Brazilians, is, according to Wallace, burnt, and the smoke 

 employed to blacken newly-made india-rubber. The kernels of various 

 other species of Attalea, when rubbed in water, form an emulsion, used by 

 the inhabitants of Brazil both externally and internally. 



