VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 109 



projecting" and looked like the point of a shoe ; upon it grew an 

 anther which bent back and yet preserved the obtuse part of the 

 nectary ; they were rather larg^e and yet as long as they were fresh 

 [ could not perceive any pollen. I sent my people in vain 

 searches for the male blossom of the species of Kaldeer which I 

 had seen lately ; I saw them often enoug-h from a distance in 

 deep swamps. Their crown forms a bundle as thick as the arm ; 

 the leaves stand erect, are long* and sword-shaped, with very 

 long- points ; their colour deteriorates into blue-g"reen. I g-ot many 

 blossoms of the Amomun Scyphifeuin instead, very good specimens, 

 and a kind of Languash, which grows in the water. It has black 

 pears, which contain five three-cornered grains, being three times 

 as large as the common Cardamons. My people also brought 

 me some kinds of moss, among' them the Hypnum Bryoides, the 

 lungermanina platyphylla. Also some leaves they brought, but 

 as they had not taken any fruits with them as well, I could not 

 decide to what plants they belonged. 



13. — The illness prevailing here began to kill many of the 

 Coromandalians living here, who are partly Mahometans, partly 

 heathens. The most general illness is dysentery, which begins 

 wath pain in the knees, fever, and sometimes loss of blood. The 

 common native physicians ai'e so unconscientious, that they give 

 the people powdered Mangostang bark, or they take peels of 

 unripe pomegranates, roast these with some other ingredients 

 w^hich they make a secret of (in some cases I know that they 

 added alum ), and this mixture was given to the invalids. Some 

 healthy stong natures are cured by it, as I had the opportunity 

 of seeing in the case of two boys in the same house with me. 

 They were cured after three or four days. But with weak 

 natures it generally has sad consequences, the least of them 

 being that they have to suffer from a general hardening of the 

 digestive organs for several months. But I have seen other 

 cases that tne invalids died suddenly from inflammation of their 

 bowels. 



There is another illness, frequently occurring among the 

 European soldiers here ; it begins with rheumatic pains in all 

 extremities, which pains sometimes spread all over the body. 

 But the surgeon, who by the way is a very clever man, told me 

 that this illness could be cured by using remedies favouring 

 perspiration, as relaxing salts, and that there were never any 



