230 OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISEASES, he. 



possibly some little alteration in the consistence of your plas- 

 ter, to suit extremes of heat and cold. This letter being of a 

 public nature, intended to testify the sense of the Economi- 

 cal Societv of Petersburg, on your useful discovery, you may 

 make what use of it you please. 



Copy of a Letter from George Sulhan Marten^ Esq. 



Enston, OxfordsMre, July 30, ISOO. 



SIR, 



Understanding there exists some doubt how far 

 your vegetable piaster answers in hot climates, I canno. in jus- 

 tice hesitate to inform you, that it was in constant and success- 

 ful use not only in my own ga.rden in the district of Trin- 

 sivellv, four hundred miles South of Madras, but also in the 

 Company's Cinnamon Plantation which I had the pleasure of 

 forming there, and wntre, from the method of cultivating that 

 spice, the trees are always cut down to stumps. Y.»ur plaster 

 at these times was always applied, which stopped the bleed- 

 ing, and hastened out the shoots (from whence the best cinna- 

 mon is taken) much quicker than the former mode (and which 

 is still practised in Ceylon I believe) of heaping the ea'-th over 

 them. Nor was my experiei ce confined ; for, when I quitted 

 India in October 1798, I left one hundred and fifty thousand 

 trees and plnnts in the Trins.vrllv Ptai tations, all of which I 

 hadpl mted from the seed oi two trees brought Trom the island 

 of Ceylon by iSIrs. Light, which are yet flourishing, I dare 

 say, in the Commercial Resident's garden. 



I likewise applied your plaster with equal success to the 

 fruit-trees of the country. But to an old Pumbilmos, or Shad- 

 dock tree, which was alm':^st throughout decayed, and which 

 1 had to fill up with the plaster after the dead wood was taken 

 out, it produced wonderiul renovation. I derived too much 

 benefit from this composition to finish without assuring vou, 

 that I will with much pleasure give you any lurther informa- 

 tion as to its success in hot countries that came within my ob- 

 servation during the use of it for several years in the district 

 of Trinsivelly, 



I am, Sir, 



Your most obedient Servant, 



(Signed J GEORGE SULIVAN MARTEN. 



To Mr Forsyth, 



