6 



channe is now an article of commerce, and that it is anticipated that it will be largely employed for dietetic 

 purposes. It appears to be agreed that saccharine does not undergo assimilation when taken as an article of 

 food, and hence it m<ty be used in Cises where cane or beet-sugar is forbidden. It may be safely employed, for 

 instance, by diabetic patients and by persons suffering from gouty affections and liver complaints. Further 

 it is said, that one grain of snccharine is sufficient to sweeten a cup of tea or coffee, and that it is very difficult 

 if not impossible, to distinguish whether a beverage is sweetened with saccharine or cane sugar. And lasfly, 

 further it is claimed, that saccharine used in sweetmeats does not " create acidity" and in pharmacy its use 

 will afford a wide field of usefulness. 



The manufacture of saccharine on the other hand, is said to be a costly process, and it cannot at present 

 nor is it even likely, to be sold as cheap as sugar. 



Having thus briefly summarized what is known of saccharine, it may interest those who are engaged 

 directly or indirectly in the production of cane sugar, to learn that the views of so eminent an authority as 

 Sir Henry Eoscoe, as to the probable influence of tlie discovery of saccharine on their particular industry. In 

 reply to a letter addressed to him from this establishment in which it was stated that correspondents in the 

 Colonies were anxious to learn the opinion of those best able to judge as to the future of saccharine, Sir Henry 

 Roscoe expressed himself as follows : - - 



Sib Heney E. Roscoe, m.i\, f.r.s., to Royal Gardens, Kew. 



10, Bramham Gardens, Wetherby Road, S. W., December 3rd, 1887. 



My Dear Sir, 



In reply to yours of November 28, as to the probable influence of the discovery of saccharine, on the 

 growers and makers of sugar cane and cane sugar, I have to say that I do not belieieve that saccharine is 

 ever likely to become an artie'e of cinraon use like sugar. 



In the first place, saccharine is not a food, while sugar is ; and in the second place, I doubt whether 

 saccharine can be prepared at a price likely to compete with sugar. 



I think that this artificial sweetening agent will, however, become a useful material in cases in which 

 sugar cannot be employed, as in diabetes and other diseases. 



It 6eems to me beyond the bounds of possibility that the price or production of cane-sugar can be mate- 

 rially affected by the introduction of saccharine. 



I am, &c, 



(Signed) Henry E. Roscoe. 



D. Morris, Esq. 



DISEASE OF COCOANUT PALMS IN THE WEST INDIES. 



The following article appeared in the European Mail, 1st July, 1886, and as it sums up what had 

 been done to that date, may be usefully reproduced. 



The growing of cocoanuts is fast becoming a large industry in the West Indies, and we find that Jamaica 

 exports about three millions annually, while the exports of Trinidad are about ten millions. The export value 

 of the cocoanut industry in these two islands is. therefore, about 50,000Z. annually. The other British West 

 Iudia Islands do little or nothing in cocoanuts. Tobago, so depressed in every industry, has, however, made 

 some progress in the planting of cocoanut palms, and before long she may show a respectable item in her 

 export list for these commercial nuts. Her present export is about 800,000 nuts, of the value of 2,500/. At 

 Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua, and other islands of the Leeward group, cocoanuts are 

 grown more or less successfully, but the greater number of the nuts are consumed locally. Indeed, as con- 

 tributing to the food supply of the inhabitants, and as entering into almost every item of their daily life, the 

 cocoanut palm is invaluable. Hence it may be safely estimated that for the whole of the West India Islands 

 the annual value of the produce of the cocoanut palm is double of that exported, and may be placed at about 

 100,C00Z. 



It is somewhat remarkable, and a strange anomaly in West Indian ecouomies, that the tropical and fertile 

 island of Bai'bados should be unable to grow cocoanuts sufficient for its own wants This, however, is the 

 fact. To begin with, Barbados has a teeming population of about 140,000 souls, and nearly every foot of its 

 beautifully -kept and productive soil is devoted to the growth of sugar cane and sweet potato. A few cocoa- 

 nut palms are seen to fringe the coast, but they do not provide a morning driulc of the delicious ft cocoanut 

 water" to a tithe of the inhabitants. Hence cocoanuts are imported to Barbados from any of the neighbour- 

 ing islands that can spare them, and they provide at onco meat and drink to the densely-packed black popula- 

 tion, that would otherwise have to subsist on flying fish and sweet potatoes or American corn meal It is not, 

 however, a matter of choice as regards growing cocoanuts at Barbados. For many years the few trees attempted 

 to be grown there have presented more or less diseased conditions, and the produce in nuts has been very 

 small In 1880 Mr. D. Morris, Director of Public Gardens and Plantations at Jamaica, investigated the con- 

 dition of the cocoanut, palms at Barbados, and found they were attacked by a small scale insect, which, cover- 

 ing the underside of the fronds, destroyed them as soon as they attained maturity. The disease was general, 

 and affected every palm alike. As long as this disease is present in force it is hopeless to attempt to grow 

 cocoanuts at Barbados Since 1880 Mr. Morris' attention has been given to the condition of cocoanut palms 

 in other parts of the West Indies, and naturally those in Jamaica have come under particular notice 



In 1882, a disease very similar to that at Barbados was found in certain portions of Jamaica, but it is evi- 

 dently not confined either to Barbados or Jamaica, but is more or less prevalent everywhere in the West Indies. 

 In a recent report on the subject, from which we are privileged to make a few extracts, Mr. Morris classes the 

 diseases to which cocoanuts in the West Indies are liable under two heads, viz., the cocoanut beetle and the 

 scale insect. As regards the cocoanut beetle, the attacks of this insect are confined to the trunk of the cocoa- 

 nut palm or to the terminal bud, sometimes called the " cabbage." 11 a tree is suffering from the attacks of 

 the beetle the first signs will appear among the young leaves in the centre of the crown of fronds. These will 

 have a withered, drooping aspect, becoming more and more pronounced as time goes on, until at last the whole 

 head will turn brown and withered. With the occurrence of the first strong breeze the head falls off, leaving 

 nothing but the bare stem remaining. The best cure for the beetle, if noticed in time, is a handful of salt or 

 unslacked lime dusted into the centre of the palm, which will gradually dissolve and find its way into the leaf- 

 bud, where the b'-etle is at work, and destroy it. This, however, can only be conveniently done when the 

 palm is young and wiihin easy reach. Fortunately, however, although many cocoanut tree are destroyed by 

 the palm beetle, its ravages are not serious at present, and it is quite possible they may never become so. 



