Miscellaneous Products- 



506 



[June, 1910. 



the "niirum miraeulam naturae, quod 

 principes est omnium marinarum rerum, 

 quae rarse habentur." 



The first European who described this 

 famous fruit was the Portuguese Gar- 

 cia d'Orta (Garcia ab Horto). He was 

 physician to the Viceroy at Goa for 

 about thirty years. Iu this capacity he 

 found leisure for private study which 

 he spent in the exploration and des- 

 cription of the useful plants and drugs 

 of the country. In 1563 he published 

 the results of his investigations in his 

 Ooloquios da India," which were soon 

 translated into several modern langu- 

 ages, and into Latin by Clusius in the 

 year 1567, This work went through 

 many editions, and it is in the one of 

 1605 that we read the following account 

 of the " Coccus de Maldivia." This nut, 

 especially the kernel, are recommended 

 by the inhabitants of the islands (Mal- 

 dive Islands) as a remedy against poison. 

 I have been told by many trustworthy 

 people that it proved useful in colic, 

 paralysis, epilepsy, and other nervous 

 diseases, and that the sick become 

 immune against other diseases if they 

 drink water that has been kept 

 in the shell for some time, and to which 

 has been added a piece of the kernel. 

 But as I have no personal experience I 

 am not inclined to believe in these 

 things. I had no time to make experi- 

 ments, and 1 prefer to use medicaments 

 whose virtues are known to me and 

 shown by experience, as, e.g., the bezoar 

 stone, theriac, and many other medicines 

 than new ones which are less reliable, 

 because I do not know whether I have 

 to ascribe to imagination only what 

 people say about the beneficent effects 

 of that nut. If, however, in the course 

 of time, some facts will be verified, I 

 shall not feel ashamed to change my 

 opinion, The skin of the nut is black 

 and smoother than that of the common 

 Cocoa-nut, mostly ovate and not quite 

 as round as the common nut. The 

 kernel or inner pulp is hard and white 

 when dry, sometimes slightly pallescent, 

 full of cracks and very porous. The 

 dose of the kernel is about 10 grains, 

 taken in wine or water, according to 

 the nature of the disease. The nuts 

 are sometimes very large, sometimes 

 small, but they are always found thrown 

 upon the shore. There is, besides, the 

 common opinion that the Maldive 

 Islands formed once part of a continent 

 which by an inundation of the sea 

 disappeared, those islands alone being 

 left ; the palms, however, that produced 

 those nuts, were buried underground, 

 and the nuts themselves became petri- 

 fied in the way we find them now. 



Whether those palms belong to the 

 same genus as our nut is difficult to 

 say, as nobody up to now was able to 

 see either the leaves or the stem of 

 that plant. Only the nuts are washed 

 ashore, sometimes in pairs, sometimes 

 single ; but nobody is allowed to collect 

 them on penalty of death, because every- 

 thing that is carried ashore belongs to 

 the king. This circumstance has added 

 a good deal to the value of these nuts. 

 The pulp or medulla is then removed 

 and dried in the same manner as our 

 " Copra," till it becomes hard like the 

 one you see in the market, In this con- 

 dition you might easily mistake it for 

 cheese." To this account Clusius adds 

 the following note: "I have seen ves- 

 sels made of this nut in Lisbon as well 

 as in other places ; they are usually 

 more oblong and darker thau those made 

 of the common Cocoa-nut. You can even 

 find the dried medulla of the nut in 

 the market of Lisbon ; its virtues are 

 highly praised, and it is preferred to 

 almost all other alexipharmics. For 

 this reason it is sold very dear. But you 

 can easily gather from our author 

 how little faith such fabulous virtues 

 deserve," 



Whilst Garcia d'Orta was staying at 

 Goa, a Spaniard, Christobal da Costa 

 (Christophorus a Costa), of the medical 

 profession, left his home with the only 

 desire to " observe and study the various 

 plants which God had created for th# 

 benefit of the man in the different coun- 

 tries and provinces." On his tour he 

 came to Goa where he met his colleague 

 Garcia d'Orta. From the personal inter- 

 course with him as well as from d'Orta's 

 book he received most of the informa- 

 tion which some time after was published 

 in Spanish and translated into Latin by 

 Clusius in the year 1572. Regarding the 

 Sea Coco-nut we read in his book : " The, 

 •' Coccus de Malediva' is in such high 

 esteem with the natives of that Island 

 and with the people of Malabar, not 

 only with the lower classes but also 

 with kings and princes, that in all sick- 

 ness they confide in that fruit as in a 

 sacred anchor. They make of it drink- 

 ing cups in which there is a piece of 

 the kernel hanging from a small chain, 

 and they are strongly convinced that 

 whosoever has drunk water from such 

 a cup, is immune against every poison 

 and disease. I saw, however, a good 

 many that drank from those cups and 

 fell sick nevertheless. In spite of many 

 careful observations I never noticed that 

 anybody was cured by such a drink. 

 Some even assured me that after a 

 draught from such a cup the spleen and 

 kidneys got inflamed. The price of 

 these nuts is, nevertheless, very great, 



