221 



light on this fact during his stay at the island of 

 Ceylon; for it maybe possible, as Mr.Decandolle 

 has well observed, that the natives employ only 

 the juice that flows from the young plant, at a 

 period when the acrid principle is not yet de- 

 veloped. In fact, the first shoots of the apocy- 

 neous plants are eaten in several countries *. 



I have endeavoured, by these comparisons, to 

 bring into consideration under a more general 

 point of view the milky juices, that circulate in 

 vegetables ; and the milky emulsions, that the 

 fruits of the amygdalaceous plants and palms 

 yield. I may be permitted to add the result of 

 some experiments, which I attempted to make 

 on the juice of the carica papaya during my stay 

 in the valleys of Aragua, though I was then 

 almost destitute of chemical tests. The juice 

 has been since examined by Mr. Vauquelin*f\ 

 This celebrated chemist has very clearly recog- 

 nized the albumen and caseous matter ; he com- 

 pares the milky sap to a substance strongly 

 animalized, to the blood of animals ; but his 

 researches were confined to a fermented juice, 

 and a coagulum of a fetid smell formed during 

 the passage from the Isle of France to Havre. 

 He has expressed a wish, that some traveller 



* fib. p. 215. 



+ Vauquelin and Cadet de Gassicourt, in the Annates de 

 Chimie, vol. xliii, p. 275 ; xlix, p. 250 and 304. 



