November i, 1889.I TH£ TROPICAL 
1 .11 ~~7T~ — ~" 
DAVIDSON'S NEW DOWN-DRAFT SIEOCCOS. 
Dear Sib,— Although there are several of David- 
sou's new down-draft Siroccos now in use in Ceylon, 
we have not yet seen publicity given to the results 
obtained from them, so with your permission we 
will supply the information, which, doubtless, 
will interest all engaged in the tea industry. The 
down-draft Sirocco was designed to dry tea with a 
rapidity hitherto uuapproached by any other drying 
apparatus, its construction being such that three or 
four times the quantity of hot air can be drawn 
through the tea without disturbing or blowing the 
leaf off the trays, compared to what can be at- 
tempted with any apparatus employing an up-draft 
through the tea ; and the results so far obtained have 
been eminently successful. 
In May last, in the valuation of a sample of tea 
dried in the down-draft Sirocco at Elbedde Factory, 
and a sample of the same leaf manufactured in the 
ordinary up-draft Sirocco, also at Elbedde, the local 
brokers made a difference of 4 to 6 cents per lb. in 
favour of the " d.-d.," but this was only what Messrs, 
Davidson & Co. expected, as the operation of 
the machine in drying tea thoroughly and 
perfectly in 8 minutes, and at a temperature of 24n 
F, as compared to the up-draft sirocco doing the same 
work in 25 to 30 minutes, necessarily produces a 
higher quality of tea from similar leaf. The machines 
at Elbedde and Moray did not at first, as far as 
quantity was concerned, give the out-turn estimated, 
but this was due to the fact of the fan being driven at 
too low a speed. The drive at Elbedde on the occa- 
sion referred to was very unsteady, varying from H00 
to 900 revolutions per minute, in place of having a 
steady run of 1,200 revolutions. Later reports from 
the same estate are, however, still more encouraging, 
the broker putting even a greater difference in favour 
of the d-own-draft teas as comparad tj the samples from 
the upuraft machine. 
Since the receipt of the foregoing information, Mr. 
MaGuire (Messrs. Davidson & Co.'s representative 
now in India) reports that at one place (Kopati) the 
"d.-d." gave an outturn of 220 lb dried tea per hour, 
using only 169 lb of wood fuel. This is indeed an 
extraordinary result. On the whole the average of Mr. 
Maguire's reports show an out-turn of 127 lb dried tea 
per hour with a fuel consumption of 104 ib. woodj 
fairly realizing the estimate, both as regards 
quantity of tea dried and fuel used, formed by Messrs. 
Davidson & Co. 
From the information afforded by Mr. Maguire, the 
fireplace, stove and fan of the "d.-d." for the coming 
season, will be enlarged, and owing to the sharp 
increase in price of iron and steel, and workmen's 
wages, the price of the machine has been advanced to 
£150. Even at this price the " d.-d." sirocco will bear 
very favorable comparison with any other drier in the 
market, especially when it is known that the new 
apparatus will not only turn out an average of 160 
lb. made tea per hour, but is stated by experts to 
improve the quality, as compared to drying in any other 
machine.to the extent of Id to 2d per lb. In addition 
to Elbedde and Moray, one of the new machines may 
now be inspected, per favor of Mr. R. W. Wickham, 
at Holmwood estate, Agrapataua. — Yours faithfully, 
W. H. DAVIE S &CO. 
MODERN SANITARY SCIENCE ANTICIPATED 
IN MOSAIC LEGISLATION : STRICT EXAMI- 
NTION OF BUTCHER MEAT NECESSARY. 
Kandy, Sept. 18th. , 
Dear Sik, — Man does not live on bread aloner 
and John Bull is known to evince a partiality fo 
Leghorn, 250 cwt. Tellicherry and 325 cwt. Calicut Pepper. For 
Rotterdam, 100 cwt. Tellicherry Pepper. Tor Alexandria. 100 
ewt. Tellicherry Pepper, tor Messina, 10 cwt. Cochin Pepper. 
For Suez, xn cwt. Tellicherry Native Coffee and 375 ewt. 
Popper; 48 cwt. Calicut Native Coffee and 63 cwt. Pepper. 
tot Curkish, African and Arabian Porta, 740 cwt. Cannanore 
Pepper. Per Bombay and other Indian Ports. 20,282 cwt. 
Cannanore Pej per. For Bombay and other Indian Ports, 
1,166, cwt, Badugara Pepper, 
AGRICULTURIST. 319 
roast beef. It behoves the beef-eating section of 
our community therefore at this season, when 
cattle murrain is raging all over the country, to 
guard against the dangers arising from this source, 
both immediate and remote. Now as the beef- 
eating section comprehends those in authority and 
power in the land in its category, there is consola- 
tion for the masses, that the matter will be taken 
in hand both by the municipal authorities as 
well as by the legislators of the land. They need 
go no further than copy the precepts of our vener- 
able lawgiver Moses, a figure in ancient history 
familiar to every schoolboy. This remarkable man, 
it appears, centuries ago before scientific knowledge 
and the microscope led to the startling discoveries 
relating to lower organisms, laid down certain 
prohibitions regarding the eating of the flesh of 
oertain animals, touching the draining of the 
blood and the testing of certain organs to ascer- 
tain the Btate of health of cattle slaughtered for 
food, which would fill our modern legislators and 
sanitary officers with astonishment to learn at the 
present time. In a paper presented to the Academy 
of Medicine, Paris, in 1885 by Dr. Noel Gueneau de 
Mussy, he detailed certain information on the 
authority of the Grand Rabbi of France, regarding 
the method of slaughtering and examining cattle 
adopted by the Jews. In this paper, from which 
copious quotations are made by Dr. Behrend, 
m. b. c. p., in his article, " Diseases Caught from 
Butcher's Meat " in the September number of 
the Nineteenth Century to hand this day, the 
following passage occurs : — 
" The idea of parasitic and infectious maladies 
which has conquered so great a position in modern 
pathology, appears to have greatly occupied the 
mind of Moses, and to have dominated all his 
hygienic rules. He excludes from Hebrew dietary 
animals particularly liable to parasitics ; and as it 
is in the blood that the germs or spores of infectious 
disease circulate, he orders that they must be 
drained of their blood before serving for food. 
"The Talmud, a commentary on the Mosaic law, 
prescribes an examination of the principal organs 
especially the lung, rejecting such as have adhe 
sions, either between the tissues of the lobes them- 
selves or between them and the ribs, and also if 
there be pustules disseminated, even superficially, 
in the lung. The lungs must be insufflated, and 
its expansation so perfect that any rupture of its 
substance however minute, suffices for its condem- 
nation as impure, and, to avoid all chance of 
error, the insufflation must be conducted under 
water. These ordinances are to this day observed 
by Israelites faithful to the law ; and duly appointed 
offioers to visit the slaughter-house to superintend 
their execution. 
" The ohief rabbi of France says, that sometimes 
as many as 26 out of 30 cattle are rejected on 
account of pleural adhesions. 
" What an extraordinary prescience I The conta- 
gion of tuberculosis has been proved only during 
the last few years ; its transmissibility by food is 
not yet universally recognised, though the experi- 
ments of M. Chandveau render it almost certain ; 
yet the law of Israel, thousands of years in advance 
of modern science, had inscribed in its precepts 
these ordinances, preventive of the malady. For if 
such adhesions have any other causes besides this 
presence of tubercle, this is by far the most common; 
and though adhesions may exist without tubercle, 
the latter is very rarely present without the former. 
" Here then we have an easy and practioal method, 
within reach of ignorant persons, of removing 
from food supplies the flesh of tuberculous animals, 
and for further security this law, in addition to 
and even in the absence of such adhesions, pro 
