3*4 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [November i, 1888. 
owing to the non-arrival of the " Tweed," which has 
been condemned at Port Elizabeth in the Cape of Good 
Hope ; its cargo of 500 tons will have to be trans- 
ferred to another vessel, and some time may elapse 
before it can be received here, or it may be sent to 
London by the under writers. The first lot of oil comes 
on the " Lucy A. Nickels," due on September 15th with 
650 tous. One month later the " Sultan " is expected 
with 650 tons, followed by the "Edwin Reed" late in 
November with 720 tons, making the total visible 
supply for the balauce of this year 2,820 tons, includ- 
ing the spot stock. The estimated consumption of 
Ceylon coconut oil in the United States is about 400 
tons per month, and if all the stock afloit 
comes to hand, there will be sufficient to last seven 
months. It is claimed however that a large portion of 
the stock afloat has already been sold to consumers, 
and that the actual supply in first hands is smaller 
than the estimate given above. Spot prices can be 
well maintained until additional arrivals. 
Cochin oil has lost money for several members of 
the trade who bought at seven cents or over per pound 
and are now selling at a small fraction above six ceuts. 
There has been a decline of three cents per pound 
since January last year owing to liberal stocks, and 
shipments can now be had under six cents. The loss 
of the vessel " Soteria "last May with 210 tons prevented 
a further decline, and no one has been heard to express 
regrets over the occurrence except consumers and 
insurance men. The condemned " Tweed " has also 100 
tons, the arrival of which is very uncertain, while 
the " Suffolk " with 150 tons is now due, but the bulk 
of the latter has changed h. nds for consumption. 
These are the only arrivals until next March or 
possibly May, but the visible supply to that time 
including stock on the spot is placed at 550 tons, 
and as the annual consumption is estimated at about 
800 tons, there will be barely sufficient to go around 
unless there are importations by steamer from London. 
The present dull situation is attributed to the large 
holdings of consumers, and not to the substitution of 
other soap stocks. 
Domestic coconut oil is produced in such limited 
quantities, that its sale at a lower price than the im- 
ported has no effect upon the market. English oil 
and the San Francisco product are not heard from dur- 
ing the reign of high values, while the Cuban grade 
has passed almost entirely out of sight. — Oil, Faint and 
Drug Reporter. 
» 
THE JUNGLE OF BEITISH NORTH BORNEO. 
( Viewed Medically.) 
[The following article on jungle fevers in British 
Borneo, and various forms of disease known to the Datives 
under the general term of " beri-beri, " is interest- 
ing, and the views expressed are generally sound. 
We suspect, however, that sufficient importance is 
not attached to the atmosphere as well as to the 
drinking water. Fevers depend greatly on extremes 
of heat in the daytime and cold at night, the latter 
resulting in chill. It seems a sanguine view to 
expect a malarious locality to become healthy in 
six months. The Ceylon planting districts ate 
generally healthy, but there are districts, such as 
Oumbara and Kurunegala, where " malaria " is 
chronically present. — En.] 
The growing popularity of the jungle of British 
North Borneo, as a means whereby the important 
cultivation of Tobacco, Coffee, Pepper, etc., may be 
effected with profit, reminds us at this juncture 
that a few remarks on diseases incident in clearing 
may not be quite out of place. 
Hitherto, the opening of the jungle has been 
attended with the appearance of certain specific 
diseases, which in order of frequency ami occur- 
rence art, fevers, dysentery, and beri-beri. Of those 
attacked, imported labourers arc more liable than 
natives in the proportion of twenty to one ; and of 
imported labourers Chinese are more liable than 
Javanese or Blalays from the Straits in the propor- 
tion of two to one. Bangerese appear to have 
greater immunity than Javanese; while Boyanese, 
from their very frugal style of living, have lees. 
The term specific is used regarding these diseases 
in the sense that they are looked upon as produced 
by a special cause or causes, which have their 
orgin in the soil, and from that source become 
infectious by inhalation or through the medium of 
drinking water. Their nature is bacterial, their dis- 
tribution fairly general ; but their effects are 
markedly influenced by locality. In cases for example 
near Suan Lamba, where the land selected has been 
marshy, subject to periodical inundation, aud covered 
with virgin forest, the diseases have been more 
general, and the type more virulent than for example 
in Marudu Bay where tho land has been capable 
of easy drainage, porous in its nature and covered 
with a younger jungle. However, whatever may 
have been the extent and type of the disease on 
the onset, a short time — from three to six months — 
suffices to work a change aud to convert the pre- 
viously unhealthy locality into one where life can be 
spent with comparative freedom from climatic disease. 
Although the cause is thus specific, yet there 
are certain factors which combine to so lower the 
resisting power of the individual as to predispose 
him to an attack. Among these, exposure to cold 
and wet, mental depression, a prolonged low and 
inefficient dietary may be noted. The first shelter 
of the labourer is exceedingly primitive ; con- 
sisting as it does of a temporary shed rapidly 
put together and affording little protection from 
wind and rain. Added to this, there are scanty 
clothing and a low temperature; the daily mini- 
mum temperature of virgin jungle varying from 
65 c to 70° approximately. 
Secondly, imported labourers arrive on the estate 
heavily burdened with advances ; and as the prospect 
of clearing these off does not, at first sight, appear 
hopeful, they naturally lose heart and abscond into 
the jungle in hope of escape ; a course which in 
many parts of the territory has been fraught with 
disaster to the coolie. This condition of low spirited- 
ness has frequently been observed and has been 
contrasted with cases, where coolies have arrived 
under similar conditions on estates in good working 
order where prospects were far more hopeful. Run- 
away coolies, who have spent a few nights in the 
jungle, and who have been caught or have returned 
of their own accord, are particularly liable to be 
attacked ; aud, as a rule, their case is unfavourable 
from the- first. Lastly, the absence of an efficient 
dietary, as regards quantity, quality and variety 
of food stuffs appears in course of time to establish 
a form of cachexia differing little from pernicious 
an.emia. This result has been observed in two I 
estates, remote from each other ; but its onset is 
gradual and later in the history of the estate. 
The duration of disease, with exception of the 
last form, is tolerably constant. By the sixth month 
it is, speaking generally, dying out. At the onset, - 
the type is severer and the tendency to spread 
more marked than at any other time. 
Taking the diseases seriatim, let us first consider 
the fevers. Of these the simple continued and 
malarious are met with. The latter are the more 
important, especially as they are at this period very 
apt to belong to the remittant class, and to be not 
uncommonly complicated with cerebral symptoms 
which render the particular case unfavourable. They 
appear during the first month ; but shouid the soil 
be inundated, their appearance usually is delayed, 
till the drying of the soil commences. The poison in 
connection with these has been long known by the 
vague term ' malaria, ' and the factors concerned in 
its production were also known to be a correlation of 
heat moisture and temperature. Only recently has 
it been discovered that the poison is bacterial in 
its nature, and finds in certaiu conditions of soil 
1 
