January t, 1889.] THZ TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
455 
EXTRACTING GOLD BY ELECTRICITY. 
Mr. John Taylor, managing director of five of the 
Kokr Gold Mines, wrote on the 5th ultimo to a 
mining paper Two tons of Welsh goH ore have 
been sent to Mr. Calvert's electric gdd extracting 
machines. I happened to be present at the draw- 
ing of the charge. The plates would not move at 
first from the superabundance of gold precipitated 
thereon, but upon extra power b"ing applied they 
were lifted out, and being placed in tbe scales they 
weighed 113 lbs. 7 ounces, deducting 61 lbs. for the 
two plates left a result of 52 lbs. 7 ounces of pure 
native gold, the produce of these 2 tons. If these 
had been treated by any of the present known waste- 
ful processes now being adopted, scarcely one-half of 
this quantity would havo beeu obtained, as the sul- 
phides of gold are in a great measure lost in maui- 
pulation, and as to the silicates thoy are not rea- 
lised at nil, and are allowod to pass ou to the tail- 
ings as though they did not exist. How many gold 
voutures are every year closed through simple neg- 
ligence and ignorance in treatment of their ores? 
What an enormous field of enterprise would be opened 
if these machines were brought to bear upon mil- 
lions of tons of stuff which are at present simple 
waste and refuse." — Indian Agriculturist. 
HOW TO TREAT AN EYE WITH A 
CINDER IN IT. 
A correspondent writes as follows to The Medical 
Summary: — "Nino persons out of every ten with a 
cinder or any foreign substance in the eye. will instant- 
ly begin to rub the eye with one hand, while hunting 
for their handkerchief with tbo other. They may, 
and sometimes do, remove the olfendiug ciudei ; but 
more frequently they rub until tlieoye becomes inflamed, 
bind a handkerchief around tbe head, and go to bed. 
This is all wrong. The bettor way is, not to rub the 
eye with the cinder in it at all, but rub the other eye 
as vigorously as you like. A few years since, I was 
riding on an engine. The engineer threw open the 
front window and I caught a cinder that gave me tho 
most excruciating pain. I began to rub the eye with 
both hands. 1 Let that eye alone, and rub the other 
eye (this from the engineer). I know you doctors think 
you know it all ; but if you will let ttiatoyo alone, and 
rub the other oue, the cinder will bo out in two 
minutes,' persisted the engineer. I began to rub the 
other eye ; ami soon I felt the cinder down near the 
inner cant bus, and made ready to tuko it out. ' Let 
it alone and keep at the well eye, ' shouted the doctor 
pro ttttl. I did so for a minute longer, and, looking in 
a small glass he gave me, I found the offend or on 
my cheek. Since then I have tried it many times, 
and havo advised many others, and I hnvo never 
known it to fail iu ouo instance (unless it was as sharp 
as a piece of steel, or something that cut into the 
ball and required an operation to remove it. Why 
it is ho, I do not know ; but that it is so, I do know, 
ami that one may be saved much suffering, if they 
will let the injured eye alone, ami rub the well oye. " 
— ftldiaruliber and Guttapercha Journal. 
GUTTAPERCHA 1,EWKS As HdtiK Til, Ms. 
These impregnated leaves an- mostly intermixed 
two or three-fold in a manner that their fibres cross 
each oilier. By this means a thin elastic wooden 
plate of great power of resistance is formed, whieti 
always retain* its original form, and, on account of 
the tirniuess <>f the sticking material used, in neither 
affected by the change of temperature nor weather, 
and may even bo exposed for a considerable time to 
boding water without effecting a n'cpam i n of iho 
leaves. But for the purpom of stdl further strengthen- 
log their power of enrturanoe their outer side is spread 
over with tar, ami further covered with n lay. r ..f 
warm asphalt, hardened by Imprest od >"inl| gravel, 
whereas the inner side is protected snintt the n»k 
of Are by the addition of a nonconducting matter. 
The advantages of this style of roofing consist iu 
the thinness of the plate, compared with the ncceasary 
application at ordiu iry zinc roofs, as well as in tho 
lighter weight. Whereas, for example, a cardboard 
roof, which was hitherto considered as the lightest, 
weighs, including the material for fastening, 38 lb. 
per square metre of roof surface, the guttapercha or 
fndiarubber plate, prepared as above described, has 
a weight of only 141b. per square metre. As the 
plates are, moreover, very large, there is no need of 
any further protection, and they nre merely nailed 
down upon laths placed at a proportionate distance 
from eaoh other. There is consequently a considerable 
s-iving of both labour and cost, and yet the gutta- 
percha roof can be used without support for a com- 
paratively long surface, because its power of resistanco 
against pressure or breaking is most remarkable. India- 
rubber and Guttapercha, Journal. 
[The question of cost will arise.— Ed,] 
BRITISH AND FOREIGN CONSULS' REPORTS. 
Dutch Colonies. — The production of arrowroot and 
indigo in the Dutch colony of Surinam (Nether- 
lauds Guiana) is receding, but on the other hand 
there is an extension iu the cultivation of cocoa. 
Ecuador.— Guayaquil CixcnotfA. — The shipments of 
cinchona bark from Guayaquil in 1867 were: to the United 
Kingdom, 3 ",804 Spanish lbs ; to Spain, 300 Spauish 
lb. ; to the Uuited States, 11,758 Spanish lb. ; to France 
1,100 Spanish tbs ; and to other parts, 5915 Spanish lb ; a 
total of 54,877 Spanish lb. 
Stbaits Settlements. — Singapore Drug Exports. — 
The following articles of pharmaceutical interest were ex- 
ported from Singapore iu 1887, the unit being given in 
piculs of 1331- lb. : Gambier (block), 5. 0.389; gambier 
(cube), 48,200; cutch, 257 ; cum damar, 5,000 ; dragons' 
blood, 47 ; gum benjamin, 881 ; copU, 31,354 ; sticklac, 
2,686; nutmegs, 3,473; mace, 172; pepper (black), 
178.263 ; pepper (white), 32,461. 
The Palm Oil Trade in As-gola.— The palm from 
which the oil is obtained may be said to be a wild 
product of Western equatorial Africa, and requires 
no planting. The fruit grows in large clusters, nearly 
pear-shaped, or somewhat like a huge branch of very 
bright red grapes, some clusters counting perhaps a thou- 
sand nuts, which are partially embedded in a kind of 
fibrous matting. The nuts and fruit are the size and 
nearly the shape of a pigeon's egg, of a bright red colour, 
tinged sometimes with yellow, and iu some cases deepen- 
ing in aha le almost to black. The nut is composed of 
three parts- the outer covering, thehard nut and the inner 
kernel. In i his respect it is like a plum. The outer cover, 
ing is from an eighth to n quarter of an inch in thick- 
no>s, of a fibrous nature, ami this cotitiius the oil. To 
extract the latter the nuts are boile i and beaten to 
separate the oil from the fibre, which is then skimmed 
olf and put away iu pots ready for sale, requiring 
no further preparation. The inner nut is cracked, 
and tho kernel, which produces a fine white oil, is sold. 
A few years ago oil from Angola sold in Europe for 
about 40/ per ton ; it has now gone down to 20/, ami 
therein said to he no prospect at present of an improve- 
ment in tbo price, because so many substitutes of a 
cheap kind, notably petroleum, are now employed in 
manufactures, such ns soap, candles, &e., where at one 
time palm oil alone was used. — Ohenidt and Druyyi<t- 
• • 
A NEW ALKALOID FROM CALABAR BEAN. 
Messrs. C. Bohringer it Ssns, of Mannheim, 
announce tho discovery of a now alkaloid in Calabar 
bean, to which they have givon tbe name 41 Esori- 
dino." Tho alkaloid, they inform ns, has been known 
to them for somu years, and they havo mado a 
careful in\ es' n; ill u its chemical and physical 
properties, and Dr. W. Ehor, of Berlin, has roported 
upon tho physiologic il action of tho base. As a 
result, it appears that oseridiue is not neirly ar< 
active a poison as physostigmino, but it is closely 
related to it chemically. From the particulars 
which wo have received, wo may coutrojt tho pro 
I'crtio; of tho old alkaloid and >te now associate.— 
