12 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[July 2, 1894. 
For Dead Bodies.*— Spread over the bottom of 
the cofiin 2 lbs. of the powder before putting 
the hotly in ; then dip a sheet in a solution 
of the powder, 1 lb. to a gallon of water 
and cover the body with it ; this will prevent 
any effluvia or disease being disseminated there- 
from." 
Carbolic acid is conveniently used in the 
form of vapour by placing half an ounce in one 
of the heated vaporizers designed by R. Lc 
Neve Foster, f.cs. This quantity is suffi- 
cient to disinfect a sick room of ordinary 
size. 
Besides carbolic acid another disinfectant 
prepared from coal tar by Jeye's Sanitary Com- 
pounds Co., Ld., is extensively used. The form 
of this disinfectant which is of most general 
application has the name Jeye's "perfect puri- 
fier?' It is sold in a concentrated form and 
for many purposes may be diluted with about J 
100 parts of water to one of disinfectant. In 
mixing, the water is preferably added to the 
fluid, not the fluid to the water. 
The manufacturers issue directions along with 
the substance for its use when applied to such 
varied purposes as the disinfection of water 
closets, urinals, sinks, drains, sewers Cesspools j 
for purifying the air of barrack-rooms, work- 
shops, schoolrooms, assembly halls, markets, 
shops, dairies, stables, ships, streets, hospitals. 
It may be used in the bath, and to remove 
grease from fabrics or furniture for cleaning 
metals^ It may be used as an insecticide on 
domettb animals and as a medical and sur- 
gical disinfectant. 
(To be continued.) 
COFFEF LEAF DISEASE IN COSTA RICA. 
{Translated hj A. M. FERGUSON for the " Tropical 
Agriculturist.'] 
National Physico-Geographical Institute. 
(Concluded from pir/e 807.) 
Another coffee disease in Brazil produces a mi- 
crolepidoptei: (lilachmfa coffee/In Guerin-Meneville), 
whose larva introduces itself between the two epi- 
demics of the leaf and feeds ou the parenchyma. 
The boundaries of the spots were neatly denned 
by the healthy green of tie neighbouring parts and, 
in the spotted portions, the epidermis came away 
ea The'ae marks enabled one to distinguish without 
difficulty a spot of such origin, from those produced 
by the fungus. Yet it is not rare to meet with 
leaves with spots arising from both causes. The 
grub mentioned above (p. 7) as having been met 
with here, is probably the larva of a microlepi- 
dopter of the same genus. In several leaves which 
I have preserved it is seen in conjunction with the 
vegetable parasite. . 
It will be sufficient to mention, as other guests 
of the coffee tree in Brazil, a coccid (DaCtyhpus 
adonidium) and a small acarid (Zercon coffea), which 
are both harmless and, I believe, are met with also 
in the coffee plantations of Oosta Rica. 
As Mr Goldi has well said, a list of all the creatures 
that are 'casually encountered upon, around, or under 
a coffee tree, would be most interesting from a 
natural history point of view, but would hardly ad- 
vance our acquaintance with the epidemic diseases 
of the precious plant, as well as of the preventa- 
tive and curative measures that might be used 
against them. . i,, ,, , 
Besides the disastrous disease of the threadworm, 
which exclusively attacks the coffee trees of Brazil, 
there is another, no less frightful, produced by a 
fun-us of the group of TJredines-the Hemilein 
vMatrix. This has wrought its havocs specially in 
Sumatra, Java, Madagascar, and Ceylon. The 
enormous losses caused by it in the Inst island induced 
the British Government to appoint the well- known 
botanist, Prof. Marshall Ward, to make a thorough 
examination of it. This learned cryptogaiiiisl devoted 
no less than °J0 months to his assiduous and plu 
found investigations, the results of which were 
condensed in a classical work, which is considered 
as an unsurpassed model of phylopathological 
studies. 
Dr. Ward describes iu the following mauuci the 
exterior appearance of the leaves altectcd with the 
" coffee-leaf disease '' : small yellow spots appear 
upon the underside of tiie leaf. Each one of them 
gains in width and gro« s centrifugally and couceu 
trically, at the same time that its colour also in- 
creases in intensity. Sections made across such a 
spot show that a young mycelium has spread throng!; 
the intercellular spaces of the leaf, and that the 
discoloured portion corresponds to that occupied by 
the mycelium. In a few days small groups of orange 
corpuscles appear outwardly, which, rapidly mcreai- 
ing iu number, shortly form a dust of the same colour 
on the underside of the leaf. This powdery deposit 
consists of spores produced by the internal mycelium. 
These rise in the form of rosettes from the sloui&ta 
of the epidermis, which give free access to the 
filaments. What gives to the BiNMifM its extraor- 
dinarily disastrous character is the i acuity and the 
rapidity with which it propagates itself. Tlie leaves 
fall very quicaly, and the iienuded coffee tree is 
incapable of maturing its fruit 
Mr. Lock in his Look on coffee says that " this 
disease was also made the subject of an official 
investigation by Mr. Daniel Morris, of the botanical 
gardens of Peradeniya. from whose report it appears 
that be has discovered a successful mode of treating 
it. Of the most lengthened experiments only one 
was invariably effective; a mixture of the best flow tr 
of sulphur and caustic lime in the proportion by 
weight or measurement of one part of the first to 
three of the second (1 to 2 gives better results, but 
with greater expense}, thoroughly mixed before 
using. 
" When only small areas have to be treated, the 
sulphur-bellows used in vineyards can be used to 
apply the powder; but it can also be applied by 
hand, taking care that it be spread over the bush, 
and that the trunk and branches are well covered ; 
a sufficient quantity will fall to the ground to 
disinfect the vegetable matter that may be there; 
over very leafy and wide bi;shes a few handful* 
extra must be sprinkled. 
'• This application should be especially made when 
green manure is buried, or when the shoots or 
twigs of the coffee tree are forming. Once the my- 
celium or vegetative part of the fungus has penetrated 
the textures of the leaf, no remedy can be employed, 
which would not also destroy the leaf. 
" The exact time to combat the evil is when the 
fungus assumes the form of invisible filaments on the 
outside of the bark or leaves. At this time each 
tree ought to be treated with about five ounces of 
the mixture, not omitting to disinfect the earth and 
everything iu the vicinity. 
"It has been noticed that this treatment pr duces 
signally good effects upon the coffee trees in other 
waj-s ; its appearance becomes more vigorous and 
healthy, the foliage better in texture and colour, 
the mature wood bears sooner, the blossom sets 
better, and the crop is fuller. The measure is 
singularly preventive. 
" The disease being infectious and the spores of 
the fungus easily carried by the wind, all possible 
precautions must be taken to destroy or extirpate 
them from the patches of abandoned coffee, or from 
the jungle trees, which ought to be rooted out and 
burnt, and the ground planted with some other 
product." 
On reaching the end of these line*, the leader 
will observe that there is more than one character- 
istic common to the various cryptogamic diseases 
that we have noticed. It can hardly be otherwise, 
seeing that these parasites have a similar manner 
of living, and that not only on coffee, but on many 
