Dec. i, iS^.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
cu6us drinks are described by this term in Yunnan. 
It is coarse in appearance, but is said to possess a 
very fine aroma, " and can be drunk all day long 
with impunity." — H. and C. Mail. 
NORTH BORNEO NOTES. 
(From the British North Borneo Herald, Oct. 1.) 
Chinese emigrants have henceforth to pay a tax 
of $20 on entering the Philippines. 
Ceylon is to be connected with India by a rail- 
way This increases the possibility of Ceylon being 
governed from Calcutta* and the certain/// that the 
labour supply of Ceylon, already large and cheap, 
will be thereby increased. 
The Commissioner of Lands, Mr. Henry Walker, 
left Sandakan on the 6th September for the lower 
Sogania to obtain, if possible, a sample of gold 
bearing alluvial in sufficient quantity to enable a 
test washing to be made in London with a machine 
that washes and amalgamates at one operation. 
Segaliud.— The picking of the fresh crop of coffee 
will be commenced shortly. Another hill is being 
planted up with coffee. Gambier and Manila hemp 
and sugarcane is also being put in. Coffee nurseries 
looking very well. The coconut and sago trees in the 
natives' fields are getting large, some scores of the edeo- 
nut trees are beginning to bear and sago has been made. 
Kabili.— Coffee : Knobs of fruit beginning to show- 
on the later planted trees, some ripe berries on the 
oldest ones. Manila hemp looking particularly well ; 
some being made. Coconuts springing up nicely, rats 
eat a lot of the cotton seeds planted. Constant rains 
encourage the weeds. _ _ '"1 . .J 
Our readers will be interested to learn that the 
Queen has graciously pleased to accept a copy of Mrs. 
Fryer's book * A Decade in North Borneo." 
Byte.— Coffee ripening up and coconuts growing 
fast. Manila hemp doing well. The newly planted padi 
growing steadily, some of the cotton seeds eaten by 
rats, but the rest are springing up all right. Some 
coffee picking and Manila hemp making in progress. 
A strong squall sent trees down all over the paths 
everywhere and knocked down the ooffee about a bit. 
The constant rains cause the weeds to come on 
rapidly. A few newly planted cocoa plants look very 
promising. 
NEW TREATMENT FOR CANCER-" A 
DECOCTION Or* CEYLON CINNAMON." 
Under the head of "Medical Notes" we find 
the following in the Auckland Herald, a journal 
of standing. It is strange that no one in the old 
country called our attention to Dr. Ross's method 
when given in the Manchester papers :— 
Our "London correspondent writes :— It would be 
premature to announce that a cure for cancer— that 
most fatal and rapidly-increasmg of diseases— but at 
least a discovery has been made which robs that dread 
complaint of much of its terror. Dr. J. Carne Ross, 
physician to Ancoats Hospital, Manchester, a doctor 
of recognised ability and experience, announces that, 
as the result of three years' experiment, he has found 
a certain remedv to have the effect, m cases of un- 
doubted cancer, of causing the pain and effluvium to 
disappear It would be more accurate to say that in 
the cases where this remedy was administered the 
pain ceased and the fetor disappeared. Dr. Ross 
carefnllv guards himself ngainst raising expectations 
too high. Ho is fully prepared to admit that there 
may ho limits outside of which his remedy would be 
ineffective. He thinks that the disease may roach a 
Stage or assume a shape— such as that of an ulcerat- 
ing mass exposed to the air, upon which surgeons 
would refuse to operate— hopelessly beyond the 
reach of this or any other known remedial agency. 
Hut lie states deliberately, and adduces strong cor- 
roborative evidence, that in a number of cases the 
result was nut merely cessation of pain and fetor 
but also invariable improvement in general health, 
• .lust a* likely that Southern India will cven- 
tuallj be administered from Colombo!— Eu, 'I. A. 
and apparent permanence, or at any rate long con- 
tinuance — extending up to the present date — of such 
improvement. In fact, as I gather from his deliberate 
and careful statement, he has no reason as yet to 
doubt that a virtual cure may have been effected. 
He does not claim this, and time alone can show 
whether it be the case or not. Should the discon- 
tinuance of pain and other unpleasant features of 
this dreadful disease prove permanent, as it seems 
to have done up to the present time, few will question 
that the discovery should be deemed to be among 
the most valuable in all medical history. Cancer is 
fearfully on the increase in New Zealand. The dis- 
coverer of a genuine remedy must be classed among 
the greatest benefactors of his race. Few diseases 
are more profitable as a hunting-ground for reckless 
and venal quacks. If Dr. Ross' method prove sound 
the occupation of these swindlers will be gone. 
Nothing can be more simple than his prescription, 
which he frankly publishes. He takes a pound of Cey- 
lon cinnamon sticks, and makes a strong decoction 
by boiling it slowly in a closed vessel in 
three pints of water for eight hours, until the three 
pints of fluid have become reduced to one point. 
This is to be poured off without straining, and the 
sediment is to be shaken up each time a dose is 
taken. The patient is to drink half a pint of the 
cinnamon decoction every twenty four hours, divided 
into such doses as may be found most suitable. It 
seems to agree best when taken soon after food. 
That is all! But how much it involves! Dr. Ross 
says he should have preferred to delay publication 
of the information given until he had been able to 
say more than as yet he can. But, in spite of all 
his care and reticence, the great secret that he 
had discovered some remedial agency in connection 
with this terrible scourge of the human race some- 
how oozed out, and he says : — '.' I almost daily receive 
letters from complete strangers in different parts of 
England imploring me to help some despairing sufferer. 
Such letters are so distressing, and they place me 
in a position so intolerable in every respect, that I 
feel compelled in my own defence to publish the 
results of my experiments as far as they go, though the 
work itself is not so complete as I could have wished." 
MR. JOHN PHILIPS; SINGLO, ASSAM, 
one of the oldest living Indian Tea planters has 
just spent a few days in Ceylon en routr. to 
Assam, and has been much interested in all he 
has seen along the railway route to Bandaia- 
wela, and also in visiting Messrs. Mackie and Tilly, 
Dimbula, and Mr. Shand of Coolbawn. Mr. Philips 
first began tea planting early in 1861, and l.e 
has watched tea planted so far back as 18:.9-. 
Any abandonments, in his opinion, have been due 
to bad treatment, rather than to any failure of the 
plant. He is pleased with the industry here ; and 
uvies the Ceylon planter at least in one thing, the 
incoming of his receipts over so many months 
in the year instead of the six months' blank experi- 
enced in India. 
AUSTRALIAN PRODUCE FOR CEYLON 
AND INDIA. 
AYe have received a copy of the Melbourne 
Evening Standard of October 30th, with a full 
report of a lecture delivered on this subject by 
Mr. E. Jerome Dyer, full of information as to 
the outlets for Australian produce. Wc quote 
the parts referring to Ceylon : — 
I will proceed from west to east, and commence 
with the " Eden Isle of the East " — " the dew drop 
on India's brow " — Ceylon. This valuable commer- 
cial and strategical possession of our British Empire 
already does a fair trade with Australia both in im- 
ports and exports. The latter chiefly comprise tea. 
coffee, and spices, and its import from Australia are 
lmost wholly food products, such as wines, spirits, 
reserved meats, butter, cheese, hams, jams, pse- 
JJrved fruits, bacon, condensed milk, biscuits, and 
