32 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
[July  i,  1892. 
Uses  of  Cinnamon. — Modern  Society  of  23rd 
April  says : — 
By  the  way,  the  latest  craze  in  Parisian  Society 
is  for  cinnamon.  Everything  is  cinnamon,  not  so 
much  the  colour  as  the  spice  itself,  which  flavours 
everything,  and  has  been  introduced  into  ragoflts  within 
the  last  few  days  by  one  of  the  leading  chefs  of  the 
French  Metropolis.  The  reason  of  this  may  seem  a 
mystery  to  our  readers,  but  we  can  explain  it.  One 
of  the  leading  French  scientists  has  discovered  that 
no  microbe  can  long  resist  a strong  infusion  of 
cinnamon,  or,  in  other  words,  that  cinnamon  is,  in 
its  essence,  hostile  and  deadly  to  disease  germs. 
This  discovery  is,  of  course,  if  it  be  a really  bond 
fide  one,  of  the  utmost  importance,  for  hitherto  we 
have  been  taught  to  believe  that  nothing  but  dyna- 
mite would  remove  his  or  your  crobes  from  the 
system  ; but  the  scientist  in  question  has  tested  the 
power  of  cinnamon  on  every  known  living  germ  of 
disease,  and  in  no  instance  found  it  to  fail ; and  he 
asserts,  moreover,  that  it  does  not— unlike  antiseptics 
extracted  from  coal  tar— injuriously  affect  the  human 
organism.  Our  ancestors  were  fond  of  spices,  and 
what  quantities  of  cinnamon  did  they  not  use  in 
mulled  wine  and  beer  ? Hitherto,  we  confess  that 
we  believed  that  these  liquids  were  drunk  for  their 
own  sake,  and  perhaps,  indeed,  for  their  intoxicating 
properties  ; but  now  we  find  we  were  mistaken,  and 
that  these  spiced  drinks  were  only  ingurgitated  for 
hygienic  reasons.  The  Dutch,  who  live  in  a low 
ague-haunted  country  and  drink  the  polluted  water 
of  their  canals,  used  formerly  to  have  a passion  for 
this  spice,  which,  somehow  or  other,  would  seem  of 
late  years  to  have  gone  out  of  fashion.  Now  it  is 
in  again  with  a vengeance ; so  if  you  want  to  be  dons 
le  mouvement,  dear  reader,  you  must  devour  cinnamon. 
We  have  already  quoted  paragraphs  to  the  same 
effect;  and  we  should  be  only  too  glad  to  be  assured 
that  the  germ  destroying  powers  attributed  to 
cinnamon  are  true.  In  formor  days,  we  believe, 
the  workers  in  quicksilver  mines  chewed  cinnamon 
as  a prophylactic  against  the  deadly  fumes  of  the 
mineral. 
Spent  Tea  Leaves  in  Tobacco. — In  the 
Illustrated  London  News  of  14th  May  Mr.  James 
Payn  writes 
The  combination  of  many  useful  things  in  one, 
though  ingenious,  seldom  very  successful.  A knife 
with  half-a-dozen  blades,  which  also  comprehends  a 
corkscrew,  a tooth-pick,  and  an  instrument  for  ex- 
tracting stones  from  a horse’s  shoe,  is  seldom  of 
much  practical  utility.  The  chest  of  drawers  that  is 
“a  bed  by  night,  a chest  of  drawers  by  day,”  deceives 
no  one  by  its  dupilicity,  and  is  never  a comfort- 
able bed.  But  an  article  which,  having  been  used  for 
one  purpose,  can  be  used  for  another  entirely 
different,  and  then  be  done  with,  stands  on  another 
footing.  It  has  just  been  found  that  black  tea- leaves, 
after  use,  and  “when  dried  and  sprinkled  with  oil  of 
cloves  and  spirits  of  wine,”  make  excellent  tobacco. 
If  this  be  so,  we  may  now  all  smoke  without  incur- 
ring the  anathemas  of  the  anti-tobacco  societies,  un- 
less, indeed  (as  some  say,)  their  antagonism  is  not  to 
the  weed  but  to  the  fact  of  their  fellow- 
creatures  enjoying  themselves.  There  can  be 
no  injury  to  our  moral  nature  in  smoking  the  herb  that 
cheers  and  dose  not  inebriate.  Moreover,  the  discovery 
utilises  waste,  for  hitherto  spent  tea-leaves  have  been 
only  used  by  the  housemaid  to  lay  the  dust.  This 
novel  mixture  is  said  to  be  “very  quieting  to  the 
nerves,”  and  it  is  too  possible  that  after  the  ex- 
citement of  a five  o’clock  tea,  when  the  one  or  two 
males  who  have  been  inveigled  to  join  it  have  escaped, 
there  may  be  a cry  for  cloves  and  spirits  of  wine,  and 
the  ladies  may  proceed  to  put  their  tea  to  its  latest  use. 
The  habit  of  taking  tea  in  their  own  rooms  will  also 
become  open  to  suspicion ; “It  isn’t  drink,”  the  scandal- 
mongers will  say,  “it  ’s  smoking  they  are  after.” 
Where  there  is  smoke,  we  are  told,  there  is  fire, 
but  whether  when  tea-leaves  are  smoked  there  is  smell, 
we  are  not  told,  This  will,  however  make  a great 
difference  as  regards  the  popularity  of  the  new  dis- 
covery with  fair  sex. 
A Cinchona  Bark  Syndicate,  to  bay  up  the 
produce  of  the  whole  world  and  control  the  market 
is  the  subject  of  an  article  on  another  page. 
The  project  reads  very  finely  on  paper  ; but  the 
whole  scheme  rests  admittedly  on  the  willingness 
of  cinchona  growers  to  aocede  to  the  terms  of  the 
promoters,  and  this  we  very  much  doubt  their 
doing. 
Tea  in  Foochow. — April  30th. — A total  of 
$1,400,000  has  been  sent  into  the  oountry  for  the 
purchase  of  the  new  season’s  tea.  As  compared 
with  last  year  it  is  less  than  half  the  amount. 
May  7th. — Sinoe  our  last  issue  a further  amount  of 
$300,000  has  been  sent  up  country  for  the  purohase 
of  new  season’s  teas.  By  the  last  two  coast  steamers 
several  well  known  1 Chaazees’  have  arrived  from 
various  quarters  of  the  globe,  Australia,  England 
and  America,  each  rendering  its  tribute.  These 
gentlemen  are  no  doubt  well  provided  with  ‘orders,’ 
and  the  latest  ideas  from  central  markets.  Let  us 
hope  that  for  once  common  sense  may  hold  sway, 
and  the  mad  competition  and  high  prices  of  recent 
years  may  be  replaced  by  calm  judgment,  and  a 
basis  more  in  conformity  with  the  demands  of  the 
age. — Echo. 
The  Ddkian  ( Durio  Zebthinus),  the  tree  producing 
the  celebrated  Durian  fruit  of  the  Indian  Arohi- 
pelago,  is  now,  we  learn,  bearing  fruit  for  the  first 
time  in  South  India  in  the  Government  Gardens 
at  Burliar.  The  plants  were  imported  from  Singa- 
pore by  Mr.  Jamieson  in  1879,  and  one  of  them 
has  now  attained  a height  of  nearly  40  feet.  Mr. 
Russell  Wallace,  in  his  Malay  Archipelago,  remarks 
on  the  various  fruit  met  with  in  Borneo,  and 
says  — “But  most  abundant  and  most  esteemed  is 
the  Durian.”  The  old  traveller  Linsohott,  writing 
in  1599,  says  ; — “ It  is  of  suoh  an  excellent  taste 
that  it  surpasses  in  flavor  all  the  other  fruits  of 
the  world,  according  to  these  who  have  tasted  it”! 
and  Doctor  Paludaeus  adds  This  fruit  is  of  a 
hot  and  humid  nature.  To  those  not  used  to  it, 
it  seems  at  first  to  sm6ll  like  rotten  onions,  but 
immediately  they  have  taste!  it  they  prefer  it  to 
all  other  food.  The  Natives  give  it  honourable 
titles,  exalt  it,  and  make  verses  on  it  1 When 
brought  into  a house,  the  smell  is  often  so  offen- 
sive that  some  persons  can  never  bear  to  taste 
it.  This  was  my  own  case  when  I tried  it  in 
Malacca,  but  in  Borneo  I found  a ripe  fruit  on  the 
ground,  and  eating  it  out  of  doors,  I at  once 
became  a confirmed  Durian  eater,  . • . The 
fruit  is  round  or  slightly  oval,  about  the  size  of  a 
large  coconut.  ; . . ; From  the  basefjto  the 
apex,  five  very  faint  lines  may  be  traced,  over  which 
the  spines  arch  a little  ; these  are  the  sutures  of  the 
carpels,  and  show  where  the  fruit  may  be  divided 
with  a heavy  knife  and  a strong  hand.  The  fine 
cells  are  satiny  white  within  and  are  each  filled 
with  an  oval  mass  of  oream-colored  pulp,  imbed- 
ded in  which  are  two  or  three  seeds  about  the 
size  of  chestnuts.  This  pulp  is  the  eatable  part, 
and  its  consistence  and  fiivor  are  indescribable. 
A rioh  butter-like  custard  highly  flavored  with 
almond  gives  the  b83t  general  idea  of  it,  but 
intermingled  with  it  come  wafts  of  flavor  that  call 
to  mind  cream-cheese,  onion-sauce,  brown  sherry 
and  other  incongruities. ..  .in  faot  to  eat  Durian 
is  a new  sensation,  worth  a journey  to  the  East 
to  experience.”  Durians  seems  to  have  come  early 
into  season  this  year,  for  they  have  been  on  sale 
some  weeks  in  our  bazaars  and  streets.  Those 
sold  in  Rangoon  just  now  come  principally  from 
Moulmein  although  there  are  bearing  trees  in  in- 
creased numbers  in  Kemindine  and  the  Prome  Road. 
The  fruit  here,  however,  seldom  ripens  until  the 
middle  of  May. — Rangoon  Times,  April  29, 
