Feb. 1, 1901.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
appear to be quite inert as a medicinal agent. At 
any rate, the trade in the drug has decreased within 
the last few years, and its collection by wild tribes 
is not by any means so active as it formerly was." 
The Sanskrit name for tabasHr is traJckschtva, or 
bark milk, an exudation on the out-ideof, whereas 
tabashir is always found inside the stem. Be- 
sides tuhasldr is quite tasteless, whereas the 
bark milk is sweet, so that the two substances 
are noc identical, the confusion, Mr. Hooper sug- 
gests, being due, probably, to tahasliir hQ\n^ called 
mccharon by Dioscoiides and Pliny, the substance 
to which the ancients gave this name having 
none of the properties of sugar, and being used 
in quite a different connection, especially as a 
medicine. The bark milk exudes from the modes 
of certain species of bamboo and becomes solidi- 
fied into pure sugar. Mr. Hooper adds that 
"Indian travellers, and the most recent writers 
on the subject ot bamboo, have never recorded 
the spontaneous excretion of a substance similar 
to manna appearing on the stem." Mr. Lawrie, 
in his report, stares that in November last the 
entire bamboo {Dendro calamus strictus) areas 
of forest for some miles along the Wardha river 
flowered, and shed ripe seed from early in Jan- 
uary, a very unusual occurrence. This seed— 
which has been known to sell for 40 to 50 seers 
per rupee while wheat was selling for 12seeis— 
was a great source of food for thousands of poor 
people during the famine, and kept them alive 
for about three months. In February, Mr. 
Lawrie noticed that the culms of the clumps of 
bamboos growing ia poor soil in the drier por- 
tions of the forests were streaked all the way 
down with what appeared to be a white, brittle 
gum, similar to what which exudes from Odina 
Wodier. The Gonds had never seen it before, so 
Mr. Lawrie collected some, and tasting it found 
it to be perfectly sweet, " On reaching camp, I 
got hold of a number of villagers, both Gonds 
and otheis, and on enquiry they told me they 
had never seen or heard of this gum. I passed 
through a number of similar stretches in which 
the bamboos were covered with the gum. This 
sugary deposit only extended for about five feet 
along the culms and was entirely absent towards 
the tops. It was found both at the nodes of the 
bamboo as well as on the stems between the 
nodes." Some of this manna was sent to Mr. 
Hooper, who found on analysis that it contained 
93'63per cent of sugar related to, if not identical 
with, cane-sugar, was quite wholesome, and migh*} 
with impunity be used for cooking or making 
sweetmeats iii the place of ordinary sugar. Similar 
saccharine exudations are afforded by many other 
trees in the East, while three descriptions of 
manna are imported into Bombay, one obtained 
from the cainelthorn, one from the tamarisk, and 
one from the shrub Cotoneaster nummularia, all 
of which grow in Persia, Manna is also obtained 
from the Eucah/ptus viminalis, which grows on 
tlits laUguis.— Madras Mail, Dec, 14. 
SEYCHELLES AND MAURITIUS TRADE. 
The prosperity of the Seychelles, as is well known, 
practically depends on vanilla, the exports of which 
to Great Britain in 1899 were valued at 873,728r, 
against 460,320r in 1898 ; Prance, 464,992r, against 
271,320r in 1898. A rough estimate places the area o£ 
land under Vanilla at about 2,000 acres. Nearly all the 
vanilla ia now cured in properly constructed drying- 
rooms heated with hot air. The French method of 
steaming the freshly picked pods has been tried 
but the boiliaar water process is generally adop. 
ted. In 1899 fine prepared pods fetched 16r to 
18r per pound (Ir equal to Is 4d). This year the 
p'ice is from 14r to 16r. Green pods are now being 
sold at lOr per one hundred pods. The Adminis- 
trator gives some hints concerning the method of 
planting, but siipilar information will be found in re- 
cent volumes of the Chemist and Druggist. The exports 
of vanilla from Mauritius in 1899 were 3,709 kilos, 
against 4,042 kilos in 1898, or a decrease of 303 kilos.— 
Ohemist and Drurjgist, Nov. 24. 
^ 
PKOEESSOR KOCH ON MALAKIA. 
FINAL REPORT ON THE GERMAN 
EXPEDITION. 
[TRANSLATED FOE THE Pioneer WITH HIS 
CONSENT.] 
On the 6th of August, 1900, we left Herberts- 
liohe (in New Guinea) for home. The North 
German Lloyd's new line of steamers, plying 
between Sydney, New Guinea and Hongkong, 
and touching at the Caroline and Mariana Is- 
lands afforded us an opportunity of visiting these 
islands and obtaining, so far as the shortness of 
our stay permitted, a glimpse of their hygienic 
conditions. Mainly for this reason I chose this 
line for the voyage home, and was able to make 
investigations in Ponape on the 12th and 13th of 
August, and in Saipan on the 17th, in which I 
was assisted by Dr. Giischner, a medical man in 
the service of the Government. 
In Ponape (in the Carolines) we examined 79 
children, some of whom were from Colonia (the 
seat of the Government), the rest from six other 
places, some of which are pretty distant from 
there. In none of them did we find the swollen 
spleen and the malaria-parasites in the blood 
which are the characteristic symptoms of malaria. 
This proves beyond doubt that the island of Ponape 
is tree of malaria. A case of dysentery was said 
to have occurred a good while ago. From what 
Dr. Girschner told me I judge that the skin- 
diseases which are so extremely frequent in the 
South Sea, and the disease called yaws, which is 
often mistaken for syphilis, play no great part in 
the island. 
In Saipan (one of the Mariana Islands) 24 
children were examined, and neither swelling of 
the spleen nor malaria- parasites were found ; 
whence we may infer that this island too is free 
of malaria. Among the many other people who 
were shown to me as suffering from syphilis, 
lupus, and leprosy there was not a single one who 
really was suffering from one of these diseases. 
Their disease was framboesia, which the English 
also call yaws. It seems to be very frequent in 
Saipan, and is extremely widely diffused in the 
South Sea. I have seen places in the Bis- 
mark Archipelago, where almost all the 
children had it ; and it is said that the children 
of Europeans are sometimes attacked by it 
too. It is often mistaken for syphilis by non- 
medical and also by medical men, and I 
am inclined to believe that the statements 
about the wide prevalence of syphilis'in the South 
Sea and particularly in the German Colonies 
there, are due to this fact. It is highly desir- 
able that a physician well acquainted withsyp- 
hillis and diseases of the skin (a specialist, if 
possible) be sent to German New Guinea to make 
a more exact study of these diseases. 
