252 
A BOOK ON DEUGS. 
It is somewhat startling on opening this volume* 
ti find thiit it commences with page 305 ia the miiidlo 
of a sentence. However, as it is esuntially «. book 
for the study or veference library anl nut for the 
boudoir, this printer's tcoentricily is of to moment. 
The labour that this single Port represents is something 
enormous, for of nearly every drug dealt with the 
botany, history and uses, chemicil ccnposition a-id 
therapeutic or industrial properties have been f x'nau-- 
tively worked out. Most of the matttr is too teohi ioal 
for quotation or comtueat, but the followiog ahoal 
the saffi iwer {Cartnamus tinctorius) should commend 
itself to rfficial re»deis: — 
" In silk dyeitig it aff ords varicu? shades of pink, 
rose, crimson tmd soiirlot. R< uge is al^o made from 
it. According to Calvert {Dyeiutj and Calico Printing 
Ed. 1878), tti' ugh the tatflo.?er has lost much of its 
value as a dye since the discovery of the an line 
colours, it is still used exte sively in Lancashire for 
the pronuo'ion of peculiar shades of piok ol the 
Eastern markets. I' is also nseil for dyeing red tape, 
and there ia no more striking instance O! ' r -d-tapeisni ' 
than the love wh'ch is shown fa- this paiticular colour 
by the users cf that article, iluoh cheaper piuks can 
be produced from aiidiue, but notwitbstauding the 
attempts which have mar.y times been made to introduce 
them, they have failed m every in^la'ice, because the 
exact shale has not been obtained." 
Think of this, heads of offices, and a? yon aral the 
official document, let the colour of the i ape recall fltet- 
ing visions of the rosy-cheeke .1 Diva waom you dis- 
tantly worshipped iu the t'o'den period of youth 1 To 
return to the flora of this country, w,j l-jarn tbat 
chicory iscultiva ed here snd largely exported, probaLily 
not less than 20,000,000 lbs. being annu^ally con.-urni-a 
in Butope, from which it may be (-alheied that " ci If e 
thiit mak.'-S the politician wise'' may not be what it 
seems. This plant was held in high esteem by t';e 
aucientP, who attributnl many virtues to it. According 
to Pliny. perso;i3 who rub thems Ives with the juicd 
of the plant mixed with oil arj sure to find mord 
favour with others a'ld to obtain with greater facility 
anything they may desire, lu la'ordijs oidng (ihe 
palms of) those in power has proved a surer ro id to 
favour. An importaLit subject d alt « i 'h by the atithors 
is datura, stramonium, which is a valuable remedy in 
spastiiOiiic affections i>f the chest, an.i xa at the same 
time one of the commonest poi50iiS used in India. A 
plausible stranger falls in with a Hindu traveller aad 
finds that they are iourneying the samo road. At a 
halting place he volunteers to prepare the curry and 
rice, and doctors the chutney, with the resuL. th t the 
unsuspecting one falls into a dreamy slumber from 
which he may or may not aw.iken. He is than r. lieveJ 
of any superfluous rupees or articles of jav/ellery for 
-which he has no further use. 
One of the most elaborate treatises is 
that on the Nux vomica plant, R'hicli now hofia 
such an importnnt place in Western medicine. We 
commend this to the students of such 
things, but it contains tt o much physiology for the 
lay rtader. Nua: vomica, ov its (alk^-.l ad strychnine, is 
not much used as a risen ia India. The action of 
t ibseco on the llojii corpiL'^eles,, hear'", niusch n, 
nervouti system and digestion, is discussea umli r t .e 
bodding JSiaotiana tahacum. There seems to have 
been great opposition to the introJuotton of the 
"weed" iu more countries than one. F>,r iostauce, 
at cue time a Turk who was cau/iht smokiug had a 
pipe thrust throu^jh his nose and was leii in derision 
through tbe city, and iu Bu-si i, up to the time of 
Pe'er the Griat, snuff-taiing wa ; foibidd( n und. r the 
penalty of hitviag the nose cus oil'. We ; re toll thit 
"the va'ue of tobaoc '-suioking as a palliiitive iu the 
* /'Iwrmarof/raphiii Indica.—A history of t'^e prin- 
cipal drugs of vegetable origin tu' t uiti i.i British 
In li>- By HiigKie-Su gi o 1 William D . iiiMck, ret rod, 
Surgeon-Maj'.r C. I. H. Wardeii, and D.ivid Hooper. 
I'art IV. I/Ondon :— Kcgan Paul, Trench, T iibner and 
Co h'l. liombay : — IWucational S iciety'g Press, 
Uyculla. Calcutta :— Thackcr, Spink and Co. 1891. / 
paroxysms of asthma is well e3tablished, and in some 
cases its use appears to affect a permanent cure." 
W-^ understand that asthma has of late years been 
dfcide )ly on the increase amongst Eur' pean ladies. 
Attain, " there can bo no doubt thut the moderate use 
of t ibaoco-smoking in n it injurious to a great many 
ptople," (from which we m \y conc'u le that the 
authors smoke), "but it is tqual'y certain tliat on 
some coirS'i>ut.ions it produces mischievous effects." 
We should like tj be informeJ how many cluroots 
of given 1 ngth and sfreui^th constitute '■ moderate 
smoking;" but tlii^ i:i!or nation is not given. We 
now come ti the 'ark side of the picture and learn 
tha^ " the eicssive use of the herb by fmoking, 
snuffing, or ch win.,'. . . . lessens the uatnrnl appet te 
more or less impairs digestion, . . . irritates Ihe 
mouth ard throat, rendering it habitually congested 
and impairing t'.id purity oi the voic •. It indsucf-s a 
co:ist!iut s -nse of uucasineas and nervousnea with 
epigastric sicking or tension, jialpitat'on (irritible 
heart), hypo3houarij.oif, impaired memoiy, neuralgia' 
and a whjle host of other svmptoms. " fhe mind is 
a;jt to be filied with crude and groundless fancies 
leading to self-distrust and melancholy. The sleep is 
frequently restless and disturbed with distrfssing 
crt'ams." Gentle smoker, ponder on this tonight, as 
ynu ignite your jith cigar 1 — Mwhas Mail 

LiBERiAN Coffee in Selanoor — The Singapore 
Free Press of S-ptember 3rd says : — We hear that 
Liberian coffee planting is extiencii ig io Selaagor, 
and that Count B6rnstoii is about to open up a 
new est Ue near Kwala Lumpor. 
Cahavan Tea in Siberia. — In the Illustrated 
London News oi 22nd Aug. there is a full-page 
ilIU:tratioa of a tea car:.vau from China on the 
great post road in Siberia, by Mr. Julius M. Price, 
who writes as follows oa the subject: — 
I presently siw a Ifgi caravdu piss, v.hieh WiS 
but the forerunner of what we a'terwards met, day 
and niglit a!mo^t without intermission, the whole way 
to Irkutsk. While mmy were laden with Eurcpem 
goods bound eastward, more were c mtug from the 
Chinese frontier with te^, so great is this traffic. The 
tea of China, pack., d iu bales of hide, is brougbt across 
the Gobi deserr by ox-wagons or by camels as far as 
Kiakhta, th ' Eus^i^n frontier town, wh-re it is traus- 
ferr.^d to s^e igc s or Sib.riiu carts, acccrding to the 
season, and the long joarney to To'xisk is then com- 
menced, a j'mrney t ikiug over two months. The same 
horses go the -.vhole whj ; but they are allowed to take 
their own pace, ai d seldom do more than three miles 
an hour. At Tomsk the tea is stored till the spring, 
when it ia taken by ri^er steamer into Russia. Tea 
brought overlaiid is said to retain more of its original 
fl ivour than ttiat which, picked iu lead, has m de a 
sea voyge, but the vliffcteuce is probably so slight that 
only an expert could detect i~. There are compara- 
tively very few men in chngj of these immensely 
v.'la!iblo consij^nment^ which often consist of as miny 
as two handred aud fifty slodg- s — one man to about 
S3ven horses as a rule — and these a' night take it in 
turns to Ijcep watch. For on tiso Grea'/ Post Ev lad a 
peculiar foim of highway robhery exist-; bales of tea 
are frequently cut IOjSb and st.olen in tho n'ark hours 
by Ihieves, who lurk around taking a'vanti.go of a 
driver dozing on In'a sledge. The poor fe low then has 
to pay deurly for his '• forty v/inks," as he has to 
make good the loss out ot his wagea, a very serious 
matter, {o/isidcrins? the value of a large bile of tea. 
Last year I am informed these thefta became so fre- 
quent and tho thieves s) daring that at last the 
drivers combined to have their rf veuf^e, aud wlie u on 
one or two occasions they managed to oa ch .a thief 
th"y inflicted a dre^.dful punishment upon him For, 
banding a stout birch K.apling to the grou d y mea, jS 
of a rope, they f^islenecl the bseii: of tlie victim's 
head to it by the hair, and then cut the rope, releasa- 
ing the tree, which immediately sprang bick to its 
original position, and tho uafortunate wretch was 
literally soalped. He was then left to his fate. 
