^HE TROHCAL AQRIOULTURIST. 
[May 2, 1892. 
trade and intercoTirse, and the development of natural 
science, botany and chemistry chiefly, still further 
additions were made, and are being daily made to the 
Pharmacopeia of each nation, until at the present 
day, notwithstanding the process of elimination 
which is constantly going on of every article in the 
Materia Medica, which is tested in the crucible of ex- 
perimental science and found worthless — the task of 
keeping evenfairly abreast with the most valuable novel- 
ties which are gradually finding a place among officinal 
t.e. authoritatively recognised remedies, is almost hope- 
less to the busy practitioner of medicine, who is ex- 
pected to prescribe them or the chemist who has to keep 
them in stock. 
It is chiefly this difliculty which the volume before 
US is intended to meet. " In scope and design it is 
totally distinct from any other work (on Materia 
Medica) ; for it embraces not only a very full account 
of the uses of the drugs handed down by the North 
American Indians to the medical men in America, 
but it brings up the list of drugs and chemicals to a 
late date, at the same time furnishing sufficient 
information on each to enable a medical man to see 
at a glance its probable value in any case in which 
he may require to employ it, or at any rate to 
decide in his mind if it is worth further research." 
The Index is a special feature in this volume ; as 
every drug has its botanical, native and common 
names given to it and in many instances their French, 
German and Indian equivalents, and will be found 
equally useful to the chemist and student of medicine 
as to the botanist and dealer in drugs. 
The book is the joint production of Dr. Leonard 
of Detroit, America, who presides, we suppose, over 
the medical portions of the book and Mr. T. [Christy, 
the well-known author of " Commercial Plants and 
Drugs," whose name alone should be a guarantee of the 
excellence and accuracy of the botanical portion. 
As far as we may judge from casual references to 
drugs both new and old, the book is fairly reliable 
and the information given quite up to the latest date. 
It would be unreasonable to expect it to contain 
every new remedy— the name of which is legion— 
but it has included within its 387 pages, we believe, 
nearly every principal drug in the three Pharmacopeias 
of Great Britain, the United States, and India and a 
great many others non-officinal which have stood the 
test of time. , ■, 
Of our island plants referred to m the body 
of the work and in the appendix we notice 
the Anaeardium occidentale (caju) figuring in an 
aspect that is new to us. It is here called the 
Diabetes barh tree, and is recommended for the non- 
saccharine form of diabetes. We are not aware that 
it has any great local reputation for this affection, 
though we believe it is often prescribed by vedaralas 
as'an astringent. Another plant which according to 
Thwaites is not uncommon in the South of 
the island {Andrographis paniculata, Wall.) -and 
which Mr. Thomas Christy claims to have introduced 
into European practice, and which is identified by its 
specific appellation (given above) and its common 
Hindustani name "Kariyat or Creyat"— is surely none 
other than our well-known J^in bin kohomba, the true 
Chiretta of the bazaars, according to Balfoui-- m com- 
mon use all over India as a febrifuge and tonic and a 
cheap substitute for cinchona in every hospital in the 
East. Ithas been known for ages, and is the principal 
ingredient in the " Droc/ue amire" so much esteemed in 
France, the plant having been introduced into Sou- 
thern India, according to Ainslie, from the Isle of 
France and cultivated inTinnevelly, though it is found 
wild in Bengal, Ceylon, the Peninsula and Java. We 
are surprised that this plant which is officinal in the 
Indian Pharmacopeia should have been included among 
the new remedies as " introduced by T. Christy, 
F L 8 ," while no suspicion Bccms to have crossed 
hia mind (notwithstanding the affinity of the Indian 
name Kariyat or Creyat, derived from tho Sanskrit 
Kairata whence Chiretta) that it was one at least 
of the sources of tho well-known Chiretta of 
the Indian bazaars, which he dosonbes in its proper 
place in this book as obtained from the Ophelia 
Cliirala. . . , 
Another Coylon plant la the Cama aiata, the 
winged cassia or ringworm shrub, which though not 
indigenous is now naturalized all over the island. 
It is a favorite vfith the Tamils for ringworm, the 
fresh leaves, bruised and mixed with lime juice, 
being used for the purpose. Also as a remedy for 
various akin diseases, in poisoned bites, &c., and as a 
general tonic. This Shrub with its gaudy yellow flowers 
may be found growing almost wild both in Colombo and 
upcountry and would be worth introducing more 
freely among the Tamil coolies who appreciate the 
value of simi agati. 
Holarrhena or Wrightiaanti-dijsenterica, better knovm 
as Tellicherry bark, inderjom seeds — the suddu-idda of 
the Sinhalese — veppalei in Tamil — is reputed as a 
remedy in dysentery, but it has no special action in 
this disease like ipecacuanha, and la only a good 
astringent and tonic. 
Hi/grophila fpinosa or Asteracantha longifolia, 
well-known locally by its Tamil name nirmvlii, 
is far better deserving of a place in any Dictionary of 
Materia Medica. It is not only one of the beat 
diaretics known to the vederalas, but is superior to 
any known in Eui'opean practice for the treatment of 
cases of dropsy complicated with diarrhcea or 
dysentery. 
Of medicinal plants used for lung diseases, bron- 
chitis, asthma, &c, we are pleased to find Justicia 
adatoda mentioned (adhatoda), Tylopkor a asthmatica 
(liinooja), and Euphorbia pilulifera, or snake- weed (boho- 
dada-lceeriya) — all common plants, much used in native 
practice, and of deservedly great repute. 
Still another is the Cassia Fistula or purging cassia 
(ehda-gas), which, to judge from the villainous 
mutilations constantly practised on the few beautiful 
specimens which (thanks to the late Mr. W. Ferguson) 
exist in the Cinnamon Gardens, seems to be in 
great demand among the Goths and Vandals who 
infest our streets. 
It would not be difficult to pick holes in a Dictionary 
which aims at being at once comprehensive and 
succinct, but when the book reaches a second edition 
ws would advise the printers' devil to be more careful 
of his orthography and to avoid such blunders as 
Carvum, Cardimomum, Sulphoeosum, &c., while re- 
serving a little more apace for such useful well-known 
remedies as Calcic Sulphide, Aristol, &c. Phenacetin 
is surely deserving of a more detailed notice than 
"one of the European patent medicines prepared as a 
substitute for antipyrin, antefeVrin, &c., used as an 
antipyretic." As far back as 13^7 its chemical com- 
position was described by Messrs. Hinsberg and East 
in the Pharm. Zeit. Berlin, as an acetyl derivative 
from Carbolic Acid having the formula NH2C5'H40 
CH2COH2 — and its physiologica 1 effects are already 
as well known as those of antipyrin, &c. 
But, trivial omissions of this kind apart, the Dictionary 
appears to us to really supply a much felt want, while 
its moderate cost (five shillings, in beautiful cloth 
binding), audits dainty appearance should recommend 
it still further to medical men and vendors of drugs 
equally. 
RUSSIAN TEAS : THEIR IMPORTATION 
INTO EUROPE. 
A Critique on Their Qualities, Specialties, etc. 
(Specially contributed to the Ceylon Observer.") 
A Russian engineer and traveller sojourning on 
the Riviera recently read an interesting pamper before 
a select circle of listeners — both fair ana firm — on 
tho importation into, and distribution over, Europe 
of Russian teas, or, rather, of teas grown in China, 
and exported into Europe via Asiatic Russia by 
painful routes of immense distances, so vast and long 
that the journey, once undertaken, seems as though 
it will never end. There being no railways yet over 
the regions, everything is borne either by camels, 
sledges or canals - generally, all three methods of 
transit in succession. Nearly a year elapses ere the 
apparent " destination without end " of unknown 
fatigue and weariness is gained; before the historic 
frontier stone is reached, where on one side is chiseled 
Asia and on the other side Europe ; and ere finally 
J the railroad at Nijni-Novgorod is come up to. 
