JUNE I, 1891.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
8^9 
ings, and ultimately remove entirely the craving for 
opium. Moreover, the strong tonic principles of quinine 
will soon rebuild his constitution, and restore life 
and vitality to his system, which has no doubt been 
somewhat undermined. There is a splendid blend of 
quinine known in the trade as “ Quinine Pick-up.” 
1 cannot give him the name of the makers, but no 
doubt any respectable firm of medicine agents would 
direct him. It is reported that 1,500,000 deaths -take 
place annually throughout India from fever alone, caus- 
ing a heavy demand for some drug to allay the fever- 
ish sufferings, and opium is freely resorted to in num- 
berless oases, the use of the article being thus com- 
meuoed. The fact of so many lives being lost each 
year by fever is a disgrace to civilisation, when it is 
well known that quinine is the finest antidote and 
almost invariable cure for fever and ague, A mis- 
sionary recently home from India informed mo that 
it is fearful to see the sufferings and fatal results from 
fever, and that he had found his religious work con- 
siderably assisted by alleviating the Indians’ sufferings 
from a supply of;quiniae forwarded to his mission. 
Some time since. Mr. Ferguson, in a letter to the Anti- 
Opium Society, described the prevalence of opium- 
oraving in many parts of the world being due to a low 
type of fever, especially in China. He considered the 
main cause of the craving arose from people living iu 
low malarial localities, and suggested that quinine re- 
moves the craving and acts as a substitute. Touch- 
ing the opium question, an authority writing in the 
year 1880 made the following statement : — “ Prom 
the vast tracts of country in China where rice is cul- 
tivated fever is never absent, opium, being employed 
as the medicine easiest to be had, and cheapest. lie 
hoped if quinine bocamo cheap enough to compete 
with opium, that it would produce a revolution in 
the Chinese consumption of the two drugs. By this 
process a solution would be round for the dangers, and 
uncertainties of the large opium revenues of India, aud 
for the perplexing moral questions connected with it.” 
At a time the above was written (in 1880) the price 
of quinine was practically prohibitive — viz., 11s to 11a 
6d per oz., but today it can be freely purchased at lOd 
or lOid per oz for foreign brands, and Is 4d or la 5d 
per oz. for English, being almost the very lowest prices 
ever known in the history of the article. — TF. IF. G, 
My reference to the foregoing matter suggest me 
to allude here to the course which has followed 
Sir John Pease’s snatched division in the House of 
Commons on his motion for abolishing the Indian 
Cpium Traffic. Doubtless the complete surrender 
of that gentleman — which was in accord with my 
own prediction — will have been wired to you by 
Renter, and you will have made your own com- 
ments upon it in advance of your receipt of my 
former remarks on the subject. It will, however, 
interest you to have some details as to what passed 
in the House on the oooasion of this surrender, 
to which we here attaoh much importance on 
account of the bearing it may p ssess on the some- 
what similar case of the demand for the surrender 
of your paddy tax. 
Some short time back you were told by me of - 
the new drink manufactured from tea and called 
“ Theafoam.” A company for the manufacture and 
sale of this has been just registered with a capital 
of £10,000 in £1 shares, the declared object of 
“Theafoam, Limited” being to “ manufacture and 
sell preparations of tea and coSee, ajruted tea and 
coSee, ferated waters, &c.” With this letter is 
sent a copy of the prospectus of the new company, 
and you will find with it copies of many testimonials 
received which include oue by Cardinal Manning, 
another by the well-known Dr. Richardson, and 
by many other persons associated prominently with 
the Temperance cause. The list also includes an 
extract from the Tropical Agriculturist giving the 
opinion expressed by myself after testing the new 
beverage. All tea growers must wish the new com- 
pany a success. 
After receiving the Observer containing my letter 
referring to this processes for preserving crocodile 
leather and that oontaining your editorial on the 
same subject, I paid a second visit to Messrs. 
Toulmain & Gale, In the course of conversation 
the question was put by me whether the skin of 
the oabnragoya would make good leather. Mr. 
Toulmaiu replied that he very much doubted it, as 
they had tried iguana and chameleon skins and 
found them to be worthless. He said that many 
of these larger lizard skins had really two layers, 
the upper one of these having quite a steely 
character , so much so, indeed, that it would spring 
away from the under layer when touched by the 
paring knife. He told me also, that, as with the 
hides of commerce, the quality of crocodile skins 
varies considerably. Some skins in the same 
shipment have a very fine quality, while others 
prove to be so coarse as to be unfit for their — 
the finest — uses. He further said that all the 
Russia leather his firm so largely works up is 
prepared from the hide of the Russian buffalo, and 
that the skins of that creature are often worth 
four times as much as those of the buffalo in any 
other part of the world. I told Mr. Toulmain 
that I saw the Ceylon buffalo hides scarcely 
ever fetched the price that Italian and Mexican 
hides obtained, and he replied that he thought 
it very poisible that the coarseness of the skin 
might be due to climate or to character of feed ; 
but he oould not say what peculiarity caused the 
hide of the Russian buffalo to have such an 
exceptional value. He observed, however, that 
the Russian hides are the finest, softest, and most 
pliable that reach the London market. On my 
asking whether snake skins were readily saleable, 
he remarked that the contrary was the case, that 
people had a “creepy” feeling about snakes and 
did not buy ornaments made from their skins 
freely. “ The oonsequence is,” he went on, “ we 
can now buy any quantity of ready tanned snake 
skins in London at a less price that is demanded 
for them by shippers abroad. The market is quite 
glutted with them,” 
— ^ 
IsOTES ON PRODUCE AND FINANCE' 
Aerated Tea and Coffee. — The proapeotusis issued 
of a new company called “ Theafoam,” Limited. The 
capital of the company is £10,000 of £1 shares, and 
the obieot, acoordiug to the prospectus, is to acquire 
and develop the patent rights for “ improvements in 
the manufacture of concentrated preparations of tea 
and coffee and of aerated tea and coffee,” the pro- 
visional specification for which, dated June 6tb, 1890, 
lodged by Messrs. Leonard Butler Wrightson and 
Jumes Arthur Philips, and numbered 8770, has 
been accepted ; and also to acquire the registered title 
and trade mark “ Theafoam.” The prospectus goes 
on to say; — Messrs. Wrightson and Philips have for 
some considerable time past given their attention to 
the production of pure tea and coffee in an aerated 
form, as being beverages most likely to fulfil these re- 
quirements. After repeated trials extending over several 
years, and involving considerable expense, they have at 
length succeeded in perfecting a product which they have 
named “Theafoam,” and which they believe amply fulfils 
the above conditions, and therefore the requirements 
essential to success. " Theafoam ” can be offered at a 
price within the reach of all. It is a genuine tea 
preparation (aerated), unmistakably retainii.g the 
peculiarly pleasant and well defined flavour of the 
finest teas. The difficulties of keeping tea iu solution 
with aerating gas, whilst preserving the freshness and 
fragrance so desirable, 3 have until now been insur- 
mountable. No injurious flavouring or essences are 
used iu the manutacture. “Theafoam” is prepared 
from the loaf itself by a novel process, the form it 
