DliC.  1895.] 
tHE  TROPICAL  AGRtCULtURiST. 
423 
efiectual.  It  is  certainly  killed  the  mite  when  applied 
to  it  under  the  microscope  and  was  effectual  also  in 
the  few  practical  experiments  I was  able  to  conduct 
dnriim  my  rapid  tour  through  Assam.  But  I am  of 
opinion  that  unless  applied  with  determination  during 
the  early  stage-s  of  blights  no  insecticide  is  ever  likely 
to  he  found  a practicable  remedy  for  any  of  thfe 
more  serious  maladies  of  the  tea  plant.  Once  they 
got  fairly  distributed  over  an  area,  say  of  500  acres 
(which  I calculate  might  possess  1,000,000  bushes),  it 
seems  to  me  that  springing  with  insecticides  is  carried 
beyond  the  field  of  xiracticable  operations. 
Vour  further  enquiry  in  which  you  ask  to  be 
supplied  with  a^jeopy  of  my  pamphlet  dn  the  Assi- 
milation of  Nitrogen  through  the  Agency  of  the  Boot 
Tubercles  in  certain  Leguminous  Plants,  I have 
much  pleasure  in  enclosing  two  copies.  I would  add 
that  while  in  Assam  I made  a discovery  that  I think 
of  no  small  importance.  The  chemistry  of  most  tea 
soils  is  admittedly  deficient  in  nitrogen.  A^ou  are 
aware  that  some  years  ago  a hotly-contested  con-' 
troversy  was  conducted  on  the  value  of  Sa  (Albizzia 
stipulata)  trees  being  grown  in  tea  gardens.  The 
Hon’ble  Mr.  J.  Buckingham  was  one  of  the  very  first 
advocates  of  this  recommendation  I found  that  tea 
gardens  over  which  Sa  trees  had  been  planted  suffered 
far  less  from  blights,  and  from  the  mite  alluded  to 
above  more  particularly,  than  gardens  where  Sa  trees 
were  not  grown. 
[The  remainder  of  Dr.  Watt’s  reply  w'e  published 
in  our  issue  of  16th  inst.  under  the  heading  of  “ Tea 
Blights  and  Leguminous  Plants.” — En.  T.A.] 
A NEW'  CURE  FOR  SNAKE-BITE. 
To  allay,  and  cure,  the  intolerable  pain  fol- 
lowing stings  by  .scorpions,  centipedes,  hornets 
and  tbeir  kind,  which  so  often  seek  to  share 
with  us  tlie  shelter  and  comforts  of  our  liouses 
and  couches  in  India,  we  liave  seen  it  stated 
that  “y>/icayfe”  applied  to  the  wounds  has  no 
etpial  as  a remedy,  and  never  fails.  Be  that  as 
it  may.  we  have  now  to  consider  a kindred  subject 
of  very  much  the  greater  importance  as  death 
after  short  agony  is  worse  than  pain  however 
acute.  ^Ve  know  from  the  statistics  that  a cer- 
tain numlier  of  lives  are  lost  every  year  from 
snake-bites  ; anti  altliongli  generally  a marvellous 
immunity  from  such  acciilents  is  enjoyed  by 
Euroi)eans,.  still,  so  long  as  w’e  live  in  a troi)ical 
country  we  are  all  lialile  to  fall  victims  to 
lurking  reptiles,  while  for  the  hospitals  the  sub- 
ject is  of  vital  importance.  The  world  scarcely 
yet  knows  how  tremerulous  is  the  rlebt  of  gratitmle 
it  owes  to  the  great  Erenchman,  Dr.  Pasteur,  who 
has  just  passed  away.  He  is  even  said  to  have 
‘ ])ut  l.,ister  on  the  path  of  his  Antiseptic  s])iay 
in  Surgery’’;  and  in  France  he  savetl  the  silk 
industry  l»y  curing  the  diseases  of  silkworms  ; he 
also  cheapened  the  manufacture  of  beer  l>y  his  |mre 
yeast  ; lie  cured  “ Anthrax  ” in  cattle,  anil  follow- 
ing ui»  this  last  discovery  lie  was  led  to  that 
still  more  important  study  the  iirevention  and  cure 
of  hydroph(jbia.  lie  saved  hundreds  of  lives,  and 
his  system  is  now  being  followed  all  over  the 
w'orhl.  But  these  successes  l)y  no  means  exhaust 
the  benelits  conferreil  on  mankind  by  this  truly 
great  man.  Though  he  does  not  a])ijear  to  have 
worked  at  the  subject  himself,  it  was  he 
who  again  pointeil  tlie  way,  and  it  w’as  at  his 
institute  that  Calmette  has  conducted  his 
researches  for  a “rational  cure  for  snake-bite.” 
The  principle  is  Pasteur’s  “immuniseil  serum” 
possessing  antitoxic  powers.  Pasteur’s  disco\  eries 
were  directe<l  against  bac-teria  and  bacterial  infec- 
tions, wliereas  the  labors  of  Ehrlich,  Behring,  Kita- 
sato,  Calmette  and  h'raser  have  been  to  extend  the 
same  ])rincipal  of  serum-immunisation  to  other,  i.e. 
iion-bacterial,  poisons.  Not  to  weary  the  reader  by 
following  too  closely  the  technical  account  of 
these  labours  as  w'e  read  of  them  in  “ Nature,” 
we  may  (piote,  lirst,  as  follows  : — ‘‘  It  had  been 
demonstrated  by  several  observers  that,  by  means 
of  oft-re[ieated  injections  of  small  suli-lethal  doses 
of  snake  |)oison  (rattlesnake,  cobra,  or  vi[)er 
venom),  the  resistance  of  an  animal  against  the 
poison  may  gradually  be  increased  con.siderabljg 
it  may  be  rendered  ‘ giftfest  ’ to  borrow-  a 
German  expression.  In  fact,  all  the  me- 
thods used  for  imlucing  a tolerance  against 
tetanus  poison  can  be  shown  to  work  in  the  case 
of  cobra  poison.”  The  next  step  was,  that 
Calmette  showed  that,  “on  mixing  cobra  venom 
with  small  ([uantities  of  serum  obtained  from 
an  immuniserl  rabbit,  tbe  deadly  ell'ect  of  the 
venom  disa|)j)ears,  a fact  at  once  conlirmed 
by  indepemlent  observations  by  Phisalix  and 
Bertrami.”  Lastly,  we  read  that  “ recently  these 
French  observations  have  received  entire  contirma- 
tion  in  their  leading  points  l>y  Prof.  Fraser  of 
Erlinbiirgh.”  We,  therefoi-e,  see  that  we  are  with- 
in a measurable  distance  of  having  a reliable 
cure  for  snake-bite  at  last.  Of  course  it  still 
remains  to  be  perfected;  but  .soon  every  bospital 
anil  e\ery  doctor  will  have  a ready  means  of 
saving  the  lives  of  per.sons  bitten  by  snakes, 
as  well,  it  w-ould  seem  of  immunizing  anyone  who 
may  be  w'illing  from  all  danger  from  a chance  bite. 
DRUG  REPORT. 
(From  Cheviist  and  Driajdid.) 
London,  Cclober  31. 
Annatto— few  lot.s  of  fair  seed  from  Madras  realised 
Ijd  [ler  111 
Cai'i  f.iM':— One  of  the  manufacturers  asks  19s  per  lb. 
for  llecember  delivery ; the  second  one  would  probably 
accept  18s  for  the  same  position. 
Kola— There  has  been  a good  demand  privately, 
sound  but  rather  dull  West  African  kolas  having  been 
sold  at  Std  per  lb.  At  auction  today  there  was  a good 
demand,  tine  cpialities  being  held  for  very  high  rates. 
Other  kinds  were  slightly  dearer.  Ten  packages,  out 
of  the  41  offered,  sold  as  follows  West  Indian,  dull 
to  good,  but  mouldy  6d  to  9,d  ; good  llUl  to  I2d 
per  D). 
Essential  Oils— J.emongrass  and  Citronella.  oils  un- 
changed, Cinnamon  oil  at  Is  per  oz. 
Qci.nixe— Few  Transactions  are  reported  this  week. 
There  would  probably  be  buyers  of  second-hand  German 
bulk  at  Is  Ipl,  but  no  .sellers  can  lie  found  at  that 
figure.  Pei  liaps  Is  Igd  might  be  accepted.  The  parcel 
of  Italian  (Fabbrica  LombaidaJ  quinine  to  which  we  re- 
ferred last  week,  had  been  lying  in  a warehouse  for 
many  years,  and  was  out  of  condition.  The  price  of  Is 
Id  per  oz.  obtained  for  this  lot  is  tlierefore  not  a fair 
criterion  to  its  general  value.  At  auction  today  0,000  oz. 
Hnmswick  quinine  (landed  weigiits),  1888  iinpiirt,  .sold  at 
Is  Id  per  oz. 
Va.mlla.— At  today’s  auctions  tlie  fairly  heavy  supply  of 
■202  packages,  weighing  in  the  aggregate  about  2,900  1b., 
was  offered  for  sale.  Competition  was  exceedingly  brisk, 
and  the  (irices  realised  showed  an  irregular  but  all-round 
advance  upon  the  last  auction  rates.  Practically  the  entire, 
supply  was  .sold  at  the  following  rates  Mauritius  and 
Seychelles  : tine,  7 to  8^^  inches,  -28s  Od  ; crvstallised,  0 to 
7^  inches,  27s  to  ;i8s  Od  ; medium  to  good  fresh  chocolate, 
Ol  to  7i  inches,  ‘22s  Od  to  27s  ; brownish  to  fair,  4 to  b 
inches,  17s  to  20s  ; fair  crystallised,  4.}  to  5 inches,  21s  to 
22s  Od  ; ditto,  b to  Of  inches,  -Ibn  to  ■20s  ; common  reddish, 
12s  to  17s  per  lb.  Dull  foxy  Ceylon  beans  reali.sed  lus  to 
lUs  Od  per  lb.  ; ditto  Java,  4l  to  01  inches,  Ss  3d  to  Us  3d 
per  lb. 
Ti;a  Cultupeand  Blight. -We  call  attention 
to  the  (li.scovery  of  Dr.  Watt  given  el.scwliere 
in  favour  of  tlie  jilanting  of  Albizzia  atipn- 
lata  trees  amongst  tea,  altliongli  the  .shade 
is  not  ('onsidered  too  favourahle.  ,\.s  a .substitute 
Dr.  Watt  recommends  to  the  .Vs.sam  tea  jilanters 
the  sowing  of  a cro])  of  pulse  and  the  tliggin*' 
in  oi  the  same  ; hut  the  conditions  in  the  C’ey- 
Ion  tea  districts  do  not  favour  such  au  experiment, 
unless  over  a limiLetl  area.  ’ 
