consideration. We all call it Avxgemone Mexicana, but the 
one that grows in Mexico may have different properties 
from the one that grows in the West Indies, in Bengal, or 
the North of India. 
I think it is well deserving of more extensive trials. If 
we find it of use, its value will be enhanced by the extent 
of country over which it spontaneously grows. I think if 
separate trials be made with fresh seed and old seed, with 
fresh oil and old oil, we may arrive at some conclusive 
results regarding the properties of each. I am now making 
trials with the fresh pounded seed mixed up with a little 
flour and water. I use it asa poultice for indolent ulcers 
and skin diseases. At some future period I shall give the 
result of my experiments. ; 
Baboo Kanny Loll Dey states that the oil is of a pale 
yellow colour. Certainly, the oil which I had extracted in 
Lucknow was of a very different colour, it had a marked 
reddish-brown tinge, resembling somewhat that of the dark 
coloured cod-liver oil. It became much paler by keeping. 
The cost of producing the. oil in Lucknow is as follows :— 
Collecting seed, from 2 to 4 pice per seer. 
Pressing a maund of seed (40 seers) by the native pro- 
cess, I rupee and 4 annas. 
A. maund of seed gives 8 seers of oil. 
So that the oil costs about 3 rupees and 2 annas for 8 
seers, or less than 8 annas a seer. The Nevis thistle-oil 
must be valuable indeed, to fetch about 8 annas an ounce. 
Dist Fiuly, Too. 
P.S.—With reference to the change of properties of oils 
by keeping, I have often heard natives say that when 
castor-oil is zewly extracted, they sometimes make use of 
it for cooking purposes. It is bland and very different 
from the same oil kept for some days.—I/ndian Medical 
Gazette, August, 1866. 
228 On the North Atlantic Telegraph. 
ON THE NORTH ATLANTIC TELEGRAPE 
| BY H. HOLMES. 
: ‘HE magnitude and serious nature of the transmitting 
difficulties existing in all long unbroken sea lines, has 
led to the construction cf what is known as the Russian- _ 
American line—a land line of telegraph intended to reach 
