N. O. PALMEiE. 
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prolonged use it is apt to induce disturbance of the digestive 
organs and diarrhoea. Its use is favourably noticed in the 
Report of Drs. Van Someren and Oswald, and Mr. J. Wood.” 
(Pharm. of India.! 
Dr. Dymock says cocoa-nut oil has been tried in Europe as 
a substitute for cod-liver oil, “but its indigestibility is a great 
drawback to its general use.” Drury observes : “ its pro- 
longed use, however, is attended with disadvantage, inasmuch 
as it is apt to disturb the digestive organs and induce diarrhoea.” 
May it not be that the unfavourable opinions formed by some 
writers regarding this medicinal oil proceed from the fact that 
nearly every author describes a different mode of preparing 
it and, consequently, that it is possible many different sub- 
stances or a substance in many stages of purity or impurity 
may have been experimented with ? In the Maldives, cocoanut 
oil is esteemed a powerful antidote against the bite of poisonous 
reptiles. 
The Juice . — The freshly-drawn milk from the young spadix is 
refrigerant and diuretic, a preparation known as toddy poultice. 
The fermented juice constitutes one of the spirituous liquors 
described by the ancient writers. “ A tumblerful of the fresh 
juice is sometimes taken early in the morning on account of its 
refrigerant and slightly aperient properties.” (Dymock.) 
Scrapings of the hush The outside scrapings of the busk 
and branches applied to ulcers will cleanse and heal them 
rapidly if soaked in proof rum ; the efficacy of this application 
was proved by the case of two bad ulcers occasioned by the 
bite of a Negro’s teeth. The young roots boiled with ginger 
and salt are efficacious in fevers, the same as the bamboo.” 
(Royle.) 
The cotton or Tomentum . — “ This is a soft, downy, light- 
brown-coloured substance, found on the outside of the lower 
part of the branches of the cocoanut tree, where they spring 
from the stem, and are partially covered with what is called 
panaday, or coarse vegetable matting of the tree. The cocoa- 
nut cotton is used by the Indians for stopping blood, in cases 
of wounds, bruises, leech-bites, &c., for which purposes it is 
