PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
452, 
avers that it was the fashion in his day for the negro’s “to hold them in their 
mouths, and chew, or at least eat them for the quenching of their thirst, and 
better relishing of their water. They comfort and preserve the stomach, but 
above all other virtues, they are singularly good against diseases of the liver. 
And it is said the liver of a hen, or any other bird that is putrified and stinketli, 
being sprinkled with the matter of this fruit, returneth to its former state, and 
becomes fresh and sound again.In further evidence of the popular esteem 
they commanded at apparently such a distant age, we may allude to the custom 
mentioned by a Capuchin missionary, Jerome de Sorrento, in his voyage to the 
Congo, that when any gentleman of St. Paul de Loando (the metropolis of the 
Portuguese possessions in South-West Africa) was desirous of paying a compli¬ 
ment to any lady he met in the streets, he offered her a present of a few of these 
nuts. It was evident even at this date that some peculiar stimulant property 
was manifested, otherwise it would be difficult to account for the subtle influence 
they exercised on the human economy. That the taste for them was acquired 
there can also be but slight doubt, for the bitter astringency of the nuts was 
far from being pleasant, or palatable at first, to those unaccustomed to their use. 
Another point should always be kept in view, viz. that they were not specially 
reserved for meals or bad water, but usually carried in the hand of the owner 
whilst pursuing his ordinary avocations; small fragments being masticated at 
intervals, and the pulp, after the extraction of their juice, thrown away. This 
addition to their daily habit, brought under their cognizance the remarkable 
faculty they possessed in causing insomnia, or want of sleep, and this property 
the natives probably rendered available in protracting the festivities of their mid¬ 
night orgies. In other respects the best, if not the most useful, application the 
Portuguese made in a practical point of view, was the extraction of a beautiful 
yellow dye from the fresh seeds, by a process still in vogue among several abo¬ 
riginal tribes, in proximity to their ancient colonial settlements. 
Another interesting feature connected with the primitive nomenclature of 
this plant, is the origin of the term Kola, and its widely-spread diffusion along 
the shores of Western Africa by this designation,—a fact which did not escape 
the notice of that celebrated botanist, Robert Brown. From the earliest records 
relative to the discovery of the Congo in which we find the seeds and tree being- 
described by this name, we might reasonably infer, that it was either of Con- 
goese, or Portuguese derivation. Respecting the latter, I may remark that during 
a long residence in the districts of the Congo, I never knew their inhabitants to 
acknowledge any other title, than that of Makasso , or Makatso , that of Kola be¬ 
ing unknown. I had formerly been under the impression that this appellation 
might claim its descent from an M’bunda source, but ample inquiries since in¬ 
stituted among the people of N’gola, have satisfied me that my surmises were 
destitute of foundation. It must, however, be expressly understood that this 
designation is only recognized by European traders, and negro tribes in the im¬ 
mediate vicinity of colonies, originally founded by the Portuguese. It is neither 
appropriated, nor employed by any other of the populations of the most distant, 
or even adjoining countries, each of which has its own vernacular name, distinctive 
from any other. Perhaps the most feasible explanation, is that furnished by 
the Foula traders, who occasionally visit Sierra Leone, and which, to me, appears 
to be the real source of the term. They candidly affirm that it is simply a ver¬ 
nacular negro corruption, Gola or Kola being deduced from that of Guro, or Goro. 
a Foula, and Soudan designation. Many centuries since, a very lucrative com¬ 
merce was established in this article, large trading caravans coming from the 
interior to the Timmane markets to purchase this commodity; hence the tribes 
in the maritime regions, unable from physical defects of the vocal apparatus to 
* Pigafetta, ‘Relatione del Reame di Congo,’ etc., 1591. 
