PHAUMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
454 
Africa, have been published which do not contain a casual reference to, or brief 
description of its popular appliances, gleaned in most instances from secondary 
authorities, being merely the old stereotyped phrases, referring to its employ¬ 
ment to alter, or correct the taste of bad, and unwholesome water, and allay the 
sensations of hunger. 
It is certainly remarkable that the Kola-nut, endowed with such a distinctive 
fame, and such a widely-spread popularity throughout a considerable portion of 
the African continent, should have gained merely a trivial appreciation, or be so 
slightly noticed in our botanical treatises. ’What little they do mention con¬ 
sists, for the most part, of reiterations of worn-out and often incorrect state¬ 
ments, culled from the works of old travellers and others. Some of these au¬ 
thorities go so far as to confidently declare that half-putrid water, by means of 
the entire or half-chewed seeds deposited in jars, had been converted into a pure 
and agreeable liquid. No statement could be so far from the truth. This 
error had doubtless proceeded from the circumstance, that it is necessary for their 
preservation, to retain them for a short period daily in water, otherwise they 
would become dried up, and lose their essential qualities. With the object, there¬ 
fore, of testing the value of this supposed purificatory influence in the West 
Indies, I placed a few of the fresh seeds in a large tumbler of stinking river- 
water ; no change was perceived until after a few days, when a quantity of ropy 
mucus was generated, which, so far from assisting in the removal of the foetid 
effluvia, had quite the reverse effect, the incipient decomposition of the seeds 
themselves, increasing the offensive odours. 
The introduction of the Kola or Guru-nut into the kingdoms of Northern 
Africa, may be assumed to be of a comparatively modern epoch, for little, if any, 
mercantile connection was held with the pagan tribes, until after their conver¬ 
sion to Mahommedanism by the Arab, or Berber invaders. The first mention I 
■can trace, relative to this plant, is in the travels of Leo Africanus, who explored 
a large extent of Central Africa, about the middle of the sixteenth century. He 
briefly adverts to the fact, that no trees were observed in the territory through 
which he passed, but a few of great size, yielding a bitter fruit resembling a 
chestnut, and denominated by the inhabitants Goto or Garo .* 
From this period, until that of Lucas’s visit, to Northern Africa in 1797, no 
valid information respecting their intervening history has been promulgated, 
worthy of credit. Lucas’s account of these nuts teems with descriptive errors, so 
that but little reliance can be placed on his statements, evidently gained from se¬ 
condary sources. Under the Soudan term of Guru-nuts, he enumerates them with 
gold dust, slaves, and other products, among the usual articles of commerce, im¬ 
ported by the Fezzan merchants, from the negro states south of the Niger. 
They were esteemed a pleasant bitter, and became so grateful to those familiar 
with their employment, as the means of changing the brackish, and unwholesome 
waters of Fez, into a more palatable drink, as to be considered of essential im¬ 
portance to the comforts of life. 
Lyons, and subsequently other travellers, supply far more accurate and trust¬ 
worthy knowledge of this product. By the designation of Goar , Guru , or Kolia, 
they were brought to the markets of Mourzuk for sale, from Dagumba, Ashanti, 
and other circumjacent regions, in parcels, enwrapped by a peculiar kind of leaf, 
winch, by being occasionally moistened by water, retained their freshness, and 
thus maintained their value, for months. This mode of preservation is likewise 
* " Ma no v’ hafrutto di niuna sorte : eccetto alcuni frutti die prcducono alberi molti grandi, 
iquali si assomigliano, alle castagne ma tengouo alquanto del! amaro. Questi arbori si discon- 
t;mo dal fiume verso la, terra ferma ; il frutto, ch’io dico, e cliiamato nella lor lingua Goto.”— 
Della Doscrittione dell Africa, etc-., per Giovan Africano; Yiaggi da* lhunusio, part 1, page 9. 
edir. Venice, 1013. 
