Report of Society's Meetings. 159 
Courts, but in both cases of too hard a consistence to replace the 
Manila drug. 
In the British Guiana Court there was a very hard resin, known as 
Demerara or Brazilian copal ; of this there were two varieties, one pale 
in colour and evidently of more recent production than the other, which 
was harder and more yellow. This resin appears to be but little known 
in English commerce as yet, but I am informed that those who know 
how to dissolve it, find that it makes an excellent copal varnish. 
A remarkable substance shown in the British Guiana Court, called 
karamani, is deserving of notice on account of its low melting point and 
its great tenacity. It appears to be a mixture of the yellowish resin 
known as hog gum, the product of Moronobea coccinea and beeswax, 
and may be compared to marine glue for its usefulness. 
In the West Indian Court were two gums worthy of notice. One of 
these, the gum of the Cashew, Anacardium occidentale, dissolves but 
slowly, but makes an adhesive mucilage which is used in Jamaica as 
a substitute for gum arabic. It is obtainable in large quantities. The 
other was that described under the name of white cedar gum. It does 
not possess adhesiveness, but a small piece gives a thick mucilage with 
a large quantity of water, a quality which, if the gum proves to be 
harmless in character, might prove very useful for suspending powders 
in mixtures, or for sizing purposes. 
There were doubtless many food produces in the Exhibition, that 
might be employed either as diets for invalids or in the manufacture of 
palatable laxatives. I will only mention a few of them. Cassava root, 
dried and used like arrowroot, has already been experimented with in 
the National Training School for Cookery, at the request of Mr. G. H. 
Kawtayne, and the Lady Superintendent has reported very highly of its 
value as a variety for invalid or infant diet. Certain it is that the 
natives who feed on cassava rapidly put on fat. The curious prepara- 
tion known as cassareep in British Guiana and the West Indian Islands 
also deserves notice as a harmless addition to food, possessing at the 
same time valuable antiseptic properties. Cassareep is prepared by 
evaporating the poisonous juice of the bitter cassava, which loses during 
evaporation the prussic acid it contains, as well as a volatile poison 
described by Dr. Peckolt (Pharm. Journal. , (3), xvii. p. 267) under the 
name of manihotoxin j but the antiseptic properties, due to a substance 
which Dr. Peckolt has named sepsicolytin, or fermentation hinderer, is 
retained in the cassareep. Albumen, to which a small quantity of 
