40 
REVIEWS. 
various kinds of Palm-wood. That elegant little play-thing in the hands of yon¬ 
der child was skilfully manufactured of the bone-like kernels (albumen) of the 
vegetable Ivory Palm. Those fine stearic candles illumining the room—what are 
they composed of but the fatty substance extracted from the fruit of the oil-palm 
and the cocoa-nut ? That sago which, under various disguises, appears at the 
dinner-table, it also is the produce, the pith, of Palms flourishing in the islands 
of the East Indian Archipelago. That arrack, pronounced by connoisseurs to be of 
excellent quality, it, too, is extracted from a Palm—the Cocoa Palm. Be still 
more inquisitive, and ask of what that tooth-powder consists, and you will be told 
that its chief ingredients are Betel-nuts (previously reduced to charcoal) and Dra¬ 
gon’s-blood—-both produced by Palms ; or examine our toilet soap, and you will 
find that the fatty substance which enters so largely into the composition of it has 
been derived from Palms. Everywhere you will meet numerous products of Palms, 
either in a raw state, or turned by the ingenuity of man to some useful purpose ; 
and this, too, at a place thousands of miles from those regions which Palms princi¬ 
pally acknowledge as their native country. Even at such a distance their benign 
influence is strongly felt, and millions of people, whose privilege it has never been 
to obtain even a glimpse of a single Palm, entertain feelings of well-founded gra¬ 
titude as to an order of plants which is to them a source of so much usefulness and 
enjoyment.” 
It may be that there are some members of society—we sincerely hope 
their numbers will increase—who, setting aside all selfish views, are only 
led to consider facts as important in proportion to the lasting benefits they 
confer directly or indirectly as to the moral condition of their fellows: to 
such this volume communicates some things of the highest importance. Our 
author remarks (p. 191, et seq.), “ The state of debasement of the negro 
races of Africa has long been a subject of great concern to philanthropists, 
and numerous schemes have been tried to raise them to the rank of intel¬ 
ligent beings ; but all have hitherto proved an utter failure.” In treating 
of the Palm, known to botanists as the Elssis Guineensis, abundant evi¬ 
dence from the highest authorities is brought forward to show that a full 
development of the trade in the African Palm oil will most certainly tend to 
the suppression of the slave trade. The product alluded to is now exten¬ 
sively employed in the manufacture of the patent stearine candles, and also 
in that of soap. The importation of Palm oil employs 20,000 tons of 
shipping in Liverpool alone. The trade is one of barter ; the manufactures 
of Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow are the articles given in exchange. 
There is thus, in the first place, a source of outlet for our home produc¬ 
tions, and secondly, a branch of trade encouraged which the Africans find 
more profitable than that in slaves. The best preventive squadrons must, 
therefore, be merchant ships laden with our hardware, cottons, and other 
articles, instead of armed vessels, supported at a great expense to the pub¬ 
lic. And when to all this we add the efforts of zealous missionaries, we 
doubt not Africa’s better days are approaching. 
We need only say, further, Mr. Seeman’s volume contains a large 
amount of varied and useful information, such as we should desire to see 
