ON  THE  KINO  TREE  OE  WEST  AFRICA, 
521 
dation  from  the  Butea  Frondosa*  A  more  reasonable  proba- 
bility, however,  exists  that  it  was  derived  from  the  Mandingo 
Kdno  or  Keno,  under  which  name  it  was  first  sold  to  the  Euro- 
pean traders  by  the  natives,  and  exported  by  them  by  this  abo- 
riginal expression,  and  subsequently  retained  as  a  means  of  dis- 
tinction from  other  kinds  of  gum  brought  from  the  same  locali- 
ties.! 
Although  previously  employed  by  Dr.  Oldfield,  yet  the  merits 
of  the  introduction  of  African  kino  as  a  remedial  agent  into  this 
country  must  be  conceded  to  Dr.  Fothergill,  who  exhibited  it 
with  advantage  in  chronic  diarrhoeas,  fluor  albus,  and  such  dis- 
eases as  proceeded  from  relaxation.  Dr.  Winterbottom  seems 
only  to  have  known  the  bark  of  the  tree,  from  the  fact  of  his 
obtaining  a  quantity  from  the  Rio  Nunez,  where  it  had  been 
given  with  great  success  in  an  epidemic  dysentery  prevalent 
amongst  the  inmates  of  the  slave  factories  in  that  river.  After 
his  arrival  in  London  he  furnished  Dr.  Willan  with  samples, 
"  who  made  a  trial  of  it  in  agues,  fevers,  sore  throat,  and  dys- 
entery, very  much  to  his  satisfaction. "{  Under  the  title  of 
"African  Bark  "  in  the  same  volumes  he  has  compiled  an  elabo- 
rate account  of  its  properties,  with  a  series  of  experiments  in- 
stituted on  it,  which  in  the  form  of  a  decoction  was  resorted  to 
in  cases  of  African  diarrhoea,  where  opiates  and  astringents 
were  indicated,  and  that  it  proved  sufficiently  grateful  to  the  sto- 
mach to  have  the  desired  effect.  Independently  of  the  testi- 
mony of  different  physicians,  he  also  adduces  several  instances 
of  intermittent  and  other  fevers  in  England,  wherein  it  afforded 
proof  of  considerable  febrifuge  powers  from  the  beneficial  effects 
that  followed  its  administration. § 
Park,  in  his  last  journal,  merely  alludes  to  the  ashes  of  the 
bark  of  the  kino  tree  being  used  as  a  flux  for  the  smelting  of 
iron,  and  that  he  was  informed  by  the  natives  if  he  swallowed 
them  he  would  certainly  die.||    Park,  however,  might  have  been 
*  Manual  of  Materia  Medica,  p.  371. 
f  Vide  Park's  Letter  in  Journal,  p.  lxi. 
J  History  of  the  Native  Africans,  vol.  ii.  p.  46. 
§  Op.  id.,  vol.  ii.,  App.  2,  p.  43. 
jj  Vide  Journal,  p.  49. 
