522 
ON  THE  KINO  TREE  OF  WEST  AFRICA. 
misinformed.  The  Mandingoes  usually  have  recourse  to  the 
wood  of  the  Fillcea  Suaveolens,  Gill,  et  Per.,  for  this  purpose, 
which  is  thoroughly  endowed  with  poisonous  qualities  ;  and  it 
was  perhaps  to  the  cortical  debris  from  this  tree  they  alluded,  as 
that  of  the  Fterocarpus  is  considered  innocuous. 
The  authors  of  the  Flore  Senegambie  observe,  with  reference 
to  this  gum  : — "  Nous  ne  l'avons  pas  vu  extraire  pour  les  usages 
Pharmaceutique  sur  le  bords  de  la  Gambie."*  Notwithstanding 
this  statement,  various  medicinal  preparations  of  the  gum  and 
bark  in  combination  are  exhibited  for  the  cure  of  certain  en- 
demic maladies  by  the  Mandingoes  and  the  Foulahs,  in  Yany, 
Bondu,  and  other  inland  regions  of  this  division  of  Western 
Africa. 
During  the  period  I  was  in  medical  charge  of  the  troops  sta- 
tioned at  Macarthy's  Island,  I  witnessed,  on  several  occasions, 
the  favorable  effects  of  the  powdered  gum  in  checking  the  mu- 
cous diarrhoeas,  and  other  debilitated  conditions  of  the  intestinal 
canal,  to  which  the  inhabitants  of  these  swampy  localities  are  so 
subject.  The  bark,  independently  of  its  ordinary  astringent 
properties,  also  exerts  a  powerful  stimulant  and  tonic  influence 
on  the  human  frame.  Observing  that  it  occasionally  constituted 
an  ingredient  in  some  of  the  medical  compounds  of  the  natives, 
I  was  induced  to  try  it  separately  in  a  few  cases  of  local  remit- 
tent fever,  complicated  with  relaxation  of  the  bowels,  as  a  gar- 
gle in  salivation,  and  in  other  minor  affections  proceeding  from 
a  general  atony  or  depression  of  the  system,  and  with  advan- 
tageous results.  From  these  limited  data  I  was  led  to  conclude  that 
this  part  of  the  kino  tree  might  not  unfrequently  be  found  valu- 
able in  the  treatment  of  a  greater  number  of  febrile  diseases, 
attended  with  an  adynamic  state  of  the  chylo-poietic  viscera, 
common  to  the  negro  races,  where  quinine  or  other  tonic  reme- 
dies are  inadmissible,  or  not  readily  attainable,  and  possibly 
may  be  the  means  of  affording  relief  to  those  unfortunate  tra- 
vellers who,  when  destitute  of  medical  resources,  are  compelled 
to  experience  all  the  baneful  and  pestilential  vicissitudes  of  an 
African  clime  Fharm.  Jour.  Aug.  1854. 
*  Id.  op.  ubi  supra,  p.  230. 
