Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1902. 
j     Correspondence — Pharmaceutical  Meeting. 
201 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
Assouan,  Upper  Egypt,  January  2ist. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Through  the  kindness  of  Daoud  Takla,  American  Consul,  I  have 
had  opportunity  of  inspecting  the  senna  and  gum  arabic  as  they 
are  bought  by  the  merchants  at  this  place,  and  of  learning  about 
their  commercial  history.  According  to  the  chief  merchant — a  most 
notable  follower  of  the  Prophet,  over  6  feet  tall,  black  as  the  dark- 
ness in  the  Mammoth  Cave,  dignified  and  courteous  as  becomes  a 
man  of  his  high  local  position — the  trade,  since  the  destruction  of  the 
hosts  of  the  Mahdi,  has  become  as  active  as  it  was  before  his  mis- 
rule, with  the  difference  that  camels  no  longer  bear  their  burdens 
into  Assouan,  having  been  superseded  by  the  less  picturesque  but 
more  practical  railroad.  The  saving  of  cost  to  some  one  must  be 
great,  as  from  some  districts  nearly  a  whole  year  was  formerly 
required  for  the  transit.  The  gum  arabic  is  bought  of  the  natives 
by  traveling  merchants,  sorted  into  three  varieties,  packed  into 
large  sacks  made  of  palm  leaf  and  sold  to  the  merchants  here,  who 
hold  it  until  notified  by  telegram  from  Cairo  that  the  market  is 
favorable,  when  they  ship  it  down  the  Nile.  I  was  told  that  the 
gum  is  gathered  sometime  during  the  months  of  January,  February 
and  March,  each  collector  having  vested  rights  in  a  certain  portion 
of  the  forest.  Long  incisions  are  made  vertically  through  the  bark 
and  the  exuding  gum  allowed  to  harden  before  gathering  ;  in  this 
way,  the  trees  not  being  injured,  the  collections  can  go  on  year  after 
year.  It  is  affirmed  that  in  Upper  Egypt  the  gum  arabic  tree  flour- 
ishes when  watered,  but  fails  to  }'ield  gum.  The  warehouses  of  the 
merchants  of  Assouan  would  hardly  suffice  in  Philadelphia,  being 
simply  rectangles  surrounded  by  walls  about  ten  feet  high,  made  of 
dried  mud.  In  these  roofless  enclosures  sacks  or  mats  containing 
many  thousands  of  pounds  of  the  gum  were  piled  one  upon  another. 
The  finest  variety  of  the  gum  is  a  very  white,  beautiful  article. 
The  sixth  of  the  series  of  pharmaceutical  meetings  of  the  Philadel- 
phia College  of  Pharmacy  for  1901-1902  was  held  on  Tuesday,  March 
1 8th.  Mr.  George  M.  Beringer,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
presided.    The  first  paper  was  on  ^Liquid  Soaps  for  Surgical  and 
Yours  truly, 
H.  C.  Wood. 
PHARMACEUTICAL  MEETING. 
