136 MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF THE CASHEW-NUT TREE. 
them far exceeding arrack, rum, or brandy, of which they 
made an admirable punch that would provoke urine plenti- 
fully." Dancer, in his Medical Assistant, states, that " the 
expressed juice of the fruit in red wine sangaree, is good 
in female weaknesses/' and is effectual as a diuretic in 
dropsies ; adding that, " the Portuguese turn their dirt eat- 
ing negroes out in the cashew season, and force them to 
eat the fruit." 
The fruit roasted when ripe and added in slices to punch 
communicates an agreeable flavour to it ; and if the punch 
thus prepared be bottled, it soon ferments and becomes a 
delicious sparkling liquor. Advantage has been taken of 
this readiness to run into the vinous fermentation, to manu- 
facture an excellent wine from this fruit. The earliest no- 
tice I can find of this fact is the following, contained in 
Lemery's Dictionnaire des Drogues, where he says, under 
the head of " Pomme d' Acajou, cette pomme est d'un 
jaune rougeatre, couverte d'une peau mince et tendre, sa 
chair est spongieuse, empreinte au commencement d'un sue 
lacteux, acide et astringent ; mais sa couleur et le gout de 
sue se detruisent a mesure qu'il fermente, et il devient 
vineux, en sorte qu'il eny vre ceuxqui en boivent beaucoup." 
Lunan also observes, in his Hortus Jamaicensis, p. 159, 
published in 18 14, that " this juice expressed and fermented 
makes a fine rough wine, useful where the viscera or solid 
system has been relaxed." Indeed, the wine so prepared, 
as I can state from my own personal observation, possesses 
all the astringency and tonic properties of port wine, and 
might be made a valuable staple of exportation from our 
colonies. 
But the first individual who can claim the merit of hav- 
ing made this fruit the subject of scientific experiment, was, 
I believe, my amiable and philanthropic friend, James 
Webbe Tobin, Esq., of the island of Nevis, whose active 
and vigorous mind, notwithstanding the disadvantage 
under which he laboured, of loss of sight, was incessantly 
