62 
KUKUI,  OR  KUEKUNE  OIL. 
harem,  wbo  kill  time  in  masticating  this  resin,  and  it  is  from  its 
use  for  this  purpose  that  mastic  derives  its  name  from  the  Greek 
verb,  massaomai.  The  choicest  quality  is  called  mastic  for  the 
seraglio,  Flishari.  It  costs  three  or  four  times  as  much  as 
ordinary  mastic,  which  they  use  in  the  preparation  of  several 
preserves  called  mastix  glyho. 
In  the  East  they  use  an  infusion  of  mastic,  mastic o-nex on 
(mastic  water)  for  infantile  cholera,  which  consists  in  diarrhoea 
and  vomiting,  a  disease  of  which  many  childern  die  during  the 
period  of  dentition,  and  for  which  medicines  are  not  often  of  use. 
The  Greeks  also  use  mastic  in  the  form  of  poultices,  made  with 
red  wine  and  bread,  which  they  apply  over  the  lower-belly  ; 
these  poultices  are  called  Krasoeoma,  from  Jcrasi,  wine,  and  comi, 
bread. 
They  only  adulterate  mastic  by  mixing  it  with  some  that  is 
older,  and  the  fraud  consists  in  this,  that  the  last  has  lost  with 
its  transparency  its  odor  and  flavor.  Mastic  is  always  a  dear 
article,  and  at  Chios  even  the  oke  (2-8326  lbs.)  is  worth  from 
200  to  300  piastres  or  more.  (From  about  £i  13s.  4c?.  to 
£2  108.) 
Mastic  chewing  being  in  general  use,  the  poor  have  recourse 
to  another  vegetable  production,  which  they  call  pseudo-mastis. 
This  is  a  gummy  secretion  which  is  found  between  the  segments 
of  the  calyx  of  Atractylis  gummifera,  a  plant  rather  common  in 
Greece  and  the  East. 
It  is  remarkable  that  they  always  use  toothpicks  of  Lentiscus 
as  in  the  time  of  the  Romans,  who  called  them  dentiscalpia  or 
cuspides  lentisci. — London  Pharm.  Journ.  Nov.  1860,  from 
EchoMSd,  Suisse,  July,  1860  ;  and  Journal  de  Pharmacie  et  de 
Ohimie,  September,  1860. 
KEKUI,  OR  KUKUNE  OIL. 
By  M.  C.  Cooke. 
Now  that  the  oil  of  Aleurites  triloba  is  spoken  of  so  highly 
in  France  as  a  purgative  oil,  a  few  particulars  concerning  it  may 
not  prove  uninteresting. 
The  plant  producing  the  fruits  from  whence  this  oil  is  extracted, 
