Am.  jour.  Pharm. }        ^  Letter  from  the  Orient. 
January,   19 17.    J  J 
3 
the  same  rubber-like  arms,  the  same  glaring  eyes.  This  basket  may 
contain  a  number  of  small  ones,  that  basket  a  few  arms  chopped  off 
a  very  large  body.  Here  are  the  repulsive  fish  that  resemble  stones, 
there  the  transparent  squids,  next  the  cuttle  fish,  not  less  unsightly. 
In  fact,  whatever  the  sea  breeds  seems  here  to  become  food  for  man, 
or,  in  its  native  home,  to  use  man  as  a  food.  It  is  a  question,  I  take 
it,  simply  as  to  which  is  the  stronger — sometimes  the  man  eats  the 
octopus,  again  the  octopus  eats  the  man. 
Whoever  travels  as  I  am  now  traveling  needs  leave  his  squeam- 
ish stomach  at  home.  Ask  no  questions.  Eat  whatever  others  eat. 
That  is  good  philosophy,  and  it  is  good  breeding,  too.  Withal,  it  is 
but  a  difference  in  education — the  man  who,  in  America,  eats  the 
slimy  oyster  or  the  slippery  clam  need  not  criticize  him  who  in  this 
land  considers  the  octopus  a  delicacy.  Nor  yj^sjiauld  the  man  who, 
amid  home  surroundings,  eats  lobster,  be  sensitive  or  impatient  if 
here  his  host  serve  him  a  not  less  repulsive,  but  more  tmgainly 
horned  creature  instead.  JAU 
1  will  close  by  saying  that  I  have  \eft  my  f; 
city  under  the  dominion  of  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  I  am  on-  my  way 
down  the  Red  Sea  to  the  port  of  Aden,  just  around  the  lower  point 
of  Arabia.  There  I  expect  to  have  exceptional  opportunities  in  the 
way  of  exact  information  concerning  some  subjects  that  I  wish  to 
investigate.  Thence  I  shall  return  to  Turkey  and  spend  as  much 
time  as  possible  among  the  Oriental  products  of  that  country.  It  is 
a  land  of  historical  charm,  and  of  intense  richness  in  many  directions 
that  concern  medicine.  Both  the  people  and  the  officials  of  the  vari- 
ous governments  spare  no  effort  to  give  me  the  opportunity  to  do 
well  my  work.  I  am  taking  a  great  number  of  photographs  in  the 
way  of  drug  studies,  as  well  as  life  conditions.  These  I  hope  to 
classify  on  my  return,  and  by  such  illustrations  make  effective  and 
instructive  lessons  on  special  subjects. 
Mastiche  (Mastic). 
History. — The  island  of  Scio,  or  Chio,  lies  in  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  about  six  hours  by  steamer  from  Smyrna.  It  has  long  been 
celebrated  in  that  a  pocket  of  the  northern  part  furnishes  the  world's 
supply  of  mastic.  This,  too,  notwithstanding  the  fertility  of  ad- 
jacent islands,  and  their  situation  as  concerns  exposure  and  climate.2 
2  The  circumscribed  area  of  sections  producing  certain  drugs,  fruits  and 
natural  products,  is  noticeable  enough  to  warrant  a  special  paper  on  the  sub- 
ject of  such  limitations  in  the  Orient. 
