ON TALLICOONAH OR KUNDAH OIL. 123 
I believe the medicinal properties of Tallicoonah or Kun- 
dah oil are unknown in Europe. Among the liberated 
Africans, the Sherbros and Soosoos, the oil is held in high 
estimation as an anthelmintic, the negroes and all classes of 
the colonists being very subject to worms. The sort of 
worms for which Tallicoonah or Kundah Oil proves effica- 
cious are the tape, lumbicus, and ascarides, more especially 
the two former; administered, however, in the form of ene- 
mata, the oil is successful in bringing away great numbers 
of the latter. When employed as an enema, one or two 
ounces may be thrown into the bowels, dissolved in warm 
water, of a temperature sufficient to retain it in the liquid 
state. I have used it in large doses (as much as giss) in 
" Lethargus,"* a disease of the brain in which it is desirable 
to act on the bowels with the most powerful drastic purga- 
tives. Some of the colonists are in the habit of mixing 
with the palm and nut oils used to afford light, a portion of 
Tallicoonah oil, to prevent their servants from using the oil 
with their food. 
I have employed it in cases of worms, or where I sus- 
pected their existence, in doses proportionate to the age and 
strength of the patient. In such cases the dose has ranged 
from one ounce to one drachm, fluid measure. It is here 
necessary to observe, that its purgative effects were by no 
means always uniform. In persons of weak habit of body, 
and in whom there existed any liability to bowel complaints, 
the Tallicoonah oil, from its acrid bitter properties, would 
prove injurious; but in persons in the opposite condition of 
body, I can confidently recommend this medicine as a safe 
and powerful anthelmintic. The usual way I have admi- 
nistered the oil is precisely similar to the modes in which 
castor or the other fixed oils are given. If given in proper 
doses, its purgative effects bear a close resemblance to those 
of castor oil, both in the length of time that elapses before 
* See London Medical Gazette, Sept. 18, 1840. 
