Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Dec,  1893. 
Vanilla. 
571 
A  TALK  ON  VANILLAS. 
By  Charles  E.  Hires.  „ 
Read  at  a  Pharmaceutical  Meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy,  Nov.  21. 
The  importance  of  Vanilla  Bean  and  consequently  the  value  of 
the  subject  of  which  I  am  about  to  speak  cannot  be  more  correctly 
estimated  than  by  a  brief  glance  at  its  importance  and  value  as  a 
factor  in  the  commercial  products  of  this  country. 
To  the  majority  of  men  the  use  of  Vanilla  Bean  is  limited  to  a 
flavoring  extract  for  ice  cream,  or  to  add  a  delicacy  and  piquancy 
to  an  after-dinner  dessert ;  but  to  the  specialist,  familiar  with  its 
use,  it  assumes  a  magnitude  that  is  really  astonishing.  In  the  year 
of  1892,  in  this  country  alone  there  was  imported  and  consumed  in 
the  various  industries  and  agencies  requiring  vanilla  over  one  million 
dollars  worth  of  this  product,  numbering  over  fifteen  million  beans,  and 
employing  in  the  operation  of  raising,  picking,  curing,  packing  and 
shipping  over  35,000  people,  constituting  in  value,  in  commercial 
importance,  in  capital  involved,  in  its  production  and  in  the  amount 
of  labor  required  for  its  development,  one  of  the  most  important 
products  of  this  vast  and  rich  country. 
The  vanilla  bean  is  indigenous  to  the  soil  of  Mexico.  The  chief 
centre  of  its  cultivation  is  the  state  of  Vera  Cruz,  and  the  metropolis 
of  the  Vanilla  district  is  the  city  of  Papantla.  After  twenty  years 
of  active  experience  in  handling  Vanilla,  after  a  long  and  careful 
study  of  it  as  an  article  of  commerce,  and  an  intimate  acquaintance  of 
its  various  uses,  and  its  growing  value  as  an  article  of  import,  I  became 
possessed  with  a  desire  to  see  it  in  its  natural  state,  to  ride  beneath 
the  forests  where  it  grew,  to  pluck  it  by  my  own  hands  from  its 
natural  branch  ;  to  enjoy  its  sweet  and  delicious  aroma  in  the  land 
of  its  birth,  and  in  general  to  familiarize  myself  with  the  growth  and 
preparation  of  this  wonderful  product,  which  is  so  rapidly  growing 
in  favor  as  one  of  our  19th  century  luxuries. 
Take  down  your  map  of  Mexico  and  locate  the  city  of  Vera 
Cruz,  in  the  state  of  Vera  Cruz,  situated  on  the  western  shore 
of  the  Bay  of  Campeche.  Go  north  from  Vera  Cruz  a  distance 
of  some  three  hundred  miles  to  Tuxpan.  Equip  yourself  there  with 
a  retinue  of  mustangs,  servants,  guide  and  interpreter,  and  start  to 
the  southwest  on  a  three  days'  journey,  over  mountains,  through 
impenetrable  forests,  over  dangerous  and  treacherous  morasses,  and 
