CULTIVATION  AND  PREPARATION  OF  CASTOR  OIL  IN  ITALY.  61 
matter,  after  which  it  is  filtered.  The  filtering  bags  are  made 
of  a  cloth  found  in  commerce,  and  have  a  capacity  of  seven 
kilogrammes  of  oil.  When  filled,  the  mouths  of  these  bags 
being  tied  up,  they  are  placed  on  the  tin-lined  shelves,  disposed 
in  such  a  manner  round  a  room  that,  by  the  aid  of  tubes,  the 
filtered  oil  flows  from  all  sides  into  the  vessel  placed  to  receive 
it.  Each  room  usually  contains  about  2,000  kilogrammes  of  oil, 
the  temperature  being  kept  at  about  55°  Fahr.  The  exhausted 
marc  is  used  as  a  manure  for  hemp  and  flax,  for  which  purpose 
it  is  supposed  to  be  well  adapted. 
Some  little  while  ago  it  was  proposed  to  use  the  marc  as  a 
cosmetic  in  the  same  way  as  we  employ  almond  meal,  but  it  did 
not  answer  this  purpose,  as  it  was  found  to  possess  considerable 
irritant  properties.  Might  not  these  qualities  render  it  a  useful 
counter-irritant  applied  as  cataplasma  ?  As  the  marc  is  readily 
obtainable  in  England,  it  would  be  as  well  if  some  one  were  to 
report  on  its  therapeutical  value. 
Complaints  have  been  made  of  the  difference  of  quality  in 
Italian  castor  oils,  and  of  the  tendency  in  some  samples  to 
deposit  fatty  granules  in  cold  weather  ;  but  the  oil  prepared 
according  to  the  method  just  described,  which  is  that  employed 
in  the  Veronese  territory,  cannot  be  surpassed  in  taste  or  appear- 
ance, and  gives  little  or  no  deposit  in  the  ordinary  temperatures 
of  winter.  The  deposit  complained  of  is  due  to  greater  heat 
having  been  employed  in  the  processes  of  pressure  and  filtration. 
From  the  large  doses  of  the  oil  used  in  Italy — sometimes  two 
ounces,  simple  or  mixed  with  almond  oil — it  would  seem  that  the 
comparative  tastelessness  and  brilliancy  of  the  oil  are  acquired  at 
the  expense  of  its  purgative  power.  I  have  heard  or  read  that 
the  Chinese  use  castor  oil  in  their  salads.  Surely  it  can  possess 
but  feebly  the  purgative  qualities  of  other  castor  oils,  leading 
one  to  suppose  that  climatic  influences  and  mode  of  cultivation 
oppose  the  development  of  the  purgative  principle,  which  is  still 
further  lessened  in  the  oil  by  a  careful  preparation.  It  is  prob- 
able that  to  some  such  causes  we  must  attribute  the  peculiar 
blandness  of  true  Italian  castor  oil. 
I  am  indebted  to  Signor  Valeri  for  much  of  the  information 
in  the  foregoing  paper. — Lond.  Pharm.  Journ.,  October,  1866. 
Florence,  August,  1866. 
