Am.  Jour.  Pharrn. 
June,  1901. 
Story  of  the  Pap  aw. 
273 
juice  to  soften  and  dissolve*  tough  meat.  The  statement  has  passed 
current  in  our  journals  that  the  emanations  from  this  tree  will  dis- 
solve and  digest  albumin,  and  that  it  is  the  custom  of  natives  to 
hang  meat  and  chickens  in  the  branches  of  a  tree  to  render  them 
tender  and  edible.  The  natives  often  go  farther  than  this ;  they 
state  that  if  male  animals  browse  under  the  papaw  tree,  they 
thereby  become  emasculated.  If  we  compare  this  statement  with 
the  alleged  property  of  the  roots  as  a  generative  tonic,  we  shall 
have  a  marvellous  combination  of  an  aphrodisiac  and  an  anaphro- 
disiac  in  the  same  plant. 
The  Carica  Papaya  grows  prolifically  between  isothermal  lines  of  770;  is  grown 
by  cultivation  between  the  lines  of  700. 
It  is  needless  to  urge  that  such  stories  are  exaggerations  of  the 
pepsin-like  properties  ot  the  fruit. 
The  native  uses  of  the  papaw  are  numerous  and  varied.  The 
bark  is  used  in  the  manufacture  of  ropes ;  the  fruit  is  edible,  and, 
according  to  local  conditions,  may  be  sweet,  refreshing  and  agree- 
able, or  in  other  localities  it  is  sickly,  sweet  and  insipid.  The  fruits 
find  a  large  consumption  by  the  natives,  and  are  considered  very 
nutritious. 
At  the  corner  ot  a  sugar-cane  field  where  the  ragged  canes  bend 
over  in  a  wild  green,  brown  and  yellow  tangle,  there  will  be  stand- 
