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Barbados  Aloes. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1909. 
great  care  as  to  correct  labelling  must  be  observed,  and  we  wanted 
to  be  sure  whether  the  use  of  the  term  Barbados  was  allowable. 
To  secure  authentic  and  reliable  information  we  applied  to  the 
British  Colonial  Secretary  at  Barbados,  and  herewith  append  his 
reply : 
"  Colonial  Secretary's  Office,  Barbados, 
"  16th  March,  1909. 
"  Gentlemen  : 
"  I  have  the  honour  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  your  letter  dated 
February  the  18th,  1909,  on  the  subject  of  '  Barbados  aloes.' 
"  2.  I  have  made  enquiries  and  have  ascertained  that  there  are 
no  exporters  of  the  drug.  I  enclose,  for  your  information,  a  copy 
of  a  memorandum,  which  Messrs.  Knight  &  Company,  a  prominent 
firm  of  Chemists  on  this  Island,  have  prepared  for  me,  together 
with  its  enclosures  in  original. 
"  3.  I  also  enclose  a  copy  of  a  minute  by  Dr.  Watts,  the  Imperial 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  who  gives  a  reference  of  which  you 
might  care  to  avail  yourself. 
"  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  gentlemen, 
"  Your  most  obedient  servant, 
"  Basil  Blackmon, 
"  Colonial  Secretary. 
"  Messrs.  Lehn  &  Fink, 
"  120  William  Street,  New  York." 
The  report  of  Messrs.  Knight  &  Co.  is  as  follows : 
"  Barbados  aloes  is  still  used  locally  in  medicine,  but  the  small 
stock  in  the  hands  of  the  druggists  here,  bought  for  the  most  part 
from  the  growers  years  ago,  comprises,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  all 
of  the  genuine  article  left  in  the  world  to-day,  its  manufacture  for 
export  having  been  discontinued. 
"  The  drug  now  figuring  in  the  markets  of  the  world  as  '  Bar- 
bados aloes  '  is  really  exported  from  Curacao,  the  produce  of  that 
Island  and  its  neighbours,  Aruba  and  Bonaire. 
"  I  believe  about  15  or  20  years  ago  plants  of  the  Barbados  gourd 
were  introduced  into  Curacao  by  a  schooner  trader  from  Barbados, 
and  as  this  gourd  (in  which  aloes  is  packed  for  export)  is  regarded 
as  a  sort  of  Hall  Mark  of  the  genuine  Barbados  article,  its  use 
enabled  the  Curacao  shippers  to  obtain  a  ready  market  in  London 
