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prolonged use it is apt to induce disturbance of the digestive organs and diarrhœa. Its use is favourably noticed in the Report of Drs. Van Someren and Oswald, and Mr. J. Wood." (Pharm. of India.")
Dr. Dymock says cocoa-nut oil has been tried in Europe as a substitute for cod-liver oil, "but its indigestibility is a great drawback to its general use." Drury observes : "its prolonged use, however, is attended with disadvantage, inasmuch as it is apt to disturb the digestive organs and induce diarrhœa." May it not be that the unfavourable opinions formed by some writers regarding this medicinal oil proceed from the fact that nearly every author describes a different mode of preparing it and, consequently, that it is possible many different substances or a substance in many stages of purity or impurity may have been experimented with ? In the Maldives, cocoanut oil is esteemed a powerful antidote against the bite of poisonous reptiles.
The Juice. — The freshly-drawn milk from the young spadix is refrigerant and diuretic, a preparation known as toddy poultice. The fermented juice constitutes one of the spirituous liquors described by the ancient writers. " A tumblerful of the fresh juice is sometimes taken early in the morning on account of its refrigerant and slightly aperient properties." (Dymock.)
Scrapings of the husk — " The outside scrapings of the busk and branches applied to ulcers will cleanse and heal them rapidly if soaked in proof rum ; the efficacy of this application was proved by the case of two bad ulcers occasioned by the bite of a Negro's teeth. The young roots boiled with ginger and salt are efficacious in fevers, the same as the bamboo." (Royle.)
The cotton or Tomentum. — " This is a soft, downy, light- brown-coloured substance, found on the outside of the lower part of the branches of the cocoanut tree, where they spring from the stem, and are partially covered with what is called panaday,. or coarse vegetable matting of the tree. The cocoa-nut cotton is used by the Indians for stopping blood, in cases of wounds, bruises, leech-bites, &c, for which purposes it is