ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

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palm is about tbe size and shape of a small egg, yellowish, and smooth.Within the fibrous pericarp is the seed ( Areca nut; Betel nut; Pinangnut). This is about the size of a nutmeg, roundish-conical, flattenedat the base, hard, homy, inodorous, externally reddish-brown, internallybrown with whitish veins. The principal part of the seed is the rumi-nate albumen, at the base of which is the embryo (Roxburgh’s Plants ofCoromandel, pi. 75). According to Morin ( Journ. de Pharm. viii. 449),these seeds are composed of tannin (principally), gallic acid, glutin, redinsoluble matter, fixed oil, gum, oxalate of lime, lignin, &c. With limeand the leaves of Piper Betel, these nuts form the celebrated masticatoryof the East, called betel. They are usually cut into four equal parts ;one of which is rolled up with a little lime in the leaf of the Piper Betel,and the whole chewed. The mixture acts as a sialogogue, and tingesthe saliva red. The Indians have an idea that by this means the teethare fastened, the gums cleansed, and the mouth cooled. Peron (Voyageaux Terres Australes) w r as convinced that he preserved his health, duringa long and difficult voyage, by the habitual use of the betel, while hiscompanions who did not use it died mostly of dysentery. In this country*areca-nut charcoal is used as a tooth-powder. I know of no particularvalue it can have over ordinary charcoal, except, perhaps, that derivedfrom its greater hardness.

Manufacture of Palm Catechu.— From the seeds is obtained anastringent extract, which constitutes two (or perhaps more) kinds of thesubstance called catechu in the shops. It is largely procured in Mysore ,about Sirah, in the following manner“ Areca nuts are taken as theycome from the tree, and boiled for some hours in an iron vessel. Theyare then taken out, and the remaining w-ater is inspissated by continuedboiling. This process furnishes Kassu, or most astringent terra japonic*,which is hlack, and mixed with paddy husks and other impurities-After the nuts are dried, they are put into a fresh quantity of water,hoiled again; and this water being inspissated, like the former, yieldsthe best or dearest kind of catechu, called Coury. It is yellowish brovvn,has an earthy fracture, and is free from the admixture of foreign bodies-(Dr. Heyne, Tracts, Historical and Statistical, on India )

Properties of Palm Catechu. —None of the commercial extracts,called catechu, are distinguished by any name referring to the cate-chu palm; and the description hitherto given of palm catechu is to°slight and vague to enable us to recognize it with certainty. (For a»account of the varieties, properties, composition, effects, and uses °*catechu, vide Acacia Catechu .- also Butea frondosa, and Nauclea Gambit-)

Other medicinal, Sec. palms.

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Palm oil (Oleum Palma) is imported from the western coast of Africa . princip a ',from Guinea , where it is procured by expression from the fruit of the Elais gfi neen ^(fig. 109). It has a solid consistence, a rich orange yellow colour, a sweetish tas ’and an agreeable odour, somewhat similar to that of the rhizome of the Florentine orr •By exposure to light it is bleached. It consists of Stearin 31, and Olein 09, besi ^colouring and odorous matters. The Africans use it as butter. It is emollie ntdemulcent, like the other fixed oils, hut is rarely employed in medicine. By . g apublic it is occasionally employed by way of friction in bruises, sprains, &c. f 1 l ^ econstituent of the common black bougie. Its ordinary use in this country is in j| e( [manufacture of yellow soap. Oleum fixum Cod hutyracea ex nudbus, Ph . Ed. also ca . f|| ; tpalm oil , is analogous to the preceding in its properties. It is procured from the ^ ^of the Cocos butyracea, a native of South America , but I cannot find that any ot