A p r il. Vux-rO The leaves being cut off at fome diftance from the item, as many of them as there is room for are placed in a ilant- ing pofition over the concavity of another aloe leaf laid under them for this purpofe, fo that the juice, trickling down from the leaves which are cut, may be collected in it. 'After this, the whole quantity of juice contained in thefe refervoirs, is boiled down to about a third part, and being poured out into boxes, is left to coagulate and grow hard. Others again content themfelves with wiping off the juice, which comes out of the freih cut leaves, feveral times againft the edges of a marble veifel, wherein it is by this means collected, and is afterwards boiled down. In the methods defcribed above, which, however, in all probability, are by no means the beft that might be imagined, only a few drops, or at moil a thimbleful or two, are procured from each leaf. By handling it, the hands of the operator are fubjeit to be made fore; and the boiling of it down, an operation which is likewife performed in the open air, the operator being at the fame time frequently expofed to the fcorching rays of the fun, is alfo attended with its inconveniencies. Add to this, that thofe who at prefent make it their bufinefs to buy up this drug at the Cape, do not give above two or three ftivers a pound for it ; and it will not appear ftrange, that the Gape farmers do not think it worth their while to prepare this gum, unlefs they have young children or other people, that can do nothing elfe, to employ upon it. “ In the winter (quaade mouffon) the aloe leaves are fuppofed to contain moft juice; on which account, this feafon is principally chofen for preparing the gum aloe, and particularly fine and calm days; 4 ' - as as in Windy weather the juice coagulates too foon, and j??®- cannot run out of the leaves.” Vide 1. c. The gum pre- pared in this manner is, when powdered, yellow, like any other aloes in, powder; but the thin pieces that are broken off from it, and the edges-of even larger pieces, are transparent, appearing as though they were made o f a yellow- ifh brown glafs. Confequently it has nothing o f that dark green cloudy and opaque appearance, like the other aloes which are to be found in the apothecaries ihops under the denominations of fuccotrine and hepatic aloes. This dark colour; which is feen in a great quantity o f aloes, in all probability proceeds from its having been prepared in a method very different from that ufed at the Cape; perhaps from the leaves being preffed, by which means a greater quantity indeed of juice is obtained, but then it is full of dreg$. It is true, I have often ufed the gum aloe of the Cape for medical purpofes, but cannot take upon me as yet to give it the preference to the more opaque fo rt; in the mean while, defirous of exploring this drug in divers ways, I got M. J o h n E. J u l i n , apothecary at New Carlehy, to fe- parate from each other the gummy and refinous parts of the gum aloe from the Cape, who found it to contain nearly equal quantities of both thefe principles. N e a r th e a b o v e -m e n t io n e d r iv e r Goree, f a rm e r A l o v e n S m id t , w h o r e f id e d o n th e b a n k s o f th a t r iv e r , h a d c a u g h t a d r e a d fu l ly v e n om o u s liz a r d , c a lle d fgeitje, w h i c h h e h a d k e p t in fp ir its o f w in e ; a n d o n th e 1 9 t h o f th is m o n th , o n my d e p a r tu r e f r om th is p la c e , m a d e m e a p r e fe n t o f it . U u 2 I had
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