Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette.

  • Gimlette, John D. (John Desmond), 1867-1934
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reprints of articles contributed to medical journals, 1895-1909 / by John D. Gimlette. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in a small store at the river station in bags, each of which generally contained from 1 to pikuls of rice. The pikul is a Malay measure of weight in everyday use; it is approximately equal to 133£ lbs. avoir- dupois, and is divided into 100 catties, each catty roughly corresponding to I3 lbs. avoirdupois. Why Eice Deteeioeates. These large bags were all piled in a small space, one on top of another to a height, and being fairly heavy were difficult to interchange. When a large supply of rice came in, the new bags were invariably placed on the top of the old pile. This was un- fortunate, as was afterwards proved, because, long before the delivery of the rice on the bank of the river Sokor it was exposed, as rice in the husk, to deteriora- tion through damp. The writer of an article on “A Trip to Burma,” recently published in the local press, says, when describing the railway journey from Ban- goon to Mandalay : “A resident of the country told us that the paddy owners often had to wait a month before the railway could take their grain. We saw stacks and stacks of it—in bags—lying out in the open alongside the line near railway stations ” [5]. The rice is shipped from Eangoon to Penang, and from there to Singapore. Dr. Lucy also mentions that when large consign- ments of this rice to the Straits Settlements coincide with an interval between the crops in Eangoon, the only supply at these times is of an inferior quality left over from the last crop. Such an interval occurs in October. As regards Kelantan, delays occur in ship- ping from Singapore, as well as delays and boating accidents on the Kelantan rivers, especially during the violent weather of the North East monsoon season, which is mostly felt during the months of November, December and January. Local means of communication with the Sokor district, again, are very slow ; under ordinary circum- stances six or seven days are taken in transporting