Botany of New Zealand / George Bennett.

  • George Bennett
Date:
[1831-32]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Botany of New Zealand / George Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    pend more on pure air and wholesome diet than on the earth-bath. The men employed in the whale ships have themselves attributed the disease to the indifferent <]uality of the water and pro- vision, and the “ mess of oil and stuff they are rolling in for days together and when they cut themselves, which occurs not unfrequently from the sharp tools that are lying about, necessary in their employment of cutting in the whales, the wound soon becomes black, heals slowly, and with difficulty. 'I'here are numerous ships which now take long voyages, and, being amply provided with wholesome water and provisions, have not a single case of scurvy; indeed it is now a disease very rarely met with excepting among the South Sea whalers. George Bennett, M. R. C. S., &c. London, February, 1832. PROTUBERANCE OF THE ABDOMEN IN SOME PAPUAN CHILDREN. Some Papuan children at Erromanga, one of the new Hebrides group, had a great protuberance of the abdomen, and the chest had a contracted appearance as they stood in the erect position. At first, from its tense feel and resemblance to tympanitis, I was inclined to attribute it to disease; hut when I found that it existed among the whole, and they ap- peared otherwise to be in good health and spirits, 1 gave up that opinion. One of these children (a female) was brought to England, and is now residing in this country, since which the abdo- men has diminished in bulk. On the 20th of Octol>er, 1830, 1 bad the curi- osity to take measurement* before any diminution had taken place, and the following are the results :— Fe«t. Inche* Height 3 4 Length of the sternum 0 4^ Length from the eiisiform carti- lage of the sternum to the crest of the pubis 0 10^ Circumference of the abdomen... 1 10^ Breadth of the thorax 0 Length from the anterior supe- rior spinous process of the ilium to the sole of the foot... 1 Hi Mr. G. Bennett's MS Journal. COUNTER-IRRITATION AMONG THE NATIVES OF MANILLA (Island of LufOMA.) A Commander of a ship having a se- vere hcad-ache, placed himself under the medical charge of a native female, wlio employed a method of counter-irrita- tion, hy pinching the side of his neck, until it became in a bruised state; feel- ing also an oppression of breathing, from a cold, his side underwent a similar ope- ration, from wdiich, in both instances, be considers be bad received much benefit. This remedy seems to be of Chinese origin; as J\Ir. Pearson mentions in the Medical and Physical Transactions of Calcutta, that, “ instead of our vesica- tories, the Chinese resort to means of producing counter-irritation, by drawing out and pinching with the fingers and thumb the skin and cellular substance, until the surface is completely blacken- ed.”—Mr. G. Bennett's MS. Journal, August 20, 1830. To the Editor of the London Medical Gazette. Sir, In the number of the Medical Gazette for August 27, 1831, I gave an account of a species of combretum used at Manilla as a vermifuge: I have since (when looking over the Chinese Materia Medica collection at the Royal College of Physicians) seen a species of com- bretum of which one of its properties is also anthelmintic; in the catalogue attached to this collection ,in the Col- lege it is thus mentioned: Sze, keiien, tsze, of a sweet taste, and warm ; it is strengthening to the stomach; it carries off spurious heat; it destroys worms ; carries off the effects of dysentery and cutaneous diseases; an indispensable medicine for children. It grows in Fo, kien, and Sze-chuen; the flower has five petals; the seeds may be eaten, when baked or burnt. When taken medicinally, the patient should abstain from hot lea, lest a looseness ensues. Among the collection is also the fruit of theTrapa natans, the Ling of the Chi- nese, and is mentioned in the catalogue as “ sweet, but of cold properties ; slops thirst, carries off' heat, and relieves from the effects of wine. The seed is said to have two, three, or four corners.” George Bennett, F. L. S., Ac. &c January 16, 1832.