The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-01
THE ALLEGED
MOSQUITO PLANT

queSeioA has peen exercising people IL
england since last spring, when the
discovery of such a plant was an.
nounced by an English army officer
The existence or absence of such vir-
tues In the plant, which is a variety
of basil (ocimum viride), has been dis.
cussed ever since in the columns of
The Times Oondon), with more or less
acrimony. Says The Scientific Ameri-
can Supplement, which gives an alb
stract of the controversy:
Last April Captain Larymore, the
British resident in Northern Nigeria,
| published letter in which he assert
ed that by placing two or three pots
OF 'mosquito-plant' in each room of a
house, and others along the windward
side OF the yeranda, the place could be
kept practically free from mosquitoes.
| be described an experiment he had
made, which showed that mosquito
enclosed within a leaf OF the plant be-
came stupefied, and he added that an
infusion of the leaves of the plant was
held by the natives of Northern Nj
| geria to be more efficacious than
quinine as a remedy for malarial fever.
| Captain Larymore suggested that the
plant should be used in barracks in
India.
''Sir George Birdwood, the well
| known naturalist, wrote a day or two
afterward that allied basil plants had
been known from time immemorial as
a defense against mosquitoes and as
prophylactic in malarial districts
Z n t.
| when the Victoria Gardens were being
constructed in Bombay, the men en-
| ployed in the work were so pestered by
mosquitoes and suffered so greatly
from malaria that, at the suggestion of
| the Hindu manager, the whole boun-
dairy of the gardens was planted with
holy basil and any other basils which
were at hand, with the result that the
plague Of mosquitoes was at once abat-
| ed and the malarial fever disappear
| ed from the gardeners and others at
work on the grounds"
Experiments were shortly after this
| made at the Kew Botanical Gardens,
| near London, with a growing speci-
| men of the plant that had been
| brought to England by Captain Larry
more; but the officials there, although
much interested in the captains state
ments, became convinced that there
was no foundation for them. The di-
| rector of the Gardens, Sir William
| Thiselton-Dyer, wrote to The Times
on July "a, enclosing report made
to the governor of Sierra Leone by DR..
Prout, the principal medical officer of
| the colony. DR.. Prout gave details of
experiments with a dozen mosquitoes
and the "mosquito-plant," in which
| there was absolutely nothing to show
that the plant had any effect in driv-
I ing away the insects. Sir William, in
his Introductory letter, made some
sarcastic observations on easy empiri-
car' remedies, and The Times, in
leading article, declared that the mos
quito-plant" had been shown to be
utterly useless" Captain Larymore
and Sir George Birdwood, however,
scout the idea that they have been VIC
tins of a delusion, and both have writ
ten to The Times declining to with
draw their statements as to the effica-
cy of the basil. To quote again:
Both pointed out that experiments
with single pots of the plant and a few
mosquitoes could not be regarded as
conclusive, and Sin George Birdwood
said the real question was the weight
of Captain Larymore's practical ex-
perience against DR.. P2out's expert
ments. In a letter dated August 2
Captain barrymore said:
ct think it unfortunate that the
! superficial experiments with a dozen
mosquitoes, which were conducted in
Sierra Leone, should have been ac-
cepted as conclusive evidence that the
plant in question does not possess the
properties ascribed to it.
81. The plants employed may pos
sibly not have been the same ocimum
used and referred to by me.
"2. They may not have recovered
after ansplanting-mine were three
to four months regaining their full
foliage.
90 g. The well known powerful smell
of ripe bananas may have negatived
the scent of the plant in SO small a
space as the mosquito-net cages mem
toned.
" Natives from time immemorial
have held that the plant does possess
the properties l have ascribed to it,
and the original cause of this becom-
ing sacred in India, where it is still
worshipped, was doubtless due to this
fact.
I must again repeat that the par
ticular ocimum given me by the ma
tives in Northern Nigeria does possess
the power of driving away mosquitoes,
especially a healthy plant with it's
leaves bruised. My wife, who was with
me, invariably used the leaves at night
under open-worked stockings to protect
her ankles, and at dinner the COM
plete immunity enjoyed by her was
very obvious indeed. In any case,
shall always make a point of having
hedge of the plant, if possible, in every
garden I own in the tropics, and can
only recommend those who are anxious
and willing TO add to (not necessarily
take FROM the security of mosquito
netting and quinine, to do likewise
It Didn't Work.-Biway: Use an
alarm clock nowadays"
Jigsup: mo; never tried one but
once
Biway: "How was that?''