Beverly banner., 1924-07-11

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington d. CO
When man is sick, not only the
doctor on the next block, but men and
women and products from all over the
world are called on to make him well.
A tale Of far places is unfolded by any
home medicine cabinet.
Onlys half the story is told by the
neat druggists labels on pill boxes
and warning red deaths heads on mys-
terious bottles. Babble OF strange
tongues, mixed exotic odors of rank
forests and sweating, glistening brown
bodies, and the warmth of tropic suns
are stoppered by innocent Spanish
corks.
Who thinks of Formosa's beneficence
when he rubs an aching ligament with
spirits of camphor? Small credit Java
gets for saving millions of lives from
racking, burning fever. Yet Java pro-
.duces 80 per cent of the worlds qui-
nine, the best antidote known to man
after the female anopheles mosquito
has done her worst
How Illuminating a fainting spell
might be if the victim could dream
sweetly as he revived of the lands
from which came aromatic spirits of
ammonia for his resuscitation. Lolling
in a carriage at society's playground,
Nice on the Riviera, he might see
peasants squeezing oil of lemon from
skins of the yellow fruit. Swiftly the
dream shifts to a field in sunny Tus-
cany where the very air is suffocating-
ly suffused with delicate odors as
slckles flash on purple lavender. Half
way round the earth the next mirage
leaves him on tropic isle off New
Guinea's coast. Orchards in Banda
grow nutmegs for the oil Of myristica,
another component of aromatic spirits
of ammonia.
Back to the grimy city down in the
,''gas house district" the scene shifts
;as he watches ammonia being produced
as by-product of gas. One trip more
before the veil rises standing in rus
tling fields of the Middle West he sees
the growing corn which will be distilled
into alcohol.
No Longer Rely on Spices.
Once the Spice islands of the East
Indies put their trust in the worlds
palate, but fashions in food changed.
Today they stake their confidence
that the world will get sick and they
are winning back some of their lost
prosperity. If some explorer were to
happen onto the East Indies in the
fnf1 hn i<rhf ",
call them the Medicine islands.
Banda, in Its few square miles Of
dry land lifted above the Indian ocean,
concentrates the past and present his
tory of the East Indies. The renais-
sance in European history is associated
with the creation of a new and finer
art, an upheaval In the Christian
church system, and a revaluation Of
the status of women, but 1t is seldom
thought of as period when civiliza-
tlon discovered It's palate. Yet the
latter impulse led Venice and Genoa
to brave pirates and storms to buy
spices from the East Tainted food
was eaten without much complaint be-
fore Europe began to demand that un-
savoriness be drowned In spice.
Marble palaces in Venice were built
from profits on cargoes of nutmegs.
But Shakespeare's Antonio and his fell
low merchants on the Rialto never
knew from whence the pungent, hard
nut came. The Arabs got 1t from
India and beyond that they knew not.
Finally the Portuguese sailed around
the Cape Of Good Hope and in their
conquest Of the Indies discovered
Banda, the mysterious source OF nut
Emegs. Immediately they built a fort
to guard their find, but the Dutch over
powered them and the nutmeg prize
fell to Holland
Refrigerators have literally robbed
Holland Of the fruits of her victory,
at least, until she developed Banda as
q medicine isle. Refrigerators out
lawed tainted food and with fresh VI
ands always available, the need TOT
sepices lessened. Even in the days OF
our grandfathers the center Of the
table was often decorated with cast
er. whirling device containing SIX or
eight spices. Today salt and pepper
shakers suffice.
Demand for the oil Of myristica helps
the nutmeg producers. The splendid
mansions in Dutch style in Banda
which can be purchased today for
song. are, however. monuments to an
.otber Eldorado, Macassar oils In ciyE
,,zation's search for hair tQl
nit two generations ago y
.sar oil, product Of