Volume 9

A general history and collection of voyages and travels, arranged in systematic order: forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time / By Robert Kerr.

Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A general history and collection of voyages and travels, arranged in systematic order: forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time / By Robert Kerr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    preface to his Atlas, being entirely constructed of wood, and the same in principle with the chain pump. In order to procure salt, as all the shores are of mud in- stead of sand, they pare off in summer the superficial part of this mud, which has been overflowed by the sea-water, and lay it up in heaps, to be used in the following manner: Having first dried it in the sun, and rubbed it into a fine powder, they dig a pit, the bottom of which is covered with straw, and from the bottom a hollow cane leads through the side of the pit to a jar standing below the level of the bot- tom. They then fill the pit almost full of the dried salt mud, and pour on sea-water till it stands two or three indies above the top of the mud. This sea-water drains through the mud, carrying the salt along with it from, the mud as well as its own, and runs out into the jar much saturated with salt, which is afterwards procured by boiling. ^ 5. Of the famous Medicinal Root., called Hu-tchu-u• Having last year seen, in a newspaper, some account of a singular root, brought from China by Father Fontaney, I shall inform you that I have seen this root since my arrival at Chusan. It is called Hu-tchu-u1 by the Chinese, and they ascribe to it most wonderful virtues, such as prolonging life, and changing grey hair to black, by using its infusion by way of tea. It is held in such high estimation as to be sold at a great price, as I have been told, from ten tael up to a thousand, or even two thousand tael for a single root; for the larger it is. so much the greater is its fancied value and efficacy : But the price is too high to allow rne to try the ex- periment. You will find it mentioned in the Medecina Sinica of Cleyer, No. 84, under the name of He-xeu-u, according to the Portuguese orthography. It is also figured in the 27th table of the plants which Mr Petiver had from me. The following is the story of its discovery, which I will not warrant for gospel. Once upon a time, a certain person went to gather simples among the mountains, and fell by some accident into a vale of which the sides were so steep that he was unable to get out again. In this situation, he had to look about for some means to support life, and discovered this root, of which he made E This is probably the ginseng, so famed for its fancied virtues.—E.