NNAMON SUET is extracted by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon. An
oily fluid floats on the surface, which on cooling subsides to the
bottom of the vessel, and hardens into a substance like mutton suet.
The Singhalese make a kind of candles with it, and use it for culinary
purposes. It emits a very pleasant aroma while burning. According to
the analysis of Dr. Christison, it contains eight per cent, of a fluid
not unlike olive oil; the remainder is a waxy principle.

CROTON OIL is obtained by expression from the seeds or nuts of _Croton
Tiglium_, an evergreen tree, 15 to 20 feet in height, belonging to the
same order as the castor oil plant, producing whitish green flowers,
and seeds resembling a tick in appearance, whence its generic name. It
is a native of the East Indies. 100 parts of seeds afford about 64 of
kernel. 50 quarters of croton nuts for expressing oil were imported
into Liverpool from the Cape Verd Islands, in 1849.

The _Croton Tiglium_ grows plentifully in Ceylon, and the oil, if
properly expressed, might be made an article of trade. The best mode
of preparing it is by grinding the seeds, placing the powder in bags,
and pressing between plates of iron; allow the oil to stand for
fifteen days, then filter. The residue of the expression is triturated
with twice its weight of alcohol, and heated on the sand-bath from 120
to 140 degs. Fahrenheit, and the mixture pressed again. In this step
the utmost caution is necessary in avoiding the acrid fumes. One seer
of seed furnishes by this process rather more than eleven fluid ounces
of oil, six by the first step, and five by alcohol.

The oil acts as an irritant purgative in the dose of one drop. In
large doses it is a dangerous poison. When applied externally it
produces pustules.

In 1845, eight cases of croton oil and six cases of the seed were
exported from Ceylon.

Other species of Croton, as _C. Pavana_, a native of Ava and the
north-eastern parts of Bengal, and _C. Roxburghii_, yield a purgative
oil. The bark of _C. Eleuteria_, _C. Cascarilla_, and other species is
aromatic, and acts as a tonic and stimulant. It forms the cascarilla
bark of commerce already spoken of. When bruised, it gives out a musky
odor and is often used in pastilles.

The oil obtained from the seeds of _Jatropha curcas_, a native of
South America and Asia, is purgative and emetic, and analagous in its
properties to croton oil. It is said to be a valuable external
application in