Chapter BENUA to BERYL of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

les Hollandais scurbut.”—Mocquet, 22].

1613.—“And under the orders of the said General André Furtado de Mendoça, the discoverer departed to the court of Goa, being ill with the malady of the berebere, in order to get himself treated.”—Godinho de Eredia, f. 58.

1631.—“…Constat frequenti illorum usu, praesertim liquoris saguier dicti, non solum diarrhaeas…sed et paralysin Beriberi dictam hine natam esse.”—lac. Bontii, Dial. iv. See also Lib. ii. cap. iii., and Lib. iii. p. 40.

1659.—“There is also another sickness which prevails in Banda and Ceylon, and is called Barberi; it does not vex the natives so much as foreigners.”—Sarr, 37.

1682.—“The Indian and Portuguese women draw from the green flowers and cloves, by means of firing with a still, a water or spirit of marvellous sweet smell…especially is it good against a certain kind of paralysis called Berebery.”—Nieuhof, Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 33.

1685.—“The Portuguese in the Island suffer from another sickness which the natives call beri-beri.”—Ribeiro, f. 55.

1720.—“Berebere (termo da India). Huma Paralysia bastarde, ou entorpecemento, com que fica o corpo como tolhido.”—Bluteau, Dict. s. v.

1809.—“A complaint, as far as I have learnt, peculiar to the island (Ceylon), the berri-berri; it is in fact a dropsy that frequently destroys in a few days.”—Ld. Valentia, i. 318.

1835.—(On the Maldives) “…the crew of the vessels during the survey…suffered mostly from two diseases; the Beri-beri which attacked the Indians only and generally proved fatal.”—Young and Christopher, in Tr. Ro. Geog. Soc., vol. i.

1837.—“Empyreumatic oil called oleum nigrum, from the seeds of Celastrus nutans (Malkungnee) described in Mr. Malcolmson’s able prize Essay on the Hist. and Treatment of Beriberi…the most efficacious remedy in that intractable complaint.”—Royle on Hindu Medicine, 46.

1880.—“A malady much dreaded by the Japanese, called Kakké.…It excites a most singular dread. It is considered to be the same disease as that which, under the name of Beriberi, makes such havoc at times on crowded jails and barracks.”—Miss Bird’s Japan, i. 288.

1882.—“Berbá, a disease which consits in great swelling of the abdomen.”—Blumentritt, Vocabular, s. v.

1885.—“Dr. Wallace Taylor, of Osaka, Japan, reports important discoveries respecting the origin of the disease known as beri-beri. He has traced it to a microscopic spore largely developed in rice. He has finally detected the same organism in the earth of certain alluvial and damp localities.”—St. James’s Gazette, Aug. 9th.

Also see Report on Prison Admin. in Br. Burma, for 1878, p. 26.

BERYL, s. This word is perhaps a very ancient importation from India to the West, it having been supposed that its origin was the Skt. vaidurya, Prak. veluriya, whence [Malay baiduri and biduri], P. billaur, and Greek bhrullos. Bochart points out the probable identity of the two last words by the transposition of l and r. Another transposition appears to have given Ptolemy his ’Oroudia órh (for the Western Ghats), representing probably the native Vaidurya mountains. In Ezekiel xxvii. 13, the Sept. has bhrullion, where the Hebrew now has tarshish, [another word with probably the same meaning being shohsm (see Professor Ridgeway in Encycl. Bibl. s.v. Beryl)]. Professor Max Müller has treated of the possible relation between vaidurya and vidala, ‘a cat,’ and in connection with this observes that “we should, at all events, have learnt the useful lesson that the chapter of accidents is sometimes larger than we suppose.”—(India, What can it Teach us?” p. 267). This is a lesson which many articles in our book suggest; and in dealing with the same words, it may be indicated that the resemblance between the Greek ailouros, bilaur, a common H. word for a cat, and the P. billaur, ‘beryl,’ are at least additional illustrations of the remark quoted.

c. A.D. 70.—“Beryls…from India they come as from their native place, for seldom are they to be found elsewhere.…Those are best accounted of which carrie a sea-water greene.”—Pliny, Bk. XXXVII. cap. 20 (in P. Holland, ii. 613).

c. 150.—“Punnata În h bhrullos.”—Ptolemy, l. vii.