KAMALA, a red powder formerly used in medicine as an anthelmintic and
employed in India as a yellow dye. It is obtained from _Mallotus
philippinensis_, Mull., a small euphorbiaceous tree from 20 to 45 ft. in
height, distributed from southern Arabia in the west to north Australia
and the Philippines in the east. In India kamala has several ancient
Sanskrit names, one of which, kapila, signifies dusky or tawny red.
Under the name of wars, kanbil, or qinbil, kamala appears to have been
known to the Arabian physicians as a remedy for tapeworm and skin
diseases as early as the 10th century, and indeed is mentioned by Paulus
Aegineta still earlier. The drug was formerly in the British
Pharmacopoeia, but is inferior to many other anthelmintics and is not
now employed.
KAMCHATKA, a peninsula of N.-E. Siberia, stretching from the land of the
Chukchis S.S.W. for 750 m., with a width of from 80 to 300 m. (51 deg.
to 62 deg. N., and 156 deg. to 163 deg. E.), between the Sea of Okhotsk
and Bering Sea. It forms part of the Russian Maritime Province. Area,
104,260 sq. m.
The isthmus which connects the peninsula with the mainland is a flat
_tundra_, sloping gently both ways. The mountain chain, which Ditmar
calls central, seems to be interrupted under 57 deg. N. by a deep
indentation corresponding to the valley of the Tighil. There too the
hydrographical network, as well as the south-west to north-east strike
of the clay-slates and metamorphic schists on Ditmar's map, seem to
indicate the existence of two chains running south-west to north-east,
parallel to the volcanic chain of S.E. Kamchatka. Glaciers were not
known till the year 1899, when they were discovered on the Byelaya and
Ushkinskaya (15,400 ft.) mountains. Thick Tertiary deposits, probably
Miocene, overlie the middle portions of the west coast. The southern
parts of the central range are composed of granites, syenites,
porphyries and crystalline slates, while in the north of Ichinskaya
volcano, which is the highest summit of the peninsula (16,920 ft.), the
mountains consist chiefly of Tertiary sandstones and old volcanic rocks.
Coal-bearing clays containing fresh-water molluscs and dicotyledonous
plants, as also conglomerates, alternate with the sandstones in these
Tertiary deposits. Amber is found in them. Very extensive layers of
melaphyre and andesite, as also of conglomerates and volcanic tuffs,
cover the middle portions of the peninsula. The south-eastern portion is
occupied by a chain of volcanoes, running along the indented coast, from
Cape Lopatka to Cape Kronotskiy (54 deg. 25' N.), and separated from the
rest of the peninsula by the valleys of the Bystraya (an affluent of the
Bolstraya, on the west coast) and Kamchatka rivers. Another chain of
volcanoes runs from Ichinskaya (which burst into activity several times
in the 18th and 19th centuries) to Shiveluch, seemingly parallel to the
above but farther north. The two chains contain twelve active and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account