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JAKOVA—JALAP


advocate in Germany the necessity of a distinct science dealing specially with the subject of national wealth. His principal other works are Grundriss der allgemeinen Logik (Halle, 1788); Grundsätze der Polizeigesetzgebung und Polizeianstalten (Leipzig, 1809); Einleitung in das Studium der Staatswissenschaften (Halle, 1819); Entwurf eines Criminalgesetzbuchs für das russische Reich (Halle, 1818) and Staatsfinanzwissenschaft (2 vols., Halle, 1821).

JAKOVA (also written Diakova, Gyakovo and Gjakovica), a town of Albania, European Turkey, in the vilayet of Kossovo; on the river Erenik, a right-hand tributary of the White Drin. Pop. (1905) about 12,000. Jakova is the chief town of the Alpine region which extends from the Montenegrin frontier to the Drin and White Drin. This region has never been thoroughly explored, or brought under effective Turkish rule, on account of the inaccessible character of its mountains and forests, and the lawlessness of its inhabitants—a group of two Roman Catholic and three Moslem tribes, known collectively as the Malsia Jakovs, whose official representative resides in Jakova.

JAKUNS, an aboriginal race of the Malay Peninsula. They have become much mixed with other tribes, and are found throughout the south of the peninsula and along the coasts. The purest types are straight-haired, exhibit marked Mongolian characteristics and are closely related to the Malays. They are probably a branch of the Pre-Malays, the “savage Malays” of A. R. Wallace. They are divided into two groups: (1) Jakuns of the jungle, (2) Jakuns of the sea or Orang Laut. The latter set of tribes now comprise the remnants of the pirates or “sea-gipsies” of the Malaccan straits. The Jakuns, who must be studied in conjunction with the other aboriginal peoples of the Malay Peninsula, the Semangs and the Sakais, are not so dwarfish as those. The head is round; the skin varies from olive-brown to dark copper; the face is flat and the lower jaw square. The nose is thick and short, with wide, open nostrils. The cheekbones are high and well marked. The hair has a blue-black tint, eyes are black and the beard is scanty. The Jakuns live a wild forest life, and in general habits much resemble the Sakai, being but little in advance of the latter in social conditions except where they come into close contact with the Malay peoples.

JALALABAD, or Jellalabad, a town and province of Afghanistan. The town lies at a height of 1950 ft. in a plain on the south side of the Kabul river, 96 m. from Kabul and 76 from Peshawar. Estimated pop., 4000. Between it and Peshawar intervenes the Khyber Pass, and between it and Kabul the passes of Jagdalak, Khurd Kabul, &c. The site was chosen by the emperor Baber, and he laid out some gardens here; but the town itself was built by his grandson Akbar in A.D. 1560. It resembles the city of Kabul on a smaller scale, and has one central bazaar, the streets generally being very narrow. The most notable episode in the history of the place is the famous defence by Sir Robert Sale during the first Afghan war, when he held the town from November 1841 to April 1842. On its evacuation in 1842 General Pollock destroyed the defences, but they were rebuilt in 1878. The town is now fortified, surrounded by a high wall with bastions and loopholes. The province of Jalalabad is about 80 m. in length by 35 in width, and includes the large district of Laghman north of the Kabul river, as well as that on the south called Ningrahar. The climate of Jalalabad is similar to that of Peshawar. As a strategical centre Jalalabad is one of the most important positions in Afghanistan, for it dominates the entrances to the Laghman and the Kunar valleys; commanding routes to Chitral or India north of the Khyber, as well as the Kabul-Peshawar road.

JALAP, a cathartic drug consisting of the tuberous roots of Ipomaea Purga, a convolvulaceous plant growing on the eastern declivities of the Mexican Andes at an elevation of 5000 to 8000 ft. above the level of the sea, more especially about the neighbourhood of Chiconquiaco, and near San Salvador on the eastern slope of the Cofre de Perote. Jalap has been known in Europe since the beginning of the 17th century, and derives its name from the city of Jalapa in Mexico, near which it grows, but its botanical source was not accurately determined until 1829, when Dr. J. R. Coxe of Philadelphia published a description and coloured figure taken from living plants sent him two years previously from Mexico. The jalap plant has slender herbaceous twining stems, with alternately placed heart-shaped pointed leaves and salver-shaped deep purplish-pink flowers. The underground stems are slender and creeping; their vertical roots enlarge and form turnip-shaped tubers. The roots are dug up in Mexico throughout the year, and are suspended to dry in a net over the hearth of the Indians’ huts, and hence acquire a smoky odour. The large tubers are often gashed to cause them to dry more quickly. In their form they vary from spindle-shaped to ovoid or globular, and in size from a pigeon’s egg to a man’s fist. Externally they are brown and marked with small transverse paler scars, and internally they present a dirty white resinous or starchy fracture. The ordinary drug is distinguished in commerce as Vera Cruz jalap, from the name of the port whence it is shipped.

Jalap (Ipomaea Purga); about half natural size.

Jalap has been cultivated for many years in India, chiefly at Ootacamund, and grows there as easily as a yam, often producing clusters of tubers weighing over 9 ℔; but these, as they differ in appearance from the commercial article, have not as yet obtained a place in the English market. They are found, however, to be rich in resin, containing 18%. In Jamaica also the plant has been grown, at first amongst the cinchona trees, but more recently in new ground, as it was found to exhaust the soil.

Besides Mexican or Vera Cruz jalap, a drug called Tampico jalap has been imported for some years in considerable quantity. It has a much more shrivelled appearance and paler colour than ordinary jalap, and lacks the small transverse scars present in the true drug. This kind of jalap, the Purga de Sierra Gorda of the Mexicans, was traced by Hanbury to Ipomaea simulans.