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#120275 01/16/04 11:29 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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O.Henry says the pharmacist smelled bad.
"Behind his counter he was a superior being, calmly conscious of special knowledge and worth; outside he was a weak-kneed, purblind, motorman-cursed rambler, with ill-fitting clothes stained with chemicals and smelling of socotrine aloes and valerianate of ammonia."

I could not find out what socotrine was. I have made pills
of aloes, and do not recall objectionable odour. The last item has a peculiar spelling, which is not in the online dictionaries. I suppose it is some compound of valeric acid, which is one of the things that gives garbage its
characteristic disagreeable odour. I cannot imagine what use a pharmacist would use it for.



#120276 01/16/04 11:54 PM
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I looked on the web, and socotrine aloes is a kind of aloe. It's also called Zanzibar. From the Socotra archipelago. It's part of Yemen and is in the Indian Ocean.


#120277 01/17/04 12:22 AM
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wwh Offline OP
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Thanks jheem. Peculiar though, the quote makes it sound
as though the socotrine was something else, as the quote's next item was aloes.



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