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 THE 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF COMMON LIFE. 
 
 JAMES F. JOHNSTON, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., 
 
 ETC., ETC., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LECTURES ON AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY," "A CATS* 
 Or AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY," ETO. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITlf NUMEROUS WOOD ENGRAVIN&& 
 
 VOL. 1. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 846 & 843 BROADWAY. 
 M.DOOO.LT. 
 
 1 / :';. : ; . 
 
 v , v ; V, ""r? N> ;\.3H
 
 *rt r r t , 'r r
 
 TP 
 
 f,7 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 TO SIR DAVID BREWSTER, 
 
 K.H. D.C.L. y.B.8. V.P.R.S., EDINBURGH, ASSOCIATE OP THE INSTITUTE OF FBANCB, 
 AND PRINCIPAL OF ST. LEONARD'S COLLEGE, ST. ANDRIw'8. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR DAVID, 
 
 I dedicate this little Work to you, partly that I may have 
 the honour of associating with it a name so eminent in science 
 as yours, and partly for the opportunity it gives me of expressing 
 my sense of the many obligations I owe you as an old and tried 
 friend. 
 
 Being yourself not only a lover and assiduous cultivator of 
 science, but a remarkable extender of its boundaries a leader 
 in one of its most interesting and intricate departments and an 
 anxious diffuser of the results of general scientific research I am 
 certain of your sympathy in the following attempt to render 
 popular some of the more immediately applicable results of that 
 branch to which I have myself been now long devoted. If we, 
 whose profession it is to follow the progress of science, can 
 scarcely keep pace with the advance of our several departments, 
 it must be especially necessary, from time to time, to present 
 its more striking novelties, in an intelligible form, to the general 
 public. 
 
 With sincere wishes that your health may be long preserved, 
 and that optical science may still for many years number you 
 among its most illustrious cultivators, 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 MY DEAR SIR DAVID, 
 
 Your obliged friend, 
 JAMES F. W. JOHNSTON. 
 
 DURHAM, October, 1868. 
 
 ** 
 
 470840
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE common life of man is full of wonders, Chemical 
 and Physiological. Most of us pass through this life 
 without seeing or being sensible of them, though every 
 day our existence and our comforts ought to recall 
 them to our minds. One main cause of this is, that 
 our schools tell us nothing about them do not teach 
 those parts of modern learning which would fit us for 
 seeing them. What most concerns the things that 
 daily occupy our attention and cares, are in early life 
 almost sedulously kept from our knowledge. Those 
 who learn any thing regarding them, must subsequently 
 teach themselves through the help of the press : hence 
 the necessity for a Popular Chemical Literature. 
 
 It is with a view to meet this want of the Public, 
 and at the same time to supply a Manual for the 
 Schools, that the present Work has been projected. 
 It treats, in what appears to be their natural order,
 
 VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Of THE AIR WE BREATHE and THE WATER WE DRINK, 
 
 in their relations to human life and health THE SOIL 
 
 WE CULTIVATE and THE PLANT WE REAR, as the 
 
 sources from which the chief sustenance of all life is 
 obtained THE BREAD WE EAT and THE BEEF WE COOK, 
 as the representatives of the two grand divisons of 
 human food THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE, from which 
 so much of the comfort of modern life, both savage 
 and civilised, is derived THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT, 
 the history of which presents so striking an illustra- 
 tion of the economical value of chemical science 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT, so different from the 
 sweets in their action on the system, and yet so 
 closely connected with them in chemical history 
 THE NARCOTICS WE INDULGE IN, as presenting us with 
 an aspect of the human constitution which, both 
 chemically and physiologically, is more mysterious 
 and wonderful than any other we are yet acquainted 
 
 with THE ODOURS WE ENJOY, and THE SMELLS WE 
 
 DISLIKE ; the former because of the beautiful illus- 
 tration they present of the recent progress of organic 
 chemistry in its relations to the comforts of common 
 life, and the latter because of their intimate connection 
 with our most important sanitary arrangements 
 WHAT WE BREATHE FOR and WHY WE DIGEST, as relat- 
 ing to functions of the body at once the most important
 
 INTRODUCTION. vil 
 
 to life, and the most purely chemical in their nature 
 THE BODY WE CHERISH, as presenting many striking 
 phenomena, and performing many interesting chemi- 
 cal functions not touched upon in the discussion of 
 the preceding topics and lastly, the CIRCULATION OF 
 MATTER, as exhibiting in one view the end, purpose, 
 and method of all the changes in the natural body, 
 in organic nature, and in the mineral kingdom, which 
 are connected with and determine the existence of 
 life. 
 
 It has been the object of the Author in this Work, 
 to exhibit the present condition of chemical know- 
 ledge, and of matured' scientific opinion upon the 
 subjects to which it is devoted. The reader will not 
 be surprised, therefore, should he find in it some 
 things which differ from what is to be found in other 
 popular works already in his hands or on the shelves 
 of his library.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 OHAP. PAQB 
 
 I. THE AIR WE BREATHE, . ... 5 
 
 H. THE WATER WE DRINK, . . . 23 
 
 in. THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE, . . . .42 
 
 IV. THE PLANT WE REAR, .... 62 
 
 V. THE BREAD WE EAT, . . . .79 
 
 VI. THE BEEF WE COOK, . . . . 106 
 
 VH. THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE THE TEAS. . . 128 
 
 VIII. THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE THE COFFEES, . 165 
 
 IX. THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE THE COCOAS, . 180 
 
 X. THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT THE GRAPE AND CANE 
 
 SUGARS, . . ''-.- . . 197 
 
 XI. THE SWEET3 WE EXTRACT THE MANNA AND MILK 
 
 SUGARS, ..... 226 
 
 XII. THE LIQFORS WE FERMENT THE BEERS, . 239 
 
 XIII. THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT THE WINES, . . 260 
 
 XIV. THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT THE BRANDIES, . 274
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 Hciglit of the earth's atmosphere; it 5s one of the elements of the ancients. Compo- 
 sition of the atmosphere. Oxygen, preparation and properties of. Nitrogen, pre- 
 paration and properties of. Proportions of these elements in the air; their adapta- 
 tion in kind and quantity to the existing condition of things. Uses of the oxygen 
 and nitrogen. Uses of the carbonic acid ; its importance to vegetable life. Dele- 
 terious influence upon animal life. The " Poison Valley " of Java, Importance 
 of the watery vapour of the air ; its constant circulation. Formation of rain and 
 dew ; their many uses. Accidental constituents of the air ; ozone, nitric acid, and 
 ammonia. Vapours which rise from the surface of the earth, and saline matters 
 from the sea. 
 
 THE earth we inhabit is surrounded by an atmosphere of 
 air, the height of which is known to be at least forty-five 
 miles. It presses upon the earth with a weight equal at the 
 level of the sea to about 15 Ib. on every square inch of sur- 
 face. As we ascend high mountains, this weight becomes 
 less ; and as we go down into deep mines, it becomes sensi- 
 bly greater. 
 
 We breathe this atmospheric air, and without it we could 
 not live a single moment. It floats around the earth in 
 almost perpetual motion ; and according to the swiftness 
 with which it moves, it produces gentle breezes, swift winds, 
 or terrible tornadoes. 
 
 Though very familiar to us, and regarded with little
 
 6 
 
 THE AIR \VE BREATHE. 
 
 curiosity, this air is yet very wonderful, both in itself and 
 in its uses. Imperfect as the knowledge of the ancients 
 was, they recognised its importance by giving it a place 
 among what they regarded as the four primal elements of 
 nature fire, air, earth, and water. 
 
 Yet, though apparently pure and elementary, it is by no 
 means either a simple or pure substance. It is a mixture 
 of several different kinds of matter, each of which performs 
 a beautiful and wise part in relation to animal and vegetable 
 life. Four substances, at least, are known to be necessary 
 to its composition. Two of these, oxygen and nitrogen, 
 form nearly its entire bulk ; the two others, carbonic acid 
 and watery vapour, being present only in minute quantities. 
 
 Oxygen is a kind of air or gas, which, like the atmos- 
 phere itself, is without colour, taste, or smell. A candle 
 burns in it with much greater brilliancy and rapidity than 
 in common air. Animals also breathe in it with an increase 
 of pleasure ; but it excites them, quickens their circulation, 
 
 throws them into a state 
 
 Fig. i. 
 
 off, and will soon fill the flask. 
 
 of fever, and finally kills 
 them, by excess of excite- 
 ment. They live too rapid- 
 ly in pure oxygen gas, and 
 burn away in it like the 
 fast-flaring candle. 
 
 This gas is easily pre- 
 pared by mixing the 
 chlorate of potash of the 
 shops with a little sand, 
 powdered glass, or oxide 
 of manganese, and heat- 
 ing the mixture in a flask 
 over a spirit-lamp. When 
 it melts, the gas is given 
 It cannot be seen by the
 
 NITROGEN GAS. 
 
 eye, or detected by any of the other senses. Its presence 
 may be readily shown, however, by introducing a lighted ta- 
 per or a bit of red-hot charcoal, or of kindled phosphorus at 
 the end of a wire (fig. 1). The brilliancy of the burning 
 will prove the presence of the gas. 
 
 Nitrogen is also a kind of air which, like oxygen, is void 
 of colour, taste, and smell ; 
 but a lighted candle is in- 
 stantly extinguished, and 
 animals cease to breathe 
 when introduced into it- 
 We obtain this gas by put- 
 ting a bit of phosphorus 
 into a small cup over water, 
 kindling it, and inverting 
 over it a bottle, dipping 
 with its mouth into the 
 water (fig. 2). When the phosphorus has ceased to burn, 
 and the bottle has become cool, it may be corked and re- 
 moved from the water. If a lighted taper be now intro- 
 duced into the bot- 
 tle, it will immedi- 
 ately be extinguished, 
 showing that only ni- 
 trogen remains (fig. ij|j 
 3). In this process, 
 the burning phospho- 
 rus removes the oxy- 
 gen from the air con- 
 tained in the bottle, 
 and leaves only the 
 nitrogen. 
 
 Oxygen is one- 
 ninth part heavier, 
 and nitrogen one thirty-sixth part lighter than common air. 
 
 Fig. 8.
 
 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 Carbonic acid is a kind of air which, like oxygen and 
 nitrogen, is void of colour ; but, 
 unlike them, possesses a slight 
 odour, and a perceptibly sour 
 taste. Burning bodies are ex- 
 tinguished, and animals cease 
 to breathe when introduced into 
 it. It is one-half heavier than 
 common air, and can therefore 
 be poured through the air from 
 one vessel to another (fig. 4). 
 When passed through lime-wa- 
 ter,* it makes it milky (fig, 5), 
 forming with the dissolved lime 
 an insoluble white powder, 
 which, because it contains carbonic acid, is called carbonate 
 
 of lime, and is the same thing 
 as chalk. It is the escape 
 of this gas which gives their 
 sparkling briskness to fer- 
 mented liquors, to soda-wa- 
 ter, and to the waters of 
 some mineral springs. 
 
 Carbonic acid is easily 
 prepared by pouring vinegar 
 upon common soda, or di- 
 luted spirit of salt (muriatic 
 acid) upon chalk or limestone. The gas rises in bubbles 
 through the liquid, and, in consequence of its weight, re- 
 mains in the lower part of the vessel. As it collects it 
 gradually ascends, driving the common air before it, and at 
 
 * Lime-water is formed by pouring water upon slaked lime, shaking them well 
 together, and allowing the mixture to settle. The clear liquid contains a portion of 
 the lime in solution, and is therefore called Jime-water. 
 
 Fig. 5.
 
 CARBONIC ACID. 9 
 
 last flows, as water would do, over the edge of the vessel. 
 Its rise may be shown by introducing two lighted tapers, as 
 in the figure (fig. 6), when the lower one 
 will be seen to go out, while the upper one 
 is still burning. 
 
 By ivatery. vapour is meant the steam 
 or vapour visible, or invisible, which as- 
 cends from a surface of water when ex- 
 posed to the air. When water is spilt upon 
 the ground in dry weather, it soon disap- 
 pears : it rises in invisible vapour, and 
 floats buoyantly among the other constitu- 
 ents of the atmosphere. 
 
 These four substances the air every where and always 
 contains. They are all necessary to the daily wants of ani- 
 mal and vegetable life ; but the two gases, oxygen and ni- 
 trogen, form so large a proportion of the whole that we are 
 accustomed to say of dry air, that it consists of nitrogen and 
 oxygen only, in the proportion of 4 gallons of the former to 
 1 of the latter. More correctly, however, air, when deprived 
 of the watery vapour and carbonic acid it contains, consists, 
 in 1 00 gallons, of 79 of nitrogen mixed with 2 1 of oxygen ; 
 or of 
 
 By measure. 
 
 Nitrogen, .... 79 
 
 Oxygen, . . . .21 
 
 100 
 
 The carbonic acid exists in the air in very small propor- 
 tion. At ordinary elevations there are only about 2 gallons 
 of this gas in every 5000 of air ^jVoth part of the whole. 
 It increases, however, as we ascend, so that at heights of 
 8000 or 10,000 feet the proportion of carbonic acid is nearly 
 doubled. Even this increased quantity is very small ; and 
 I*
 
 10 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 yet its presence is essential to the existence of vegetable life 
 on the surface of the earth. 
 
 But being heavier than common air, it appears singular 
 that the proportion of this gas should increase as we ascend 
 into the atmosphere. Its natural tendency would seem to 
 be rather to sink towards the earth, and there to form a 
 layer of deadly air, in which neither animal nor plant could 
 live. But independent of winds and aerial currents, which 
 tend to mix and blend together the different gases of which 
 the air consists, all gases, by a law of nature, tend to diffuse 
 themselves through each other, and to intermix more or less 
 speedily, even where the utmost stillness prevails and no 
 wind agitates them. Hence a light gas like hydrogen does 
 not rise wholly to the utmost regions of the air, there to 
 float on the heavier gases ; nor does a heavy gas like car- 
 bonic acid sink down so as to rest permanently beneath the 
 lighter gases. On the contrary, all slowly intermix, become 
 interfused, and mutually intercorporated, so that the hydro- 
 gen, the carbonic acid, and the other gases which are pro- 
 duced in nature, may be found everywhere through the 
 whole mass, and a comparatively homogeneous mixture uni- 
 formly overspreads the whole earth. In obedience to this 
 law, carbonic acid in all places slowly rises or slowly sinks, 
 as the case may be, and thus, on the whole, a uniform purity 
 is maintained in the air we breathe. If it seems to linger 
 in sheltered hollows like the deadly gas-lake of Java, it is 
 because the fatal air issues from the earth as rapidly as it 
 can diffuse itself upwards through the atmosphere ; and if 
 it rest more abundantly on the mountain top, it is because 
 the leaves of plants, and the waters of the sea, absorb it 
 from the lower layers of the air faster than it can descend 
 to supply their demands. 
 
 The watery vapour varies in quantity with the climate 
 and temperature of the place. It is less in cold seasons
 
 HOW GASES MIX IN THE AIR. 11 
 
 and climates generally than in such as are hot. It seldom 
 forms more than Ath, or less than ar.ith of the bulk of the air. 
 
 The presence of carbonic acid in the atmosphere is shown 
 by the formation of a white film of carbonate of lime on the 
 surface of lime-water when this is exposed to the air. The 
 presence of watery vapour may be shown on the hottest days 
 by pouring ice-cold water into a tumbler or water-bottle, 
 when the vapour of the air will rapidly condense on the 
 outer surface of the vessel in the form of drops of dew. 
 
 The purposes which we know to be served by these sev- 
 eral constituents of the atmosphere show both that they are 
 all essential to the composition of the air, and that in quan- 
 tity as well as kind they have been beneficently adjusted to 
 the composition, the wants, and the functions of animals and 
 of plants. 
 
 Thus, as to the oxygen 
 
 From every breath of air which the animal draws into 
 its lungs it extracts a quantity of oxygen. The oxygon thus 
 obtained is a part of the natural food of the animal, which it 
 can obtain from no other natural source, and new supplies 
 of which are necessary to it every moment. The oxygen of 
 the atmosphere, therefore, is essential to the very existence 
 of life in the higher orders of animals. 
 
 The candle burns also, and all combustible bodies kindle 
 in the air, only because it contains oxygen. This gas is a 
 kind of necessary food to flaming and burning bodies ; so 
 that were it absent from the earth's atmosphere, neither 
 light nor heat could be produced from coal, wood, or other 
 combustible substances. 
 
 But the proportion, also, in which oxygen exists in the 
 air is adjusted to the existing condition of things. Did the 
 atmosphere consist of oxygen only the lives of animals 
 would be of most brief duration, and bodies once set on fire 
 would burn so fast as to be absolutely beyond control. The
 
 12 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 oxygen is therefore mixed with a large proportion of nitro 
 gen. This gas, i ot being poisonous, as carbonic acid is ; 
 harmlessly dilutes the too active oxygen. It weakens and 
 prolongs its action on the system as water dilutes wine or 
 spirits, and assuages their too fiery influence upon the ani- 
 mal frame. 
 
 Then, as to the carbonic acid 
 
 Every green leaf that waves on field or tree sucks in, 
 during the sunshine, this gas from the air. It is as indis- 
 pensable to the life of the plant as oxygen is to the life of 
 the animal. Remove carbonic acid from the air and all ve- 
 getable growth would cease. It must, therefore, be a neces- 
 sary constituent of the atmosphere of our earth. 
 
 But carbonic acid is poisonous to animals. It is for this 
 reason that the proportion of this gas contained in the air is 
 so very small. Were this proportion much greater than 
 it is, animals, as they are now constituted, could not breathe 
 the atmosphere without injury to their health.* On the 
 
 * The most remarkable natural example of an atmosphere overloaded with car- 
 bonic acid gas is the famous Poison Valley in the island of Java, which is thus de- 
 scribed by an eyewitness : 
 
 " We took with us two dogs and some fowls to try experiments in this poisonous 
 hollow. On arriving at the foot of the mountain we dismounted and scrambled np 
 the side about a quarter of a mile, holding on by the branches of trees. When 
 within a few yards of the valley we experienced a strong nauseous suffocating 
 smell, but on coming close to its edge this disagreeable odonr loft us. The valley 
 appeared to be about half a mile in circumference, oval, and the depth from thirty 
 to thirty-five feet; the bottom quite flat; no vegetation; strewed with some very 
 large (apparently) river stones ; and the whole covered with the skeletons of hu- 
 man beings, tigers, pigs, deer, peacocks, and all sorts of birds. We could not per- 
 ceive any vapour or any opening in the ground, which last appeared to us to be of a 
 hard sandy substance. It was now proposed by one of the party to enter the val- 
 ley; but at the spot where we were this was difficult at least for me, as one false 
 step would have brought us to eternity, seeing no assistance could be given. We 
 ligbted our cigars, and, with the assistance of a bamboo, we went down within 
 eighteen feet of the bottom. Here we did not experience any difficulty in breathing, 
 but an offensive nauseous smell annoyed us. We now fastened a dog to the end of a 
 bamboo eighteen feet long, and sent him in : we had our watches in our hands, and 
 in fourteen seconds he fell on his back, did Lot move his limbs or look round, but 
 continued to breathe eighteen minutes. We thei sent in another, or rather he got
 
 USE OF THE WATERY VAPODR. 13 
 
 other hand, that growing plants may be able to obtain a suf- 
 ficiently large and rapid supply of carbonic acid from a gas- 
 eous mixture which contains so little, they are made to hang 
 out their many waving leaves into the atmosphere. Over 
 the surface of these leaves are sprinkled countless pores or 
 mouths, which are continually employed in separating and 
 drinking in carbonic acid gas. The millions of leaves 
 which a single tree spreads out, and the constant renewal 
 of the moving air in which they are suspended, enable the 
 living plant to draw an abundant supply for all its wants 
 from an atmosphere already adjusted to the constitution of 
 living animals.* 
 
 This constant action of the leaves of plants is one of the 
 natural agencies by which the proportion of carbonic acid in 
 the lower regions of the atmosphere is rendered less than it 
 is in the higher regions. 
 
 So, also, the watery vapour of the atmosphere is not less 
 necessary to the maintenance of life. The living plant con- 
 sists of water to the amount of nearly three-fourths of its 
 whole' weight, and from the surface of its leaves water is 
 continually rising into the air in the form of invisible vapour. 
 
 Were the air absolutely dry, it would cause this water 
 to evaporate from their leaves more rapidly than it could be 
 supplied to them by the soil and roots. Thus they would 
 
 loose, and walked in to where the other dog was lying. He then stood quite still, 
 and in ten minutes fell on his face, and never afterwards moved his limbs : he con- 
 tinued to breathe seven minutes. We now tried a fowl, which died in a minute and 
 (i half. We threw in another, which died before touching the ground. During 
 these experiments we experienced a heavy shower of rain ; hut we were so inter- 
 ested by the awful sight before us that we did not care for getting wet. On the op- 
 posite side, near a large stone, was the skeleton of a human being, who must have 
 perished on his back, with his right hand under his head. From being exposed 
 to the weather the bones were bleached as white as ivory. I was anxious to procure 
 this skeleton, but any attempt to get it would have been madness." LOUDON. 
 
 * A common lilac-tree with a million of leaves, has about four hundred 
 thousand millions of pores or mouths at work, sucking in carbonic acid ; and on a 
 single oak tree, as many as seven millions of leaves have been counted.
 
 14 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 speedily become flaccid, and the whole plant would droop, 
 wither, and die. 
 
 The living animal in like manner is made up for the 
 most part of water. A man of 154 Ib. weight contains 116 
 Ib. of water, and only 38 Ib. of dry matter. From hij skin 
 and from his lungs water is continually evaporating. Were 
 the air around him perfectly dry his skin would become 
 parched and shrivelled, and thirst would oppress his fever- 
 ish frame The air which he breathes from his lungs is 
 loaded with moisture. Were that which he draws in en- 
 tirely free from watery vapour, he would soon breathe out 
 the fluids which fill up his tissues, and would dry up into a 
 withered and ghastly mummy. It is because the simoom 
 and other hot winds of the desert approach to this state of 
 dryness, that they are so fatal to those who travel on the 
 arid waste. 
 
 Thus the moisture which the atmosphere contains is also 
 essential to the maintenance of the present condition, both 
 of animal and vegetable life : it pervades the leaves and 
 pores of plants, and finds admission to the lungs and general 
 system of animals. 
 
 There are, besides, other beautiful purposes which this 
 moisture serves. When the summer sun has sunk beneath 
 the horizon, and coolness revisits the scorched plant and 
 soil, the grateful dew descends along with it and moistens 
 alike the green leaf and the thirsty land the invisible 
 moisture of the air thickens into hazy mists, and settles in 
 tiny pearls on every cool thing. How thankful for this 
 nightly dew has nature everywhere and always appeared, 
 and how have poets in every age sung of its beauty and be- 
 neficence ! 
 
 Let us attend for a moment to the cause of this descent 
 of the dew, and to the way in which it seems to select, as it 
 were, the spots on which it will fall.
 
 HOW DEW FALLS. 15 
 
 All bodies on the surface of the earth radiate, or throw 
 out rays of heat in straight lines every warmer body to 
 every colder and the whole earth itself is continually 
 sending rays of heat upwards through the clear air into free 
 cold space. Thus on the earth's surface all bodies strive, as 
 it were, after an equality of temperature (an equilibrium of 
 heat), while the surface as a whole tends gradually towards a 
 cooler state. But while the sun shines on any spot this 
 cooling will not take place, for the surface there receives for 
 the time more heat than it gives off; and, when the sun goes 
 down, if the clear sky be shut out by a canopy of clouds, 
 these will arrest and again throw back to the earth a portion 
 of the heat which escapes by radiation, and will thus prevent 
 it from being dissipated. At night, then, when the sun is 
 absent, the earth will cool the most on clear nights also 
 more than when it is cloudy ; and when clouds only partially 
 obscure the sky, those parts will become coolest which look 
 towards the clearest portions of the heavens. 
 
 Again, the quantity of vapour which the air is capable of 
 holding in suspension is dependent upon its temperature. At 
 high temperatures, in warm climates, or in warm weather, it 
 can sustain more at low temperatures, or in cold weather, 
 less. Hence, when a current of comparatively warm air, 
 loaded with moisture, ascends to, or comes in contact with, 
 a cold mountain-top, it is cooled down, is rendered incapable 
 of holding the whole of the vapour in suspension, and there- 
 fore leaves behind, in the form of a mist or cloud encapping 
 the lofty summit, a portion of its watery burden. The 
 aqueous particles which float in this mist appear again on 
 the plains below, in the form of streams or springs, which 
 bring nourishment at once, and a grateful relief to the 
 thirsty soil. 
 
 So, when the surface cools by radiation, the air in contact 
 with it must cool also ; and, like the warm currents on the
 
 l6 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 mountain side, must forsake a portion of the -watery vapour 
 it has hitherto retained. This water, like the floating mist 
 on the hills, descends in particles almost infinitely minute. 
 These particles collect on every leaflet, and suspend them 
 selves from every blade of grass in drops of " pearly dew." 
 
 And mark here a beautiful adaptation. Different sub- 
 stances are endowed with the property of radiating their 
 heat, and of thus becoming cool with different degrees of 
 rapidity. Those substances which in the air become cool 
 first must also attract first, and most abundantly, the parti- 
 cles of falling dew. Thus, in the cool of a summer's evening 
 the grass-plot is wet, while the gravel-walk is dry ; and the 
 thirsty pasture and every green leaf are drinking in the 
 descending moisture, while the naked land and the barren 
 highway are still unconscious of its fall. 
 
 And from the same atmospheric store of watery vapour 
 come the refreshing showers which descend in our temperate 
 zone, and the rushing rains which fall in torrents within the 
 tropical regions only the mode in which they are made to 
 descend is somewhat different. 
 
 In the upper regions of the atmosphere currents of cold 
 air are continually rushing from the north, and currents of 
 warm air from the south. "When two such currents of un- 
 equal temperature, each loaded with moisture, meet in the 
 atmosphere, they mix, and the mixture has the mean tempe- 
 rature of the two ; but air of this mean temperature is in- 
 capable of holding in suspension the mean quantity of watery 
 vapour contained in the two currents. Hence, as on the 
 mountain side, a cloud is formed, and the excess of moisture 
 collecting into drops, falls to the earth in the form of rain. 
 
 When we consider how small a proportion of watery 
 vapour exists in the air that were it all to come down at 
 once over the whole earth, it would cover the surface only 
 to a depth of 5 inches we cannot think without amazement
 
 HOW RAIN FALLS. 17 
 
 of the vast and continuous effects it produces. The quantity 
 of rain which falls yearly on our islands would cover them, 
 were it all to fall at once, to a depth of from 25 to 30 inches ; 
 and, except the table-land of central Spain, there are few 
 places in western Europe where the depth of yearly rain is 
 less than 20 inches. And all this rain descends from an 
 atmosphere which does not contain more, probably, at any one 
 time, than falls yearly in dew alone over the whole earth.* 
 
 In descending, also, this rain discharges another office : 
 it washes the air as it passes through it, dissolving and carry- 
 ing down those accidental vapours which, though unwhole- 
 some to man, are yet fitted to assist the growth of plants. 
 It thus ministers in another double manner to our health 
 and comfort, purifying the air we breathe, and feeding the 
 plants on which we live. 
 
 As soon, again, as the rain ceases to fall, and the clear 
 sky permits the sun's rays once more to warm the surface 
 of the earth, vapours begin to rise anew, and the sweeping 
 winds dry up the rains and dews from its moistened surface. 
 There are regions of the globe, also, where unending sum- 
 mer plays on the surface of the wide seas, and causes a per- 
 petual evaporation to lift up unceasing supplies of water 
 into the air. These supplies the wind wafts to other 
 regions ; and thus the water which descends in rain or dew 
 in one spot, is replaced by that which mounts up in vapour 
 from another. And all this to maintain unbroken that nice 
 adjustment which fits the constitution of the atmosphere to 
 the wants of living things ! 
 
 How beautiful is the arrangement by which water is 
 thus constantly evaporated or distilled, as it were, into the 
 atmosphere more largely from some, more sparingly from 
 
 * How, among the hills in tropical countries, the rain really rushes down may bo 
 inferred from the fact, that among the Khassaya hills, north of Calcutta, the yearly 
 fall of rain amounts to 610 inches (50 feet), of which 550 fall in the six rainy months, 
 beginning in May. As much as 25 inches have teen observed to fall in a single day.
 
 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 other spots then diffused equally through the wide and 
 restless air, and afterwards precipitated again in refreshing 
 showers which cleanse the tainted air, or in long-mysterious 
 dews. But how much more beautiful the contrivance I 
 might almost say the instinctive tendency by which the dew 
 selects the objects on which it delights to fall ; descending first 
 on every living plant, copiously ministering to the wants of each , 
 and expending its superfluity only on the unproductive waste ! 
 
 And equally kind and beautiful, when understood, nature 
 is seen to be in all her operations. Neither skill nor mate- 
 rials are ever wasted ; and yet she ungrudgingly dispenses 
 her favours apparently without measure, and has subjected 
 dead matter to laws which compel it to minister, and yet 
 with a most ready willingness, to the wants and comforts of 
 every living thing. 
 
 Four substances, therefore oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic 
 acid, and watery vapour are essential to the composition 
 of the atmosphere, and they are adjusted, both in kind and 
 quantity, to the existing condition of things. But besides 
 these, the air contains also many other substances in minute 
 and indefinite proportions. Of these, some are formed in 
 the air itself, some rise in vapour from the surface of the 
 earth, and some ascend from the waters of the sea. 
 
 Of those which are formed in the air itself, two are de- 
 serving of especial mention ozone, and nitric acid. 
 
 The former of these is merely oxygen gas in what is 
 called a more exalted chemical condition than that in which 
 it usually exists. Into this condition it is brought by the 
 action of the sun's rays, of electricity, and of many other 
 agencies. In this form it acts upon and combines more 
 readily with all other substances. Among the other useful 
 purposes it is supposed to serve, I mention the oxidation* 
 
 * When a substance combines with oxygen, it is said to b* osidised, or to under- 
 go oasidation.
 
 PRODUCTION OF NITRIC ACID. 
 
 of the organic, often noxious, substances which rise into the 
 atmosphere, and of those vegetable and other compounds in 
 the soil, upon which depend its general fertility, and the 
 abundant production of the food of plants. 
 
 Ozone is probably never absent from the atmosphere ; 
 but it is always present in a proportion too minute to admit 
 of being determined either by weight or by measure. It 
 is more abundant in winter, on the tops of mountains, and 
 after a storm has purified the air. It is probably more ser- 
 viceable to us than we are yet aware of. 
 
 Nitric acid, the other important substance I have men- 
 tioned as being formed in the air, is probably more abundant 
 than ozone. It is commonly known by the name of aqua- 
 fortis, and consists of nitrogen and oxygen only the two 
 main constituents of the atmosphere. Every flash of light- 
 ning which darts across the sky, and every electric spark, 
 great or small, which in any other form passes through the 
 air, causes a minute proportion of these two gases, along the 
 line of its course, to unite together and produce nitric acid. 
 And as this passage of electricity through the air is frequent 
 almost everywhere, and in the tropical regions is distinctly 
 visible nearly every day of the year, I am inclined to regard 
 this acid as a constant constituent of atmospheric air. 
 Whether it is essential or indispensable to the present con- 
 dition of things, we have not as yet the means of determin- 
 ing ; but it has been ascertained by actual experiment that 
 this acid is at least very frequently present in the air, even 
 of European countries, and falling rain is sometimes actually 
 sour from the quantity of nitric acid it contains. This acid 
 is very favourable to vegetable growth and is, indeed, one 
 of the substances which the falling rains and dews are ap- 
 pointed to wash out of the air, and in doing so to bring 
 down to plants a valuable form of food, which is thua daily 
 prepared for them among the winds of heaven.
 
 20 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 From the surface of the earth, again, there arise continu- 
 ally into the air vapours and gases of various kinds. The 
 vegetable and animal bodies which undergo decay in mani- 
 fold circumstances, and the numerous substances which are 
 burned in the air, all produce chemical compounds, which, 
 being volatile or gaseous, ascend and mingle with the atmos- 
 phere. Some of these, like ammonia and sulphuretted hy- 
 drogen, are perceptible to the smell, while others are alto- 
 gether inappreciable by the senses. The steaming marsh 
 also, beneath the summer's sun, sends forth fatal miasms 
 which prostrate the body in fever, though neither the senses 
 can perceive, nor our more refined chemical tests as yet de- 
 tect their presence ; living volcanoes likewise belch forth 
 their vapours ; and a thousand chemical operations, natural 
 and artificial, pour out their fetid streams and volatile ex- 
 halations. All these ascend from the earth, are caught by 
 the winds, wafted more or less speedily from their birth- 
 place, and mingle with the general air. Thus the atmos- 
 phere must contain accidental substances almost without 
 end, which are not essential to its constitution, and which 
 rise into the aerial sea because of their lightness, just as 
 liquid impurities spontaneously flow, or solid impurities are 
 washed down by the rivers into the waters of the great 
 ocean. 
 
 Of these substances which thus ascend from the earth in 
 the form of gas, ammonia deserves especial notice, because 
 of the important function which some agricultural writers 
 have ascribed to it in reference to vegetable growth. This 
 gas, which is familiar to every one in the smell of common 
 hartshorn,* is formed during the putrefaction of animal and 
 vegetable substances in the presence of water and air, and is 
 the principal cause of the smell which heaps of such putrefy- 
 
 * The liquid hartshorn of the shops is only water impregnated \vith the gas am- 
 monia.
 
 SALINE MATTERS FROM THE SEA. 21 
 
 ing matters give off. It is continually rising, therefore, into 
 the atmosphere from many parts of the earth's surface. It 
 has consequently been found in very minute quantity in the 
 air, wherever it has been sought for. Some, therefore, deem 
 it an essential constituent of our air. In this respect, how- 
 ever, it must be distinguished from nitric acid, which we 
 know to be produced in the atmosphere itself by purely 
 physical causes, and to be altogether independent of the pre- 
 vious existence of life. It is possible, as I have elsewhere 
 shown,* that ammonia may be so produced also ; in which 
 case we might not only acknowledge it for an essential con- 
 stituent of the atmosphere, but discover in its existence, and 
 constant reproduction there, a wise provision for the main- 
 tenance of vegetable growth. 
 
 Further, from the ever-moving sea, the winds which raise 
 it into rolling waves, and lash it into foam, sweep upwards 
 the light spray, and mingle it with the rushing air. Thus, 
 far inland and over high mountains, the salty particles are 
 carried, and all the contents of sea water are mingled with 
 the universal atmosphere. Hence the host of foreign sub- 
 stances which must float around us, commingled with those 
 which we know to be absolutely necessary to the mainte- 
 nance of animal and vegetable life, is almost inconceivable. 
 
 The accumulation of all these foreign matters in the air 
 would, in course of time, render it unwholesome to animal 
 life perhaps unfit for the healthy development even of vege- 
 table forms. But the waters of heaven, as I have described, 
 ascend and descend continually to wash and purify it. They 
 serve as a natural conservative check. 
 
 Thus simple as the air appears, its scientific history as a 
 whole is somewhat complicated. The adjustment of its con- 
 stituents involves many interesting particulars, and the ar- 
 
 * Lecture* on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, second edition, p. 2S3,
 
 22 THE AIR WE BREATHE. 
 
 rangements by which the constant presence of its essential 
 constituents is secured, both in kind and quantity, are very 
 numerous ; yet we cannot fail to perceive both a physical 
 beauty, and a wise contrivance in them all. 

 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 Importance of water in nature. Composition of water. Hydrogen gas ; how prepared ; 
 the lightest of known substances, and an inflammable gas ; exists in nearly all com- 
 bustible substances; is always converted into water when these substances are 
 burned. In water hydrogen is combined with oxygen. What is meant by a che- 
 mical combination. Water without taste and smell; importance of this. Cooling 
 property of water. Belation of water to other liquids. It dissolves many solid sub- 
 stances; hence natural water never pure. Quantity of mineral matter in some 
 known river, spring, and sea waters. Composition of the solid matter in sea water; 
 In the Thames water at Kew ; and in that of the Kent Water Company. Limo 
 held in solution in water by carbonic acid. Why calcareous waters incrust their 
 channels, petrify, and deposit sediments in boilers. Impurity of spring waters in 
 large towns, about farmhouses, and near graveyards. Composition of well water 
 from Highgate Hill. Well waters in the dunes of Bordeaux ; their ainalogy to the 
 waters of Marah. Water absorbs its own bulk of carbonic acid at all pressures. 
 How this explains the liveliness of champagne and soda-water, the bursting 
 of bottles, the briskness and deadness of beer, &c. Excess of oxygen in the air 
 contained in water; importance of this to the lives of fishes. More oxygen near 
 the surface *>f the sea. Why air obtained from snow contains less oxygen. 
 
 THE water we drink is next in importance to the air we 
 breathe. It forms three-fourths of the weight of living 
 animals and plants, is the most abundant substance we meet 
 with on the face of the earth, and covers, to an unknown 
 depth, at least three-fourths of its entire surface. 
 
 Pure water consists of two simple or elementary sub- 
 stances,* oxygen and hydrogen. The former of these exists 
 
 * By simple or elementary substances, chemists understand such as cannot by 
 any known means bo resolved or split up into moie than one: sulphur, phosphorus, 
 gold, silver, iron, &c., are examples of such simple substances.
 
 24 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 also in common air, and has been described in the previous 
 chapter. 
 
 Hydrogen is a kind of air or gas which, when pure, is 
 without colour, taste, or smell. It differs, however, from all 
 the three gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid) de- 
 scribed in the preceding chapter ; first, in being the lightest 
 of all known substances; and, second, in taking fire, and 
 burning in the air when a lighted taper is brought near it. 
 F . 7 It is readily prepared by putting 
 
 a few pieces of metallic zinc or iron 
 into a bottle or flask, and pouring 
 over them a quantity of oil of vitriol 
 (sulphuric acid) diluted with twice 
 its weight of water. When a suffi- 
 cient quantity of the gas has been 
 produced to drive out the common 
 air from the bottle, a gas jet-burner, 
 or a bit of glass tube, or of a tobacco 
 pipe thrust through a cork, may be 
 put into the mouth of the bottle, 
 when a jet of gas will issue which 
 may be lighted by a taper. It burns 
 with a very pale flame. When a 
 perfectly dry, cool, glass tumbler or 
 bottle is held over the flame (fig. 7), 
 dew will be seen to condense on the 
 inner side of the glass, which will 
 gradually collect into little visible globules, and will finally 
 trickle down in the form of drops of pure water. This 
 water is formed by the burning of the hydrogen from 
 the bottle in the oxygen of the air. During this burning 
 it combines with the oxygen, and water is produced. The 
 extreme lightness of the hydrogen may be shown by ex- 
 tinguishing tho gas, and causing it to ascend into a small
 
 LIGHTNESS OF HYDROGEN GAS. 
 
 25 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 empty balloon placed over the jet* (fig. 8). When the bal- 
 loon is full of gas it will readily ascend, showing not only 
 that the hydrogen is lighter than 
 common air, but that it is so much 
 lighter as to be able to raise heavy 
 jdies through the air along with 
 It is to the lightness of this 
 gas that we owe the power of travel- 
 ling through the air in ordinary 
 balloons. 
 
 Hydrogen exists in a great many 
 other substances besides water in 
 bituminous coal, in wood, in oils and 
 fats, in coal gas, and in nearly all 
 combustible substances ; but when- 
 ever it is completely burned in the 
 air, water is formed by its union with 
 oxygen, as in the burning of the 
 simple jet above described. Thus, 
 in nearly all cases of combustion, 
 water is one of the substances pro- - 
 duced, though it generally rises into 
 the air in the form of invisible vapour. 
 
 Water thus formed consists of oxygen and hydrogen, in 
 the proportions by weight of 
 
 
 Oxygen, 
 Hydrogen, 
 
 Per cent 
 
 8S.SS 
 11.11 
 
 100 
 
 or every 9 Ib. of pure water contain 8 Ib. of oxygen and 1 Ib. 
 of hydrogen. 
 
 In atmospheric air, as we have seen, there are at least 
 
 * Such little balloons, mad^-of thin membranes, are sold by the opticians. 
 
 2
 
 26 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 four substances present which are essential to its existence 
 But between air and water there is this important chemical dis- 
 tinction, that in the former the constituents are merely mixed 
 together, while in the latter they are chemically combined. 
 When nitrogen and oxygen are mixed together to form com- 
 mon air, each of them retains its gaseous form, and all its 
 properties unaltered ; but when hydrogen and oxygen are 
 combined to form water, they severally lose both their origi- 
 nal gaseous form, and all their distinctive properties, both 
 physical and chemical. Water is not light, like hydrogen, 
 nor will it burn as that gas does ; neither will bodies burn 
 in it as they do so readily and brilliantly in oxygen gas. 
 
 Now, when bodies combine chemically, they always form 
 a new substance different in its properties from those which 
 have been employed in producing it ; and, indeed, it is one 
 of the wonders which modern chemistry has made known to 
 us, that hydrogen, which burns so readily, should form so 
 large a part of water, our great extinguisher of flame ; and 
 that oxygen, so indispensable to animal life, should form 
 eight-ninths of a liquid in which few terrestrial animals can 
 live for more than three or four seconds of time. 
 
 That water is indispensable to animal and vegetable life, 
 appears both from its forming so large a proportion of the 
 bodies of living animals and plants, and from some other 
 considerations which have been stated in the preceding 
 chapter. But many of the properties which water possesses 
 are wonderfully conducive to our comfort, to the supply of 
 our daily wants, and to the maintenance of the existing 
 condition of things. 
 
 1. Thus, even the unheeded property of its freedom from 
 smell and taste is important to animal comfort. Sweet 
 odours are grateful to our nostrils at times, and pleasant 
 savours give a relish to our rarer kinds of food. But health 
 fails in an atmosphere which is ever loaded with incense and
 
 PROPERTIES OF PURE WATER. 27 
 
 perfumes, or where the palate is daily pampered with high- 
 seasoned dishes and constant sweets. The nerves of smell 
 and taste do not bear patiently a constant irritation, and 
 the whole body suffers when a single nerve is continually 
 jarred. Hence it is that water and air, which have to enter 
 so often into the animal body, and to penetrate to its most 
 delicate and most sensitive organs and tissues, are made so 
 destitute of sensible properties that they can come and go 
 to any part of the frame without being perceived. Noise- 
 lessly, as it were, they glide over the most touchy nerves ; 
 and, so long as they are tolerably pure, they may make a 
 thousand visits to the extremest parts of the body without 
 producing the most momentary irritation or sense of pain. 
 Externally, also, they can be applied to the most delicate, 
 inflamed, or skinless parts of the body, not only without 
 irritating, but generally with the most grateful and soothing 
 effects. These negative properties, which are common both 
 to air and water though, as I have said, they are rarely 
 thought of are nevertheless most essential to our daily 
 comfort. 
 
 2. Again, water possesses a cooling property, which is 
 very grateful to all living things. The priceless value of 
 water in "a dry and thirsty land" arises mainly from the 
 necessity of constantly supplying that which, in a dry and 
 warm atmosphere, is constantly evaporating from the skin and 
 the lungs. But in all climates water has a cooling power, 
 which gives it a new value, to the hot and fevered animal. 
 When taken into the mouth and stomach, or when poured 
 over the inflamed skin, it cools more than an equal weight 
 of any other liquid or solid substance we could apply. This 
 arises from the circumstance, that it takes more heat to give 
 a sensible warmth to water than to an equal weight of any 
 othei common substance. Thus the same quantity of heat 
 which is required to raise the temperature of 1 Ib. of water
 
 28 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 a single degree (from 60 to 61 for example), would givo 
 an equal increase of temperature to 30 Ib. of quicksilver ; 
 and so, again, to convert water into vapour, requires more 
 heat than an equal weight of any other liquid we consume. 
 Hence, when water evaporates from the skin, it serves as a 
 constant cooler of the surface ; while the vapour, which 
 escapes with the breath, cools equally the interior of the 
 body. It is really very interesting to observe how the great 
 capacity of liquid water for heat makes it so gratefully cool- 
 ing as it enters the body ; and how its still greater capacity 
 for heat, when passing from the liquid state to the state of 
 steam, enables it so constantly to bear away from us the 
 germs of fever, as it escapes from our bodies in the form of 
 insensible vapour. 
 
 3. But the peculiar composition of water is also a very 
 important circumstance to animal and vegetable life. It 
 consists of ox}*gen and hydrogen ; and all the solid parts of 
 animals and plants contain these same elements in large pro- 
 portion. In the dry wood of the tree, for example, and in 
 the dry flesh and bone of the animal, both are present. Now, 
 as the plant and animal increase in size, oxygen and hydro- 
 gen are required for the formation of their growing parts, 
 and water is everywhere at hand to supply these necessary 
 ingredients. This is a chemical duty which no other liquid 
 but water could equally perform. Water, in discharging 
 this duty, is not merely the drink, as we usually call it, but 
 is really part of the food both of animal and plant. 
 
 4. Further, pure water possesses the property of mix- 
 ing with some other fluids, such as alcohol (strong spirits) 
 in all proportions; merely weakening or diluting their 
 strength. With others, again as with oil it refuses to 
 mingle. Solid substances it has the property of dissolving ; 
 and upon this property depend many of the most useful pur- 
 poses served by water, in reference both to animal and vege- 
 table life.
 
 WATER NEVER PURE IN NAUURE. 29 
 
 If a piece of sugar and a piece of glass be put together 
 into a quantity of water, the former will dissolve and dis- 
 appear, while the water will remain for any length of time 
 in the water unaltered in form or in weight. Water does 
 not dissolve all bodies therefore. Sugar is soluble glass is 
 insoluble in this liquid. 
 
 Again, if into two equal quantities of water we introduce 
 loaf-sugar and common salt the sugar into the one and the 
 salt into the other as long as they are respectively dis- 
 solved and disappear, we shall see that 1 Ib. of water will 
 dissolve perhaps 2 Ib. of sugar, forming a thick syrup, 
 while it will only dissolve 5$ oz. of common salt. Thus, of 
 those substances which dissolve in water, some are much 
 more soluble disappear, that is, in larger quantity than 
 others do. 
 
 In nature, water is never found perfectly pure ; that 
 which descends in rain is contaminated by the impurities it 
 washes out of the air ; that which rises in springs, by the 
 substances it meets with in the earth itself. In rivers, the 
 impurity of the water is frequently visible to the eye. 
 It is often of a red colour as it flows through rocks of red 
 marl which contain much oxide of iron in their composition ; 
 it descends milky from the glaciers of Iceland and the slopes 
 of the Andes, because of the white earth it holds in suspension; 
 it is often grey or brown in our muddiest English rivers ; 
 it is always brown where it issues from boggy lakes, or runs 
 across a peaty country ; it is sometimes black to the eye 
 when the quantity of vegetable matter is excessive, as in the 
 Rio Negro of South America ; and it is green in the Gey- 
 sers of Iceland, in the Swiss lakes, among the islands of the 
 South Sea, and around our own islands, because of the yellow 
 matters which it everywhere holds in suspension or solution. 
 Only in clear and deep waters like those of the Bay of 
 Naples, and in parts of the Pacific, where minute objects
 
 30 THE WATER WE DRIXK. 
 
 m,ay be seen on the bottom some hundreds of feet down is 
 the real blue colour natural to water, in large masses, dis- 
 tinctly perceptible.* 
 
 But among the rocky and other materials which water 
 meets with in and upon the earth, there are many which it 
 can dissolve, as it does salt and sugar, and the presence of 
 which cannot be detected by the sense of sight. Hence the 
 clearest and brightest of waters those of springs and trans- 
 parent- rivers, even when filtered are never pure ; they all 
 contain in solution a greater or less quantity of saline matter, 
 sometimes so much as to give them a decided taste, and to 
 form what are hence called mineral waters. 
 
 Among the purest natural waters hitherto examined is 
 that of the Loka, in the north of Sweden, which flows over 
 hard impenetrable granite and other rocks, upon which 
 water produces little impression. It contains only ^V of a 
 grain (0.0566) of solid mineral matter in the imperial gallon. 
 Some waters in the granite regions of the north of Scotland, 
 and even some springs which rise through the green-sand in 
 Surrey, contain as little as 4 or 5 grains in the gallon. The 
 water which is supplied to the city of Edinburgh contains 
 7 to 14 grains in the gallon,f and that of the Thames, near 
 London, about 21. These are both comparatively pure 
 waters, and are very good for general consumption. That 
 of the river Wear, which supplies the city of Durham, con- 
 tains 15^ grains in the gallon, and is still a good water for 
 domestic use. That which is used in the town of Sunder- 
 land, and is obtained from the lower new red sandstone, 
 contains 27 grains in the gallon. Some of the other waters 
 supplied to and used in London and its neighbourhood, 
 
 * This is the blue which is seen in the azure grotto of the Isle of Capri, iii 
 the Bay of Naples, and in the deep, indigo-like waters of some parts of the Medi- 
 terranean and Adriatic seas. 
 
 t This is 1 to 2 parts by weight in 10,000 of the waters a gallon of pure water 
 at 60= Fahr. weighing 70,000 grains. .
 
 SALINE MATTER IN LONDON WATERS. 31 
 
 and which are not derived from the Thames, contain, in a 
 gallon 
 
 New River Company, . . 19J grs. in the gallon. 
 
 East London Water Company, . 23J 
 
 Kent Water Company, . . 29J- 
 
 Hanipstead Water Company, . 35J to 40 
 
 Deep-bore wells, . . . 83 to 33 
 
 Other drinking-waters contain more even than these. 
 Some which are in constant use contain twice as much 
 even the waters of the holy Jordan contain 73 grains to the 
 gallon but generally, in the waters of average purity which 
 are employed for domestic purposes, there are not present 
 more than from 20 to 30 grains of solid matter in the impe- 
 rial gallon. 
 
 Generally speaking also, rain water which falls in remote 
 country districts is the purest; then comes river water; 
 next, the water of lakes ; after these, common spring- waters ; 
 and then the water of mineral springs. The waters of the 
 Black Sea, and the Sea of Azof, which are only brackish, 
 follow next ; then those of the great ocean ; then those of 
 the Mediterranean,* and inland sea; and last of all come 
 those of lakes which, like the Caspian Sea, the Dead Sea, 
 and Lake Aral, possess no known outlet. All the solid 
 matter which the rivers carry into the sea remains there, 
 while the water which brings it is continually rising again 
 in vapor. This vapor, as we have seen, descends in the 
 form of rain on the interior of continents, and there dis- 
 solves, and thence carries down new supplies of mineral 
 matter to the sea. In this way saline matter "has accumu- 
 lated in the oceau till its waters have become briny and bit- 
 ter to the taste. In the same way, also, it has accumulated 
 in the Caspian and Dead Seas the more rapid evaporation 
 
 * Off the coast of Havre, for example, the sea water does not contain more than 
 3} ; while in the Mediterranean it contains 3} per cent of saline matter. The com- 
 position or quality of this saline matter is nearly the saino in each case.
 
 32 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 in these parts of the world, the unfrequsnt rains, and proba- 
 bly the neighborhood of deposits of rock-salt, having aided 
 in making these inland waters so much salter than those of 
 the great-oceans. The waters of the great ocean, and its 
 branches, contain from 2200 to 2800 grains of saline matter 
 in the gallon; those of the Dead Sea in some places 11,000; 
 in others, as much as 21,000 grains, or one-fourth part of 
 their whole weight. Those of a small lake east of the 
 steppes of the Wolga, contain as much as three-fifths of their 
 weight of saline matter. 
 
 Common salt is the most abundant kind of saline matter 
 which occurs in sea water ; but it contains also the chlorides 
 of calcium and magnesium,* and some other salts, in consi- 
 derable proportion. One of the most recent examinations 
 of sea water has been made by Riegel. His sample, taken 
 off the coast of Havre, contained, in 1000 parts by weight 
 3l parts of solid matter (2250 grains in the gallon), con- 
 sisting of 
 
 Chloride of sodinm (common gait), 
 Chloride of potassium. . . 
 
 Chloride of caldmii. . . 
 
 Chloride of magnesium, 
 Bromide of magnesium, 
 Sulphate of lime (gypsum), . 
 
 Sulphate of magnesia t (Epsom salts), 
 Carbonate of lime (chalk), . 
 
 Caibonate of magnesia, 
 
 24632 
 0.30T 
 0.439 
 2.564 
 0.14T 
 1.09T 
 2.146 
 0.1 T6 
 O.OT3 
 
 31.586 
 
 The reader will observe that, next to common salt, the 
 comp'ouiids of magnesia are most abundant in sea water. 
 The same is the case with the waters of the Dead Sea and 
 
 * Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas, which combines with metals and forms chlo- 
 rides ; bromine, a dark red liquid, forms bromides ; iodine, a lead-grey solid, forms 
 iodides. 
 
 t Sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, unites with lime, magnesia, soda, &c., and forms 
 sulphates. *
 
 COMPOSITION OF SEA WATER. 33 
 
 other very salt lakes, and to this they chiefly owe their acrid 
 bitter taste. 
 
 Besides the substances above named, traces of phosphate 
 of lime, of silica, of the oxides of iron and manganese, of 
 iodine, of fluorine, and even of lead, copper, silver, and arse- 
 nic, have been detected in sea water. Indeed, we know that, 
 being the common reservoir into which all soluble substances 
 are washed down by the rains and rivers, we ought to find 
 in the sea traces of all the soluble substances which are ca- 
 pable of existing together in the same solution. 
 
 Even the spring and river waters employed for domestic 
 purposes often contain a considerable variety of substances. 
 Thus the water of the Thames, taken at Kew by the Grand 
 Junction Water Company, and that supplied to London by 
 the Kent Water Company, contain, respectively, in an impe- 
 rial gallon 
 
 Thames Kent 
 
 water. Water Company. 
 
 Carbonate of lime (chalk), .... 10.90 grs. 7.02 grs. 
 
 Sulphate of lime (gypsum), . . . . 8.26 11.03 
 
 Nitrate of lime, ..... trace 0.07 
 
 Carbonate of magnesia, .... 1.17 ., 8.42 
 
 Chloride of sodium (common salt), . . 1.40 3.50 
 
 Sulphate of soda, 0.1S 
 
 Chloride of potassium .... 0.44 
 
 Sulphate of potash .... 0.61 0.70 
 
 Silica 0.44 0.76 
 
 Iron, alumina, and phosphates, . . . 0.67 trace 
 
 Organic matter, with a trace of ammonia . 8.07 2.61 . 
 
 21.70 29.55 
 
 Lime, in combination with carbonic acid (carbonate), 
 and with sulphuric acid (sulphate), is the most abundant 
 substance in these two waters. Indeed, it very often exists 
 in large quantity, especially in spring waters ; and it is 
 chiefly to the lime and magnesia they contain, that what are 
 called hard waters owe their property of curdling with soap.
 
 34 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 Pure waters are always soft ; and when a water is tolerably 
 soft, it may be inferred that it does not contain any large 
 proportion of lime, or magnesia. 
 
 Waters which contain much lime are often bright and 
 sparkling to the eye, and agreeably sweet to the taste. 
 They generally become somewhat milky when boiled, and 
 leave a sediment, which incrusts the inside of kettles or 
 boilers. When strongly impregnated with lime, they will 
 even deposit a calcareous coating along their channels 
 as they flow in the open air, or will incrust, or petrify, as it 
 is called, any solid substances which are immersed in them. 
 These circumstances are owing to the peculiar way in which 
 the lime is held in solution. 
 
 We have already seen that, if a current of carbonic acid 
 be made to pass through lime-water (as in fig. 5), the trans- 
 parent liquid will become at first milky, from the formation 
 of carbonate of lime, which remains suspended in the form 
 of a very fine powder ; but if the current of carbonic acid be 
 continued, the milkiness will gradually disappear, the car- 
 bonate of lime will be re-dissolved, and the liquid will again 
 become clear. The carbonate of lime is held in solution by 
 an excess of carbonic acid. 
 
 If, now, the clear solution be poured from one vessel to 
 another for a number of times, it will gradually give off this 
 excess of carbonic acid into the air, and become milky again. 
 This is what happens when calcareous springs incrust the 
 sides of their channels, as in Auvergne, or at Matlock and 
 Knaresborough in our own country. Or if a coin or other solid 
 substance be introduced into the solution, bubbles of car- 
 bonic acid gas will gradually be given off, and the substance 
 will become incrusted with lime the carbonate of lime 
 which falls. This is exactly what takes place in a petrify- 
 ing well. Or if the solution be heated over the fire, the ex-
 
 HOW SPRINGS PETRIFY. 35 
 
 cess of carbonic acid is driven off, the solution becomes 
 milky as oefore, and the whole of the lime falls in the form 
 of carbonate, leaving the water nearly pure. The incrusta- 
 tion in pur kettles and boilers is chiefly produced in this 
 latter way. Hard waters, therefore, are generally made 
 much softer and purer by boiling. Should much of the lime, 
 however as in the water supplied by the Kent Water Com- 
 pany, above noticed be in the state of gypsum, mere boil- 
 ing will not alone soften it ; but if a little soda be added to 
 it during the boiling, this will separate the lime of the gyp- 
 sum also. 
 
 As this solvent power of water enables it to take up 
 many substances from the rocks and soils through which it 
 passes, it often happens that, in the neighbourhood of dwell- 
 ings and farmyards, and especially in towns, the water of 
 wells becomes very impure, and even unwholesome to drink. 
 The rains that fall upon the filth that accumulates in towns 
 wash out the soluble substances it contains, carry them into 
 the soil, and through this, by degrees, to the wells by which 
 the wants of the inhabitants are supplied. This has, often 
 been productive of serious and fatal disease. It shows, 
 therefore, the propriety of preventing, as far as possible, 
 the accumulation of refuse, and, where such accumulation is 
 unavoidable, of placing it at the greatest distance from wells 
 which yield water for daily use. And, especially, it shows 
 the necessity of bringing water from a distance for the supply 
 of large cities. 
 
 The neighbourhood of grave-yards is equally fitted, with 
 the accumulation of town refuse, to adulterate water with 
 undesirable admixtures. The water of a well which is close 
 to the old churchyard on the top of Highgate Hill, has lately 
 been examined by Mr. Noad, and found to contain as much 
 as 100 grains of solid matter to the gallon, consisting of
 
 36 THE WATER WE DKINK. 
 
 Nitrate of lime, 
 
 Nitrate of magnesia, 
 
 Sulphate of potash, 
 
 Sulphate of soda (Glauber salts), 
 
 Chloride of sodium (common salt), 
 
 Chloride of calcium. 
 
 Silica, . 
 
 40.12 grains*. 
 
 1T.06 
 1T.04 
 9.52 
 9.63 
 5.91 
 0.90 
 
 " 
 
 100.13 grains. 
 
 This large amount of nitrates * is traced to the neighbouring 
 graA T e-yard, as such compounds are generally produced where 
 animal matters decay in porous soils. While the buried 
 bodies were more recenfl, animal matters of a more disagree- 
 able kind would probably have been found in the well, as I 
 have myself found them in the water of wells sit^ted in the 
 neighbourhood of farmyards. 
 
 Well-waters sometimes contain vegetable substances also 
 of a peculiar kind, which render them unwholesome, even 
 over large tracts of country. In sandy districts the decay- 
 ing vegetable matters of the surface-soil are observed to 
 sink down and form an ochrey pan, or thin yellow layer in 
 the subspil, which is impervious to water*, and through which, 
 therefore, the rains cannot pass. Being arrested, by this 
 pan, the rain water, while it rests upon it, dissolves a certain 
 portion of the vegetable matter ; and when collected into 
 wells, is often dark coloured, marshy in taste and smell, and 
 unwholesome to drink. ( When boiled, the organic matter 
 coagulates, and when the water cools separates in flocks, 
 leaving the water wholesome^, and nearly free from taste or 
 smell. The same purification takes place when the water is 
 filtered through charcoal, or when chips of oak wood are put 
 into it. These properties of being coagulated by boiling, 
 and by the tannin of oak wood, show that the organic matter 
 
 * The nitrates consist of nitric acid (aquafortis) combined with lime, magnesia, 
 &c. Saltpetre is nitrate of potash, consisting of nitric acid combined with potash, 
 and so on.
 
 THE WATERS OF MAllAIi. 37 
 
 contained in the water is of an albuminous character, or re- 
 sembles white of egg. As it coagulates, it not only falls 
 itself, but it carries other impurities along with it, and thus 
 purifies the water in the same way as the white of egg 
 clarifies wines and other liquors to which it is added. 
 
 Such is the character of the waters in common use in the 
 Landes of the Gironde around Bordeaux,* and in many 
 other sandy districts. The waters of rivers, and of marshy 
 and swampy places, often con tain, a similar coagulable sub- 
 stance. Hence the waters of the Seine at Paris are clari- 
 fied by introducing a morsel of alum, and the river and 
 marshy waters of India by the use of the nuts of the Sfrrych- 
 nos potatorum, of which travellers often carry a supply. 
 One or two of these nuts, rubbed to powder on the side of 
 the earthen vessel into which the water is to be poured, soon 
 causes the impurities to subside. In Egypt, the muddy 
 water of the .Nile is clarified by rubbing bitter almonds on 
 the sides of the water-vessel in the same way. 
 
 In all these instances the principle of the clarification is 
 the same. The albuminous matter is coagulated by what is 
 added to the- water, and in coagulating it embraces the other 
 impurities of the water, and carries them down along with it. 
 
 These cases, and especially that of the sandy Landes of 
 Bordeaux, and elsewhere, throw an interesting light upon 
 the history of the waters of Marah, as given in the fifteenth 
 chapter of Exodus. 
 
 " So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea ; and 
 they went out into the wilderness of Shur ; and they went 
 three days in the wilderness and found no water. And 
 when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the 
 waters of Marah, for they were bitter : therefore the name 
 of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against 
 Moses, saying, What shall we drink ? And he cried unto 
 
 * FATTRK, Annales de Chem. et de Phys., Scptembre, 1853, p. 84.
 
 38 THE WATER WE OH INK. 
 
 the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he 
 had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet."* 
 
 As in our European sandy dunes, the waters of the sandy 
 wilderness may contain an albumen-like substance which an 
 astringent plant will coagulate. The discovery of such a 
 plant among the natural vegetation of the desert would give, 
 therefore, the means of purifying and rendering it whole- 
 some, as cuttings of the oak tree render salubrious the waters 
 of the Landes of La Gironde. 
 
 5. Water, also, absorbs or dissolves different kinds of 
 air or gas in different proportions ; and upon this property 
 depend some things which are familiar to us in common life, 
 and which, therefore, it may be proper to mention. Thus 
 First. It absorbs its own bulk of carbonic acid gas and 
 it does so under every pressure. 
 
 The meaning of this is explained as follows. We take a 
 strong, tall, glass jar (fig. 9), graduated into five equal 
 Fig. 9. divisions, and provided with an air-tight piston, p. 
 Into this jar we pour pure water up to the first 
 division (1), fill up the jar quickly with carbonic 
 p acid, fit in the piston and shake the jar. The 
 4 piston will then gradually sink one division (to 4) 
 that is, the water will dissolve or absorb its own 
 volume of the gas, under the ordinary pressure of 
 2 the atmosphere. But if, the arrangement being 
 as before, we apply at once to the piston rod r a 
 pressure equal to another atmosphere lolb. to 
 the square inch the piston will immediately sink 
 two divisions (to 3), or the gas will be compressed to half 
 its bulk. If the whole be now shaken, the piston will, as at 
 first, gradually sink one division (to 2). In other words, the 
 water will again absorb its own bulk of the gas under this 
 increased pressure. 
 
 * Exodns, rv. 28.
 
 INFLUENCE OF PRESSURE. 39 
 
 Or, if we apply at once a pressure of three atmospheres 
 45 lb., making, with the ordinary atmosphere, four in all, or 
 60 Ib. to the inch, which press upon it the piston will sink 
 at once three divisions (to 2), reducing the gas to one-fourth 
 of its bulk. If, now, the water be agitated, the piston will 
 again gradually sink one division, and the whole gas will 
 disappear that is, the water will again absorb its own bulk 
 of the gas at this new pressure. 
 
 If, now, the applied pressure of 45 lb. be removed, the 
 gas will gradually rise out of the water and force up the 
 piston, till it finally rests, as in the first experiment, at the 
 division No. 4, the water retaining only its own bulk of the 
 gas at the ordinary pressure of one atmosphere. 
 
 It is because of this interesting property that, with the 
 aid of machinery, water can be overcharged with carbonic 
 acid in the soda-water manufactories, and that the gas escapes 
 with so much violence from a soda-water bottle when the 
 cork is withdrawn. 
 
 But the result is the same whether the carbonic acid be 
 forced into the water ready prepared as is done by the 
 soda-water maker or is formed in the bottle itself from 
 substances contained in the water. The latter is the case in 
 all fermenting liquors contained in bottles. The carbonic 
 acid is gradually produced in the interior of the bottle dur- 
 ing the progress of the chemical change we call fermentation. 
 As fast as it is produced the water dissolves it, the pressure 
 of the gas upon the inner surface of the bottle increasing at 
 the same time. If the bottle be of sufficient strength, the 
 only consequence is, that the cork will be forced out if not 
 firmly tied down ; or that, when the cork is withdrawn, the 
 gas will drive out the liquor in its own eagerness to escape. 
 If the bottle be too weak, it will be burst by the pressure, as 
 often happens with soda-water ; and, sometimes, to thousands 
 of bottles at a time in champagne cellars. In other wines,
 
 40 THE WATER WE DRINK. 
 
 and in beer and porter, especially when well hopped, carbonic 
 acid is produced in smaller quantity. But it is to the pre- 
 sence of this gas, dissolved in this way, that the latter 
 liquors owe their briskness when poured from the bottle, and 
 to the natural escape of the gas that they become flat, stale, 
 or dead, as we call it, when they are exposed to the air. 
 
 Water absorbs also the gases, oxygen and nitrogen of 
 which the atmosphere chiefly consists but not in the precise 
 proportions in which they exist in the air. We have seen that 
 the air we breathe contains about 21 per cent, of oxygen, but 
 in the air which we can extract from water it exists to the 
 amount of 31 to 33 per cent. This, among other purposes, is 
 an adaptation to the wants of fishes, and generally of those 
 marine animals which extract the oxygen they require for 
 the support of life, from the water in which they live. They 
 can obtain the necessary supply of this gas more easily from 
 air which contains one-third than from one which contains 
 only one-fifth of this vital principle. If proof of this were 
 required, it is found in the observation that, where circum- 
 stances have been such as to deprive river water of a portion 
 of its oxygen, the fish have been found dead in great numbers. 
 
 It has recently been discovered by Hayes, that the water 
 of the sea contains more oxygen near its surface than at a 
 depth of one or two hundred feet. This is probably con-* 
 nected with the comparative scarcity of animal life at great 
 depths. 
 
 This tendency of water to dissolve more oxygen, in pro- 
 portion to the nitrogen, than exists in common air, explains 
 another curious circumstance which long puzzled philoso- 
 phers as well as ordinary people. If a bottle be filled quite 
 full with snow, be well corked, and then put into a warm 
 room, the snow will melt, and the bottle will be filled, per- 
 haps, one-third with water and two-thirds with air. If this 
 air be examined, it will be found to contain less oxygen than 
 atmospheric air sometimes not more than 12 or 14 per
 
 AIR CONTAINED IN SNOW. 41 
 
 cent. ; while atmospheric air, as we have seen, contains 21 
 per cent. Hence it was long supposed that the air, always 
 present in snow, naturally contained this small proportion 
 of oxygen, and that snow, therefore, possessed some peculiar 
 property of absorbing the gases of the atmosphere in this 
 new proportion. But the explanation is, that the snow, in 
 melting into water, takes up a larger proportionate quantity 
 of the oxygen than it does of the nitrogen of the air which 
 was contained in its pores, and consequently leaves a smaller 
 proportion behind. 
 
 Thus the water we drink, like the air we breathe, is a 
 substance of much chemical interest. Both are indispensa- 
 ble to the existence of life ; both are mixed in nature with 
 many substances not essential to their composition ; and 
 both, in their most important properties, exhibit many direct 
 relations to the growth of plants and to the wants and com- 
 forts of living animals.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 Genera, origin of soils ; natural differences in their quality ; how it arises. Stratified 
 and nnstratifled rocks. Soils of tlie stratified rocks. Improved soils where differ- 
 ent rocks intermix. Soils of the granites, traps, and lavas. Agency of rains, winds, 
 and vegetable accumulations in producing diversities of soil. General chemical 
 composition of soils. Illustrations afforded by the Atlantic border of the United 
 States. Some plants affect sandy soils, others clay soils, and yet do not always 
 flourish upon them. Cause of this. Minute chemical composition of the soil; its 
 mineral and organic parts. Chemical difference between granite and trap soils. 
 Dependence of fertility on chemical compositior. Influence of rain and moisture, 
 and of the degree of warmth, on comparative fertility. District floras and crops. 
 Influence of man in modifying geological, chemical, and climatic tendencies. Pro- 
 gress of exhausting culture in new regions ; example of North America. Reclaim- 
 ing influences of human exertion ; example of Great Britain. 
 
 IN immediate importance to man, the soil he cultivates is 
 scarcely inferior to the air he breathes, or the water he 
 drinks. Upon the plants which the soil produces he and all 
 other animals depend for their daily sustenance. Hence, 
 where the soil is fruitful, animal life is abundant ; where it 
 yields only sparingly, animals are few, and human inhabit- 
 ants, as a general rule, but sparsely scattered. 
 
 The soil is formed, for the most part, from the rocks of 
 which the crust of the earth is composed. By the action 
 of air and water these rocks crumble, and their surface be-
 
 DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF SOILS. 43 
 
 comes covered with loose materials. The seeds of plants 
 are sprinkled over them by the winds ; they germinate and 
 grow up ; animals come to feed upon them ; both plants and 
 animals die ; and thus a mixture of decayed rock, with the 
 remains of animals and plants, gradually overspreads the 
 entire surface of the dry land. It is to this mixture that we 
 apply the name of soil. 
 
 But the soil thus naturally formed differs in quality, 
 from various causes. The rocks which crumble differ in 
 chemical composition ; their crumbled fragments are spread 
 over the surface, and sorted by wind and water in different 
 ways ; and the kind and quantity of the animal and vegeta- 
 ble matters they are mixed with differ much. Through the 
 agency of these and similar causes of diversity, many varie- 
 ties of soil are produced, which are not only unlike to each 
 other in their sensible properties, but very different also in 
 their agricultural value. 
 
 If we examine with a little attention the numerous rocks 
 we meet with in travelling over a country like our own, an 
 important difference in their physical structure will early 
 strike us. Some are seen to form hills, cliffs, or mountains, 
 which consist each of a single huge lump or mass, cracked 
 here and there, perhaps irregularly, but exhibiting no con- 
 tinuous division into distinct parts or portions. Others 
 again are as clearly divided into layers or beds, spread over 
 each other like vast flagstones of different thicknesses, some- 
 times extending horizontally for distances of many miles. 
 The following section (fig. 10) exhibits these differences of 
 physical appearance. 
 
 Fig. 10.
 
 44 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 The rocks marked A and B are the undivided masses, 
 those marked C D are the rocks which lie in beds. The 
 numbers 123 indicate the groups into which the beds, wheu 
 numerous on any spot, can usually be subdivided. 
 
 The most ignorant of science can observe differences of 
 this kind it requires only the use of the eyes ; and yet 
 this difference of structure is so important, that upon it is 
 founded the division of all rocks into stratified and unstrat- 
 ified. Those which are composed of beds or strata are called 
 stratified, those in which no such partings are visible are 
 called unstratified. 
 
 The stratified rocks cover by far the largest portion of 
 the earth's surface. They are not always quite horizontal, 
 as represented in the above section ; they are more often in- 
 clined, so as to dip into the earth at a greater or less angle. 
 Sometimes they are even piled against each other like flag- 
 stones placed on edge. The following section (fig. 11) ex- 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 hibits these three several modes in which the stratified rocks 
 occur, A showing them on edge, B dipping at a considerable 
 angle, and C D E perfectly horizontal. This disposition of 
 the rocks, it will be seen, must materially affect the quality 
 of the soil, and especially the extent of surface over which 
 any particular soil is to be found. If the quality of the soil 
 depend in any degree upon the quality of the rock, the 
 changes of soil must be very frequent where the surface is 
 formed of the edges only of different rocks, as is seen at A 
 andB. 
 
 These stratified rocks consist essentially of one or more 
 of three different kinds of matter only : limestones, sand-
 
 MIXED SOILS. 45 
 
 stones, and clays, more or less hard, form the substance of 
 them all. When a limestone crumbles, it forms a calcareous 
 soil ; a sandstone, a sandy soil ; and a hard clay rock, a 
 more or less tenacious clay soil. Hence, these are the three 
 leading qualities of soil known and spoken of among practi- 
 cal men. 
 
 But many rocks do not consist altogether either of lime- 
 stone, of sandstone, or of clay, but of a mixture of each in 
 varied proportions. The crumbling of such rocks, therefore, 
 gives rise to soils of various intermediate qualities, neither 
 calcareous, properly speaking, nor sandy nor clayey ; and 
 these form, for the most part, those more open, fertile, and 
 valuable loams, which the farmers of every country prefer 
 to cultivate. 
 
 Similar mixed soils are also naturally produced where 
 the edges of different rocks overlap each other, and mingle 
 their mutual debris. Thus, when the fragments of a rock 
 rich in lime naturally intermix with one poor in this ingre- 
 dient, the soil produced is of a much better and more useful 
 quality than when the surface is formed by the fragments 
 of one of the rocks only. This is illustrated in the south of 
 England in many places, where the materials of the plastic 
 clay, the chalk, and the green-sand, meet and intermingle, 
 as seen in the following section, (fig. 12). 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 "Wheat and Barley soils. Stiff clay, 
 
 hop land. Thin downs. Ware malt. Wheat soils. 
 
 Green- Sand. 
 
 This woodcut represents the plastic clay as coming in 
 contact with the chalk which lies below it, and the chalk 
 again coming in contact with the upper green-sand, upon
 
 46 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 which it rests. At the first point of contact the heavy diffi- 
 cult clays change into open barley soils, producing a grain 
 which, for quality and malting properties, is not excelled by 
 any in the kingdom. And, again, at the contact of the chalk 
 and upper green-sand, the mixed soil is equally celebrated 
 for its crops of wheat, and for the fertility of its hop- 
 gardens. 
 
 The unstratified rocks, again, consist chiefly of three 
 varieties the granites, the traps, and the lavas. These 
 rocks also crumble more or less rapidly, and produce soils 
 which, in granitic countries, are generally poor, over trap- 
 rocks generally rich, and upon decayed lavas, often remark- 
 able for fertility. In the granite districts of Devonshire 
 and Scotland we see the poor soils which this rock produces, 
 and in the low country of Scotland, and in the north of Ire- 
 land, the rich soils of the trap. Italy and Sicily, and every 
 other volcanic country in the Old World, exhibit in their 
 soils the fertilizing influence of the modern lavas. 
 
 In new countries the same phenomena reappear, similar 
 rocks everywhere producing similar soils. Thus, at the base of 
 the famous gold-bearing mountains of Victoria, stretches " a 
 fertile and beautiful country the garden of Australia Felix 
 the rich soil of which is the product of decomposed lava."* 
 And for ages, probably, after the gold mine's have been for- 
 gotten, these rich park-like plains will continue to yield 
 luxuriant harvests of golden grain to the industrious cul- 
 tivator. 
 
 But the earth's surface is varied with hill and valley, 
 mountain and plain, so that the rains which fall are able to 
 flow along the slopes, and to gather themselves into rivulets, 
 streams, and rivers. In so flowing they wash out the finer 
 and lighter particles from among the fragments of the 
 crumbled rocks, and carry them into the valleys and plains. 
 
 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, is. 75.
 
 SOILS MODIFIED BY PHYSICAL CAUSES. 47 
 
 The constant repetition of this washing gradually sorts the 
 fragments of each rock, spreading the finer portions on the 
 lower ground and along the courses of rivers, and leaving 
 on the hills and slopes the coarser and less easily transported 
 materials. 
 
 Hence from the same rock different varieties of soil arise. 
 Coarse sands and gravels may overspread the higher ground, 
 while fine sand, clays, or loams, cover the plains or valleys 
 beneath. From a mixed stratified rock the clay or lime may 
 be washed out and spread over the low plains, leaving only 
 a poor and barren sand on the slopes above ; or from a de- 
 caying granite the felspar-clay may be washed down, leaving 
 the hungry and unfertile quartz to cover the naked rock. 
 
 In some countries, winds play a similar part. They lick 
 up the fine dust as they sweep over a country, and carry it 
 often far away to other regions ; or, rushing from the sea, 
 they bear inland the sands of the shore, and cover with sandy 
 downs or barren deserts soils which are naturally rich and 
 productive in vegetable food. 
 
 Thus physical causes modify the quality of the soils 
 which different rocks naturally tend to produce. They as- 
 sort or re-arrange the materials of which' a rock consists, 
 and they often bear to great distances, and spread over other 
 rocks, the finer particles into which it crumbles. The so-called 
 alluvial soils, which border so many of our rivers, are pro- 
 duced by such a sorting, produced through the agency of water. 
 The sandy downs of European countries, and many of the 
 desert regions of Africa and Asia, owe their existence to 
 the sorting agency of the wind. 
 
 Vegetation also has its influence. When a tree or 
 humbler plant dies on a dry surface, it gradually decays, 
 and disappears into the air. Let it be immersed in stagnant 
 water, and it blackens, falls to pieces, and crumbles, per- 
 haps, but in substance long remains where it fell. Let
 
 48 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 others grow up, die, and fall on the same moist spot, and 
 the black vegetable matter will accumulate from year to 
 year. In this way, where shallow water rests on an imper- 
 vious bottom, peat-bogs and other collections of vegetable 
 matter gradually cover the surface. They bury the frag- 
 ments of the crumbled rocks sometimes under a great depth 
 of vegetable matter, and form those unmanageable peaty 
 soils which overspread so large a portion of Scotland, and 
 especially of the north and west of Ireland. 
 
 Such are the principal natural causes of diversity in 
 soils. In the chemical composition of the rocks we recognise 
 the fundamental or primary cause ; in the physical distribu- 
 tion of rains and winds, and in their mechanical action, an 
 important secondary cause ; and in the growth and accumu- 
 lation of vegetable matter, a third more special and less 
 widely operating agent in the production of such diversities. 
 
 By these agencies are formed the varieties of soil gen- 
 erally described as sandy soils, clay soils, limestone or marly 
 soils, and peaty soils. These terms all indicate important 
 chemical differences, though practical men have hitherto had 
 their attention too little drawn to the influence which chemi- 
 cal composition exercises over agricultural value. The sandy 
 soil is distinguished by consisting chiefly of quartzose or 
 silicious sand another form of flint, rock-crystal, or the sub- 
 stance which chemists call silica ; the limestone or marly 
 soil, by containing much limestone, chalk, or other variety 
 of what chemists distinguish as carbonate of lime ; the clay 
 soils, by abounding in clay, a compound substance, consist- 
 ing chiefly, besides silica, of a substance to which chemists 
 give the name of alumina. 
 
 But the economical value of a soil is often naturally af- 
 fected by physico-geological considerations, which are alto- 
 gether independent of the chemical composition of the rock
 
 PHYSICO-GEOLOGICAL CAUSES. 49 
 
 from which it is formed. The mere physical character of 
 the rock, for example, from which the soil is formed, often 
 determines not only the kind of husbandry which can be 
 profitably followed, but the class of farmers by whom the 
 land is to be occupied, and even whether it can be profitably 
 cultivated at all. The chalk rocks present an illustration 
 of this. These are in most countries very porous and ab- 
 sorbent. Wells sunk into them yield no water, and super- 
 ficial pits, to receive and retain the rain water, are the main 
 resource of the inhabitants. This, with the thin soils and 
 short grass of our chalk downs, has long determined the con- 
 version of the chalk wolds into extensive sheep-walks. But 
 in countries, by climate and otherwise, unsuited to sheep, 
 and where the little rain that falls is soon licked up by the 
 heats of summer, this use of the land becomes impossible, 
 and an artificial supply of water becomes indispensable to 
 the existence of permanent and extended cultivation. To 
 obtain this, deep wells sunk through the chalk are the only 
 available resource, and this at once determines that the pos- 
 sessors must be men of large means, or at least that the land 
 must be worked by a^tass of wealthy cultivators. The 
 upper portion of the State of Alabama, in North America, 
 is in this condition. Situated on the porous chalk, it is des- 
 titute of surface water, unless where the rivers pass. In a 
 hot climate, its herbage is burned up in summer, so that it 
 is unsuited for a pastoral husbandry. It grows some flinty 
 wheat, but it is almost equally unsuited to be an extensive 
 producer of grain. Devoted chiefly to the cotton culture, it 
 is held in large properties, and hundreds of deep Artesian 
 we*lls already riddle the country, and yield the needful sup- 
 plies of water. 
 
 The following section (fig. 13) of the Atlantic coast-line 
 of North America, from the sea to the mountains, will serve 
 3
 
 50 
 
 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 Swamp 
 willow. 
 
 Bice 
 
 and 
 
 cotton. 
 
 Coloured labour 
 
 Oak 
 
 and 
 hickory. 
 
 Pine forests. 
 
 Sugar Sandy barrens. 
 
 and Dismal swamps. 
 
 tobacco. 
 
 Little cultivation. 
 
 Dry chalk downs. 
 Treeless prairies. 
 
 Georgian wheat 
 Alabama cotton. 
 
 Coloured labour. 
 
 Broad-leaved forest* 
 
 General husbandry. 
 
 White labour. 
 
 Post-tertiary 
 and alluvial. 
 
 Secondary 
 
 chalk marls. 
 
 Artesian wells. 
 
 Primary metamorphic 
 rocks and granite. 
 
 to illustrate nearly all the points I have brought under the 
 notice of the reader in the preceding part of this chapter, 
 in reference at least to the stratified rocks. This section 
 shows : 
 
 1. How, over large tracts of country, the rocks are 
 seen to be at different angles of inclination ; some, as in the 
 high land to the right, standing on their edges ; and some, 
 as the layers of alluvial soil on the sea-shore, lying nearly 
 on a level. 
 
 2. How, over extended areas, the surface rock may con- 
 sist chiefly of clay, as in the post-teBiiary and alluvial depo- 
 sits near the sea ; of sand, as in the tertiary beds ; of lime- 
 stone, as in the chalk marls ; and of mixed materials, as on 
 the hills, where numerous thin beds resting on their edges 
 rapidly succeed each other. 
 
 3. How the character of the soil changes distinctly 
 with the surface rock being rich and productive on the 
 post-tertiaries, sandy and barren on the tertiaries, dry and 
 chalky on the secondary marls, useful and loamy on the 
 slopes of the older mixed and metamorphic rocks. 
 
 4. How the natural vegetation and the artificial pro- 
 
 * The word metamorphic here used means changed or altered as clay, for ex- 
 ample, is changed when it is baked into tiles or bricks.
 
 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 51 
 
 duce of the soil vary in like manner; and how the kind of 
 husbandry, and we might almost say the social state, is de- 
 termined by the character of the dead rocks. It is certain, 
 at least, that tliQ. profitable employment of slave instead of 
 free labour depends very much upon the character of the 
 superficial rocks, of the soils they yield, and of the crops 
 they can readily be made to grow. 
 
 5. And lastly, how dismal peaty swamps disguise the 
 natural character of the surface in some regions ; and how 
 the want of water in others renders profitable cultivation 
 impossible, unless, by expensive borings, it can be brought 
 up from great depths. 
 
 The amount of chemical knowledge embodied in the ge- 
 neral chemical description of soils already given, is useful 
 and satisfactory as explaining their general origin, and is 
 sufficient even to direct the practical man in reference to 
 certain economical operations. Long experience and obser- 
 vation, for example, have made generally known to practical 
 men that certain cultivated plants and trees prefer to grow 
 best upon sandy soils, others on limestone soils, others on 
 clay soils, and others again on soils of a mixed or loamy 
 character. If one of these trees or plants is to be grown, 
 therefore, a sandy or other soil suited to it is sought for ; 
 or if a sandy or clay soil is to be profitably planted or culti- 
 vated, the tree is selected which has been seen to flourish, 
 or the crop which has yielded profitable harvests on other 
 sands or clays of a similar kind. 
 
 But when we come to inquire more particularly into the 
 relations between plants and soils, this elementary chemical 
 knowledge fails us. The same plants do not flourish on all 
 sands, on all clays, or on all marls equally. Why is this ? 
 Or the trees flourish for a while, and then die out ; or the 
 crop for a few years yields remunerative returns, and then 
 ceases to give a profitable harvest. How are these changes
 
 52 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 to be explained ? The soil is as sandy, the clay as stiff, 
 and the marl as rich in lime as ever, and yet the plants 
 which formerly rejoiced in the several soils now refuse to 
 grow in them ! 
 
 A more minute chemical examination answers these ques- 
 tions, and in each case suggests a remedy for the evil com- 
 plained of. This examination shows 
 
 First, That when a weighed portion of perfectly dried 
 soil, of any kind on which plants are capable of growing, is 
 heated to redness in the air, a part of it burns away, and what 
 is left is found to have sensibly diminished in weight. The 
 combustible portion which thus disappears consists of the 
 animal and vegetable (or organic) matter, of which all soils 
 contain a sensible quantity. In some the proportion is very 
 small, as in the sandy soil on which the cinnamon tree grows 
 at Colombo, in Ceylon, which contains only one per cent, of 
 organic matter. In others it is very large, as in our own 
 peaty soils, many of which lose upwards of three-fourths of 
 their weight when burned in the air. 
 
 Second, That the earthy incombustible part of the soil 
 besides the silica of the sandy soils, the alumina of the clays, 
 and the lime of the marly soils contains various other sub- 
 stances, occasionally in large proportions. Among these, 
 potash, soda, magnesia, oxide of iron, sulphuric acid, and 
 phosphoric acid,* are the most important. 
 
 In all soils upon which plants grow well and in a healthy 
 manner, every one of these substances exists. If they are 
 altogether absent, the plant refuses to grow. If they are 
 present in too small quantity, the plant will be stunted and 
 unhealthy. If the same kind of plant be grown for too long 
 a time in the same soil, one or more of these substances will 
 
 * Sulpharic acid, so called from its containing s-. Jphnr, is the name given by chem 
 'fits to oil of vitriol; and phosphoric acid is th white substance produced when 
 phosphorus is burned in the air.
 
 WHAT CHEMICAL ANALYSIS SAYS. 53 
 
 become scarce, either absolutely, or in a form in which the 
 plant can take them up ; and hence the roots will be unable 
 to obtain as much of them as the health and growth of the 
 plant requires. It is plain enough, therefore, why plants 
 often refuse to grow even on the kind of soils they especially 
 prefer, and why, having grown well on them for a while 
 they refuse to do so any longer. The soil does not contair 
 all they require for their support, and in the proper form 
 or having once contained them all in sufficient proportions, 
 it does so no longer. And the remedy for this special evil 
 is equally clear. Add to the soil the mineral ingredients 
 which are deficient, or introduce them in an available form, 
 and the plant will spring up with its old luxuriance. 
 
 In like manner, that part of the soil which burns away 
 the organic part when minutely examined, is found to con- 
 sist of numerous different forms of matter. These are all 
 included, however, in one or other of two groups those 
 which contain the element nitrogen, described in the first 
 chapter,* and those which contain none of this element. All 
 soils in which plants grow well, must contain and be able to 
 yield to the plant a sufficiency of the substances belonging 
 to each of these groups, and especially of those which con- 
 tain nitrogen. If they do this too sparingly, the plant will 
 become sickly ; if they withhold them altogether, the plant 
 will die. 
 
 It is with the organic as with the mineral constituents 
 of the soil, therefore : they may be present too sparingly, 
 and thus the sand-loving plant may refuse to grow even in a 
 sandy soil, or one which loves lime where lime abounds. It 
 may refuse to grow even when all the mineral matters it re- 
 quires are abundant in the soil, because the necessary or- 
 ganic food is still wanting. The full remedy, therefore, is 
 obtained only when we supply to the unproductive soil the 
 
 * Se* THE AIR WE BREATHE.
 
 54 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 necessary organic as well as the necessary inorganic or min- 
 eral matters of which it may staud in need. 
 
 I may in some measure illustrate this by referring to a 
 special case, common in nature, and to which I have already 
 alluded in the present chapter. The granitic rocks, I have 
 said, produce generally poor, the trap rocke, on the other 
 hand, generally fertile soils. To what difference in the 
 mineral matter of the rocks is this economical difference in 
 the soils chiefly to be ascribed ? 
 
 If a piece of each of the two kinds of rock be submitted 
 to analysis, a remarkable but almost constant difference is 
 discovered in their comparative composition. Besides the 
 silica and alumina of which I have already spoken as exist- 
 ing in clays, the granites contain a copious supply of potash 
 and soda, with occasionally minute quantities of magnesia, 
 lime, and oxide of iron. The traps, on the other hand, 
 abound in all these ingredients nearly equally ; and as ex- 
 perience has shown that the presence of all, in sensible pro- 
 portion, is necessary to make a soil fertile, the reason of 
 the natural difference between granite and trap soils becomes 
 at once apparent. The one is defective, while the other 
 abounds in the mineral constituents of a fertile soil. And 
 the means for improving the granite soils become equally 
 apparent. Add, as a first step, the mineral substances in 
 which granite is deficient, and fertility may gradually ensue. 
 It is for this reason that in granite countries the application 
 of lime, in some of its forms, is a favourite practice one 
 discovered to be remunerative long before chemistry had 
 shown the reason why. 
 
 Although, therefore, the first use of the soil in reference 
 to the general vegetation of the globe is to afford to plants 
 a firm anchorage, so- to speak, for their roots and although 
 the growth of many useful plants seems at first fight to be 
 dependent on the rude and general question only, as to
 
 INFLUENCE OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. 55 
 
 whether the soil they occupy be a sand, a clay, or a calcareous 
 marl, yet a minute chemical examination shows that their 
 usefulness to plants is in reality dependent upon the presence 
 of a large number of chemical substances, both of mineral 
 and of organic origin. If these are present, any plants will 
 grow upon them that are suited to their mechanical texture 
 and to the climate of the place. If they are absent, what- 
 ever be the texture of the soil, and whatever the climate, 
 the plant will languish and die. And the whole art of 
 manuring consists in adding to the soil those things in which 
 it is deficient at the right time, in a proper chemical con- 
 dition, and in the requisite proportions. What services, 
 chemical and physiological, the several constituents of the 
 fertile soil really render to the plant that grows upon it, will 
 appear in the succeeding chapter. 
 
 But suppose all the necessary chemical adjustments to 
 be made the composition of the soil, that is, to be such as 
 is usually attendant upon fertility physical conditions and 
 agencies often intervene to falsify the predictions of chem- 
 istry. Thus, the fall of rain may be too small to keep the 
 land in that condition of moisture which is required for the 
 growth of plants. Hence the wide and naked deserts which 
 extend over the rainless regions of the earth's surface. 
 Whatever be the chemical composition of the soil in these 
 regions, vegetation is impossible, and the labour of man, ex- 
 cept he bring in water, almost in vain. Or the surface of 
 a country may be so flat that the rains which descend upon 
 it can find no outlet. They stagnate, therefore, and render 
 it unpropitious to the cultivator, so that fertility cannot 
 show itself, whatever the soil may contain, unless an easy 
 escape for the superfluous water be first provided. Or the 
 rains may fall unseasonably, as they do in Iceland, where 
 they appear in the autumn, when the barley should be ripen-
 
 56 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 ing, in far too copious showers to permit even this hardiest 
 of grain crops to be cultivated with profit in the island. 
 
 So the thermal conditions of a region may interfere with 
 its fertility. Abstract chemistry says, " Let the soil con- 
 tain the necessary constituents, and any crop will grow upon 
 it." But physiology modifies this broad statement, by show- 
 ing, first, that whatever be the chemical composition of the 
 soil, it must possess a certain physical texture before this 
 or that plant will grow well upon it. That which naturally 
 affects a clay soil will not grow well upon a sand ; so one 
 which delights in a blowing sand will languish in a moorish 
 peat, however rich in chemical ingredients it may be. And, 
 second, that the temperature or warmth of a place determines 
 equally whether its naturally rich soils shall grow this crop 
 or that. Upon the combined influences, in fact, of moisture 
 and warmth, which make up what we call climate, depend in 
 a great degree the varied floras and cultivated crops of the 
 different regions of the globe. Thousands of plants, which 
 beneath the tropics produce abundantly, will in the same 
 soil scarcely expand a flower when placed beneath an arctic 
 sky. 
 
 However important, therefore, the geological origin of a 
 soil and its chemical composition may be, where climate is 
 favourable neither are able to effect anything in the way of 
 raising foou for man, where a duly attempered moisture and 
 warmth are wanting. 
 
 But man also exercises an influence on the soil, which ig 
 worthy of attentive study. He lands in a new country, and 
 fertility everywhere surrounds him. The herbage waves 
 thick and high, and the massive trees raise their proud stems 
 loftily towards the sky. He clears a farm from th<r wilder- 
 ness, and ample returns of corn pay him yearly for his sim- 
 ple labours. He ploughs, he sows, he reaps, and from her 
 Beemingly exhaustless bosom the earth gives back abundant
 
 INFLUENCE OF MAN. 57 
 
 harvests. But at length a change appears, creeping slowly 
 over and gradually dimming the smiling landscape. The 
 corn is first less beautiful, then less abundant, and at last it 
 appears to die altogether beneath the resistless scourge of an 
 unknown insect, or a parasitic fungus.* He forsakes, there- 
 fore, his long cultivated farm, and hews out another from 
 the native forest. But the same early plenty is followed by 
 the same vexatious disasters. His neighbours partake of 
 the same experience. They advance like a devouring tide 
 against the verdant woods. They trample them beneath 
 their advancing culture. The axe levels its yearly prey, and 
 generation after generation proceeds in the same direction 
 a wall of green forests on the horizon before them, a half 
 desert and naked region behind. 
 
 Such is the history of colonial culture in our own epoch ; 
 such is the vegetable history of the march of European cul- 
 tivation over the entire continent of America. From the 
 shores of the Atlantic, the unrifled soil retreated first to the 
 Alleghanies and the shores of the great lakes. These are 
 now overpast, and the reckless plunderer, axe in hand, 
 scarcely retarded by the rich banks of the Mississippi and 
 its tributary waters, is hewing his way forward to the Rocky 
 Mountains and the eastern slopes of the Andes. No matter 
 what the geological origin of the soil may be, or what its 
 chemical composition ; no matter how warmth and moisture 
 may favour it, or what the staple crop it has patiently yielded 
 from year to year, the same inevitable fate overtakes it. 
 The influence of long-continued human action overcomes the 
 tendencies of all natural causes. 
 
 I need scarcely refer, as special examples of this fact, to 
 
 * In New England and the British provinces of North America the wheat i 
 overwhelmed by thejfy ; in New Jersey and Maryland, the wide peach-orchards by 
 the lorer, and a mysterious disease called the yellows; and in Alabama the cottos 
 pliant by the rust. 
 
 3*
 
 58 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 the tracts of abandoned land which are still to be seen along 
 the Atlantic borders of Virginia and the Carolinas. It is 
 more interesting to us to look at those parts of America 
 which lie farther towards the north, and which, in modes of 
 culture and kinds of produce, more nearly resemble our 
 own. 
 
 The flat lands which skirt the lower St. Lawrence, and 
 which near Montreal stretch into wide plains, were celebrated 
 as the granary of America in the times of the French do- 
 minion. Fertile in wheat, they yielded for many years a 
 large surplus for exportation ; now they grow less of this 
 grain than is required for the consumption of their own popu- 
 lation. The oat and the potato have taken the pktce of 
 wheat as the staples of Lower Canadian culture, and as the 
 daily sustenance of those who live on the produce of their 
 own farms. 
 
 So, in New England, cultivation of wheat has gradually 
 become unprofitable. The tiller of the worn-out soils of this 
 part of the United States cannot compete with the cultivator 
 of the fresh land yearly won by the axe and the plough from 
 the western wilderness, and he is fain to betake himself to 
 the raising of other crops. The peculiarly wheat-producing 
 zone is yearly shifting itself more completely towards the 
 west. This has long been evident to the careful observer, 
 and to the collector of statistical data. I brought it dis- 
 tinctly before the public in my work on North America.* 
 And a striking proof of the correctness of my views is 
 afforded by the subsequent returns of the United States 
 census of 1850. From these it appears that, while the pro- 
 duce of wheat in the New England States in 1840 amounted 
 to 2,014,000 bushels, it was reduced in 1850 to 1,078,000 
 bushels. So rapidly, even now, is the influence of human 
 agency on the natural tendencies of the soil, continuing in 
 these countries to manifest itself. 
 
 * Notes on North America, voL i. chap. xiii.
 
 IMPROVEMENTS IN PROGRESS. 59 
 
 But the influence of man upon the productions of the 
 soil is exhibited also in other and more satisfactory results. 
 The improver takes the place of the exhauster, and follows 
 his footsteps on these same altered lands. Over the sandy, 
 forsaken tracts of Virginia and the Carolinas he spreads large 
 applications of shelly marl, and herbage soon covers it again, 
 and profitable crops. Or he strews on it thinner sowings of 
 gypsum, and as if by magic the yield of previous years is 
 doubled or quadrupled.* Or he gathers the droppings of 
 his cattle and the fermented produce of his barnyard, and 
 lays it upon his fields when, lo ! the wheat comes up 
 luxuriantly again, and the midge, and the rust, and the 
 yellows, all disappear from his wheat, his cotton, and his 
 peach trees ! 
 
 But the renovator marches much slower than the ex- 
 hauster. His materials are collected at the expense of both 
 time and money, and barrenness ensues from the easy 
 labours of the one far more rapidly than green herbage can 
 be made to cover it again by the most skilful, zealous, and 
 assiduous labours of the other. But nevertheless, among 
 energetic nations, this second tide follows inevitably upon 
 the first, as they advance in age, in wealth, and in civilisa- 
 tion. Though long mismanagement has, in a minor sense, 
 desolated large portions of north-eastern America, a new 
 fringe of verdant fields has already begun to follow towards 
 the west, though at a long interval, the fast-retiring green 
 belt of the virgin forests. A race of new cultivators, taught 
 to treat the soil more skilfully, to give their due weight 
 to its geological origin, to its chemical history, to the con- 
 ditions of climate by which it is affected, and to the reckless 
 usage to which it has so long been subjected this new race 
 
 * For examples of both these results, see the Essay on Calcareoiis Manures, 
 by Edward Kuffin,the publication of which in Virginia, in 1882, marks an epoch in 
 the agricultural history of the slave states of North America. *
 
 . 
 
 60 THE SOIL WE CULTIVATE. 
 
 may will, I hope, in time bring back the whole region to 
 more than its original productiveness. Both the inherited 
 energy of the whole people, and the efforts which State agri- 
 cultural societies, and numerous zealous and patriotic indi- 
 viduals in each State are now making, justify us in believing 
 that such a race of instructed men will gradually spread 
 itself over the rural districts in every part of the Union. 
 The previous success of the mother country guarantees a 
 similar successful result to their kindred exertions. 
 
 For we have not to go far back in the agricultural history 
 of Great Britain to find a state of things not much different 
 from the present condition of the land in North America. 
 We require to turn aside but a short way from the high-road, 
 in some districts of England, still to find in living operation 
 nearly all the defects and vices of the present American 
 system of farming.* A century and a half has, I may say, 
 changed the whole surface of our island. But what labour 
 has been expended, what wealth buried in the soil, what 
 thought lavished in devising means for its recovery from 
 long-inflicted sterility ! Commerce has brought in from all 
 parts of the world new chemical riches, to replace those which 
 a hundred previous generations had permitted rains and 
 rivers to wash out of the soil, or to carry away to the sea. 
 Mechanical skill has given us the means of tilling the sur- 
 face economically, of bringing up virgin soils from beneath, 
 and of laying dry that which over-abundant water had pre- 
 vented our forefathers from utterly impoverishing ; and 
 scientific investigation has taught us how best to apply all 
 these new means to the attainment of the desired end. 
 
 It may be said, with truth, that Great Britain at this 
 moment presents a striking illustration of the influence of 
 man in increasing the productiveness of the soil. This ex- 
 
 * See, for Instance, the state of farming in Lancashire, as described in the Royal 
 Agricultural Journal, vol. x. part I.
 
 > 
 
 IMPROVEMENTS IN PROGRESS. 51 
 
 ample guarantees, as I have said, the success of similar 
 operations in the United States of America and in our 
 British colonies ; while the now advanced condition, espe- 
 cially of our chemical knowledge, both in regard to the soil 
 which is to be cultivated and to the plants we wish to grow, 
 insures a far more easy and certain advance to the process 
 of restoration in these countries than in past times could 
 take -place among ourselves ; less waste of time and money 
 in ill-adjudged experiments, and less cost of labour in all the 
 necessary operations of husbandry.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE PLANT WE BEAR. 
 
 A perfect plant, what Effects of heat upon it Contains carbon, water, and mineral 
 matter. Relations of the plant to the air. Structure of the leaf. Its pores absorb 
 carbonic acid, and give off oxygen gas. Relations to water. Structure of the root. 
 Purposes served by water. Relations to the soil Plants affect peaty, sandy, 
 loamy, or clay soils. Effects of the drain, of lime, or of manure. The art of 
 manuring. How the colours of flowers may be changed. Effect of culture upon 
 wild plants. The carrot, the cabbage, the turnip. Garden fruits, flowers, and vege- 
 tables. Origin of wheat and its varieties. How these changes are produced. 
 Plants which follow the footsteps of man ; why they follow him. Rapidity of 
 growth in favourable circumstances. The yeast plant in grape juice. Manufacture 
 of dry yeast Chemical changes within the plant Production of numerous pecu- 
 liar substances medicines, perfumes, and things useful in the arts. The green of 
 the leaf, and the poison of the nettle. The covering of the ripe potato, apple, and 
 , young twig. General purposes served by vegetation. It adorns the landscape. 
 In relation to dead nature, it purifies the atmosphere, produces vegetable mould, 
 and forms deposits of combustible matter. In relation to living animals, it sup- 
 plies subsidiary luxuries and comforts, but its main use is to feed them. Numer- 
 ous interesting chemical inquiries suggested by the natural diversities and differ- 
 ent effects of the vegetable food consumed by herbivorous and omnivorous races. 
 
 A FAMILIARITY with the chemical relations of the plant we 
 rear makes still more apparent the relations of chemistry to 
 the soil we cultivate. 
 
 A perfect plant consists essentially of two parts the 
 stem and the leaf. The root is an underground extension 
 of the stem, as the bark is a downward prolongation of the 
 leaf. The several parts of the flower, also, are only changed 
 leaves. 
 
 When any part of a plant is heated in a close vessel, it
 
 THE PLANT AND THE AIR. 
 
 63 
 
 gives off water, vinegar, and tarry matters, and leaves be- 
 hind a black, bulky, coaly mass, known by the name of wood 
 charcoal ; or if billets of wood be heaped up in the open air, 
 covered carefully over with sods, and swzo^Aer-burned, as it 
 is called, with little access of air, the tar and other matters 
 escape into the atmosphere, while the charcoal remains un- 
 dissipated beneath the sod. This charcoal is an impure 
 form of carbon. The manufacturer of wood-vinegar collects 
 che volatile substances as the more important products. The 
 charcoal-burner allows them to escape, the black residue be- 
 ing the object of his process. Both experiments, however, 
 are the same in substance, and both prove that carbon and 
 water form large parts of the weight of all plants. 
 
 If a piece of wood charcoal be burned in the air it gradu- 
 ally disappears ; but when all combustion has ceased, there 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 remains behind a small proportion 
 of ash. The same is seen if a por- 
 tion taken from any part of a living 
 plant be burned in the air. Even 
 a bit of straw kindled in the flame 
 of a candle (fig. 14), and allowed to 
 burn, will leave a sensible quantity 
 of ash behind. All plants therefore, 
 and all parts of plants, besides water 
 and carbon, contain also a sensible 
 proportion of mineral inorganic mat- 
 ter which is incombustible, and which remains unconsumed 
 when they are burned in the air. 
 
 The carbon of the plant is chiefly derived from the air, 
 the water and. the mineral matter chiefly from the soi^ in 
 which it grows. Thus the plant we rear has close chemical 
 relations with the air we breathe, with the water we drink, 
 and with the soil we cultivate. I shall briefly illustrate 
 these several relations in their order.
 
 64 THfe PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 First. The plant Is in contact with the air, through its 
 leaves and its bark. The surface of the leaf is studded over 
 with numerous mnAte pores or mouths (stomata), through 
 which gases and watery vapour are continually entering or 
 escaping, so long as the plant lives. In the daytime they 
 give off oxygen and absorb carbonic acid gas. During the 
 night this process is reversed they then absorb oxygen and 
 give off carbonic acid. 
 
 We have already seen that carbonic acid consists of car- 
 bon and oxygen.* It is from the large excess of this gas 
 which plants absorb during the day that the greater part of 
 the carbon they contain is usually derived. 
 
 The number and activity of the little mouths which stud 
 the leaf are very wonderful. On a single square inch, of the 
 leaf of the common lilac as many as 120,000 have been 
 counted ; and the rapidity with which they act is so great, 
 that a thin current of air passing over the leaves of an ac- 
 tively-growing plant is almost immediately deprived by them 
 of the carbonic acid it contains. 
 
 The gas thus absorbed enters into the circulation of the 
 plant, and there undergoes a series of chemical changes 
 which it is very difficult to follow. The result, however, we 
 know to be, that its carbon is converted into starch, woody 
 fibre, &c., to build up the plant, while its oxygen is given 
 off to maintain the purity of the air. 
 
 These pores of the leaf absorb also other gaseous sub- 
 stances in smaller quantity such as ammonia, when it hap- 
 pens to approach them ; and especially they absorb watery 
 vapour, when previous heat or drought has dried the plant, 
 and made the leaves droop soft and flaccid. Hence the 
 natural rain enlivens and invigorates the herbage, and the 
 artificial shower gives new life to the tenants of the conser- 
 vatory. The falling water not only supplies their want of 
 
 * Bee THE AIK -WE BREATHE.
 
 WATER AND THE ROOTS. 65 
 
 fluid, but it -washes also the dusty surface of the leaves, and 
 clears their many mouths, so that with fresh vigour they can 
 suck in new nourishment from the surrounding air. 
 
 The green bark of the young twig is perforated with 
 pores like the green leaf, and acts upon the air in a similar 
 way ; but as it hardens and gets old the pores become ob- 
 literated, and it ceases to aid the leaves in absorbing car- 
 bonic acid, or in giving off oxygen to the atmosphere. 
 
 Second. The water which fills the vessels of the plant, 
 though partly derived from the air in seasons of drought, 
 and drunk in by the leaves from the dews and falling show- 
 ers, is principally sucked up by the roots from the earth in 
 which it grows. These roots, as I have said, are only down- 
 ward expansions of the stem. At the surface of the ground 
 they exhibit a bark without and a pith within the woody 
 portion. But as they descend, these several parts disappear, 
 and graduate into a porous, uniform, spongy mass, which 
 forms the ends of the fibry rootlets. Upon the surface of 
 these rootlets the microscope enables us to perceive numer- 
 ous minute hairs which, like hollow horns, thrust themselves 
 laterally among the particles of the soil. Through these 
 hollow hairs, as it is believed, the plant draws from the earth 
 the supplies of water it constantly requires, and which in 
 droughty weather it so copiously pours out from its leaves 
 into the air. 
 
 How interesting it is to reflect on the minuteness of the 
 organs by which the largest plants are fed and sustained. 
 Microscopic apertures in the leaf suck in gaseous food from 
 the air ; the extremities of microscopic hairs suck a liquid 
 food from the soil. We are accustomed to admire, with 
 natural and just astonishment, how huge rocky reefs, hun- 
 dreds of miles in length, can be built up by the conjoined 
 labours of myriads of minute insects labouring together on 
 the surface of a coral rock ; but it is not less wonderful that,
 
 t)6 THE PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 by the ceaseless working of similar microscopic agencies in 
 leaf and root, the substance of vast forests should be built 
 up, and made to grow before our eyes. It is more wonder- 
 ful, in fact ; for whereas in the one case dead matter ex- 
 tracted from the sea is transformed only into a dead rock, in 
 the other the lifeless matters of the earth and air are con- 
 verted by these minute plant-builders into living forms, 
 lifting their heads aloft to the sky, waving with every wind 
 that blows, and beautifying whole continents with the varying 
 verdurfe of their ever-changing leaves. 
 
 The water which the roots absorb, after it has entered 
 the plant, serves many important physiological and chemical 
 purposes. It fills up mechanically and distends the nume- 
 rous vessels ; it mechanically dissolves, and carries with it, 
 as it ascends and descends, the various substances which are 
 contained in the sap ; it moistens and gives flexibility to all 
 the parts of the plant, and, by evaporation from the leaves, 
 keeps it comparatively cool, even in the sunniest weather. 
 But its chemical agencies, though less immediately sensible, 
 are equally important. It combines with the carbon, which 
 the" leaf brings in from the air, and forms woody fibre, starch, 
 and gum all of which feonsist of carbon and water only ; it 
 serves as a constant and ready storehouse, also, for the supply 
 of oxygen and hydrogen which are required, now here and 
 now there, for the formation of the numerous different sub- 
 stances which, in smaller quantity than starch or woody 
 libre, are met with in the different parts of the plant. Thou- 
 sands of chemical changes are every instant going on within 
 the substance of a large and quickly growing tree, and in 
 nearly all these the constituent elements of water its oxy- 
 gen and hydrogen play a constant part. The explanation 
 of these, though yet very imperfectly studied, fills up 
 already a large division of our modern treatises on organic 
 chemistry.
 
 THE PLANT AND THE SOIL. 67 
 
 TJiird. To the soil the plant is perceived, even by the 
 least instructed, to have the closest relations. To the most 
 instructed these relations every day appear more interesting 
 and wonderful. 
 
 I have already adverted, in the preceding chapter, to 
 what may be called the physiological habits of plants, which 
 incline them to grow upon soils which are more or less wet, 
 more or less sandy and porous, and more or less heavy in the 
 agricultural sense. Owing to these habits, every variety of 
 soil, in every climate, supports its own vegetable tribes. 
 Thus, of the five thousand flowering plants of central 
 Europe, only three hundred grow on peaty soils, and these 
 are chiefly rushes and sedges. In the . native forests of 
 northern Europe and America, the unlettered explorer hails 
 the gleam of the broad-leafed trees glittering in the sun, 
 amid the ocean of solemn pines, as a symptom of good land on 
 which he may profitably settle. And so the rudest peasant 
 at home knows that wheat and beans affect clay soils, the 
 humblest north German, that rye alone and the potato are 
 suited to his blowing sands, and the Chinese peasant, that 
 warm sloping banks of light land are fittest for his tea plant, 
 and stiff, wet, impervious clays for his rice. Even the slave 
 of Alabama is aware that dry open alluvials, and porous up- 
 lands, suit best the cotton he is forced to cultivate ; and the 
 still more degraded slave of Pernambuco, that the cocoa 
 grows only on the sandy soils of the coast just as in his 
 native West Africa the oil-palms flourish on the moist sea- 
 sands that skirt the shore, and the .mangroves, where muddy 
 shallows are daily deserted by the retiring tide. 
 
 But these relations of. plants become more conspicuous 
 when we examine somewhat closely the influence of artifi- 
 cial changes in the soil upon the kind, the growth, and 
 the character or appearance of the plants which spring up 
 or are sown upon it. 
 
 Thus, when a peaty soil is drained, the heaths disappear,
 
 68 THE PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 and a soft woolly grass (Holcus lanat^ls) overspreads its sur- 
 face. A wet clay is laid dry, and the rushes and water-lov- 
 ing plants are succeeded by sweet and nutritious herbage. 
 Lime is applied, and sorrel and sour grasses are banished 
 from the old pasture ; and corn then ripens and fills the ear 
 where formerly it languished and yielded scanty returns of 
 unhealthy grain. Crushed bones are strewed over a meadow, 
 and abundant milk and cheese show how the eatage of cattle 
 has been improved or they are drilled into the ploughed 
 land, and luxuriant root-crops exhibit their ameliorating 
 effect. Or guano, or the droppings of cattle, or the liquid 
 of the farmyard, or nitrate of soda, are spread upon the 
 scanty pasture, and straightway the humble daisy and the 
 worthless moss symbols of poverty disappear, and re- 
 joicing crops of most fragrant hay prove the close connection 
 of the plant with the soil on which it grows. 
 
 Th plant derives, as I have elsewhere said, the whole of 
 its mineral matter from the soil, and an important portion 
 also of that which forms its combustible part. A naturally 
 fertile soil contains all these things in sufficient abundance, 
 and can readily supply them to the craving roots. The 
 waters which moisten the soil dissolve them, and the minute 
 hairs I have spoken of suck them up, and send them through 
 the roots and stem to the several parts of the plant. The 
 art of manuring merely supplies to the soil those necessary 
 forms of vegetable food in which it is deficient ; and the ef- 
 fects which follow from the addition of manures show how 
 closely the welfare of the plant is connected with the che- 
 mical composition of the soil. The raw materials also, which 
 it takes up by the root, like those which enter by the leaf, 
 undergo within the plant numerous successive chemical 
 changes, by which they are converted into the substance of 
 the plant itself, and are fitted for those after purposes, in 
 reference to animal life, which, in the economy of nature, the 
 plant fulfils.
 
 THE PLANT AND THE MANURE. 69 
 
 Among the pleasing proofs of such chemical changes 
 taking place within the plant, I may mention the effects upon 
 the colour of their flowers, which follow from the application 
 of certain substances to the roots of plants. Charcoal pow- 
 der darkens and enriches the flowers of the dahlia, the rose, 
 the petunia, &c. ; carbonate of soda reddens ornamental 
 hyacinths, and super-phosphate of soda alters in various ways 
 the hue or bloom of other .cultivated plants. As the dyer 
 prepares the chemical ingredients of the baths into which his 
 stuffs are to be dipped, and varies the one with the colour he 
 is to give to the other so within the plant the substances 
 applied to the root are chemically prepared and mixed, so as 
 to produce the new colour imparted by their means to the 
 petals of the flower. 
 
 But such effects of chemical art are far inferior both in 
 interest and importance to those which protracted nursing 
 have produced upon our commonly cultivated plants. The 
 large and juicy Altringham carrot is only the woody spindly 
 root of the wild carrot (Daucus carota) luxuriously fed. 
 Our cabbages, cauliflowers, Kohl-rabis, and turnips, in all 
 their varieties, spring from one or more species of Brassica, 
 which in their natural state have poor woody bitter stems 
 and leaves, and useless spindle-shaped roots. Our cultivated 
 potato, with all its varieties, springs from the tiny and 
 bitter root of the wild potato, which has its native home 
 on the sea-shores of Chili ; and our apples, plums, grapes, 
 and other prized fruits, from well-known wild and little-es- 
 teemed progenitors. Our gardens are full of such vegetable 
 transformations. 
 
 It is so also with our corn plants. On the French and 
 Italian shores of the Mediterranean grows a wild neglected 
 grass known by the name of Aegilops. Transplanted to the 
 garden or to the field, and differently fed, its seed enlarges, 
 and, after a few years' cultivation, changes into perfect and 
 productive wheat. From other plants originally wild like
 
 70 THE PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 this, though as yet unknown, have come our oats and barley, 
 and rye and maize, in all their varieties, as well as the 
 numerous forms of the Eastern durrha, rice and millet, and 
 of the less known quinoa of Upper Chili and Peru. It is the 
 new chemical conditions in which the plants are placed, 
 which cause the more abundant introduction of certain forms 
 of food into their circulation, and the more full development, 
 in consequence, either of the whole plant, or of some of its 
 more useful parts. 
 
 It is with unconscious reference to these improved condi- 
 tions that certain wild and useless plants attach themselves 
 to and appear affectionately to linger in the footsteps of man. 
 They follow him in his migrations from place to place ad- 
 vance with him, like the creeping and sow thistles, as he 
 hews his way through primeval forests reappear constantly 
 on his manure-heaps spring up, like the common dock, 
 about his stables and barns occupy, like the common plain- 
 tain, the roadsides and ditches he makes or linger, like the 
 nettle, over the unseen ruins of his dwelling, to mark 
 where his abode has formerly been. Thus, with the Euro- 
 pean settler, European weeds .in hundreds have spread over 
 all Northern America,* and are already recognised as fa- 
 miliar things, speaking to them of a far-off home, by the 
 emigrants now landing in thousands on the shores of Aus- 
 tralia and New Zealand. We cannot say that all these have 
 followed the European. Many of them have only accom- 
 panied him, and, like himself, taken root in what has proved 
 a favourable soil. But those which cling closest to his foot- 
 steps, which go only where he goes which, like his cat or 
 his dog, are, in a sense domesticated these attend upon 
 him, because near his dwelling the appropriate chemical 
 food is found, which best ministers to the wants of their 
 growing parts. 
 
 * See the author's Fotes on NorO* America, vol. i. p. 10
 
 THE YEAST PLANT 
 
 71 
 
 How singularly dependent the plant is upon the chemi- 
 cal nature of the medium in which it is placed, is beautifully 
 illustrated by the manner in which the humblest forms of 
 vegetation are seen to grow and propagate. The yeast with 
 which we raise our bread is a minute plant belonging to the 
 division of the Confervae. If we make a thick syrup of cane- 
 sugar, and strew a few particles 06 tftis yeast upon it, they 
 will begin to grow and propagete, will cause minute bubbles 
 of gas to rise, and the whole syrup gradually to ferment. 
 But if, instead of a syrup of sugar, we take a thick solution 
 of gum, the yeast will produce no sensible effect; it will 
 neither propagate nor cause a fermentation. In the one 
 case the minute plant has met with a somewhat congenial 
 food ; in the other it has found nothing on which it can live 
 and grow. 
 
 But in the juice of ripe grapes it has a more favourable 
 medium still. " If we filter this juice, we obtain a clear 
 transparent liquid. Within half an hour this liquid begins 
 to grow, first cloudy, and afterwards thick, to give off bubbles 
 of gas, or to ferment, and in three hours a greyish-yellow 
 layer of yeast has already collected on its surface. In the 
 heat of the fermentation the plants are produced by millions 
 a single cubic inch of such yeast, free from adhering water, 
 containing eleven hundred 
 and fifty-two millions of the 
 minute organisms." The an- 
 nexed woodcut (fig. 15) 
 shows the appearance of the 
 yeast plant, as seen under 
 the microscope when the 
 propagation is in full ac- 
 tivity, as sketched by 
 Turpin. The cells or glo- 
 bules Vary in size from 7-^5 tm Yeas t in wort for eight hours, showing 
 t n i f -pi T -i . , The transparency of the yeast cells. 
 
 W 27Tnr<r OI an English inch. The granules or nuclei in their interior. 
 
 irii/>r> nf fV. , How they germinate and multiply. 
 
 JUICG Ot the grape How they unite into jointelfilan^r* 
 
 Fig. 15.
 
 72 THE PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 thus readily propagates the seeds of yeast which acciden- 
 ally reach, or are naturally present in it, because it contains 
 the food which, in kind, in form, and in quantity, is best 
 suited to its rapid growth.* 
 
 And so it is with larger plants in the soil. They grow 
 well and healthily, if it contain the food in which they de- 
 light. They droop if ^u^h food is absent, and again burst 
 into joyful life when we supply by art those necessary ingre- 
 dients in which the soil is deficient. 
 
 But the special chemical changes that go on within the 
 plant, could we follow them, would appear not less wonder- 
 ful than the rapid production of entire microscopic vegeta- 
 bles from the raw food contained in the juice of the grape. 
 It is as yet altogether incomprehensible, even to the most 
 
 * Whence comes the seeds of this yeast plant, which propagates itself with such 
 wonderful rapidity? Do they exist already in the juice of the living grape? Do 
 they cling to the exterior of the fruit, and only become mixed with the juice when 
 it is in the wine- press, or do they float perpetually in the air, ready to germinate and 
 multiply wherever they obtain a favourable opportunity ? Whichever way they 
 come, it would be too slow a process to wait for the natural appearance of these 
 plants in the worts of the brewer and distiller. In these manufactories, therefore, 
 it is customary to add a little yeast to the liquor as soon as it is considered ready 
 for the fermentation. Then, as in the case of the grape, the growth and propagation 
 of the plant proceed with astonishing rapidity, and large quantities of yeast are pro- 
 duced. This yeast in many distilleries forms an important by-product of the ma- 
 nufactory, and is collected and sold under the name of dry yeast, for the use of the 
 private brewer and the baker. When this is done, the process adopted is nearly as 
 follows : Crushed rye is mashed with the proper quantity of barley malt, and the 
 wort, when made, cooled to the proper temperature. For every hundred pounds of 
 the crushed grain, there are now added half a pound of carbonate of soda, and six 
 ounces of oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) diluted with much water, and the wort is 
 then brought into fermentation by the addition of yeast. From the strongly.ferment- 
 ing liquid the yeast is skimmed off, and strained through a hair sieve into cold wa- 
 ter, through which it is allowed to settle. It is afterwards washed with one or two 
 waters, and finally pressed in cloth bags till it has the consistence of dough. It has 
 n pleasant fruity smell, and in a cool place may be kept for two or three weeks. It 
 then passes into a putrefying decomposition, acquires the odour of decaying cheese, 
 and, like decaying cheese, has now the property of changing sugar inte lactic acid, 
 instead of into alcohol, as before. A hundred pounds of crushed grain will yield six 
 to eight pounds of the crushed yeast. It is made largely at Rotterdam, and is im- 
 ported thence to this country through Hull.
 
 CHANGES OF MATTER. IN THE PLANT. 73 
 
 refined physiological chemistry, how, froxii the same food 
 taken in from the air, and from generally similar food drawn 
 up from the soil, different plants, and different parts of 
 plants, should be able to extract or produce substances so 
 very different from each other in composition and in all 
 their properties. From the seed-vessels of one (the poppy), 
 we collect a juice which dries up into our commercial opium ; 
 from the bark of another (cinchona) we extract the quinine 
 with which we assuage the raging fever ; from the leaves of 
 others, like those of hemlock and tobacco, we distil deadly 
 poisons, often of rare value for their medicinal uses. The 
 flowers and leaves and seeds of some yield volatile oils, 
 which we delight in for their odours and their aromatic qua- 
 lities ; the seeds of others give fixed oils, which are prized 
 for the table or for use in the arts. The wood of some is 
 rich in valuable dyes, while from that of others exude tur- 
 pentines and resins of varied degrees of worth from the 
 cheap rosin of the tinsmith and soapmaker to the costlier 
 myrrh and aloes and benzoin which millions still burn, as 
 acceptable incense, before the altars of their gods. 
 
 These, and a thousand other similar facts, tell us how 
 wonderfully varied are the changes which the same original 
 forms of matter undergo in the interior of living plants. 
 Indeed, whether we regard the vegetable as a whole or exa- 
 mine its minutest parts, we find equal evidence of the same 
 diversity of changes, and of the same production, in compa- 
 ratively minute quantities, of very different, yet often very 
 characteristic forms of matter. 
 
 Thus, looking at a large tree as a whole, we are charmed 
 with the brilliant green foliage which invests it when summer 
 has come, and to which the landscape owes half its charms. 
 Yet chemistry tells us that all this effect of colour is pro- 
 duced by the fraction of an ounce of colouring matter dis 
 tributed evenly over its thousands of leaves ! Or taking up 
 4
 
 THE PLANT 
 
 the leaf of a nettle, and picking off one of its minute stinging 
 p. prickles, chemistry, by the aid 
 
 of the microscope, assures us 
 that the pain it causes, when 
 allowed to pierce the skin, arises 
 from a reservoir of a peculiar 
 acid (the formic acid), which, 
 like the poison of the serpent's 
 tooth, is squeezed into the wound 
 which the spikelet makes. 
 
 The characteristic property 
 of the minute nettle-hair, and 
 the peculiar charm of the wide 
 landscape, are equally dependent 
 upon the production in living 
 plants of special forms of mat- 
 ter in comparatively minute pro- 
 portions. 
 
 The tuber of the potato, the ripening apple, and the grow- 
 ing twig, present us with another illustration of special che- 
 mical changes proceeding continuously in the plant, and with 
 a definite reference to a specific and useful end. The unripe 
 potato, when taken from the earth, withers and shrivels, be- 
 comes unsightly to the eye, and vapid to the taste ; the un- 
 ripe apple shrinks in, refuses to retain its natural dimensions, 
 and cannot be kept for any length of time ; while the unripe 
 twig perishes amidst the chills of winter, and remains black 
 and dead when the green buds of spring were expected to en- 
 liven its surface. These effects are the consequence of the 
 thin bark which covers potato, apple, and twig alike, not 
 having attained its matured composition. While unripe, this 
 coating is porous and pervious to water, so that, when re- 
 moved from the parent plant, tuber, fruit, and twig all give 
 off water by evaporation to the air, and thus shrivel and 
 
 The acid is contained in these 
 elastic cells at the base of 
 the prickly hair.
 
 CORK SKIN OF THE POTATO. 75 
 
 shrink in as I have described. But when ripe, this porous 
 covering has become chemically changed into a thin imper- 
 vious coating of cork, through which water can scarcely pass, 
 and by which, therefore, it is confined within for months to- 
 gether. It is this cork-layer which enables the potato to 
 keep the winter through, the winter pear and winter apple 
 eo be brought to table in spring of their full natural dimen- 
 sions, and the ripened twig to retain its sap undried, and to 
 feed the young bud when the April sun first wakens it from 
 its winter's sleep. 
 
 Nor are the general purposes for which the entire plant 
 lives, and is the theatre, so to speak, of so many changes, to 
 be properly, I may say at all appreciated without the assist- 
 ance of chemical research. 
 
 It is true that every one can recognise in the natural 
 herbage and the wild forest the ornaments of the landscape ; 
 in the thousand odours they distil, and in the varied hues 
 and forms with which they sprinkle the surface, the most 
 agreeable and refined ministers to our sensual pleasures. 
 And in these things we unquestionably see some of the true 
 purposes served by vegetation in the economy of nature. 
 But they are subsidiary purposes which they serve, by the 
 way, as it were, while labouring to fulfil their true and greater 
 vocation. 
 
 This vocation may be viewed in two aspects -first, as 
 regards dead nature ; and, second, as regards living things. 
 
 First, In its relations to dead nature, the plant serves, 
 while living, to purify the air we breathe. It continually 
 absorbs carbonic acid and gives off oxygen gas, and thus is 
 a chief instrument in maintaining the normal condition of the 
 atmosphere. It renders the air more fit for the support of 
 animal life, both by removing that which is noxious (the car- 
 bonic acid), and by pouring into it that which is salutary 
 (the oxygen) to animal health and life. And then, when it
 
 76 THE PLANT WE REAR. 
 
 dies, it either covers the earth with a vegetable mould, 
 which favours the growth of new generations of plants, or it 
 accumulates into beds of peat or mineral coal, by which man 
 is long after to be warmed, and the arts of life promoted. 
 But in either case it only lingers for a while in these less 
 sightly mineral forms. It gradually assumes again the gas- 
 eous state, and whether it is allowed naturally to decay, or 
 is burned in the fire, ultimately arises again into the air in 
 the form of carbonic acid. By this means, in part, vegeta- 
 tion is perpetuated upon the globe, and the natural compo- 
 sition of the atmosphere, as regards the proportion of the 
 carbonic acid gas, is permanently maintained. And, 
 
 Second, As regards living animals, we all know and feel 
 that plants are necessary to our daily life. Utterly dry up 
 and banish vegetation from a region, and nearly every sensi- 
 ble form of animal life forthwith disappears. But how do 
 plants feed us ? And by what virtues in their several parts 
 can the ox thrive on the straw, while man can live only on 
 the grain ? How on the nut and fruit of the tree only can 
 human life be permanently sustained, while the leaves and 
 twigs of the thick forest sustain the lordly elephant ? 
 
 As to dead nature, the plant serves a subsidiary purpose 
 in covering and adorning it-^so to living nature, to man 
 especially, it serves a similar subsidiary purpose in pro- 
 ducing the numerous remarkable products, to which I have 
 already alluded as being useful in medicine and the arts, and 
 as ministering to the luxuries and comfort of civilised life. 
 In the production of these we recognise a destined and be- 
 nevolent purpose served by the general vegetation of tho 
 globe, in reference to living things. But this purpose is 
 only secondary, and, as it were, ornamental. The main ob- 
 ject of the plant, in its relations to the animal, is to feed it. 
 This it does with various forms of vegetable matter in differ- 
 ent climes and countries, and it provides for each herbi-
 
 INTERESTING CHEMICAL INQUIRIES. 77 
 
 vorous and carnivorous race those peculiar forms on which 
 it best loves, because best fitted, to feed. It is so with man 
 His vegetable food varies with the part of the world in which 
 he is situated ; yet upon all the varieties with which differ- 
 ent climates furnish him, he discovers the means continuous- 
 ly to sustain himself. 
 
 Of what chemical substances do these different forms of 
 nutritious food consist ? What do they possess in common ? 
 In what do they differ ? Why do some of them, weight for 
 weight, sustain the body more completely or for a longer 
 time than others ? Why do they affect the dispositions of 
 those who consume them not only the constitution of indi- 
 viduals, but the habits, temperament, and character of whole 
 nations ? Why do we choose to mix the forms of vegetable 
 food we consume whence come the fashions of universal 
 cookery whence the peculiarities of national dishes ? 
 
 What a host of curious chemical inquiries spring up m 
 connection with the plant we rear, regarded as the main sus- 
 tenance or staff of common life ? I shall consider some of 
 them in the following chapter.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BKEAD WE EAT. 
 
 The grain of wheat. Bran and flour. Separation of flour into starch and gluten. 
 Fermenting of dough. Baking of bread. New and stale bread. Proportion of 
 water in flour and in bread. Composition of bread. Bran richer in gluten. Com- 
 parative composition. Wheaten and rye bread compared. Oatmeal and Indian- 
 corn meal. Composition of rice. Buckwheat, quinoa, Guinea corn, and dhurra. 
 Composition of beans, peas, and lupins. The sago palm, and the seeds of the arau- 
 caria. The fruits of the banana, the date palm, the fig tree, and the bread-fruit tree. 
 "Water contained in fruits and roots. The turnip, carrot, and potato. The com- 
 position of rice, the potato, and the plantain compared. Deformity among the eaters 
 of these three vegetables. The Siberian lily. The use of leaves as food. Tho 
 cabbage very nutritious. Natural tendency of man to adjust the constituents of 
 his food. Irish kol-cannon. Starvation upon arrow-root and tapioca. General 
 character of a nutritious diet National and individual influence of diet. 
 
 THE bread we eat I take as the type of our vegetable food. 
 On such food of various kinds, and eaten in various forms, 
 man and animals are sustained in all parts of the globe. The 
 study of our common wheaten bread will give us the key to 
 the composition and known usefulness of them all. 
 
 1. WHEAT. When the grain of wheat is crushed be- 
 tween the stones of the mill, and is then sifted, it is separat- 
 ed into two parts the bran and the flour. The bran is the 
 outside, harder part of the grain, which does not crush so 
 readily, and when it does crush, darkens the colour of the 
 flour. It is therefore generally sifted out by the miller, and
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 is used for feeding horses, pigs, and other animals, or even 
 for applying to the land as a manure. 
 
 If the flour be mixed with a quantity of water sufficient 
 to moisten it thoroughly, the particles cohere and form a 
 smooth, elastic and tenacious dough, which admits of being 
 drawn out to some extent, and of being moulded into a va- 
 riety of forms. If this dough be placed upon a sieve or on 
 a piece of muslin, and worked with the hand under a stream 
 
 of water (fig. 17), 
 as long as the water 
 passes through mil- 
 ky, there will re- 
 main at last upon 
 the sieve a white 
 sticky substance, ve- 
 ry much resembling 
 birdlime. This is 
 the substance which 
 gives its tenacity to 
 the dough. From 
 its glutinous cha- 
 racter it has obtain- 
 
 Mode of separating the gTnten from the starch of Wheat, ed among chemists 
 
 the name of gluten. When the milky water has become 
 clear by standing, a white powder will be found at the bot- 
 tom of the vessel, which is common wheaten starch. Thus 
 the flour of wheat contains two principal substances, gluten 
 and starch. Of the former, every 100 Ib. of fine English 
 flour contain about 10 Ib., and of the latter about 70 Ib. 
 
 The way in which the bran, the gluten, and the starch 
 are respectively distributed throughout the body of the seeds 
 of our corn plants is shown in the following section of a grain 
 of rye when fully ripe.
 
 A GRAIN OF CORN. 
 
 81 
 
 In the figure to the left, a represents the outer seed-coat, 
 consisting of three rows of thick-walled cells ; b the inner 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 Structure of a grain of Rye. 
 
 Single cell. 
 
 Grains of Rye Starch, 
 (see p. 100). 
 
 seed-coat, composed of a single layer of thick-walled cells, 
 having scarcely any cavity ; c a layer of cells containing glu- 
 ten. These three together form the bran, d represents the 
 cellular tissue of the albumen,* consisting of large roundish 
 hexagonal cells, which contain grains of starch. 
 
 The middle figure exhibits one of the cells of the albu- 
 men more highly magnified, and shows how the grains of 
 starch are disposed in it. The small figures to the right are 
 grains of starch still more highly magnified. Their natural 
 size varies from a ten-thousandth to a six-hundredth of an inch. 
 
 The outer coating contains only three or four per cent, of 
 gluten, the inner coating from fourteen to twenty per cent. 
 All this is separated in the bran. Throughout the mass 
 of the grain around and within the albumen cells the glu- 
 ten is diffused every where among the grains of starch. 
 
 When a little yeast is added to the flour before or while 
 it is being mixed with water into a dough, and the dough is 
 then placed for an hour or two in a warm atmosphere, it 
 begins to rise it ferments, that is, and swells or increases 
 in ^ulk. Bubbles of gas (carbonic acid gas) are disengaged 
 
 A The reader must not confound this word albumen, used by botanists to denote 
 the white inner part of the seed, with the same word used in chemistry as the nam 
 of the white of the egg.
 
 82 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 in the interior of the dough, which is thereby rendered light 
 and porous. If it be now put into a hot oven, the fermenta- 
 tion and swelling are at first increased by the higher tempe- 
 rature ; but when the whole has been heated nearly to the 
 temperature of boiling water, the fermentation is suddenly 
 arrested, and the mass is fixed by the after baking in the 
 form it has then attained.* 
 
 It is now newly-baked bread, and if it be cut across it will 
 appear light and spongy, being regularly sprinkled over with 
 little cavities, which were produced in the soft dough by the 
 bubbles of gas given off during the fermentation. This fer- 
 mentation is the consequence of a peculiar action, which 
 yeast exercises upon moist flour. It first changes a part of 
 the starch of the flour into sugar, and then converts this.sugar 
 into alcohol and carbonic acid, in the same way as it does 
 when it is added to the worts of the brewer or the distiller. 
 As the gas cannot escape from the glutinous dough, it col- 
 lects within it in large bubbles, and makes it swell, till the 
 heat of the oven kills the yeast plant, and causes the fermen- 
 tation to cease. The alcohol escapes, for the most part, dur- 
 ing the baking of the loaf, and is dissipated in the oven. 
 
 New-baked bread possesses a peculiar softness and te- 
 nacity which is familiar to most people, and though generally 
 considered less digestible is a favourite with many. After 
 two or three days it loses its softness, becomes free and 
 crumbly, and apparently drier. In common language, the 
 bread becomes stale, or it is stale bread. It is generally 
 supposed that this change arises from the bread becoming 
 actually drier by the gradual loss of water ; but this is not 
 the case. Stale bread contains almost exactly the same pro- 
 portion of water as new bread after it has become completely 
 
 * The formation of hard crusts on the loaf may be prevented by rubbing a little 
 melted lard over it after it is shapp.d, and before it is set down to rise, or by baking it 
 in a covered tin.
 
 WATER IN FLOUR AND IN BREAD. 83 
 
 cold. The change is merely in the internal arrangement of 
 the molecules of the bread. A proof of this is, that if 
 we put a stale loaf into a closely-covered tin, expose it for 
 half an hour or an hour to a heat, not exceeding that of boil- 
 ing water, and then remove the tin, and aliow it to cool, the 
 loaf, when taken out, will be restored in appearance and pro- 
 perties to the state of new bread. 
 
 The quantity of water which well-baked wheaten bread 
 contains, amounts on an average to about forty five per cent. 
 The bread we eat, therefore, is nearly one-half water ; it is, 
 in fact, both meat and drink together. 
 
 The flour of wheat and of other kinds of grain contains 
 water naturally, but it absorbs much more during the pro- 
 cess of conversion into bread. One hundred pounds of fine 
 wheaten flour take up fifty pounds, or half their weight of 
 water, and give 150 pounds of bread. Thus, 100 of English 
 flour and 150 of bread contain respectively 
 
 The flour contains The bread contains 
 Dry flour, ... 84 84 
 
 Natural water, . . 16 16 
 
 Water added, 50 
 
 100 lb. 150 Ib. 
 
 One of the reasons why bread retains so much water is, 
 that during the baking a portion of the starch is converted 
 into gum, which holds water more strongly than starch does. 
 A second is, that the gluten of flour, when once thoroughly 
 wet, is very difficult to dry again, and that it forms a tena- 
 cious coating round every little hollow cell in the bread, 
 which coating does not readily allow the gas contained in 
 the cell to escape, or the water to dry up and pass off in va- 
 pour ; and a third reason is, that the dry crust which forms 
 round the bread in baking is nearly impervious to water, 
 and, like the skin of a potato which we bake in the oven or
 
 84 1HE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 in the hot cinders, prevents the moisture within from escap 
 ing. 
 
 The proportions of water, gluten, and starch or gum, in 
 well-baked wheaten bread, are nearly as follows : 
 
 Water, . 45 
 
 Gluten, 6 
 
 Starch, sugar, and gum, .... -49 
 
 100 
 
 The bran or husk of wheat, which is separated from the 
 fine flour in the mill, and is often condemned to humbler 
 uses, is somewhat more nutritious than either the grain as a 
 whole, or the whiter part of the flour. The nutritive 
 quality of any variety of grain depends very much upon the 
 proportion of gluten which it contains ; and the proportions 
 of this in the whole grain, the bran and the fine flour 
 respectively, of the same sample of wheat, are very nearly as 
 follows : 
 
 Whole grain, 12 per cent 
 
 "Whole bran (outer and inner skins). 14 to 18 
 Fine flour, 10 
 
 If the grain, as a whole, contain more than twelve per cent, 
 of gluten, the bran and the flour will also contain more than 
 is above represented, and in a like proportion. The whole 
 meal obtained by simply grinding the grain is equally nutri- 
 tious with the grain itself. By sifting out the bran we ren- 
 der the meal less nutritious, weight for weight ; and when 
 we consider that the bran is rarely less, and is sometimes 
 considerably more, than one-fourth of the whole weight of 
 the grain, we must see that the total separation of the cover- 
 ing of the grain causes much waste of wholesome human 
 food. Bread made from the whole meal is therefore more 
 nutritious ; and as many persons find it also a more salutary 
 food than white bread, it ought to be more generally pre- 
 ferred and used.
 
 BARLEY AND RYE. 85 
 
 The woodcut and explanations given in p. 81, show that 
 the gluten of the husk resides chiefly in the inner covering 
 of the grain. Hence the outer covering may be removed 
 without sensible loss of nutriment, leaving the remainder 
 both more nutritious than before, weight for weight, and also 
 more digestible than when the thin outer covering is left 
 upon the corn. An ingenious American instrument has been 
 patented, by which this removal of the outer coating is said 
 to be completely effected without injury to the bulk of the 
 grain. 
 
 It is also a point of some interest that the small or tail 
 corn, which the farmer separates before bringing his grain 
 to market, and usually grinds for his own use, is richer in 
 gluten than the plump full-grown grain, and is therefore 
 more nutritious. 
 
 2. BARLEY and RYE resemble the grain of wheal very 
 much in composition and nutritive quality. They differ 
 from it somewhat in flavour and colour, and do not make so 
 fair and spongy a bread. They are not generally preferred, 
 therefore, in countries where other grains thrive and ripen. 
 Two samples of newly- baked wheat and rye bread, made and 
 examined under the same circumstances, were found to con- 
 sist respectively of 
 
 Wheaten bread. Eye bread. 
 
 Water, .48 4SJ 
 
 Gluten, 5J 5J 
 
 Starch, Ac., 46J 46 # 
 
 100 160 
 
 So that in composition and nutritive quality these two kinds 
 of bread very closely resemble each other ; and except as 
 concerns our taste, it is a matter of indifference whether we 
 live on the one or the other. Rye bread possesses one 
 quality which is in some respects a valuable one : it retains 
 its freshness and moisture for a longer time than wheaten
 
 86 
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 bread, and can be kept for months without becoming hard, 
 dry, or unpalatable. This arises principally from certain 
 peculiar properties possessed by the variety of gluten which 
 exists in the grain of rye. 
 
 3. INDIAN CORN also resembles wheat in composition and 
 nutritive quality. Its grain has a peculiar flinty hardness, 
 and its flour, usually known as Indian meal, a flavour which 
 in this country is not at first relished. It does not bake into 
 the same light spongy loaves as wheaten flour, but it is 
 excellent in the form of cakes. The chief peculiarity in its 
 composition is, that it contains more oil or fat than any of 
 our common grains. This oil sometimes amounts to as 
 much as nine pounds in the hundred, and is supposed to im- 
 part to Indian corn a peculiar fattening quality. 
 
 4, OATS are a favourite food in our island for horses, 
 and in Scotland especially are much esteemed as an agree- 
 able, nutritious, and wholesome food for man. The meal of 
 this grain is distinguished for its richness in gluten, and for 
 containing more fatty matter than any other of our cereal 
 grains. To these two circumstances it owes its eminently 
 nutritious and wholesome character. The average relative 
 proportions of gluten, fat, and starch contained in fine 
 wheaten flour, in Scotch oatmeal, and in Indian-corn meal, 
 are represented by the following numbers : 
 
 
 English 
 fine wheaten 
 
 flour. 
 
 Bran 
 of English 
 wheat. 
 
 Scotch 
 oatmeal. 
 
 Indian- 
 corn meaL 
 
 Water, 
 
 16 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 Gluten, 
 
 10 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 12 
 
 Fat, ... 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 Starch, Ac., 
 
 72 
 
 63 
 
 62 
 
 66 
 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100
 
 RICE. 87 
 
 The large proportion of fatty matter contained in Indian 
 corn not only adapts it well for fattening animals, but makes 
 it more grateful to the alimentary canal, and therefore more 
 wholesome. I have inserted in the above table a column 
 showing the average composition of the bran of English 
 wheat, for the purpose of showing, first, how large a propor- 
 tion of fat it also contains, compared with fine wheaten flour ; 
 and, second, the remarkable similarity in composition, in 
 some respects, which exists between the bran of wheat and 
 the meal of the oat. 
 
 Owing to a peculiar quality of the gluten which the oat 
 contains, the meal of this grain does not admit of being baked 
 into a light fermented spongy bread. It has been alleged 
 against oatmeal, that when used as the sole food, without 
 milk or other animal diet, it produces heat and irritability 
 of the skin, aggravates skin diseases, and sometimes 
 occasions boils, in the same way as salt meat tends to pro- 
 duce scurvy. Dr. Pereira, a high authority, says that this 
 charge has been made without just grounds. At all events, 
 it must be very rarely that circumstances render necessary 
 for any length of time such an exclusive consumption of oat- 
 meal. 
 
 5. RICE is remarkable chiefly for the comparatively 
 small proportion of gluten it contains. This does not ex- 
 ceed seven or eight per cent. less than half the quantity 
 contained in oatmeal. In rice countries it has often been 
 noticed, that the natives devour what to us appear enormous 
 quantities of the grain, and this circumstance is ascribed to 
 the small proportion it contains of the highly nutritive and 
 necessary gluten. Rice contains also little fat, and hence it 
 is less laxative than the other cereal grains, or rather it pos- 
 sesses something of a binding quality. It has recently been 
 observed that, when substituted for potatoes in some of our 
 workhouses in consequence of the failure of the potato 
 5* ~: ' ^
 
 88 
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 this grain has after a few months produced scurvy. This 
 may have been owing as much to the effects of sudden 
 change of diet as to an inherent evil property in the grain 
 itself. Still it suggests, as many other facts do, the utility 
 and wholesomeness of a mixed food. 
 
 6. BUCKWHEAT flour is about as nutritious as English 
 wheaten flour, and makes excellent cakes, which, when eaten 
 hot with maple honey, in the backwoods of America, are 
 really delicious. 
 
 7. QUINOA. A variety of grain scarcely known in this 
 country is the quinoa (fig. 19), a small 
 roundish seed, which is extensively culti- 
 vated and consumed on the high table 
 lands of Chili and Peru. There are two 
 varieties of it the sweet and the bitter 
 and both grow at elevations rising to 
 13,000 feet above the level of the sea, 
 where both rye and barley refuse to ripen. 
 It is still the principal food of the many 
 thousands of people who occupy these 
 high lands, and, before the introduction 
 of European grains by the Spaniards, is 
 said to have formed the chief nourishment 
 of the Peruvian nation. It is very nutri- 
 tious, and in its composition approaches 
 very nearly that of oatmeal. Thus the 
 flour or meal of the oat and of the quinoa 
 
 Chfnopodiitm quinoa . , , . , ,. 
 
 The Qninoa plant consist respectively of 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 2 feet 
 
 Quinoa flour. 
 Oatmeal. (VOELCKEB.) 
 16 
 19 
 
 Water, 
 
 Ghiten, 
 Fat, 
 Starch, &c., 
 
 It 
 IS 
 6 
 
 100 
 
 100
 
 GUINEA CORN, DHUERHA, BEAN, ETC. 89 
 
 A grain so nutritious as this is a very precious gift to the 
 inhabitants of the elevated regions of the Andes. Without 
 it, these lofty plains could only be runs for cattle, like the 
 summer pastures among the valleys on the Alps. 
 
 8. GUINEA CORN, a small seed, used to some extent 
 in the West Indies, is a little less nutritious than ordinary 
 English wheat. 
 
 9. DHURRA or DHOORA (fig. 20), a small kind of grain 
 much cultivated and extensively con- Fig. 20. 
 
 sumed in India, Egypt, and the inte- 
 rior of Africa, is quite equal in nutri- 
 tive value to the average of our Eng- 
 lish wheats, and yields a beautiful 
 white flour. According to my analysis, 
 buckwheat flour contains 10, and 
 dhurra flour 11^ per cent, of gluten. 
 
 10. The BEAN, the PEA, the LU- 
 PIN, the VETCH, the LENTIL, and other 
 varieties of pulse, contain, as a distin- 
 guishing character of the whole class, 
 a large per-centage of gluten, mixed 
 with a comparatively small per-centage 
 of fat. On an average, the proportion 
 of gluten is about twenty-four, and of 
 fat about two in every hundred. The 
 gluten of these kinds of grain resem- 
 bles that of the oat, and does not, 
 therefore, fit bean or pease meal for 
 being converted into a spongy bread. 
 
 The large proportion in which this in- Sorghum vulgar '--TlieDhur. 
 ,. . , ,1 i ra plant, or Indian Millet 
 
 gredient is present in them, however, Scale, i inch to 2 feet 
 renders all kinds of pulse very nutritious. Eaten alone, 
 however, they have a constipating or costive quality ; but a 
 proper admixture of them with other kinds of food, especially
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 with such as contain a larger proportion of oil or fat, is 
 found to give both strength and endurance to animals which 
 are subjected to hard labour. It is in this way that a cer- 
 tain quantity of beans given to horses among their oats, is 
 found so serviceable in this country. 
 
 It is because also of the same large per-centage of gluten 
 that the chick pea, the gram of the East, is considered, 
 when roasted, to be more capable of sustaining life, weight 
 for weight, than any other kind of food. For this reason it 
 is selected by travellers about to cross the deserts, where 
 heavy and bulky food would be inconvenient. 
 
 Of all these varieties of grain a kind of bread is made 
 by those who live upon them, and they are all more or less 
 used in this form for human food. Only two of them, how- 
 ever, I believe wheat and rye possess the property, when 
 mixed with yeast or leaven, of forming a light spongy bread, 
 which cannot be kept for a time without becoming unpala- 
 table. And of the two varieties of bread yielded by these 
 grains, that made from wheat is the more dry and crumbly, 
 Fi &- 2L the more fair to look upon, and the 
 
 more agreeable to the taste. Hence 
 the universal preference which ex- 
 ists for the flour of wheat and for 
 wheaten bread wherever they can 
 easily be obtained. 
 
 But trees also share with corn- 
 bread to a considerable extent in the 
 nutrition of the human race. Among 
 these,the sago palm,the Chilian pine, 
 the banana or plantain, and the date, 
 the fig and the bread-fruit tree, are 
 deserving of especial notice. 
 
 Sagus rwmphii The Sago Palm. * 
 
 Scale. 1 inch to 20 feet H The SAGO PALM (SagUS
 
 THE SAGO PALM. 91 
 
 rumphii) is cultivated in many places, but it is the chief 
 support of the inhabitants of north-western New Guinea, 
 and of parts of the coast of Africa. The meal is extracted 
 from the pith by rubbing it to powder, and then washing it 
 with water upon a sieve. It is baked by the natives into a 
 kind of bread or hard cake by putting it for a few minutes 
 into a hot mould. The exact nutritive value of this meal 
 has not been chemically ascertained. It has been stated, 
 however, that 2 Ib. of it are sufficient to serve for a day's 
 
 Fig. 22. 
 
 Araucaria inibricata The Chili Pine. 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 40 feet. 
 a Kernel of seed, the natural size 6 Cone, 1 inch to 10 inches.
 
 Vxi THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 sustenance to a healthy full-grown man. And as each tree, 
 when cut down in its seventh year, yields seven hundred 
 pounds of sago meal, it has been calculated that a single 
 acre of land planted with three hundred trees one-seventh 
 to be cut down every year will maintain fourteen men. 
 
 1*2. But the CHILIAN PINE (Araucaria imbricata), now 
 known among us for its beauty, is still more conspicuous 
 as a feeder of men. In our British woods the tiny squirrel 
 supports its life during the winter months on the seeds of 
 the larch, the pine, and the Scotch fir, which we plant for 
 ornament or use. But on the slopes of the Andes of Chili 
 and Patagonia the lofty araucaria extends in natural forests, 
 bearing huge cones six inches in diameter. The seeds con- 
 tained in these are large, and supply the natives with a great 
 part of their usual food. " The fruit of one large tree will 
 maintain eighteen persons for a year ; " and this, year by 
 year, without the necessity of cutting down and replanting, 
 as in the case of the sago palm. 
 
 We do not know the composition of pine seeds, but they 
 probably do not differ much from the beech-nut, the chest- 
 nut, and the acorn, all of which are rich in gluten. 
 
 13. THE BANANA. Of some fruits, tales nearly as 
 wonderful are told. The beautiful banana, for example, the 
 ornament of country-houses in tropical countries, is said to 
 yield from the same extent of ground a larger supply of 
 human food than any other known vegetable. The fruit of 
 a single tree sometimes weighs 70 or 80 lb., but averages 
 from 30 to 40 lb. ; and, according to Humboldt, the same 
 space of a thousand square feet, which will yield only 462 
 lb. of potatoes, or 38 lb. of wheat, will produce 4000 lb. of 
 bananas, and in a shorter period of time ! 
 
 The fruit, however, contains seventy-three per cent, of 
 water. Even when dried and converted into meal, it is less 
 nutritious than the meal of any of the varieties of grain
 
 THE BANANA TREE. 
 
 93 
 
 above mentioned. It approaches in composition most near- 
 ly to rice, and, like that grain, swells out the stomachs of 
 the negroes who feed Fj 28> 
 
 upon it. In tropical 
 countries it is never- 
 theless a most valuable 
 food, and is so exten- 
 sively consumed as to 
 take the place of our 
 cereal grains as the 
 common article of diet. 
 About 6J Ib. of the 
 fruit, or 2 Ib. of the 
 dry meal, with Ib. of 
 salt meat or fish, form, 
 in tropical America, 
 the daily allowance for 
 a labourer, whether 
 slave or free. 
 
 The unripe fruit is 
 sometimes used as 
 bread; it is dried in 
 the oven, and in this 
 state is eaten in the 
 manner of bread. When 
 thus dried, it may be 
 kept for a long time 
 without spoiling, and is 
 usually carried with them in this dry state by the natives 
 when they are proceeding on a long journey. 
 
 The chemical reason why the unripe fruit is chosen for 
 this purpose, is, that while unripe, the fruit is filled with 
 starch, so that when dried it has a resemblance to bread 
 both in taste and composition. As the fruit ripens, this 
 
 Musa sapientumThe Banana Tree. 
 Scale, 1 inch to 10 feet. 
 Fruit, 1 inch to 5 inches.
 
 94 
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 Fig. 24 
 
 starch changes into sugar, and the fruit becomes sweet. In 
 this state, though more pleasant to eat when newly pulled, it 
 is less fit either for drying or for preserving. 
 
 14. THE DATE. Many other 
 fruits are more nutritious, weight 
 for weight, than the banana, 
 though none may probably be 
 compared with it as an abundant 
 producer of food. The date, for 
 example, <: the bread of the de- 
 sert," is capable of supporting 
 life, and of sustaining unaided the 
 strength of man, for an indefinite 
 period. We possess no chemical 
 results from which to judge of 
 the absolute nutritive quality of 
 this fruit, but experience proves 
 that it must be very consider- 
 able. 
 
 The date palm (Phoenix dacty- 
 lifera), the tree which yields this 
 fruit, is invaluable amid parched 
 sands and arid deserts. Wher- 
 ever a spring of water appears 
 amid the sandy deserts of Africa 
 (between 19 and 35 N. lati- 
 tude), this graceful palm yields at 
 once both its grateful shelter and 
 nourishing fruit. Where all 
 other crops fail from drought, the 
 date tree still flourishes. In 
 Egypt and Arabia it forms a 
 
 . jr 
 
 large portion of the general food, 
 and among the oases of Fezzan 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 20 feet 
 Fruit, 1 inch to 2 inches.
 
 THE FIG AND THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 95 
 
 " nineteen-twentieths of the population live upon it for nine 
 months in the year." 
 
 15. THE FIG. The fig, like the date, is a native of 
 warm climates. Of the chemical history of this and some 
 other fruits we know more than we do as yet of the date. 
 In the perfectly dry state it is about as nutritious as rice. In 
 the moist state, as it is imported, it will go considerably fur- 
 ther in feeding, and especially in fattening or adding gener- 
 ally to the weight of an animal, than an equal weight of 
 wheaten bread ! 
 
 Thus, figs as imported, and wheaten bread in its usual 
 state, consist respectively of 
 
 Figs. "Wheaton bread. 
 
 Water, 21 48 
 
 Gluten, 6 5J 
 
 Starch, sugar, &c., ..... 78 46J 
 
 100 100 
 
 The fig, it will be seen by comparing the above columns, 
 contains about as much gluten as wheaten bread, while in 
 starch and sugar it is twenty-seven per cent, richer. The 
 perfectly dry gooseberry is about as nutritive as ordinary 
 wheaten flour. 
 
 16. THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE (Artocarpus incisa) is re- 
 markable for its large and brilliant leaf, and for the general 
 beauty of its appearance, in which respect none of our forest 
 trees can compare with it. But it is most remarkable for 
 the abundant, peculiar, and nutritious fruit it yields. This 
 fruit is nearly round, and attains to a considerable size. It 
 grows abundantly, and covers the tree for eight or nine 
 months without interruption, and the crops ripen in succes- 
 sion. There are various ways of cooking it, for it is seldom 
 relished raw. While the fruit is on the tree, it is plucked 
 before it is perfectly ripe, while the rind is still green, but
 
 96 
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 the pith snow-white, and of a porous and mealy texture. 
 It is then peeled, wrapped in leaves, and baked on hot 
 
 stones. In this state it 
 tastes like wheaten bread, 
 sometimes rather sweeter. 
 When quite ripe, the 
 starch, as in the banana, 
 has become partly.changed 
 into sugar, so that the 
 pith is pulpy and of a yel- 
 low colour, and can be 
 eaten uncooked, but it has 
 still a disagreeable flavour. 
 To serve for food during 
 the three months when 
 the tree ceases to bear, 
 the unripe fruits, after 
 being peeled, are laid in 
 a paved pit and covered 
 with leaves and stones ; 
 they there ferment and 
 become sour, and form a 
 kind of paste, which tastes 
 like black Westphalian 
 bread when not thoroughly 
 baked. The quantity required for daily use is taken from 
 the pit, made into lumps about the size of the fist, rolled 
 in leaves, and baked on stones as before. These lumps 
 of bread keep for weeks, and are a very good provision in 
 journeys. 
 
 The crops of this fruit are so abundant that three trees 
 are sufficient to maintain a man for eight months. It is 
 more productive, therefore, even than the banana or the 
 sago tree. " Whoever," says Captain Cook, " has planted 
 
 Artocarpus incisa The Bread-fruit Tree. 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 40 feet 
 Leaf and fruit, 1 inch to a foot and a half.
 
 THE BREAD-FRUIT. 97 
 
 ten bread-fruit trees, has fulfilled his duty to his own and 
 succeeding generations as completely and amply as an in- 
 habitant of our rude clime who, throughout his whole life, 
 has ploughed during the rigour of winter, reaped in the 
 heat of summer, and not only provided his present house- 
 hold with bread, but painfully saved some money for his 
 children." 
 
 On the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and on the 
 island groups of the South Sea, this tree is found. The 
 fruit is best, however, on the Friendly and Marquesas 
 Islands. It has never been observed wild, but the whole 
 species has passed into a cultivated state, and it is therefore 
 probable, says Meyen, " that man settled wherever he found 
 a bread-fruit tree. Even yet the favourite situation of the 
 fragile Indian huts is under its shady branches." * 
 
 The chemical composition of this fruit has never been 
 determined. We know by its properties that, while unripe, 
 it contains much starch, which during the ripening is partly 
 changed into sugar ; but how much gluten or oily matter, or 
 even of water, is present in it, has not, so far as I am 
 aware, been hitherto experimentally ascertained. 
 
 The quantity of water they contain is a character of 
 fruits which is very important. By this they are distin- 
 guished in a remarkable manner from the different varieties 
 of grain. Thus the fruit of the 
 
 Plantains contains . 78 per cent of water. 
 
 Plums, and other fleshy fruits, 75 
 Apples, gooseberries, &c., 80 
 
 The consequence of this composition is, that in fruits all 
 the nutritive matter is diluted with a large quantity of water, 
 and in this state experience has shown that all nutritive sub- 
 stances are more grateful to the healthy stomach and more 
 easily digested. It is for this reason that, in preparing our 
 
 * METEN'S Geography of Plants (Ray Society), p. 821. 
 
 5
 
 98 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 dry grains for food, we almost invariably imitate this prepa- 
 ratory process of nature. Even in baking our bread, as we 
 have seen above, the result of our operations is that we con- 
 vert it into a light and spongy mass containing nearly half 
 its weight of water. And yet we talk of this as dry bread, 
 and rarely eat it without sonic accompanying fluid. 
 
 The ROOTS and T VEERS we use as food occur naturally 
 in the same watery condition as fruits do. The potato, the 
 carrot, and the turnip, for example, contain respectively in a 
 hundred pounds 
 
 "Water. Dry food. 
 
 The potato, ..... 75 25 
 
 . " carrot, ..... 83 IT 
 
 " turnip, ..... 90 10 
 
 The gourd tribe are still more remarkable for the quan- 
 tity of water they contain. The water melon, for example, 
 contains ninety -four per cent., and the cucumber ninety-seven 
 per cent, of water ! No wonder that Jonah's gourd could 
 spring up in a night that this tribe of plants should be so 
 much esteemed in hot climates, where thirst rages or ' that 
 old Mehemet AH should have been able to eat up an entire 
 forty pound melon after the substantials of his dinner were 
 disposed of ! 
 
 17. THE TURNIP AND CARROT. The dry substance of 
 the roots and green vegetables we use as food resembles that 
 of seeds and fruits in general composition. The dried meal 
 of the turnip and carrot, for example, contains gluten asso- 
 ciated with starch and sugar, and is very nutritious. That 
 of the turnip is quite equal in this respect to Indian-corn 
 meal, being only deficient in fat. Hence a little oily food 
 should be always used along with a turnip diet. Attempts 
 have been made to manufacture a palatable meal from dried 
 turnips, but the disagreeable taste of the root so clings to
 
 THE POTATO. 99 
 
 the meal as hitherto to have rendered it unsuited for human 
 consumption. 
 
 18. THE POTATO is more important as a variety of hu- 
 man food than any other root we cultivate, and is remark- 
 able for being grown over a greater range of latitude than 
 any other cultivated plant. The dry substance which it con- 
 tains the potato meal, that is is unsuited for being made 
 into bread alone, though it is used to some extent, as an 
 admixture with wheaten flour, and is said in most cases to 
 improve the bread in lightness and general appearance. 
 The dried potato is less nutritive, weight for weight, in the 
 sense of supporting the strength, and enabling a man to 
 undergo fatigue, than any other extensively-used vegetable 
 food, of which the composition is known, with the exception 
 only of rice and of the plantain. It approaches nearest, 
 indeed, to rice, though it is somewhat superior to that grain. 
 Thus, the dry substance of these three forms of food consists 
 of' 
 
 Rice. Potato. Plantain. 
 
 Gluten, 7* 8 5J 
 
 Starch, &c., 92* 92 94J 
 
 100 100 100 
 
 There is, therefore, a remarkable similarity among these 
 three kinds of food, in so far as they all differ from our 
 cereal and other grains and roots, in containing a smaller 
 proportion of the ingredient represented by the gluten of 
 wheat. And in the use of them all, it is remarkable that a 
 chemical or physiological likeness is indicated by the ob- 
 servation that the tribes of people who live exclusively or 
 even chiefly on any of these three vegetable productions, are 
 distinguished by the size and prominence of their stomachs ! 
 The Hindoo who lives on rice, the negro who lives on the 
 plantain, and the Irishman who lives exclusively on the
 
 100 
 
 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 potato, are all described as being more or less pot-bellied. 
 This peculiarity is to be ascribed in part, I suppose, to the 
 necessity of eating a large bulk of food, in order to be able 
 to extract from it a sufficient amount of necessary suste- 
 nance. And that this deformity is somewhat less conspicuous 
 in the Irish potato-eater than in the plantain-loving negro, 
 or even the rice-devouring Chinaman and Hindoo, is pro- 
 bably to be ascribed to the somewhat larger proportion of 
 the gluten ingredient which is present in the potato. 
 
 One remarkable circumstance in which the three kinds 
 of meal just spoken of differ from each other, is in the size 
 of the grains of starch in each. As seen in the following 
 figures all drawn to the same scale the starch granules in 
 the potato are very large, having sometimes a length of two 
 or three thousandths of an inch. Those of the plantain, 
 though considerably larger than the granules of wheat or 
 rye (p. 81), average less than half the size of those of the 
 potato ; while those of rice are angular, and have an average 
 diameter of less than one five-thousandth of an inch. 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 a Granules of Potato 
 Starch. 
 
 6 Grannies of Plantain 
 Starch. 
 
 o Grannies of Rice 
 Starch. 
 
 Whether the peculiarities above shown influence in any
 
 THE ONION. 101 
 
 way the nutritive action of these several kinds of food, has 
 not yet been specially investigated. 
 
 19. THE ONION is worthy of notice as an extensive 
 article of consumption in this country. It is largely culti- 
 vated at home, and is imported, to the extent of seven or 
 eight hundred tons a-year, from Spain and Portugal. But 
 it rises in importance when we consider that in these latter 
 countries it forms one of the common and universal supports 
 of life. It is interesting, therefore, to know that in addition 
 to the peculiar flavour which first recommends it, the onion 
 is remarkably nutritious. According to my analyses, the 
 dried onion root contains from twenty-five to thirty per cent 
 of gluten. It ranks in this respect with the nutritious pea 
 and the gram of the East. It is not merely as a relish, 
 therefore, that the wayfaring Spaniard eats his onion with 
 his humble crust of bread, as he sits by the refreshing 
 spring : it is because experience has long proved that, like 
 the cheese of the English laborer, it helps to sustain his 
 strength also, and adds beyond what its bulk would sug- 
 gest to the amount of nourishment which his simple meal 
 supplies. 
 
 20. Among roots which are important articles of diet 
 in more limited districts, may also be mentioned the tuber 
 of a lily ( Lilium pomponium) which is roasted and eaten in 
 Kamtschatka, and is there cultivated as we do the potato. 
 That it is nutritious is certain, but with its exact chemical 
 composition and nutritive value we are as yet unacquainted. 
 
 LEAVES. From roots we turn to leaves, which form no 
 inconsiderable proportion of the daily sustenance of Euro- 
 pean nations. The greater number of animals, wild as well 
 as domestic, live upon the leaves of plants. Our oxen feed 
 upon the grasses ; and even the huge elephant and the sloth 
 find their nourishment on the leaves of the forests in which
 
 102 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 they live. Among those which are raised for human food, 
 the cabbage is a regular field crop ; and many others are 
 cultivated less extensively in our gardens. 
 
 Leaves are generally rich in gluten ; many of them, how- 
 erer, contain other substances in smaller quantity associated 
 with the gluten, which are unpleasant to the taste, or act 
 injuriously upon the general health, and therefore render 
 ihem unfit for human food. Dried tea-leaves, for example, 
 Contain about twenty- five per cent of gluten ; and therefore, 
 if they could be eaten with relish, and digested readily, they 
 would prove as strengthening as beans or peas. 
 
 21. THE CABBAGE is an especially nutritious vegetable. 
 The dried leaf contains, according to my analyses, from 
 thirty to thirty-five per cent, of gluten, and is, in this re- 
 spect, therefore, more nutritious than any other vegetable 
 food which is consumed to a large extent by men and ani- 
 mals. I know, indeed, of only two exceptions the mush- 
 room, which in its dry matter contains sometimes as much 
 as fifty-six per cent, of gluten and the dried cauliflower, in 
 which the gluten occasionally rises as high as sixty- four per 
 cent. 
 
 The cabbage is one of those plants from the leaves of 
 which, by boiling, we can extract the greater part of that 
 which is disagreeable to the taste, and thus convert it into a 
 palatable food, without sensibly diminishing its nutritious 
 quality.* When eaten frequently, however, and in large 
 quantity, they have, in common with nearly all kinds of 
 food which are rich in gluten, a costive or binding tendency 
 upon the human constitution ; hence the propriety of eating 
 them with fat and oily food. Bacon and greens, like pork 
 and pease-pudding, is a conjunction of viands which does 
 not owe its popularity either to old habit or to the mere 
 
 * I found, for example, that the dried matter of boiled cabbage still contained 
 thirty-three per cent, of gluten.
 
 IK1SH KOL-CANNON. 103 
 
 taste of the epicure. It is in reality an admixture which 
 constitutional experience has prescribed as better fitted to 
 the after comfort of the alimentary canal of every healthy 
 individual, than either kind of food eaten alone. 
 
 And so with a dish common in Ireland under the name 
 of Kol-cannon. The potato, as we have seen, is poor in 
 gluten the cabbage is unusually rich in this ingredient ; 
 mix the two, and you approach the composition of wheaten 
 bread. Beat the potatoes and boiled cabbage together, put 
 in a little pork fat, salt, and pepper, and you have a kol- 
 cannon which has all the good qualities of the best Scotch 
 oatmeal, and to many would be more savoury and palatable. 
 Take a pot-bellied potato-eater, and feed him on this dish, 
 and he will become not only stronger and more active, but 
 he will cease to carry before him an advertisement of the 
 kind of food he lives upon, and his stomach will fall to the 
 dimensions of the same organ in other men. 
 
 Such are the principal varieties of vegetable food which 
 partly in the form of baked bread, and partly cooked in 
 other ways are at the present day most largely employed 
 in the feeding of the human race. We have seen in all of 
 them 
 
 First, That they contain a sensible proportion of three 
 important constituents gluten, starch, and fat. 
 
 Second, That when the proportion of any of these is 
 too small, chemistry indicates, and experience suggests, 
 that an additional quantity of this deficient substance should 
 be added in the process of cooking, or preparatory to eating. 
 Thus we consume butter with our bread, and mix it with our 
 pastry, because wheaten flour is deficient in natural fat ; or 
 we eat cheese or onions with the bread, to add to the pro- 
 portion of gluten it naturally contains. So we eat some- 
 thing more nutritive along with our rice or potatoes we
 
 104 THE BREAD WE EAT. 
 
 add fat to our cabbage we enrich our salad with vegetable 
 oil eat our cauliflowers with melted butter and beat up 
 potatoes and cabbage together into a nutritious kol-cannon. 
 
 Third And thirdly, that in all natural varieties of vege- 
 table food which are generally suitable for eating without 
 cooking, a large per-centage of water is present. In prepar- 
 ing food in our kitchens we imitate this natural condition. 
 Even in converting our wheaten flour into bread, we, as an 
 important result aimed at, mix or unite it with a large pro- 
 portion of water. 
 
 All the kinds of food by which the lives of masses of 
 men are sustained being thus constituted, it is obvious that 
 those vegetable substances which consist of one only of the 
 constituents of wheaten bread, cannot be expected to prove 
 permanently nutritious ; and experience has proved this to 
 be the case. The oils or fats alone do not sustain life, neither 
 does starch or sugar alone. With both of these classes of sub- 
 stances, as we have seen, a certain proportion of gluten is 
 associated in all our grains, fruits, and nutritive roots. 
 
 Hence arrow-root, which is only a variety of starch, can- 
 not give strength without an admixture of gluten in some 
 form or other. To condemn a prisoner to be fed on arrow- 
 root alone, would be to put him to certain death by a linger- 
 ing, torturing starvation. The same is true, to a less ex- 
 tent, of tapioca, and of most varieties of sago,* all of which 
 consist of starch, with only a small and variable admixture 
 of gluten. Even gluten, when given alone to dogs, has not 
 kept them alive beyond a few weeks ; so that no vegetable 
 production, it may be said, and no kind of artificially pre- 
 
 * The pith of the sago palm, as it is made into bread by the natives of New Guinea, 
 probably contains a sufficient proportion of gluten to sustain life ; but this is in a 
 great measure washed out in manufacturing the sago of commerce. Tapioca as it 
 Is imported and consumed in this country, contains, I find, about three i>er cent, of 
 gluten.
 
 INFLUENCE OF DIET. 105 
 
 pared food, will support life, in which starch and gluten at 
 least are not united. If they contain at the same time a 
 certain proportion of fat, they will admit of more easy diges- 
 tion, and of a more ready application in the stomach to the 
 purposes of nutrition ; and if they are either naturally per- 
 meated with a large quantity of water, or are transfused with 
 it by artificial means, they will undergo a more complete and 
 easy dissolution in the alimentary canal, and will produce 
 the greatest possible effect in ministering to the wants of 
 animal life. 
 
 It is interesting to observe how very generally adjust- 
 ments of this kind have been made to the wants of animals, 
 in the natural composition of the eatable parts of plants. 
 But it is still more interesting to observe how experience 
 alone has almost everywhere led men to a rude adjustment, 
 in kind and quantity, of the forms of nutritive matter which 
 are essential to the supply of their animal wants under the 
 circumstances in which they are placed. And the absolute 
 necessity of such adjustment is proved by all physiological 
 history. For when, through force of circumstances, or through 
 distorted taste, the natural instinct for such adjustment can- 
 not be gratified, or is foolishly thwarted, the health is en- 
 dangered, the constitution gradually altered, the tempera- 
 ment modified, life shortened, families extinguished, and 
 whole races of men swept from the face of the earth. Such, 
 looked at in their final effects, are the influences of the kind 
 of food in which individuals indulge, or by which nations 
 are supported.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 The fibrin and water of beef. Composition of beef compared with that of wheaten 
 bread and wheaten flour. Striking differences. Dried flesh compared with dried 
 oat-cake. More fat in domesticated animals and such as are fed for the butcher. 
 Composition of fish. Richness of the salmon and the eel. Less fat in fowls. 
 Eating butter with fish. Composition of the egg. Albumen or white ; its pro- 
 perties and relations to gluten and fibrin. Oil in the yolk, and in the dried egg. 
 Composition of milk. Milk allied both to animal and vegetable forms of food. 
 Milk a model food. Importance of a mixed food, containing much liquid. Ad- 
 justment of the several ingredients of food in cooking. Qualities of different kinds 
 of cheese. Composition of new and skimmed milk cheeses. Comparison with 
 milk. Cheese as a digester. Solvent power of decayed cheese. Customary prac- 
 tices In cooking. Qualities of different kinds of animal food. Loss of beef and 
 mutton in cooking. Effects of heat upon meat Constituents of the juice of meat 
 Kreatine. Effects of salt upon meat Loss of nutritive value in salting. How 
 to boil meat and make meat soup. Animal fats ; their analogy to vegetable fats. 
 The solid fat of beef, mutton, and palm-oil. Composition of human fat, goose fat. 
 butter, and the oil of the egg. The liquid part of animal fat Identity of animal 
 and vegetable food as regards the mineral matters they respectively contain. 
 
 BEEF and bread are the staples of English life ; and as the 
 study of wheaten bread in the preceding chapter gave us the 
 key to the composition and nutritive qualities of all other 
 vegetable substances, so an examination of beef will help us 
 to a clear knowledge of all other kinds of animal food.
 
 THE FIBRE OF LEAN BEEF. 107 
 
 1. FLESH. If a piece of fresh beef be dried in the hot 
 sunshine, or in a basin, over boiling water, it will shrink, 
 dry up, diminish in bulk, and lose so much water, that four 
 pounds of fresh, newly-cut beef will leave only one pound of 
 dried flesh. 
 
 Again, if we take a piece of lean beef and wash it in se- 
 parate portions of clean water, its colour will gradually 
 disappear. The blood it contains will be washed out, and a 
 white mass of fibrous tissue will remain. If this be put into 
 a bottle with alcohol or ether, a variable proportion of fat 
 will be dissolved out of it, and the whole fibrous mass will 
 now be dryer and more compact than before. Through this 
 fibrous mass many minute vessels are scattered, but it chiefly 
 consists of a substance to which chemists, from its fibrous 
 appearance, give the name si fibrin. 
 
 The annexed woodcut (fig. 27) shows the structure of 
 muscle, as seen under 2 _. 
 
 the microscope. The 
 cross wrinkles repre- 
 sent the way in which 
 the fibres contract in 
 the living animal. 
 
 Of this fibrin the 
 lean part of the mus- 
 cles of all animals The fibres of lean muscle, showing how they are 
 />Viioflir nrn-io'otc! "f ' disposed or arranged, the particles of which they are 
 euy cons IS IS , It IS composed, and how they shrink or contract 
 
 therefore the principal 
 
 constituent of animal flesh. It resembles the gluten of 
 plants very closely in composition and properties insomuch 
 that, in a general comparison of animal with vegetable food, 
 we may consider them for the present as absolutely iden- 
 tical. 
 
 Thus we have separated our beef besides the small
 
 108 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 quantity of blood and other matters washed out of it by the 
 water into three substances, water, fibrin, and fat. Its 
 composition, as compared with that of wheaten bread and 
 wheaten flour, it represented as follows : 
 
 Lean beet Wheaten bread. Wheaten flour. 
 Water (and blood\ 78 45 16 
 
 Fibrin or gluten, 19 6 10 
 
 Fat, .... 3 1 2 
 
 Starch, Ac., 48 72 
 
 100 100 100 
 
 Lean beef, therefore, agrees with wheaten flour and 
 bread, in containing water and fat only in beef the water 
 is as great as it is in the potato or the plantain. It agrees 
 with them also in containing a substance (fibrin) which rep- 
 resents in the animal the gluten of the plant. The main 
 difference between beef and bread are first, that the flesh 
 does not contain a particle of starch, which is so large an 
 ingredient in plants ; and, second, that the proportion of 
 fibrin in ordinary flesh is about three times as great as in 
 ordinary wheaten bread. Or a pound of beef-steak is as 
 nutritive as three pounds of wheaten bread, in so far as the 
 nutritive value of food depends upon this one ingredient. 
 In the dry matter of flesh, also, the proportion of fibrin is 
 greater than that of gluten in any known vegetable food, and 
 very much greater than in dried bread made from any of our 
 cultivated grains. 
 
 This latter fact will become more apparent if we com- 
 pare perfectly dry flesh with perfectly dry oat-cake oatmeal 
 being the richest of our common kinds of meal, both in glu- 
 ten and in fat. 
 
 Fibrin or gluten, . 
 Fat, . . 
 
 Starch, . 
 
 Dried flesh. 
 84 
 . . . 1 
 
 Dried oat-cake. 
 21 
 7 
 TO 
 
 Blood and Salt*, . 
 
 . . . 9 
 
 100 
 
 2 
 100
 
 PROPORTIONS OF FAT IN DOMESEIC ANIMALS. 109 
 
 Here we have the two differences between the lean flesh of 
 animals and the most nutritive of our grains presented in a 
 very striking light. The animal food contains four times as 
 much of what for the moment we may call gluten ; but it is 
 wholly deficient in the other main ingredient of vegetables 
 the starch which in the dried oatmeal forms seven-tenths of 
 the whole weight. 
 
 The flesh of wild animals is represented very nearly by 
 the lean beef of which the composition is given above. 
 Wild animals generally contain little fat. But it is not so 
 with our domesticated animals, and especially such as are 
 reared for food. They all contain much fat, either collected 
 by itself in various parts of the body (the suet or tallow), of 
 intermingled with the muscular fibre, as in the highly-prized 
 marbled beef in which the English epicure delights. In the 
 boiling-houses at Port Philip, a small merino sheep of 55 Ib. 
 weight gives 20 Ib. of tallow, which is nearly two-fifths of 
 the whole. In heavier sheep the proportion of fat increases, 
 four-fifths of all the weight above 55 Ib. being tallow. In 
 beef and mutton, such as is met with in our markets, from a 
 third to a fourth of the whole dead weight generally consists 
 of fat. 
 
 Supposing that, as it comes to the table, one-fourth of 
 the weight of the butcher-meat we consume consists of fat, 
 then the nutriment contained in 100 Ib. of it, made quite 
 dry, will be represented by 
 
 Fibrin, 68 Ib. 
 
 Fat, 80 
 
 Salts and blood, 7 
 
 100 
 
 This fat to a certain extent represents and replaces the 
 starch of vegetable food. 
 
 Fowls contain less fat than butcher-meat; though, when 
 crammed and fed upon food rich in fat, the capon and the
 
 110 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 ortolan, and the diseased livers of the goose, become as rich 
 as the fattest beef or mutton. 
 
 The composition of other kinds of flesh which we eat as 
 food is much the same as that of beef. Veal and venison 
 contain less fat, while pork contains more. Each variety 
 also possesses a peculiar flavour and a faint odour, which is 
 characteristic of the species, and sometimes of the variety of 
 the animal. In some cases, as with our mountain mutton, 
 this peculiar flavour is a high recommendation ; in others, 
 as with the sheep of the Low Countries, and with the goat, 
 it renders them to many altogether unpalatable. 
 
 2. FISH in general is less rich in fat than the flesh meat 
 in our markets, and consequently contains more fibrin. 
 Some of our common varieties of fish, when perfectly dried, 
 consist of 
 
 Fibrin. Fat, &c. 
 
 Skate, . 97 3 
 
 92 8 
 
 92 8 
 
 78 23 
 
 Haddock, 
 Herring, 
 Salmon, 
 Eel, 
 
 44 56 
 
 These numbers, of course, are liable to variation the 
 herring especially being very much fatter at some seasons 
 and on some coasts than on others. We see, however, that 
 salmon is justly considered a rich fish, since it contains three 
 times as much fat as the haddock. The epicure has also a 
 substantial reason for his attachment to the eel, since it con- 
 tains a considerably greater weight of fat than it does of 
 muscular fibre. 
 
 It appears, therefore 
 
 First, That the dried flesh of all the animals that we 
 most usually consume for food, consists essentially of 
 fibrin. 
 
 Second, That the proportion of fat is variable, and that
 
 THE EGG. 1 1 ] 
 
 those varieties of animal food are most esteemed for human 
 food in which a considerable proportion of fat is present. 
 Hence, 
 
 T/tird, Where the proportion of fat is naturally small, 
 we endeavour to increase it by art ; as in feeding the capon. 
 Or we eat along with those varieties in which it is email 
 some other food richer in fat. Thus, we eat bacon with 
 veal, with liver, and with fowl ; or we capon the latter, and 
 thus increase its natural fat. We use melted butter with 
 our white fish, or we fry them with fat ; while the herring, 
 the salmon and the eel, are usually both dressed and eaten 
 in their own oil. If the reader will take the trouble of con- 
 sulting any popular cookery-book, he will find that sausage, 
 and other rich mixed meats, are made in general with one 
 part of fat and two of lean the proportion in which they 
 exist in a piece of good marbled beef ! Art thus uncon- 
 sciously again imitating nature. 
 
 3. THE EGG. Akin to flesh and fish is another form 
 of animal food the egg. The egg of the domestic hen is 
 that which is most commonly known, and most extensively 
 used as food. It consists of three principal parts the shell, 
 the white, and the yolk. The shell is composed of carbo- 
 nate of lime or hard chalk, and it is intended chiefly as a 
 protection to the inner part. It is penetrated, however, by 
 numerous minute holes or pores, through which the air is 
 capable of passing, and by means of which it is conveyed to 
 the young bird during the process of hatching.* It forms 
 rather more than a tenth part of the weight of the egg, the 
 white forms six-tenths, and the yolk three-tenths. A com- 
 
 * Through these pores, also, the air enters, by the agency of which eggs, when 
 cept, soon become rotten. If those pores are filled up by rubbing the new-laid egg 
 *ver with fat, or in any similar way, it will keep fresh for an indefinite period. It 
 k then very nearly in the condition of the hermetically sealed meats now prepared 
 for use in long voyages.
 
 1 1 2 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 mon-sized hen's egg weighs about a thousand grains, and 
 consists, therefore, of about 
 
 White, 600 grains. 
 
 Yolk, ..'.... 800 
 Shell, 100 
 
 1000 grains. 
 
 The white of the egg is so called, because, when heated, 
 it coagulates into a white solid substance, which is insoluble 
 in water, and almost free from taste. It is known to chem- 
 ists by the name of albumen* Though different in appear- 
 ance and in sensible properties from fibrin and gluten, it 
 has a very close chemical relation to these substances, and 
 serves nearly the same purpose in the feeding of animals. We 
 may for the present, therefore, consider all the three gluten, 
 fibrin, and albumen as, in a nutritive sense, absolutely 
 identical. 
 
 The yolk is of a yellow colour. It consists, in part, of 
 a variety of albumen, and, therefore, like the white, coagu- 
 lates, though in a less degree, when the egg is heated. But 
 if the dry hard yolk be crushed, and digested in alcohol, 
 _or in ether, it becomes colourless, while the spirit extracts, 
 and dissolves a bright yellow oil. This oil forms about two- 
 thirds of the weight of the yolk, in its perfectly dry state. 
 Thus the yolk, like flesh and fish, consists of fat intermixed 
 with a substance which has a close resemblance to the gluten 
 of plants. 
 
 The egg contains, besides, a large per-centage of water, 
 amounting, as in fresh butcher-meat, to nearly three-fourths 
 of its whole weight. Thus the egg, when deprived of its 
 shell, consists, in the natural and in the dried states, respec- 
 tively of 
 
 * See note, p. 8L
 
 MILK. 
 
 113 
 
 
 Natura 
 
 1 state. 
 
 Dried at the 
 het of boil- 
 ing water. 
 
 
 Whole egg. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Water, 
 
 666 
 
 12T 
 
 74 
 14 
 
 64| 
 
 Fat, 
 Ash (when burned), 
 
 94 
 
 13 
 
 10* 
 li 
 
 40 
 5i 
 
 
 900 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 It contains also a trace of milk-sugar. 
 
 The egg, therefore, as a whole, is richer in fat than fat 
 beef. It is equalled, in this respect, among common kinds 
 of food, only by pork and by eels. It is of interest to re- 
 mark, however, that the white of the egg is entirely free 
 from fat, and that albumen is a very constipating variety of 
 animal food, so that it requires much fat to be eaten along 
 with it, when consumed in any quantity, in order that this 
 quality may be counteracted. It is, no doubt, because ex- 
 perience has long ago proved this in the stomachs of the 
 people, that " eggs and bacon " have been a popular dish 
 among Gentile nations from time immemorial. 
 
 4. MILK. Another nutritious form of animal food is 
 the well-known fluid milk. This, as we should expect, con- 
 tains more water than beef or the egg ; yet, contrary to what 
 we might expect, not more than the turnip, and much less 
 than the melon. 
 
 Milk, by one well-known process, yields butter or fat, 
 and by another curd or cheese. The curd, to which chem- 
 ists give the name of casein, from its forming cheese, resem- 
 bles the gluten, fibrin, and albumen, of which we have already 
 spoken, and is classed along with them as a nutritive sub- 
 stance. It possesses also, weight for weight, about the 
 same value, when used as food, and, like albumen, is dis- 
 tinguished, when eaten alone, for a remarkably constipating 
 property.
 
 1 1 4 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 When the whey of milk, from which the curd and butter 
 have been completely separated, is evaporated to dryncss, a 
 colourless sweet substance is obtained, which is known by 
 the name of sugar of milk. When dried and burned in the 
 air, milk also leaves behind a quantity of ash. These several 
 ingredients exist in cow's milk, in the natural and in the 
 dried states, in the following average proportions : 
 
 Evaporated 
 
 Natural state, to dryness. 
 
 Water, 87 
 
 Curd, or casein, ..... 4i 84J- 
 
 Butter, or fat, 8 23J 
 
 Sugar (of milk), 4* 87 
 
 Ash (nearly), ...... J 4$ 
 
 100 100 
 
 Thus milk appears to partake of the nature of both 
 animal and vegetable food. It contains a large proportion 
 of curd and butter, which represent the fibrin and fat of beef, 
 and, at the same time, a large proportion of sugar, which rep- 
 resents the starch of wheaten bread. 
 
 Human milk very closely resembles the milk of the cow, 
 Its average composition is as follows : 
 
 Water, ....... 8S.91 or 89 
 
 Curd or casein, ...... 3.92 4 
 
 Butter or fat, 2.67 2| 
 
 Sugar of milk, ...... 4.36 4 
 
 Salts or ash, 0.14 1-T 
 
 100 100 1-7 
 
 The principal difference is in the proportion of saline 
 matter, which in human milk is only one-third of that of 
 cow's milk.* 
 
 * The milk of women from fifteen to twenty years of age contains more solid con- 
 stituents than that of women between thirty or forty. Women with dark hair also 
 give a richer milk than women with light hair. In acute diseases the sugar decrease* 
 one-fourth and the curd increases one-fourth, while in chronic affections the butter 
 increases one-fourth, and the casein slightly diminishes. In both classes of diseases 
 the proportion of saline matter increases.
 
 A MIXED FOOD MOST WHOLESOME. 115 
 
 Now, as the natural food of the young mammalian ani- 
 mal of every species is the milk of its mother, that milk 
 may'be looked upon as a kind of model food for the species 
 to which the animal belongs. Woman's milk, therefore, is 
 the type of human food, and after its form and composition 
 all other kinds of food should be adjusted, especially in the 
 case of persons whose condition approaches to that of the 
 child. Hence it seems reasonable to infer 
 
 First, That our food ought to contain a due admixture 
 of vegetable and animal food substances, in which the pro- 
 portions of the three most important constituents, fat, starch 
 or sugar, and fibrin or gluten, are properly adjusted. 
 
 Second, That the food, if not naturally liquid, should be 
 intimately mixed with a large quantity of liquid before it is 
 introduced into the stomach. This lesson we have already 
 learned from the study of various natural forms of vegetable 
 food. 
 
 The attainment of these two ends, in such a way as at 
 the same time to please the e} r e and the palate, guides, for 
 the most part, the operations of the cook in his kitchen. 
 They ought always to guide the operations of those who wish 
 to prepare what it will be wholesome for the majority of men 
 to eat. 
 
 5. CHEESE. The manufacture of cheese of different 
 varieties, and the qualities which these varieties severally 
 possess, are illustrations of the importance of a mixed food. 
 
 Cheese is eaten for two very different purposes either 
 as a part of the regular food, for the general sustenance of 
 the body, or as a kind of condiment, taken in small quantity 
 along with or after the usual fare as is common at dinner- 
 tables. 
 
 In the making of cheese many different varieties are ob- 
 tained, according as the proportion of cream is increased or 
 diminished. When it is made from cream alone, what is
 
 116 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 called a cream cheese is obtained, which must be used -when 
 comparatively fresh, as it soon becomes rancid. When the 
 cream of the previous night's milking is added to the new 
 milk of the morning a very rich cheese is made, like our 
 English Stilton ; when good new milk only is employed, rich 
 cheeses like the Cheddar are obtained ; when an eighth or 
 tenth of the cream is removed, highly esteemed cheeses, like 
 the large-sized (120 Ib.) Cheshires are made, which will not 
 hold together if all the cream be left in. There seems, at 
 first sight, to be no connection between the application of 
 bones to the Cheshire farmer's poor grass-land and the un- 
 expected crumbling of the Cheshire dairymaid's cheese. Yet 
 the connection is plain enough. The bones bring up richer 
 grass ; this gives richer milk ; and this, treated in the old 
 way, a fatter and therefore more crumbly cheese. When 
 the skimmed milk of the evening is added to the new milk 
 of the morning, the mixed milk yields cheeses like the single 
 filo'ster. If the cream be once removed from the whole of 
 the milk, it yields common skimmed-milk cheese ; if it be 
 twice creamed, it gives cheeses like some of the poorer sorts 
 made in Friesland ; and if skimmed for three or four days 
 in succession, it yields the hard horny cheeses of Suffolk, lo- 
 cally known by the name of Suffolk bank, which often re- 
 quires an axe to cut it, and which is so hard ' : that pigs grunt 
 at it, dogs bark at it, but neither of them dare bite it." 
 
 Now, in the making of cheese, the milk is first curdled 
 sometimes by the use of vinegar, but generally by means of 
 rennet. The curd is then separated from the whey, in which 
 the sugar of milk remains dissolved ; after this it is carefully 
 pressed and dried. Were there no cream taken off the milk, 
 therefore, the cheese as a food would differ from the milk 
 chiefly in containing little or no sugar. But when more or 
 less of the cream is removed from the milk employed, the 
 cheese becomes further removed from milk in its composi- 

 
 CHEDDAR AND SKIM-MILK (jHEESEs. 
 
 117 
 
 tion, aud less fitted, therefore, to serve alone as a nutritious 
 animal diet. The following numbers represent the composi- 
 tion of a rich Cheddar cheese when two years old, and of a 
 common one-year-old skimmed-milk cheese made in Lanark- 
 shire. 
 
 
 Cheddar. 
 36 
 
 Skim milk. 
 44 
 
 
 29 
 
 45 
 
 Fat, . 
 
 80* 
 4J 
 
 6 
 5 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 Both contain a very considerable proportion of water, 
 and therefore in this respect they are not unsuited for im- 
 mediate consumption as food. But while the fat in one 
 amounts to nearly one-third of the whole weight, in the other 
 it only reaches to six per cent. 
 
 But we shall have a clearer idea of the value of these 
 varieties of cheese for a general diet, by comparing their 
 composition in a dried state with those of milk, beef, and 
 eggs, also in a dried state. This is seen in the following 
 table : 
 
 
 Milk. 
 
 Cheese. 
 
 Beef. 
 
 Eggs. 
 
 Cheddar. 
 
 Skim milk. 
 
 Casein (curd), 
 Fat (butter), 
 Sngar 
 ' Mineral matter, 
 
 35 
 24 
 8T 
 4 
 
 45 
 
 48 
 
 "f 
 
 80 
 11 
 
 "9 
 
 89* 
 T 
 
 55 
 
 40 
 
 "5 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 * Tliis number is something larger than that given in page 108. This is because 
 the weight of the blood (five per cent.), which consists chiefly of fibrin and albumen, 
 is here added to that of the fibrin of the beef in which it is contained. The reader 
 will not forget that casein, fibrin, and albumen are all nearly identical with each othet 
 and with the gluten of plants.
 
 118 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 We see from this table that both- cheeses are free from 
 sugar. Either of them, therefore, must be eaten with a quan- 
 tity of vegetable food which may supply the starch or su- 
 gar required to make it equal to milk as a general nourish- 
 ment. Again, the Cheddar cheese contains more fat even 
 than the egg. It is too rich, therefore, to be used as an 
 everyday diet by the generality of stomachs. It is partly 
 for this, and partly for the previous reason, that " cheese and 
 bread " are almost invariably eaten together. 
 
 Then, in the skim-milk cheese, we have only eleven of 
 fat mixed with eighty of the very constipating curd. Ex- 
 perience has shown this to be far too little, and therefore but- 
 ter or fat bacon, as well as bread, must be consumed along 
 with these poorer cheeses, when much of them is intended 
 to be eaten ; or they must be cooked, in made dishes, along 
 with some other variety of fat. 
 
 It is with a view to similar adjustments in the propor- 
 tions of the several necessary ingredients of a nourishing 
 food, that we mix eggs with sago, tapioca, and rice in our 
 puddings, shred the oily yolk into our salad, boil rice with 
 milk, and eat rich cheese with our maccaroni. 
 
 But cheese is often eaten also as a relish or condiment, 
 only in small quantities at a time. It is chiefly the older 
 and stronger-tasted varieties that are so used. They are 
 generally very wholesome and digestible when taken in this 
 way. As a digester, as some not inappropriately call it, 
 cheese that which is decayed and mouldy being preferred 
 by connoisseurs is often eaten after dinner. The action 
 which experience seems to have proved it to possess, in aid- 
 ing the digestion of what has previously been eaten, is both 
 curious and interesting, and has had some light thrown upon 
 it by recent chemical research. 
 
 When the curd of milk is exposed to the air in a moist 
 state for a few days at a moderate temperature, it begins
 
 CHEESE AS A DIGESTER. 119 
 
 gradually to decay, to emit a disagreeable odour, and to fer- 
 ment. When in this state, it possesses the property, in 
 certain circumstances, of inducing a species of chemical 
 change and fermentation in other moist substances with 
 which it is mixed, or is brought into contact. It acts after 
 the same manner as sour leaven does when mixed with 
 sweet dough. 
 
 Now, old and partially decayed cheese acts in a similar 
 way when introduced into the stomach. It causes chemical 
 changes gradually to commence among the particles of the 
 food which has previously been eaten, and thus facilitates 
 the dissolution which necessarily precedes digestion. It is 
 only some kinds of cheese, however, which will effect this 
 purpose. Those are generally considered the best in which 
 some kind of cheese mould has established itself.* Hence 
 the mere eating of a morsel of cheese after dinner does not 
 necessarily promote digestion. If too new or of improper 
 quality, it will only add to the quantity of food with which 
 the stomach is probably already overloaded, and will have 
 to await its turn for digestion by the ordinary processes. 
 
 "We have seen that it is one of the special advantages 
 possessed by the varieties of flour obtained from wheat and 
 rye, that in the hands of the baker they form light and 
 spongy bread. This is owing, as I have explained, to a pe- 
 culiarly tenacious property which is possessed by the kinds 
 of gluten contained in these two species of grain. But the 
 same property is possessed to some extent by the white of 
 the egg. It has a glairy consistence, which enables it, when 
 mixed up with moistened flour, arrow-root, sago, &c., to re- 
 tain the globules of air or of steam which are produced with- 
 
 * It Is an Interesting circumstance that such kinds of cheese mould, and the 
 flavour and digestive quality which accompany them, may be propagated even in 
 newer cheeses by inoculation, removing a bit of the new, that is from the interior, 
 and putting in a bit of the old in its place.
 
 120 
 
 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 in it by fermentation or by heat. Thus, like the gluten of 
 wheat, it enables the mixed materials to swell up into a 
 porous mass. Hence the lightness which the white of egg 
 gives to puddings, to cakes, and even to wheaten bread. In 
 a less degree, a similar quality resides in the curd of milk, 
 and hence one cause of the improvement in the appearance 
 of bread which has been wholly or in part prepared with 
 milk. 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject, it may be useful 
 to exhibit in a tabular form the composition of dried beef, 
 eggs, and milk, compared with that of dried wheaten flour 
 and dried oatmeal. 
 
 
 Beef. 
 
 Eggs- 
 
 Milk. 
 
 Fine 
 wheat- 
 en flour. 
 
 Oat- 
 meaL 
 
 Fibrin, casein, albumen, or gluten, 
 Fat, 
 
 89 
 7 
 
 55 
 40 
 
 35 
 24 
 
 12 
 H 
 
 21 
 7 
 
 Starch or sugar, 
 Ash or mineral matter, 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 87 
 
 4 
 
 83 - 1 - 
 2 
 
 70 
 2 
 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 ICO 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 From this table many interesting comparative deductions 
 may be drawn. 
 
 6. COOKING flesh meat. In cooking animal food, plain 
 boiling, roasting, and baking, are in most general favour in 
 our islands. During these operations, fresh beef and mut- 
 ton, when moderately fat, lose on an average about 
 
 In boiling. In baking. In roasting. 
 
 4 Ib. of beef lose, 1 Ib. 1 Ib. 8 oz, 1 Ib. 5 oz. 
 
 4 Ib. of mutton lose, 14 oz. 1 Ib. 4 oz. 1 Ib. 6 oz. 
 
 The greater loss in baking and roasting arises chiefly from 
 the greater quantity of water which is evaporated, and of fat
 
 COOKING FLESH MEAT. 121 
 
 which is melted out during these two methods of cooking. 
 Two circumstances, however, to which it has not hitherto 
 been necessary to advert, have much influence upon the suc- 
 cessful result of these and some other modes of cooking. 
 
 If we put moist flesh meat into a press and squeeze it, a 
 red liquid will flow out. This is water coloured by blood, 
 and holding various saline and other substances in solution. 
 Or if, after being cut very thin, or chopped very fine, the 
 flesh be put into a limited quantity of clean water, the juice 
 of the meat will be gradually extracted, and by subsequent 
 pressure will be more completely removed from it than when 
 pressure is applied to it in the natural state, and without any 
 such mincing and steeping. The removal of these juices 
 leaves the beef or mutton nearly tasteless. 
 
 When the juice of the meat extracted in either way is 
 heated nearly to boiling, it thickens or becomes muddy, and 
 flakes of whitish matter separate, which resemble boiled white 
 of egg. They are, in fact, white of egg or albumen, and they 
 show that the juice of flesh contains a certain quantity of this 
 substance in the same liquid and soluble state in which it 
 exists in the unboiled egg. Now, the presence of this albu- 
 men in the juic? of butcher meat is of much importance in 
 connection with the skilful preparation of it for the table. 
 
 The first effect of the application of a quick heat to a 
 piece of fresh meat is to cause the fibres lo contract, to 
 squeeze out a little of the juice, and to a certain extent to 
 close up the pores so as to prevent the escape of the remain- 
 der. The second is to coagulate the albumen contained in 
 the juice, and thus effectually and completely to plug up the 
 pores, and to retain within the meat the whole of the internal 
 juice. Thereafter, the cooking goes on through the agency 
 of the natural moisture of the flesh. Converted into vapour 
 by the heat, a kind of steaming takes place within the piece 
 
 of meat, so that whether in the oven, on the spit, or in the 
 6
 
 122 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 midst of boiling water, it is in reality, when skilfully done, 
 cooked by its own steam. 
 
 A well-cooked piece of meat should be full of its own 
 juice or natural gravy. In roasting, therefore, it should be 
 exposed to a quick fire, that the external surface may be 
 made to contract at once, and the albumen to coagulate, be- 
 fore the juice has had time to escape from within. And so 
 in boiling. When a piece of beef or mutton is plunged into 
 boiling water, the outer part contracts, the albumen, which 
 is near the surface, coagulates, and the internal juice is pre- 
 vented either from escaping into the water by which it is 
 surrounded, or from, being diluted and weakened by the ad- 
 mission of water among it. When cut up, therefore, the 
 meat yields much gravy and is rich in flavour. Hence a 
 beef-steak or a mutton-chop is done quickly, and over a quick 
 fire, that the natural juices may be retained. 
 
 On the other hand, if the meat be exposed to a slow fire, 
 its pores remain open, the juice continues to flow from with- 
 in as it is dried from the surface, and the flesh pines and be- 
 comes dry, hard, and unsavoury. Or if it be put into cold 
 or tepid water, which is afterwards gradually brought to a 
 boil, much of the albumen is extracted before it coagulates, 
 the natural juices for the most part flow out, and the meat 
 is served in a nearly tasteless state. Hence, to prepare good 
 boiled meat, it should be put at once into water already 
 brought to a boil. But to make beef-tea, mutton broth, or 
 other meat soups, the flesh should be put into the cold water, 
 and this afterwards very slowly warmed, and finally boiled. 
 The advantage derived from simmering, a term not unfre 
 quent in cookery books, depends very much upon the effects 
 of slow boiling as above explained. 
 
 7. BEEF-TEA. It has lately been recommended to make 
 beef-tea by simply chopping the meat small, pouring upon it
 
 THE COOKING OF MEAT. 123 
 
 its own weight, or any other desired quantity of cold water, 
 and bringing it quickly to a boil. This process extracts all 
 the natural juices and gives a most agreeable and savoury 
 tea, which holds in solution about one-eighth part of the solid 
 substance of the beef. But it has been stated, as a recom- 
 mendation of this process, first, that the tea, obtained con- 
 tains all the nutritive qualities of the meat, which is said to 
 be no longer of any value, and, second, that it is as nutritious 
 as if the meat were boiled long enough to give a tea which 
 should stiffen to a jelly when cold. 
 
 But this statement is incorrect, and is made only in con- 
 sequence of two very opposite things being confounded. 
 The juice of the meat contains a small proportion of a sub- 
 stance called kreatin, which is rich in nitrogen, has a cer- 
 tain chemical relation to the peculiar principle of tea and 
 coffee (thein) of which I shall speak in a subsequent chap- 
 ter and exercises, as I believe, a special tonic and exhila- 
 arating influence upon the system, independent of any 
 directly nutritive quality it may possess. This substance, 
 with all the soluble salts of the flesh, the beef-tea made 
 after the above process contains, and the residual fleshy fibre 
 is tasteless, and will not alone support animal life for any 
 length of time. But eaten along with the tea thus made, or 
 with what the tea contains, or made into savoury meat by 
 the addition of ordinary gravy, it will sustain and strengthen 
 the body, as all experience proves. The meat tea also will 
 be more nutritious, in the ordinary sense, the more of the 
 jelly-forming substance of the meat it holds in solution. It 
 will bear, in fact, to the thinner and more quickly made 
 beef-tea, a similar relation to that which cocoa bears to the 
 infusion of China tea.* Both of these last named beverages 
 contain a peculiar principle rich in nitrogen, which exercises 
 
 * See TUB BEVERAGES WE Dretrsa.
 
 124 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 a special influence on the activity of the brain ; but the 
 cocoa is rich besides in the substances which form our ordi- 
 nary nourishment. And as, in consequence of this differ- 
 ence, cocoa is not so well suited as tea or coffee to the digest- 
 ive powers of some constitutions, so it probably is with the 
 meat teas or decoctions prepared by the two processes 
 referred to. The correct values, both relative and absolute, 
 of the meat teas made after the two methods, as well as of 
 the undissolved residue of the meat, are therefore easily seen 
 and understood. 
 
 8. SALTING of Meat. The application of salt to fresh 
 meat has very much of the same effect as the application of 
 a quick heat. It causes the fibres to contract, the meat to 
 lesson in bulk and the juice to flow out from its pores. 
 Hence the reason why dry salt strewed upon fresh lean 
 meat gradually dissolves into a fluid brine. The effect of 
 the salt, if a large quantity be applied, penetrates deep, so 
 that as much as one-third of the juice of the meat is often 
 forced out by the contraction of the fibres. The effect of 
 this upon the meat is twofold. It diminishes the natural 
 flavour, by removing a large proportion of the peculiar sub- 
 stances contained in the juice, and adding pure salt in their 
 stead. At the same time it closes up the pores of the meat, 
 and prevents the entrance of atmospheric air, thus diminish- 
 ing the liability to decay. 
 
 The preservation of flesh meat by salting, depends, 
 therefore, upon the separation of water ^ upon the exclusion 
 of air, upon the saturation with salt of the juice which 
 remains in the meat, and upon the formation of a weak com- 
 pound of the flesh with common salt, which does not readily 
 undergo decay. But this preservation is attended by a 
 diminution in its nutritive qualities, for the juice which flows 
 out contains albumen (white of egg), kreatin, phosphoric acid,
 
 FLESH MEAT VERY NUTRITIOUS. 125 
 
 and potash. These substances are precisely the same as are 
 more fully extracted by water, in the method of making 
 savoury beef-tea, already described, and in proportion as 
 they are extracted they diminish the nutritive properties of 
 the meat. Hence one reason why long feeding on salt meat 
 affects the health, and why vegetable and other substances, 
 which are capable of supplying what the meat had lost, are 
 found to be the best means of restoring it. 
 
 As a whole, flesh meat is eminently nutritious, because 
 it contains all the materials which are necessary to build up 
 our own flesh ; but remove from it a portion of these materi- 
 als, and the remainder becomes more or less useless, 
 as bricks and stone become useless to the builder if we 
 refuse him the requisite quantity of mortar. 
 
 9. The FAT of Animal and Vegetable Substances. We 
 have seen that, as a whole, there is much analogy between 
 the bread and the beef, the vegetable and the animal forms 
 of food on which we live. Between the gluten of the one 
 and the fibrin of the other, we have also found a very close 
 similarity, and that in the animal economy they are both 
 fitted and intended to serve the same main purpose. If we 
 compare the fatty portions of both, we find new resem- 
 blances. 
 
 Most of the varieties of fat yielded by our common Euro- 
 pean vegetables are fluid and oily at ordinary temperatures. 
 Such is the case with the fat extracted from wheat, from 
 oats, from Indian corn, from linseed, from the olive, the 
 poppy, the walnut, &c. The fat of the oil palm, however, 
 commonly known by the name of palm-oil, and some other 
 vegetable fats or butters, are solid in the natural state, and 
 at ordinary temperatures. And even the oily fats, olive oil 
 for example, when exposed to a low temperature, congeal or 
 freeze to a certain extent, and allow of the separation of a 
 solid fat in greater or less proportion. On the other hand,
 
 126 THE BEEF WE COOK. 
 
 those which are solid yield to pressure a quantity of a liquid 
 fatty oil. So that in reality all vegetable fats consist of two 
 fatty substances, one of which is solid, and the other liquid, 
 at ordinary temperatures. 
 
 Now, the same is the case with the animal fats with 
 those of beef and mutton for example, with the butter of 
 milk, and with the oil contained in the yolk of the egg. All 
 consist of a solid and a liquid fat, and in this fact we see a 
 new analogy between our vegetable and our animal food. 
 
 But a still further and more intimate analogy exists 
 between the solid portions of the fatty substances of the ani- 
 mal and vegetable kingdoms. When the solid fat of palm- 
 oil is properly purified it is found to consist of a solid, 
 beautifully white, peculiar fatty body, to w r hich the name of 
 jmlmitine has been given. On the other hand, when beef 
 and mutton fats are pressed from the oil they contain, and 
 then purified, the most abundant substance obtained is a 
 peculiar fat which is known by the name of stearinc. The 
 remainder consists principally of palmitine. 
 
 Now, of these two fatty bodies the solid fat of all our 
 domestic animals almost entirely consists. In beef and mut- 
 ton fats the stearine is the more abundant. In human fat, 
 in that of the goose, and in that of butter, the stearine and 
 palmitine are in nearly equal proportions. It is the same 
 with vegetable fats. They consist of these two varieties in 
 different proportions. In some the solid part consists chiefly 
 of stearine ; in others, as in olive-oil, the stearine and pal- 
 mitine are nearly equal in quantity ; while in others again, 
 as in palm-oil, the palmitine is the principal ingredient. Thus,' 
 as there is a kind of identity in nutritive quality and value 
 among the compounds represented respectively by gluten in 
 plants and by fibrin in animals, so there is an absolute iden- 
 tity of substance as regards their solid part at least among
 
 VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL FATS. 127 
 
 the fatty compounds which are met with in the eatable pro- 
 ductions of both kingdoms. 
 
 The liquid portions of the fats of animals and vegetables, 
 though generally regarded as being also for the most part 
 identical, are not yet so well understood as their solid por- 
 tions. It is a fact of practical interest, however, that they 
 become rancid by exposure to the air sooner than the solid 
 fats do. Hence hard butter keeps sweet longer than soft 
 butter does. Hence, also, fat meat keeps longer, when salt- 
 ed, if the fat be hard. And hence the reason why, in finishing 
 off fat animals for the butcher, especially if they are to be salt- 
 ed, it is usual to give dry food for some time before killing, 
 that the fat may be hardened and the flesh made firm. 
 
 In another matter of detail I might show how, in still 
 more minute matters, animal and vegetable kinds of food are 
 nearly identical. When the parts of plants are burned in 
 the open air they disappear for the most part, as I have al- 
 ready shown,* and leave only a small proportion of ash be- 
 hind. This ash consists of a mixture of various substances, 
 spoken of as their mineral, earthy, saline, or inorganic con- 
 stituents. 
 
 The same takes place when the parts of animals are 
 burned ; and the mixture of mineral matters obtained con- 
 sists, in either case, of the same substances, only differing 
 more or less in their relative proportions. The same things 
 occur in the ash of bread as are found in the ash of beef. In 
 whatever degree, therefore, the nutritive properties of our 
 food depend upon the kind of mineral matter it contains, it 
 is almost a matter of indifference whether we live upon an 
 animal or a vegetable diet. 
 
 But to this interesting point I shall have occasion to re- 
 turn in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 * See THE PLANT tre REAR, |x 6&
 
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 THE BEVEKAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 THE TEAS. 
 
 Artificial drinks nearly all vegetable infusions, with or without subsequent chemical 
 changes. Tea, extensive use of. The tea- plant; how its leaves are gathered. 
 The aroma produced by the roasting. Mode of preparing green and black tea 
 from the same leaves. Principal varieties of green and black tea. Differences in 
 fragrance and flavour. Ancient use of tea in China and the adjoining countries. 
 Introduction into Europe. Total amount of tea produced. Consumption in tho 
 United Kingdom. Sensible effects of tea. Active chemical ingredients in tea. 
 The volatile oil, its action. The theine, its composition. Occurs in coffee, in 
 mat6, and in guarana. Its effect in retarding the waste of the tissues. Why tea 
 is a favourite vith the poor. The tannin, its properties and effects. The gluten. 
 Tea-leaves and beans compared in nutritive quality. Tartar mode of using tea. 
 Eating the exhausted leaves. Tea varies in composition. Proportion extracted 
 by water varies. How tea is coloured or dyed green in China. Lie tea. Mate 
 or Paraguay tea. Its ancient use in South America. The Ilex paraguayensis 
 or mate tree, where it grows, and how its leaves are collected. Gongonha of Bra- 
 zil", a variety of mat6. Frequent use of mat6, and its effects. Composition of tho 
 leaf. The volatile oil, the theine, the tannic acid, and the gluten. Coffee-tea 
 made from the leaf of the coffee tree. Use of this tea in the Eastern Archipelago. 
 Effects observed from its use in Sumatra. Contains the same active ingredients 
 as the leaves of the tea trees. Labrador tea used in North America. Abyssinian 
 teaorchaat Tasmanian teas. Faharn tea. Substitutes for Chinese tea and for 
 mat& 
 
 THE two most important natural liquids, water and milk, 
 have already been treated of; various artificial drinks, how- 
 ever, are prepared both in civilised and in semi-barbarous
 
 EXTENSIVE USE OF TEA. 129 
 
 countries, and are in daily use among vast multitudes of 
 men ; such as tea, coffee, and cocoa, beer, wine, and ardent 
 spirits the preparation and effects of each of which are con- 
 nected with interesting chemical considerations. 
 
 These drinks agree in being all prepared from or by 
 means of substances of vegetable origin, and in being gen- 
 erally classed among the luxuries, rather than the necessa- 
 ries of life. 
 
 The mode in which they are prepared, however, naturally 
 divides these drinks into two classes. Tea, coffee, and cocoa 
 are roasted and prepared before they are infused in water, 
 and the infusion is then drunk without further chemical treat- 
 ment. These are simple infused beverages. Beer,- wine, 
 and ardent spirits are prepared from infusions which, after 
 being made, are subjected to important chemical operations. 
 Among these operations is the process of fermentation, and 
 hence they are properly distinguished as fermented liquors. 
 
 I shall consider these two classes of drinks, therefore, 
 separately, and iu the order in which I have mentioned them. 
 
 The infused beverages are drunk hot, fermented drinks 
 are usually taken cold. The love of such warm drinks pre- 
 vails almost universally. In frozen Labrador and snowy 
 Russia, the climate might account for this predilection, but 
 the craving is really deeper seated. The practice prevails 
 equally in tropical and in arctic regions. In Central America 
 the Indian. Df native blood, and the Creole of mixed Euro- 
 pean race, indulge alike in their ancient chocolate. In Softth- 
 ern America the tea of Paraguay is an almost universal be- 
 verage. The native North American tribes have their Ap- 
 allachian tea, their Oswego tea, their Labrador tea, and many 
 others. From Florida to Georgia, in the United States, and 
 over all the West India islands, the naturalised European 
 races sip their favourite coffee ; while over the Northern 
 States of the Union, and in the British provinces, the tea 
 of China is in constant and daily use.
 
 130 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 All Europe, too, has chosen its prevailing beverage. 
 Spain and Italy delight in chocolate ; France and Germany, 
 and Sweden and Turkey, in coffee ; Russia, Holland, and 
 England in tea, while poor Ireland makes its warm drink 
 of the husks of the cocoa, the refuse of the chocolate mills 
 of Italy and Spain. 
 
 All Asia feels the same want, and in different ways has 
 long gratified it. Coffee, indigenous in Arabia or the ad- 
 joining countries, has followed the banner of the Prophet, 
 wherever in Asia or Africa his false faith has triumphed. 
 Tea, a native of China, has spread spontaneously over the 
 hill country of the Himalayas, the table-lands of Tartary 
 and Thibet, and the plains of Siberia has climbed the Al- 
 tais, overspread all Russia, and is equally despotic in Mos- 
 cow as in St. Petersburg. In Sumatra, the coffee-leaf yields 
 the favourite tea of the dark-skinned population, while Cen- 
 tral Africa boasts of the Abyssinian chaat as the indigenous 
 warm drink of its Ethiopian peoples. Everywhere uniu- 
 toxicating and non-narcotic beverages are in general use, 
 among tribes of every colour, beneath every sun, and in 
 every condition of life. The custom, therefore, must meet 
 some universal want of our poor human nature. 
 
 The beverages we infuse naturally arrange themselves 
 into three classes. First, the teas or infusions of leaves. 
 Second, the coffees or infusions of seeds. And third, the 
 cocoas, which are more properly soups or gruels than simple 
 infusions, as they are made by diffusing, through boiling 
 water, the entire seeds of certain plants previously ground 
 into a paste. 
 
 I. THE TEAS. Of teas there are many varieties in use 
 in different parts of the world; but China tea, Paraguay 
 tea or mate, and perhaps coffee-tea, are the most extensively 
 consumed as national beverages. There are some others in 
 constant though less general employment, to which it will 
 be necessary somewhat briefly to advert.
 
 THE TEA-PLANT. 
 
 Vlg. 23. 
 
 1. CHINA TEA is not only the most important of these 
 beverages to the British and other English-speaking-peoples, 
 but it forms the daily drink of a larger 
 number of men than all the others put to- 
 gether. Among the three hundred mil- 
 lions of China, and among the inhabitants 
 of Japan, Thibet, and Nepaul, it is an ar- 
 ticle of consumption with all classes three 
 or four times a-day. In Asiatic Kussia 
 also, in a large portion of Europe, iu 
 North America, and in Australasia, it is 
 in, or is coming into, almost equally ex. 
 tensive use. It is consumed at the present 
 moment by probably not less than five 
 hundred millions of men, or one-half of Thea 
 
 Tea-plant. 
 
 tne whole human race. Scale, i j nc h to 5 feet 
 
 tea-plant (T/tea sincnsis) has 8cale t o2 ch<L inch 
 
 The 
 
 much resemblance to the Camel- 
 lia Japonica. There are several 
 varieties of it, distinguished by 
 some botanists as the Tlteaviri- 
 dis, T. bohca, and T. strieta, but 
 all are now recognised as belong- 
 ing to one single species, some- 
 what altered in habit and appear- 
 ance by cultivation, climate, and 
 soil. The two most marked va- 
 rieties are represented by the 
 annexed woodcuts. The smaller 
 (fig. 28) is the Thca bohea, 
 which produces the inferior green 
 and black teas which are made 
 about Canton. The larger (fig. 
 29) is the Thea viridis, the 
 more northern variety, from 
 which are made all the fine 
 
 Fig. 29.
 
 132 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 green teas in the great Hwuy-chow and the adjoining pro- 
 vinces. The plant is believed to be a native of China, and 
 grows wild still among the hills both of that country and of 
 Japan. It thrives best in the cooler parts of the tropical 
 zone, but grows in the temperate zone even as far north as 
 the 40th degree of north latitude. The districts of China 
 which supply the greater portion of the teas exported to 
 Europe and America lie between the 25th and the 31st de- 
 grees of north latitude, and the best districts are those be- 
 tween 27 and 31. (FORTUNE.) 
 
 The tea-plants are raised from seed which, to secure ger- 
 mination, is kept over winter in moist earth, and sown in 
 March. When a } r ear old, the young bushes are planted 
 out, and then by cropping the main shoot for the first year 
 they are kept down to a height of about 3 feet, and made 
 to grow bushy. Being placed in rows 3 or 4 feet apart, they 
 have some resemblance to a garden of gooseberry bushes. 
 The cropping of the leaves begins in the fourth and fifth 
 years, and is seldom continued beyond the tenth or twelfth, 
 when the bushes are dug up and renewed. The plant 
 thrives best on dry sunny slopes, where occasional showers 
 fall and springs appear, and where an open, somewhat stony 
 but rich soil prevents the water from lingering about its 
 roots. The season for gathering varies in different districts, 
 but the principal leaf -harvest ends in May or June. The 
 leaves are plucked by the hand, and chiefly by women. 
 They are generally gathered at three successive seasons. 
 The youngest and earliest leaves are the most tender and 
 delicate, and give the highest flavoured tea. The second 
 and third gatherings are more bitter and woody, and yield 
 less soluble matter to water. The refuse and decayed 
 leaves and twigs are pressed into moulds and sold under the 
 name of brick tea. These bricks are often made harder by 
 mixing the leaves with the serum of sheep and ox blood. This
 
 MODE OF PREPARING THE TEA-LEAVES. 133 
 
 inferior variety is chiefly consumed in northern China and 
 Thibet. 
 
 The first in order, and not the least interesting point, 
 in the chemical history of the tea we use, is the mode in 
 which it is prepared for the market. The leaves when 
 freshly plucked have neither a decidedly astringent, an aro- 
 matic, nor a bitter taste. They possess nothing, in fact, 
 either of the odour or flavour of the dried leaves. The plea- 
 sant taste and delightful natural scent for which they are 
 afterwards so highly prized, are all developed by the roast- 
 ing which they undergo in the process of drying. The details 
 of this process have lately been made known to us through 
 the investigations of Mr. Fortune. 
 
 Another interesting chemical fact is, that different quali- 
 ties of tea are prepared from the same leaves, according to 
 the way in which they are treated in the drying. This we 
 should to a certain extent expect ; but the inquiries of Mr. 
 Fortune have shown that samples so very unlike as the green 
 and black teas usually are may be prepared at will from the 
 same leaves, gathered at the same time and under the same 
 circumstances. The mode of drying and roasting the 
 leaves generally, and the specific processes by which the 
 green and the black teas are severally obtained, have been 
 minutely described by Mr. Fortune ; * and from his descrip- 
 tion we learn 
 
 * His description is as follows : 
 
 For Green Tea. When the leaves are brought in from the plantations they are 
 spread out thinly on flat bamboo trays, in order to dry off any superfluous moisture. 
 They remain for a very short time exposed in this manner, generally from one to two 
 hours ; this, however, depends much upon the state of the weather. 
 
 In the mean time time the roasting-pans have been heated with a brisk wood-fire. 
 A portion of leaves is now thrown into each pan, and rapidly moved about 
 and shaken up with both hands. They are immediately affected by the heat, begin 
 to make a crackling noise, and become quite moist and flaccid, while at the same time 
 they give out a considerable portion of vapour. They remain in this state for four or 
 five minutes, and are then drawn quickly out and placed upon the rolling-table, and 
 rolled with the hands. 
 
 Having been thrown again into the pan, a slow and steady charcoal fire is kept up,
 
 134 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 first, That, in the process of drying, the leaves are 
 roasted and scorched in such a way as necessarily to bring 
 
 and the leaves are kept in rapid motion by the hands of workmen. Sometimes they 
 are thrown npon the rattan-table, and rolled a second time. In about an hour, or an 
 hour and a half, the leaves are well dried, and their colour has becomejixed, that is, 
 there is no longer any danger of their becoming black. They are of a dullish green 
 colour, but become brighter afterwards. 
 
 The most particular part of the operation has now been finished, and the tea may 
 be put aside until a larger quantity has been made. The second part of the process 
 consists in winnowing and passing the tea through sieves of different sizes, in order to 
 to get rid of the dust and other impurities, and to divide the tea into the different 
 kinds known as twankay, hyson-skin, hyson, young hyson, gunpowder, &c. During 
 this process it is re-fired the coarse kinds once, and the finer sorts three or four 
 times. By this time the colour has come out more fully, and the leaves of the finer 
 kinds are of a dull bluish green. 
 
 for Black Tea. VThen the leaves are brought in from the plantations they 
 are spread out upon large bamboo mats or trays, and are allowed to lie in Otis 
 state /or a considerable time. If they are brought in at night they lie until nest 
 rnornlng. 
 
 The leaves are next gathered up by the workmen with both hands, thrown into 
 the air, and allowed to separate and fall down again. They are tossed about in this 
 manner, and slightly beat or patted with the hands, for a considerable space of time. 
 At length, when they become soft and flaccid, they arc thrown in heaps, and allowed 
 to lie in tfii-t state for about an hour, or perhaps a little longer. When examined 
 at the end of this time, they appear to have undergone a slight chango in colour, are 
 soft and moist, and emit a fragrant smell. 
 
 The rolling process now commences. Several men take their stations at the roll- 
 ing-table, and divide the leaves amongst them. Each takes as many as he can press 
 with his hands, and makes them up in the form of a ball. This is rolled upon the 
 rattan-worked table, and greatly compressed, the object being to get rid of a portion 
 of the sap and moisture, and at the same time to twist the leaves. These balls of 
 leaves are frequently shaken out, and passed from hand to hand until they reach the 
 head workman, who examines them carefully to see if they have taken the requisite 
 twist "When he is satisfied, of this, the leaves are removed from the rolling- table and 
 shaken out npon flat trays,^otil the remaining portions have undergone the same pro- 
 cess. In no case are they allowed to lie long in this state, and sometimes they are 
 taken at once to the roasting-pan. 
 
 The next part of the process is exactly the same as in the manipulation of green 
 tea. The leaves are thrown into an iron psn, where they are roasted for about five 
 minutes, and then rolled npon the rattan-table. 
 
 After being rolled, the leaves are shaken out, thinly, on sieves, and exposed to the 
 air out of doors. A framework for this purpose, made of bamboo, is generally seen In 
 front of all the cottages among the tea hills. The leaves arc allowed to remain in 
 this condition for about three hours : during this time the workmen are employed in 
 going over the sieves in rotation, turning the leaves and separating them from each 
 other. A fine dry day, when the sun is not too bright, seems to be preferred for this 
 part of the operation. 
 
 Tl;e leaves having now lost a large portion of their moisture, and having be-
 
 GREEN AND BLACK TEAS. 135 
 
 about many chemical changes within the substance of the 
 leaves themselves. The result of these changes is to produce 
 the varied flavours, odours, and tastes by which different 
 varieties of tea are more or less distinguished. 
 
 Second, That the treatment or mode of handling by 
 which the leaves are converted respectively into green and 
 black teas, is the cause of the different colours of these two 
 main varieties. Thus, for 
 
 Green Teas. Mack Teat. 
 
 1. The leaves are roasted almost 1. They are allowed to be spread 
 Immediately after they are gathered. out In the air for some time after they are 
 
 2. They are dried off quickly after gathered. 
 
 the rolling process. The whole operation 2 3 . They are then further tossed about 
 
 Is speedy and simple. till they become soft and flaccid. , 
 
 3 3 . They are now roasted for a few 
 minutes, and rolled; after which, they 
 are exposed to the air for a few hours in 
 a soft and moist state. 
 
 4. Lastly, they are dried slowly over 
 charcoal fires. 
 
 It is by lengthened exposure to the air, therefore, in the 
 process of drying, accompanied, perhaps, by a slight heating 
 
 come considerably reduced in size, are removed into the factory. They are put a 
 second time into the roasting-pan for three or four minutes, and taken out and rolled 
 as before. 
 
 The charcoal fires are now got ready. A tubular basket, narrow at the middle and 
 wide at both ends, is placed over the fire. A sieve is dropped into the tube, and 
 covered with leaves, which are shaken on it to about an inch in thickness. After 
 five or six minutes, during which time they are carefully watched, they are removed 
 from the fire and rolled a third time. As the balls of leaves comes from the hands of 
 the rollers, they are placed in a heap until the whole have been rolled. They are 
 again shaken on the sieves as before, and set over the fire for a little while longer. 
 Sometimes the last operation namely, heating and rolling is repeated a fourth time ; 
 the leaves have now assumed a dark colour. 
 
 When the whole have been gone over in this manner, they are placed thickly in 
 the baskets, which are again set over the charcoal fire. The workman now makes a 
 hole with his hand through the centre of the leaves, to allow vent to any smoke or 
 vapour which may rise from the charcoal, as well as to let up the heat, which has 
 been greatly reduced by covering up the fires. The tea now remains over the slow 
 charcoal fire, covered with a flat basket, until it is perfectly dry, carefully watch- 
 ed, however, by the manufacturer, who every now and then stirs it up with bla 
 bands, so that the whole may be equally heated. The black colour is now fairiy 
 brought out, but afterwards improves in appearance. The after processes, such as 
 sifting, picking, and refining, are carried on at the convenience of the workmen.
 
 136 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 und fermentation, that the dark colour and distinguishing 
 flavour are given to the black teas of commerce. The 
 oxygen of the atmosphere acts rapidly upon the juices of 
 the leaf during this exposure, and changes chemically the 
 peculiar substances they contain, so as to impart to the en- 
 tire leaf the dark hue it finally acquires. The precise nature, 
 however, of these changes has not as yet been chemically 
 investigated. 
 
 This action of the air does not appear sensibly to affect 
 the weight of the tea obtained, as three pounds- of the fresh 
 leaves produce on an average about one pound of marketable 
 tea of either kind. The teas intended for home consumption 
 are not so highly dried as those which are prepared for ex- 
 portation (DR. BOWRIXG) a circumstance which must affect 
 the quality of the beverage they yield. 
 
 The produce of different districts varies in quality and 
 flavour with the climate, the soil, and the variety of plant 
 cultivated, as well as with the period at which the leaves are 
 gathered, and with the mode of drying them. The finest tea 
 of China grows between the 27th and 31st parallels of north 
 latitude, on a low range of hills, which is an offshoot of the 
 great chain of Pe-ling. The principal varieties of black tea 
 are known by the names of Bohea, Congou, Campoi, Sou- 
 chong, Caper, and Pekoe. Of these the bohea grows in the 
 province of Fu-kian (Fokien). Pekoe, or pak-ho, means 
 " white down " in Chinese, and consists of the first downy 
 sprouts or leaf-buds of three-year-old plants. A very costly 
 tea of this kind, known as the " Tea of the wells of the 
 Dragon," is used only by persons of the highest rank in 
 China, and is never brought to Europe. Caper is in hard 
 grains, made up of the dust of the other varieties cemented 
 together by means of gum. The green teas are known as 
 Twankay, Hyson-skin, Hyson, Imperial, and Gunpowder. 
 The hyson is grown in the province of Song-ho. The true
 
 VARIETIES OF TEAS. 
 
 imperial, known also, because of its excellence, as the flot- 
 theac, seldom comes to Europe, that which is usually sold 
 under this name being really Chusan tea flavoured with the 
 cowslip-coloured blossoms of the sweet-scented olive (Olea 
 fragrans). The practice of scenting teas is very common, 
 and various odoriferous plants are employed for the purpose 
 in different parts of China.* It is remarked, however, by 
 the dealers in tea, that the plantations which naturally yield 
 a produce of a particularly-esteemed flavour are as limited in, 
 extent as the vineyards in Europe which are celebrated for 
 particular kinds of wine. The price of tea varies, of course, 
 with the variations in natural quality, being for some samples 
 double or treble what is asked for others. But the average 
 price at Canton is about 8^d. a-pound, so that the grower 
 must sell it at 5d. or 6d. (MEYEN.) 
 
 Tea-leaves prepared as above-described have been in use 
 as a beverage in China from very remote periods. Tradition 
 speaks of it as early as the third century. The legend re- 
 lates, " that a pious hermit, who, in his watchings and 
 prayers, had often been overtaken by sleep, so that his eye- 
 lids closed, in holy wrath against the weakness of the flesh, 
 cut them off and threw them on the ground. But a god 
 caused a tea- shrub to spring out of them, the leaves of which 
 exhibit the form of an eyelid bordered with lashes, and pos- 
 sess the gift of hindering sleep. A similar story is related 
 concerning the introduction of coffee into Arabia. Both 
 legends were probably invented long after the qualities of 
 tea and coffee were known. 
 
 It was after the year GOO that the use of tea became 
 
 * Among these are mentioned the Olea fragrans, Chlorantbus inconspicuns, Gar- 
 denia florida, Aglaia odorata, Mogorium sambac, Vitex spicata, Camellia sasanqna, 
 Camellia odorifera, Illicinm anisatum, Magnolia yulan, Eosa indica odoratisslma, 
 Murraya exotica, turmeric, oil of Bixa orellana, and the root of the Florentine Iris. 
 With such a list before us, we cannot -wonder that teas should exhibit great dlvorsity 
 ' i fragrance and flavour.
 
 138 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 general in China, and early in the ninth century (810) it was 
 introduced into Japan. To Europe it "was not brought till 
 about the beginning of the seventeenth century. Hot infu- 
 sions of leaves had been already long familiar as drinks in 
 European countries. Dried sage-leaves were much in use 
 in England,* and are even said to have been carried as an 
 article of trade to China by the Dutch, to be there ex- 
 changed for the Chinese leaf, which has since almost entirely 
 superseded them. A Russian embassy to China also 
 brought back to Moscow some carefully-packed green tea, 
 which was received with great acceptance. And in the 
 same century (1664) the English East India Company con- 
 sidered it as a rare gift to present the Queen of England 
 with two pounds of tea !" f 
 
 The growth and consumption of tea are now really enor- 
 mous. Mr. Ingham Travers estimates the total produce of 
 the dried leaf in China alone at a million of tons, or 2240 
 millions of pounds ! J To this is to be added the tea of 
 Japan, Corea, Assam, and Java. The produce of this latter 
 island already goes far to supply the markets of Holland ; 
 and the introduction of the tea-plant into the hill-country of 
 India promises to add largely to its future growth. The 
 quantity of tea yielded by an acre of land is not stated in 
 any book to which I have access ; but if we take it at 600 
 Ibs., which is probably a full estimate, the extent of land de- 
 voted to this branch of rural industry in China alone must 
 be nearly 3 millions of acres ! 
 
 The consumption of tea in the United Kingdom in 1 352 
 amounted to 55 millions of pounds (24,000 tons) about 
 
 * Sage -was in frequent use till after the middle of last century. In the life of 
 Whjtfield. it is stated, that, when in his fasting humours at Oxford, "he ato nothing 
 but Rage tea without sugar, and coarse bread." This was about 1730. 
 
 t The Plant, by SOHLEIDEN. Second Edition, p. 142. 
 
 J A Few Words on the Tea, Duties. London, 1853
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF TEA. 139 
 
 one forty-fifth part of the estimated produce of China. This 
 is at the rate of 1 Ib. 9 oz. per head of the population, and 
 the consumption is rapidly on the increase. Among Euro- 
 pean nations tea is pre-eminently a British, Dutch, and 
 Russian drink. Among the other nations of Europe, coffee 
 and cocoa are more usual beverages than tea. This is* 
 strikingly illustrated by the fact, that .-while in 1 835 about 
 36 millions of pounds of tea were consumed in the United 
 Kingdom, only 200,000 Ibs. were consumed in the kingdom 
 of Prussia ! The population of Prussia was then upwards 
 of thirteen millions. 
 
 The effects of tea, as it id used in China, are thus de- 
 scribed by Chinese writers : " Tea is of a cooling nature, 
 and, if drunk too freely, will produce exhaustion and lassi- 
 tude. Country people, before drinking it, add ginger and 
 salt to counteract this cooling property. It is an exceeding- 
 ly useful plant. Drink it, and the animal spirits will be 
 lively and clear. The chief rulers and nobility esteem it ; 
 the lower people, the poor, and beggarly will not be desti- 
 tute of it. All use it daily, and like it." Another writer 
 says, !< Drinking it tends to clear away all impurities, drives 
 off drowsiness, removes or prevents headache, and it is uni- 
 versally in high esteem."* 
 
 The mode of using it in China is to put the tea into a 
 cup, to p'our hot water upon it, and then to drink the infu- 
 sion off the leaves, and without admixture. While wander- 
 ing over the tea districts of China, Mr. Fortune only once 
 met with sugar and a tea-spoon. 
 
 The mode of making and drinking the infusion of tea 
 probably does not alter its general effects upon the system. 
 In China cold water is disliked, and considered as unwhole- 
 some, and therefore tea is taken to quench the thirst, which 
 
 * FORTUNE'S Tea Districts of China, vol. ii. p. 231.
 
 140 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 it probably does best when drunk unmixed. -The universal 
 use, on the other hand, of sugar and cream or milk among us, 
 probably a'rose from its being introduced here as a beverage 
 among grown-up people whose tastes were already formed, 
 and who required something to make the bitter infusion 
 palatable. The practice thus begun has ever since con- 
 tinued, and, physiologically considered, is on the whole, I 
 believe, an improvement upon the Eastern fashion. 
 
 The effects of tea as obtained and thus used among us 
 are too familiarly known to require any detailed explanation. 
 It exhilarates without sensibly intoxicating. It excites the 
 brain to increased activity and produces wakefulness ; thence 
 its usefulness to hard students, to those who have vigils to 
 keep, and to persons who labour much with the head. It 
 soothes, on the contrary, and stills the vascular system, and 
 hence its use in inflammatory diseases and as a cure for 
 headache. Green tea, when taken strong, acts very power- 
 fully upon some constitutions, producing nervous tremblings 
 and other distressing symptoms, acting as a narcotic, and in 
 inferior animals even producing paralysis.* Its exciting 
 effect upon the nerves makes it useful in counteracting the 
 effects of opium and of fermented liquors, and the stupor 
 sometimes induced by fever. 
 
 In manufactured tea there are at least three active che- 
 mical substances, by the conjoined influence of which these 
 effects are produced. 
 
 1. The volatile oil. When commercial tea is distilled 
 with water there passes over a small quantity of a volatile 
 oil, which possesses the aroma and flavour of the tea in a 
 high degree. A hundred pounds of tea yield about one 
 pound of this oil, and to this minute quantity of its volatile 
 ingredient the value of tea in general estimation is in a great 
 
 * New tea in China is said to exhibit this narcotic quality in a high degree, and 
 hence the Chinese rarely use tea before it is a year old.
 
 VOLATILE OIL Of TEA. 141 
 
 measure due. Its special action upon the system has not 
 yet, we believe, been scientifically investigated. But that 
 it does exercise a powerful, and most likely a narcotic influ- 
 ence, is rendered probable by many known facts. Among 
 these I mention the headaches and giddinesses to which tea- 
 tasters are subject ; the attacks of paralysis to which, after 
 years, those who are employed in packing and unpacking 
 chests of tea are found to be liable ; and the circumstance 
 already alluded to, that in China tea is rarely used till it 
 is a year old, because of the peculiar intoxicating property 
 which new tea possesses. The effect of this keeping upon 
 tea must be chiefly to allow a portion of the volatile ingredi- 
 ents of the leaf to escape. And lastly, that there is a 
 powerful virtue in this oil is rendered probable by the fact, 
 that the similar oil of coffee has been found by experiment to 
 possess narcotic properties. 
 
 This volatile ingredient does not exist in the natural 
 leaf, but is produced during the process of drying and roast- 
 ing already described. 
 
 2. The Theine. When dry finely- powdered tea-leaves 
 are put upon a watch-glass, covered over with a conical cap 
 of paper, and then placed upon a hot plate, a white vapour 
 gradually rises from the leaves, and condenses on the inner 
 side of the paper in the form of minute colourless crystals. 
 If, instead of the leaves, a dried watery extract of the 
 leaves be employed, the crystals will be obtained in greater 
 abundance. These crystals consist of the substance known 
 to chemists by the name of Theine or Caffeine. The teas 
 of commerce contain, on an average, about two per cent, of 
 this theine. (STENHOUSE.) In some it is a little more. 
 Certain green teas, according to Pcligot, contain as much as 
 six pounds in every hundred pounds of the dried tea ; but 
 so large a proportion as this is very rare. 
 
 Theine has no smell, and only a slightly bitter taste.
 
 142 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 It has little to do, therefore, either with the taste or flavour 
 of the tea from which it is extracted. It is remarkable, 
 however, in three respects 
 
 First, in containing a very large per centage of nitrogen, 
 an element I have already spoken of as forming a large pro- 
 portion of our common atmospheric air, and as distinguish- 
 ing the gluten of wheat from the starch with which it is 
 associated in the grain.* The composition of the dried 
 theine is represented by the following numbers 
 
 Carbon, 49.80 
 
 Hydrogen, 5.08 
 
 Nitrogen, 23.83 
 
 Oxygen, ..,....: 16.29 
 
 100 
 
 It contains, therefore, nearly three-tenths of its weight 
 of nitrogen ; a proportion which exists in only a very small 
 number of other known substances. 
 
 Second. Theine is remarkable as being present not only 
 in Chinese tea, but also in Mate or Paraguay tea, in coffee, 
 and in guarana a substance prepared and used in Brazil in 
 the same way as coffee. It is a very curious fact that, in 
 countries so remote from each other, plants so very unlike 
 as all these are should have been, by a kind of instinct as it 
 were, selected for the same purpose of yielding a slightly 
 exciting, exhilarating, and refreshing beverage ; and that 
 these plants, when now examined by chemists, should all be 
 found to contain the same remarkable compound body which 
 we call theine or caffeine. The selection must have been 
 made by the independent discovery, in each country and by 
 each people, that these several plants were capable of grati- 
 fying a natural constitutional craving, or of supplying a 
 tvant equally felt by all. 
 
 * Bee THB Are \ra BRKATHE and THE BREAD TTB EAT.
 
 THE THEINE OF TEA. 
 
 Third. The observed effects of this substance, when 
 introduced into the system, justify this conclusion, and form 
 the third point -which is worthy of remark in regard to it. 
 It is known that the animal body, while living, undergoes 
 constant decay and renovation. The labours of life waste it 
 the food introduced into the stomach renews it. That 
 which is wasted passes off through the lungs and the kidneys, 
 or is in other ways rejected from the body of the animal. 
 The solid matters contained in the urine are in some degree 
 a measure of this waste ; and especially the quantity of urea 
 and phosphoric acid it contains at different periods, is sup- 
 posed to measure the comparative waste of the tissues at 
 these different times. Now, the introduction into the 
 stomach of even a minute proportion of theine three or 
 four grains a-day has the remarkable effect of sensibly 
 diminishing the absolute quantity of these substances voided 
 in a day by a healthy man, living on the same kind of food, 
 and engaged in the same occupation, under the same circum- 
 stances. This fact indicates that the waste of the body is 
 lessened by the introduction of theine into the stomach 
 that is, by the use of tea. And if the waste be lessened, 
 the necessity for food to repair it will be lessened in an 
 equal proportion. In other words, by the consumption of a 
 certain quantity of tea, the health and strength of the body 
 will be maintained in an equal degree upon a smaller supply 
 of ordinary food. Tea, therefore, saves food stands to a 
 certain extent in the place of food while at the same time 
 it soothes the body and enlivens the mind. 
 
 In the old and infirm it serves also another purpose. In 
 the life of most persons a period arrives when the stomach 
 no longer digests enough of the ordinary elements of food, 
 to make up for the natural daily waste of the bodily sub- 
 stance. The size and weight of the body, therefore, begin to 
 diminish more or less perceptibly. At this period tea comes
 
 144 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 in as a medicine to arrest the waste, to keep the body from 
 falling away so fast, and thus to enable the less energetic 
 powers of digestion still to supply as much as is needed to 
 repair the wear and tear of the solid tissues. 
 
 No wonder, therefore, that tea should be a favourite, on 
 the one hand, with the poor, whose supplies of substantial 
 food are scanty and on the other, with the aged and infirm, 
 especially of the feebler sex, whose powers of digestion and 
 whose bodily substance have together begun to fail. Xor 
 is it surprising that the aged female, who has barely enough 
 of weekly income to buy what are called the common neces- 
 saries of life, should yet spend a portion of her small gains 
 in purchasing her ounce of tea. She can live quite as well 
 on less common food, when she takes her tea along with it ; 
 while she feels lighter at the same time, more cheerful, and 
 fitter for her work, because of the indulgence. 
 
 The quantity of three or for grains of theine, mentioned 
 above, is contained in less than half an ounce of good tea,* 
 and may be taken in a day by most full-grown persons, with- 
 out unpleasant effects. But if twice this quantity, or eight 
 grains a-day, be taken, the pulse becomes more frequent, the 
 heart beats stronger, trembling comes on, and a perpetual 
 desire to void urine. At the same time the imagination is 
 excited, and, after a while, the thoughts wander, visions be- 
 gin to be seen, and a peculiar state of intoxication comes ~on ; 
 all these symptoms are followed by, and pass off in, a deep 
 sleep. The effects of strong tea, therefore, and especially 
 of old teas, and such as are peculiarly rich in theine are to 
 be ascribed in great part to the overdose of this substance 
 which has been introduced into the stomach. 
 
 3. The Tannin or tannic acid. If tea be infused in 
 Lot water in the usual manner, and the infusion be poured 
 
 * An ounce of good tea contains about ten grains of theine.
 
 THE TANNIN AND ITS EFFECTS. 145 
 
 into a solution of common green copperas (sulphate of iron), 
 the mixture "will become black. Or if it be poured into a 
 solution of glue or isinglass (gelatine), it will render the so- 
 lution turbid or muddy, and cause a greyish precipitate to 
 fall. These appearances show that the tea contains an astrin- 
 gent substance, known to chemists by the name of tannin or 
 tannic acid, This substance is so called, because it is the 
 ingredient which, in oak bark, is so generally employed for 
 the tanning of leather. 
 
 To this tannic acid tea owes its astringent taste, its con- 
 stipating effect upon the bowels, and its property of giving 
 an inky infusion with water which contains iron. It forms 
 from 13 to 18 per cent, of the whole weight of the dried tea- 
 leaf, and is the more completely extracted the longer the tea 
 is infused. The tannic acids, of which many varieties are 
 known to chemists, though naturally colourless, have all a 
 tendency to become dark-coloured when exposed to the air. 
 This is one reason why the same leaves, when dried quickly, 
 will give a green, and when dried more slowly, a black tea, 
 as has been described by Mr. Fortune. 
 
 What is the full and precise action of this tannin uponthe 
 system as we drink it in our tea, or whether it contributes 
 in any degree to the exhilarating, satisfying, or narcotic action 
 of tea, is not yet known. That it does aid even in the ex- 
 hilarating effect which tea produces, is rendered very pro- 
 bable by the fact, that a species of tannin is the principal 
 ingredient in the Indian betel-nut, which is so much chewed 
 and prized in the East, and which is said to produce a kind 
 of mild and agreeable intoxication.* 
 
 4. The Gluten. The three substances already describ- 
 ed may be considered as the really active constituents of the 
 tea-leaf as it is usually employed. But it is an interesting 
 
 * See THE NARCOTICS -WE INDULGE IK.
 
 146 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 fact, that the leaf contains a large proportion of that nutri- 
 tive ingredient of plants to which the name of gluten * is 
 given. This substance forms as much as one-fourth of the 
 weight of the dry leaves ; so that if we chose to eat them in 
 mass, they would prove as nutritious as beans or peas. This 
 is seen by the following table, which exhibits the composition 
 of beans and of tea-leaves as they are severally brought to 
 market : 
 
 Tea-leaves. Bssns. 
 
 Water, ... 5 H 
 
 Starch, gum, Ac., . 2Tt 48 
 
 Gluten, ... 20 to 25 24 
 
 Fat, .... 8 3 
 
 Tannic add, . 
 Husk or woody fibre, 
 Ash, . . 
 
 16t 
 
 20t 10 
 
 5 2 
 
 100 100 
 
 Of this large per-centage of gluten, the water in which 
 we usually infuse our tea, extracts very little ; and hence 
 we throw away in the waste leaves a large proportion of the 
 common nutrition they contain. It has been recommended, 
 therefore, as an improved method of infusing tea, that a pinch 
 of soda should be put into the water along with it. The effect 
 of this would be, that a portion at least of the gluten would 
 be dissolved, and the beverage in consequence made more 
 nutritious. The method of preparing the brick tea adopted 
 among the Mongols and other Tartar tribes, is believed to 
 extract the greater part of the nutriment from the leaf. 
 They rub the tea to fine powder, boil it with the alkaline 
 steppe-water, to which salt and fat have been added, and 
 pour oiF the decoction from the sediment. Of this liquid 
 they drink from 20 to 40 cups a-day, mixing it first with 
 
 * See THE BREAD WE BAT. 
 
 t The Ingredients marked with a t are very variable in quantity in the tea-leftt
 
 MODES OF USING TEA. 147 
 
 milk, butter, and a little roasted meal. But even without 
 meal, and mixed only with a little milk, they can subsist 
 upon it for weeks in succession. 
 
 The effect of the tea in this way of using it seems to be 
 twofold, First, it directly nourishes by the gluten and milk 
 or meal it contains ; and, second, it makes this food go farther, 
 through the waste-retarding influence of the theine, which 
 the boiling thoroughly extracts. 
 
 But the most perfect way of using tea is that described, 
 I think, by Captain Basil Hall, as practised on the coast of 
 South America, where tea-leaves, after being exhausted by 
 infusion, are handed round the company upon a silver salver, 
 and partaken of by each guest in succession. The exhilarat- 
 ing effects of the hot liquid are in this practice followed by 
 the nutritive effects of the solid leaf. It is possible that this 
 practice may refer to the Paraguay tea, so extensively used 
 in South America ; but in either case the merit of it is the 
 same. 
 
 The four substances above mentioned are the most im- 
 portant ingredients of the tea-leaf. It contains besides, as 
 is shown by the table given above, a large proportion of starch 
 and gum, some of which will, of course, be extracted by boil- 
 ing water, and will give a certain nutritive value to the in- 
 fusion. Tea, however, varies in composition with the mode 
 of drying, with the age of the plant and of the leaf, with 
 the season in which it is gathered, and even with the variety 
 of shrub on which it has grown. Hence the proportion of 
 the whole leaf which is extracted by boiling water varies 
 much both in kind and quantity. The genuine green teas, 
 which are usually prepared from the young leaves, yield more 
 of the lighter coloured the black teas more of the darker 
 coloured, ingredients. And even of teas of the same colour 
 and name in the market, different samples yield to boiling 
 water very different proportions of soluble matter. Two
 
 148 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 samples of souchong, for example, examined by Davy and 
 Lehmann, respectively gave, to boiling water, fron> a huu- 
 dred parts 
 
 82J parts to Davy, 
 15} to Lehmann. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that the value of tea as a bever- 
 age, in so far as this depends on the proportion of soluble 
 matter it contains, differs very much. We usually judge of 
 the quality of a tea by its aroma, and by the flavour and 
 colour of the infusion it yields ; and these, in the main, are 
 good guides : but chemistry indicates that, as in the case of 
 opium, some weight ought also to be attached to the propor- 
 tion of soluble ingredients it contains and readily yields to 
 boiling water. 
 
 It is necessary to mention, before concluding my remarks 
 upon tea, that, in addition to the substances which it natural- 
 ly contains, others are sometimes added by way of adultera- 
 tion to the teas of commerce. This is especially the case 
 with the green teas, which are not all prepared by simply 
 drying quickly the natural leaf as already described, but are 
 often artificially coloured by the addition of blue, white and 
 yellow colouring substances. Mr. Fortune, who saw the 
 colouring performed in China, thus describes the process : 
 " The superintendent having taken a portion of Prussian 
 blue, threw it into a porcelain bowl not unlike a mortar, and 
 crushed it into a very fine powder. At the same time a 
 quantity of gypsum was burned in the charcoal fire which 
 was then roasting the tea. This gypsum having been taken 
 out of the fire after a short time, readily crumbled down, 
 and was reduced to powder in the mortar. The two sub- 
 stances thus prepared were then mixed together, in the pro- 
 portion of four of gypsum to three of Prussian blue, and 
 formed a light blue powder, which was then ready for use. 
 
 " This colouring matter was applied to the teas during
 
 ARTIFICIAL COLOURING OF GREEN TEA. 149 
 
 the last process of roasting. About five minutes before the 
 tea was removed from the pans, the superintendent took a 
 small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered a portion of 
 the colouring matter over the leaves in each pan. The work- 
 men then turned the leaves rapidly round with both hands, 
 in order that the colour might be equally diffused. To 14 
 Ibs. of tea about 1 oz. of colouring matter was applied. 
 
 " During this part of the operation the hands of the 
 workmen were quite blue. I could not help thinking that 
 if any green-tea drinkers had been present during the 
 operation, their taste would have been corrected and im- 
 proved. 
 
 " One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being in 
 conversation with some Chinese from the green-tea country, 
 asked them what reasons they had for dyeing the tea, and 
 whether it would not be better without undergoing this pro- 
 cess. They acknowledged that tea was much better when 
 prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with 
 it, and that they never drank dyed teas themselves ; but 
 remarked that, as foreigners seemed to prefer having a mix- 
 ture of Prussian blue and gypsum with their tea, to make it 
 look uniform and pretty, and as these ingredients were 
 cheap enough, the Chinese had no objections to supply them, 
 especially as such teas always fetched a higher price ! " * 
 
 31 r. Fortune describes the blue substance employed as 
 Prussian blue ; and Mr. "VVarrington's experiments f show 
 that, until the last few years, this substance was very gene- 
 rally in use in China for giving an artificial colour to teas. 
 More recently, however, it appears that indigo has been sub- 
 stituted, in consequence, probably, of the injurious effects 
 which European writers have described the Prussian blue 
 as likely to produce on the constitution of green-tea drinkers. 
 
 * FOETCSE'S Tea Countries of China, vol. 11. p. 69. 
 t Seo Transactions of the Chemical Society.
 
 150 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 The quantity of either substance employed, however, is so 
 minute that, without justifying the adulteration, I think it 
 unlikely that any serious consequences can have followed 
 from it. The indigo is probably harmless ; but supposing 
 it to be Prussian blue, the quantity added to the green tea 
 is about one grain to the ounce ; and this is already diluted 
 to a pale tint with white clay, so as not to contain more 
 than a third, or probably a fourth, c\f a grain of pure Prus- 
 sian blue. This quantity in an ounce of tea is, I think, but 
 little to be dreaded ; nevertheless the practice ought to be 
 discouraged and abandoned.* 
 
 Less doubt exists as to the pernicious qualities of an 
 adulterated tea largely manufactured by the Chinese under 
 the name of Lie tea. This consists of the sweepings and 
 dust of the tea-warehouses cemented together with rice- 
 water and rolled into grains. It is made either black to 
 imitate caper, or green to resemble gunpowder, and is manu- 
 factured professedly for the purpose of adulterating the better 
 kinds of tea. 
 
 Genuine tea yields only 5 or 6 per cent, of ash when 
 burned, being the proportion of mineral matter naturally 
 contained in the leaf. The lie teas leave from 37 to 45 per 
 cent, of ash, consisting chiefly of sand and other impurities. 
 These adulterated teas are imported into this country to 
 the extent of half a million pounds' weight every year ! 
 In this, as in similar cases, the poorest classes, who can 
 least afford it, are the greatest sufferers from the fraudulent 
 
 * It Is easy to determine whether indigo or Prussian blue is the colouring matter 
 
 of these adulterated teas. If a portion of the tea be shaken with cold water and 
 
 thrown upon a bit of thin muslin, the fine colouring matter will pass through tho 
 
 muslin, and settle to the bottom of the water. When tho water is poured off, the 
 
 blue matter may be treated with chlorine or a solution of chloride of lime. If 
 
 it is bleached, the colouring matter is indigo. If potash makes it brown, and 
 afterwards a tow drops of sulphuric acid make it blue again, it is Prussian blue.
 
 MATE, OR PARAGUAY TEA. 
 
 Fig. 80. 
 
 introduction of the lieing mixture into the teas they buy. 
 Among the low dealers the lie tea is known by the name of 
 dust and gum. 
 
 2. MATE, or Paraguay tea, though not used over so 
 large an area as the Chinese tea, is as much the passion of 
 the Brazilians and their neigh- 
 bours, in Southern America, as 
 the latter is of the nations of 
 north-eastern Asia. It is pre- 
 pared from the dried leaves of 
 Brazilian holly (Ilex Paragua- 
 yensis), (fig. 30) is said to 
 have been in use among the In- 
 dians from time immemorial, has 
 been drunk by all classes in Pa- 
 raguay since the beginning of the 
 seventeenth century, and is now 
 consumed by " almost the whole 
 population of South America." 
 The leaf of this tree is 4 or 5 
 inches long, and after being dried 
 it is rubbed to powder before it 
 
 f j mi j i i /? i_ 
 IS infused. The dried leaf has 
 
 much of the aroma of some varie- 
 ties of Chinese tea, and the infu- 
 sion has a pleasant odour, and an agreeable bitter taste. In 
 the state in wliich it is commonly used in South America, 
 it is more exciting than China tea, producing a land of 
 intoxication, and by excessive use leading even to delirium 
 trcmens. 
 
 The tree which yields the Yerba (or planter excellence), 
 as this tea is called, does not appear to be an object of cul- 
 ture. It grows spontaneously, in extensive natural planta- 
 
 (Paraguay Tea-plant) 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 10 feet 
 
 Scale for leaf, 1 inch to 4 inches.
 
 152 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 tions, amid the forests of Paraguay. The principal Yerbals, 
 or woods of this tree, are situated in the neighbourhood of a 
 small town called Villa-Real, about fifteen hundred miles 
 above Assumption, on the Paraguay river. They are scat- 
 tered about, however, in various other localities upon the 
 rich tract of country which extends between the rivers Pa- 
 rand and Uruguay. Permission to gather the leaves ia 
 granted by the government to certain merchants, in return 
 for a considerable money payment. These merchants fit out 
 parties of men, chiefly Indians, for the purpose of collect- 
 ing the Yerba, and at the proper season proceed to the forests. 
 When in the course of their journey they corne to a Yerbal, 
 or growth of mate trees, sufficiently extensive to make it 
 worth while to halt and collect the leaves, they begin by con- 
 structing a long line of wigwams, which they cover with the 
 broad leaves of the banana and palm. Under these they 
 expect to pass nearly six months. An open space is then 
 prepared, of which the soil is beaten with heavy mallets un- 
 til it becomes hard and smooth. Over this is erected a kind 
 of arch, made of hurdles, called a Barbagiia, upon which 
 the Yerba branches are placed. Beneath these a large fire 
 is kept up till the foliage is thoroughly dried and roasted, 
 without being scorched or suffered to ignite. The hard floor 
 is then swept clean, the dried branches are laid upon it, and 
 the now brittle leaves beaten off with sticks, which partly 
 reduce them to powder. They are then crammed and beaten 
 into sacks made of damp hides, which, when sewed up and 
 left to dry, become in a few days as hard as stone. In these 
 sacks, weighing about 200 lb., the mate is well preserved. 
 The labour of collecting the Yerba, in the midst of these 
 tropical forests, is very severe, and it is said to have been 
 very fatal to Indian life. Many of the Creoles and Mestizos 
 even assert that the Paraguayans have exterminated the
 
 VARIETIES AND CONSUMPTION OF MATE. 153 
 
 poor Indians by compelling them to the labour of collecting 
 this plant. 
 
 From the smallest shrubs the finest tea is obtained ; but 
 from the same kind of leaves different qualities are procured, 
 according to the mode of preparation, and the kind of 
 vreather which prevails. Three principal kinds, however, 
 are prepared and sold in South America under the names 
 of caa-cuys, caa-miri, and caa-guaza the prefix caa signify 
 ing the leaf itself. The first is prepared from the half- 
 expanded buds : it will not keep, and its consumption is 
 entirely confined to Paraguay. The second,, from the leaf 
 carefully picked and stripped from the nerves before roast- 
 ing, as was done by the Jesuits. And the third, from the 
 entire foliage, roasted as above described, without any pre- 
 paration. The two latter varieties are not only used largely 
 in the country of Paraguay, but are exported as far as Lima 
 and Quito. (HOOKER.) 
 
 We have no data from which to calculate the total 
 amount of mate consumed either in the whole of South 
 America or in Paraguay alone. But it must be very large, 
 since the quantity exported from the latter country is about 
 50,000 quintals, or 5,600,000 Ib. a-year. It loses in virtue 
 and flavour, however, and its aromatic bitterness diminishes 
 by exportation and keeping, so that the infusion is drunk in 
 perfection only on the spot where the leaves are gathered and 
 newly dried. 
 
 In Brazil, a variety of mate called Gongonha is in use. 
 It is prepared from the leaves of two other species of holly, 
 the Ilex gongonha and the Ilex theezans ; but I do not 
 know to what extent. In Chili also, a tea called Paraguay 
 tea, but different from the mate, is prepared from the 
 leaves of the Psoralea gl^ndulosa, and in Central America 
 another variety from those of the Capraria bi 4ora.
 
 154 
 
 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 Fig. 81. 
 
 The use of the mate is very frequent, as well as very 
 universal in South America. At 
 every meal, and at every hour of 
 the day, it is drunk. It has 
 acquired the name of Mate from 
 that of the vessel or cup in 
 which it is infused, and from 
 which it is drunk. Hot water is 
 poured upon the powdered leaf, 
 then a lump of burned sugar, and 
 sometimes a few drops of lemon 
 juice are added. The infusion is 
 sucked through a tube, bombilla, 
 often made of silver, which is open 
 at one end, and has a perforated 
 bulb or strainer at the other (fig. 
 31). The cup is passed from 
 hand to hand, the same cup, and 
 often the same tube, serving a 
 whole party. The leaves will 
 bear to be steeped or watered three times, and the infusion 
 is drunk off quickly, as it soon becomes black if allowed to 
 stand. 
 
 " Persons who are fond of mate consume about an ounce 
 a-day. In the mining districts it is most universally taken, 
 experience having shown that fermented liquors are there 
 prejudicial to health.* The Creoles in South America are 
 passionately fond of the beverage, and never travel without 
 a supply of the leaf, which they infuse before every meal, 
 and sometimes much oftener, never tasting food unless they 
 have first drunk their mate." f 
 
 * A maxim of the Jesuits was, " En pais caliente, aguardiente ; en pais fi'la, 
 aguafi'io " in the warm country, brandy ; in the cold country, water, 
 t HOOKER'S London Journal of Botany, vol. i. p. 89. 
 
 Mate 1 or cup, and 
 Bombilla or tube.
 
 PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MATE. 155 
 
 Numerous virtues are ascribed to this favourite beve- 
 rage. It possesses many of the good qualities of our Chi- 
 nese tea, while, like opium, it is said to calm the restless, and 
 to arouse the torpid. As is the case with opium also, the 
 habit of using it becomes a kind of second nature, so that to 
 give it up, or even to diminish the customary quantity, is 
 almost impossible. On the other hand, long indulgence, or 
 an immoderate consumption of it, is apt to induce diseases 
 similar to those which follow the excessive use of ardent 
 spirits. It differs both from Chinese tea and from opium in 
 acting upon the kidneys and moving the bowels. 
 
 The chemistry of the mate leaf is but imperfectly under- 
 stood. From being rarely met with in Europe, it has not 
 been much examined by chemists, yet we are sufficiently 
 acquainted with the nature of its constituents to be able to 
 account for its most striking effects. Thus 
 
 First, Like Chinese tea, it contains a volatile oil, 
 which is produced during the roasting of the leaf, gives it a 
 peculiar, agreeable aroma, gradually escapes from it by 
 keeping, and upon which a portion of its narcotic virtue de- 
 pends. This is shown by the facts already stated, that the 
 tea becomes less valuable when long kept, or carried to 
 great distances, and that it is only drunk in perfection near 
 the Yerbal, where it is collected and prepared. 
 
 Second, Dr. Stenhouse has shown that this leaf also 
 contains theine, the vegetable principle which we have de- 
 scribed as existing in Chinese tea, and as producing remark- 
 able effects upon the system when introduced into the sto- 
 mach. The proportion, however, is somewhat less than in 
 Chinese tea, amounting in the varieties hitherto examined 
 in Europe, to about \\ per cent. 
 
 T/tird, Paraguay tea contains a large proportion of a 
 peculiar, astringent acid, analogous to the tannin or tannic 
 acid. For this reason, the fresh leaves are used in Brazil
 
 150 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 by the dyers. It is probably the presence of this substance 
 in the infusion which causes it to blacken so rapidly when 
 exposed to the air, and makes it necessary to drink it off as 
 soon as it is made. Were it poured out into cups, as is 
 done with Chinese tea, the liquid would become black and 
 repulsive before the eyes of the drinker. Hence the reason 
 for the peculiar mode of sucking it through 3, tube, which is 
 practised in South America, and which at first seems so 
 peculiar to Europeans. And, 
 
 Lastly, Like the Chinese leaf, it contains also nutri- 
 tious gluten. Of this substance about 10 per cent, is pre- 
 sent in the dried mate, of which only a small proportion 
 dissolves when the tea is infused. The benefit of this ingre- 
 dient, therefore, is experienced only where the infused leaf 
 is subsequently eaten, as is the case, it is said, in some parts 
 of South America. 
 
 An exact analysis of Paraguay tea has not yet been 
 made, so that we are still in the dark as to its precise com- 
 position ; but it is both interesting and remarkable to find, 
 so far, a great similarity between the Chinese and the 
 South American leaf. Both contain the same active ingre- 
 dients, and both, though belonging to very different tribes 
 of plants, have been selected to serve the same remarkable 
 physiological purposes. How came tribes so remote, and so 
 little civilized, to stumble upon this happy selection ? 
 
 3. COFFEE-TEA. Attention has lately been drawn to 
 the use of the leaf of the coffee-tree as a substitute for that 
 of the tea- tree. In 1845 Professor Blume of Leyden, who 
 had travelled much in Java, made known in Holland that 
 this leaf was so used in the Eastern Archipelago, and re- 
 commended it for use in Europe. Subsequently it was 
 made known in this country by Professor Brand; * and at 
 the Great Exhibition in 1851, Dr. Gardner showed speci- 
 
 * Chemistry, p. 108.
 
 COFFEE-TEA. 157 
 
 mens of prepared coffee-leaves, announced at the same time 
 that .they contained tJieine, and suggested that they should 
 be substituted for our ordinary tea. 
 
 These, along "with other circumstances, have drawn the 
 attention of Eastern merchants to the subject, and it appears 
 from various communications which have recently been made 
 public, that the use of coffee-leaves in this way is an old 
 practice in the Eastern Archipelago. In the Dutch island 
 of Sumatra especially, prepared coffee-leaves form " the only 
 beverage of the whole population, and, from their nutritive 
 qualities, have become an important necessary of life." 
 
 The leaves are roasted over a clear, smokeless, bamboo 
 fire, till they become of a brownish-buff colour. They are 
 then separated from the twigs, the bark of which, after a 
 second roasting, is rubbed off and used along with the 
 leaves. In this state they have an extremely fragrant 
 odour, resembling that of a mixture of tea and coffee. 
 When immersed in boiling water, they give a clear brown 
 infusion, which, with sugar and cream, forms an agreeable 
 beverage. Mr. "Ward, who has been many years settled at 
 Pedang in Sumatra, thus narrates his experience in regard 
 to the use of the coffee-leaf in that island : 
 
 " The natives have a prejudice against the use of water 
 as a beverage, asserting that it does not quench thirst, or 
 afford the strength and support the coffee-leaf does. With a 
 little boiled rice and infusion of the coffee-leaf, a man will 
 support the labours of the field in rice-planting for days and 
 weeks successively, up to the knees in mud, under a burning 
 sun or drenching rain, which he could not do by the use of 
 simple water, or by the aid of spirituous or fermented 
 liquors. I have had the opportunity of observing for twenty 
 years the comparative use of the coffee-leaf in one class of 
 natives, and of spirituous liquors in another the native Su- 
 matrans using the former, and the natives of British India
 
 158 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 settled here, the latter ; and I find that, while the former 
 expose themselves with impunity to every degree of heat, 
 cold, and wet, the latter can endure neither wet nor cold for 
 even a short period, without danger to their health. 
 
 " Engaged myself in agriculture, and being in conse- 
 quence much exposed to the weather, I was induced several 
 years ago, from an occasional use of the coffee-leaf, to adopt 
 it as a daily beverage, and my constant practice has been to 
 take two cups of a strong infusion, with milk, in the even- 
 ing, as a restorative after the business of the day. I find 
 from it immediate relief from hunger and fatigue. The 
 bodily strength is increased, and the mind left for the even- 
 ing clear and in full possession of its faculties. On its first 
 use, and when the leaf has not been sufficiently roasted, it is 
 said to produce vigilance ; but I am inclined to think that, 
 where this is the case, it is rather by adding strength and 
 activity to the mental faculties, than by inducing nervous 
 excitement. I do not recollect this effect on myself except 
 once, and that was when the leaf was insufficiently roasted. 
 
 " As a beverage the natives universally prefer the leaf to 
 the berry, giving as a reason that it contains more of the 
 bitter principle, and is more nutritious. In the lowlands, 
 coffee is not planted for the berry, not being sufficiently pro- 
 ductive ; but, for the leaf, the people plant ;t round their 
 houses for their own use. It is an undoubted fact that 
 everywhere they prefer the leaf to the berry."* 
 
 He adds further, that while the culture of the coffee 
 plant, for its fruit, is limited to particular soils and more 
 elevated climates, it may be grown for the leaf wherever, 
 within the tropics, the soil is sufficiently fertile. This is a 
 very important fact, and, should the leaf come into general 
 use, will no doubt lead to the introduction of new forms of 
 
 * Pharmaceutical Journal, vol. xiii, p. 208.
 
 CONSTITUENTS OF THE COFFEE-LEAF. 159 
 
 husbandry in many tropical regions, from which the coffee- 
 tree, as a profitable article of culture, has been hitherto 
 excluded. The Brazilian government is said to be directing 
 its attention to the subject, and shipments of prepared cof- 
 fee-leaves are announced to have been already made from 
 that country to Europe. At present the price of prepared 
 leaves in Sumatra is about l^d. a pound ; and they may be 
 packed of good quality, for the European market, for 2d. 
 a-pound. 
 
 In regard to the constituents of the dried coffee-leaf, the 
 agreeable aroma emitted shows that, like Chinese tea, it 
 contains a volatile oil, which will probably act upon the sys- 
 tem like the similar oils of tea and coffee. It has been 
 proved also to contain theine to the extent of 1^ per cent. 
 (STENHOUSE) and an astringent acid closely resembling that 
 which is found in Paraguay tea. Both of these are present 
 in it in larger proportion than in the coffee-bean ; and hence, 
 probably, the reason why the leaf is preferred to the bean by 
 the natives of Sumatra. These, with about 13 per cent, of 
 gluten and some gum, are all the ingredients yet found in 
 the leaf. But the presence of these substances proves it to 
 be so similar to the tea leaf in composition, as to lead to tho 
 belief that it may be successfully substituted in common use 
 for the Chinese tea. And this conclusion is supported by 
 the wakefulness which is said to be produced by the infusion 
 of coffee-leaves, and by the bodily refreshment it is found 
 to yield, by the directly nutritive power which the leaves 
 possess, and by the general favour they have found in the 
 estimation of the people of Sumatra. 
 
 To boiling water the dried coffee-leaves yield about 39 
 per cent, of their weight as much as is taken up by water 
 from the most soluble varieties of the coffee-bean, and more 
 than is yielded by Chinese tea. In this property, therefore, 
 the leaf of the coffee-tree is also equal to the bean.
 
 160 
 
 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 Fig. 32. 
 
 4. LABRADOR TEA is the name given in North America 
 to the dried leaves of the Ledum palustre and the Ledum 
 latifolium (fig. 32). These plants grow on the borders of 
 the swamps, and along the heathy shores of the mountain 
 lakes in the colder regions of that continent. The leaves are 
 gathered and used in the stead of Chinese tea the narrower 
 leaved plant (L. palust re), accord- 
 ing to Dr. Richardson, giving tea 
 of the better quality. Both varie- 
 ties are very astringent, and possess 
 a narcotic, soothing, and exhilarat- 
 ing quality. This latter is so 
 strong that in the north of Europe 
 ( Sweden and Germany ) these 
 plants are secretly employed by 
 fraudulent brewers to give headi- 
 ness to beer. They have not been 
 examined chemically ; but from the 
 above facts we may infer that, be- 
 sides a variety of tannin, to which 
 they owe their astringency, they 
 contain an active narcotic principle, 
 more powerful, probably, than the 
 
 Ledum palustre The Marsh Lc- ., . ,,., , * , i i ,1 
 
 dum, or Labrador Tea. theme or the tea-lear, to which their 
 The undemost flower and leaf re- peculiarj exhilarating, and stupefy- 
 
 Ledum latifolium The : Labrador ing effects are due. It IS possible 
 
 Tea, or broad-leaved Ledum. j ^ j th ^ northern 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 2 feet ' ' 
 
 Leaves and flowers nearly natural climates of Sweden and Labrador, 
 
 s e> the effects of such a narcotic sub- 
 
 stance may be less sensibly felt than under our milder skies. 
 5. ABYSSINIAN TEA, called in its native country Khat or 
 Chaat, is very extensively cultivated in Shoa and the adjoin- 
 ing regions, and is in general use among the inhabitants, 
 just as tea is in China. It consists of the dried leaves of 
 the Catha edulis, a species of small tree which is allied to
 
 ABYSSINIAN TEA. 161 
 
 the Sageretia theezans, from which, the poorer classes of 
 Chinese prepare an inferior kind of tea. In a light gravelly 
 soil the plant attains a height of 12 feet. The leaves are 
 plucked in the dry season, and -well dried in the sun. In 
 Abyssinia they sell at Id. or 2d. a-pound.* They are either 
 chewed, boiled in milk, or infused in boiling water, and, by 
 the addition of honey, yield a pleasant beverage. They 
 have much resemblance to Chinese tea, both in their quali- 
 ties and their effects. They are bitter to the taste, possess 
 exhilarating properties, and dispel sleep if used to excess. 
 
 The leaves of this plant are also used green. Forskall 
 states that the Arabs eat them green because of their pro- 
 perty of preventing sleep. To such a degree do they exhi- 
 bit this influence, that a man who chews them may stand 
 sentry all night without feeling drowsiness. They are also 
 regarded as an antidote to the plague ; and the Arabs 
 believe that the plague cannot appear in places where the 
 tree is cultivated. Botta adds to these qualities that, when 
 fresh, the leaves are very intoxicating. f 
 
 This North African tea appears to be very extensively 
 cultivated and used, though less so now than in ancient 
 times ; but we have no means of estimating the absolute 
 quantity which is grown and consumed. We are entirely 
 ignorant, also, I believe, of its exact chemical history, and 
 do not yet know whether it belongs to the class of plants 
 in which theine exists. Its relation to the Sageretia thee- 
 zans of China renders this not unlikely. 
 
 Many other plants, of which the chemistry is unknown, 
 are used in various countries as more or less perfect substi- 
 tutes for Chinese tea. Thus, the name 
 
 Tasmanian tea is given to the dried leaves of various spe- 
 
 * HAEKIS HigMajida of Ethiopia, vol. ii. p. 423. 
 t LIXDLEY Vegetable Kingdom, p. 63T.
 
 162 THE BEVERAGES \VE INFUSE. 
 
 cies of Melaleuca and Leptospermum, belonging to the order 
 of the Myrtacese, which are collected in Australia, and used 
 by the colonists instead of Chinese tea. These trees are 
 commonly called tea-trees, and the large tracts of country 
 which are covered with them, tea-tree fiats. The leaves of 
 various species of Correa also, which belong to the Rutaceae, 
 and especially of the Correa alba, are collected and used for 
 the same purpose. The leaves of Accena sanguisorba, a 
 plant allied to the Rosaceas, and which abounds everywhere 
 in Tasmania, are said to be an excellent substitute for tea. 
 In the same eastern region the leaves of the Glaphyria 
 nitida, another of the Myrtaceae called by the Malays the 
 Tree of Long Life, affords at Bencoolen, in Sumatra, a sub- 
 stitute for tea. 
 
 Fakam tea, again, is the name given in Mauritius to 
 the dried leaves of the Angrcecym fragrans a fragrant 
 orchid. The infusion of these leaves is exceedingly plea- 
 sant to the smell, and is drunk to promote digestion, and in 
 certain diseases of the lungs. Its fragrance is owing to the 
 presence of coumarin, the odoriferous principle of the Tonka 
 bean and of mellilot, described in a subsequent chapter.* 
 The leaf does not contain theine, and it is not therefore to 
 be classed in its virtues and uses with the Chinese and Para- 
 guay teas. 
 
 Besides all these we have North American substitutes 
 for the China leaf, distinguished by the names of Appala- 
 chian tea, Oswego tea, Mountain tea, and New Jersey tea. 
 We have a Mexican tea, a Brazilian tea, the aromatic 
 Capit.ao da matfo, a Santa Fe tea, an Indian, Toolsie tea 
 and many others. Of the chemistry of all these substitutes 
 we know next to nothing. I have therefore embodied in the 
 following table nearly all the information we possess regard- 
 ing them : 
 
 See TBTE ODOUBS WT EJMOY.
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR CHINESE TEA. 
 
 163 
 
 LIST OF SUBSTITUTES FOR CHINESE TEA AND MAT& 
 
 Name of the Plant. 
 
 Natural order. 
 
 Where collected and 
 uaed. 
 
 Name given to it. 
 
 Hydrangea thun- ) 
 berpii, . . | 
 
 Hydrangeaceae. 
 
 Japan. 
 
 {Ama t-^ja or Tea of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Sageretia theezans, 
 
 Khamnacese. 
 
 China. 
 
 y 
 
 Ocymum album, 
 
 Labiate. 
 
 India. 
 
 Toolsie tea. 
 
 Catha edulis, . 
 
 Celastraceae. 
 
 Abyssinia. 
 
 Khat or Chaat 
 
 Glaphyria nitida, 
 Correa alba, . 
 
 Myrtaceae. 
 
 Kutaeete. 
 
 j Bencoolen | 
 1 (flowers used), j 
 New Holland. -| 
 
 Tea-plant and Tree 
 or Long Life. 
 
 Acoena sanguis- 
 orba, 
 
 Sanguisorbiacece. 
 
 Do. 
 
 
 Leptospermum 
 
 
 1 
 
 Tea plants, and 
 
 scoparium, and 
 
 Myrtacese. 
 
 Do. 
 
 Tasinanian tea. 
 
 L. thea, . 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Melaleuca scopa- i 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 ria, and M. ge- V 
 
 Myrtacere. 
 
 Do. J 
 
 
 nistifolia, . . J 
 
 
 
 
 Myrtus ugni, 
 
 Myrtacece. 
 
 Chili. 
 
 j Substitutes for 
 
 Psoralea glandulosa, 
 Alstonia theaformis, 
 
 Leguminosae. 
 Styracaceae. 
 
 Do. 
 
 New Granada. 
 
 1 Paraguay tea, 
 Santa Fe tea. 
 
 Capraria bitlora. 
 
 Scrophnlariaceaj. 
 
 Central America. 
 
 j 
 
 Lantana pseudothea, 
 
 Verbenaceae. 
 
 Brazil. 
 
 Capitao da matto. 
 
 Clienopodium am- 
 brosioides, 
 
 ChenopodiaceaB. 
 
 { Mexico and ) 
 Columbia. ( 
 
 Mexican tea. 
 
 Viburnum cassi- J 
 noides, . . j 
 
 Caprifoliaceae. 
 
 North America. I 
 
 Appalachian tea. 
 
 Prinos glaber, 
 
 Aquifoliacere. 
 
 Do. j 
 
 
 Ceanothus Ameri- I 
 canus, . . j 
 
 Ehamnaceae. 
 
 Do. 
 
 J New Jersey tea 
 ( (medicinal). 
 
 t Ericaceae 
 
 Do. 
 
 Mountain tea. 
 
 
 
 
 Ledum palustre. [ Ericacea. 
 Ledum latifolium, ) *-ncace03. 
 
 Do. 
 
 J Labrador tea, or 
 James' tea. 
 
 Monarda didyma, J Labiate. 
 M. purpurea, . I 
 
 Do. Oswego tea. 
 
 A rfns CUm frag " [ Orchldiacew. 
 
 Mauritius. || Bou ^mteI Fa " 
 
 3a ~ > Labiatoe. 
 
 France. 1 
 
 ^anwteenMs? f Verbenacesa. Austria. Brazilian tea. 
 
 Prunus spinosa, "1 Drupacese. ( Sloe and Strawberry 
 
 1 mixed with jl Northern 1 tea, one of onr best 
 Fragaria collina, j Kosacese. Europe. substitutes for 
 
 or F. ve?ca, . J M Chinese tea. 
 
 Salvia officinalis, Labiate. Do. Sage tea. 
 
 I pass over numerous other plants which in Europe 
 have been tried as substitutes for tea, without, however, 
 coming into any general use, except here and there as adul- 
 terations. It is possible that some of those above mention-
 
 164 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 ed may hereafter be discovered to contain the theine and 
 other valuable constituents of the true tea-leaf, and may be 
 both cultivated and advantageously used in its stead. As an 
 adulteration, the leaves of Epilobium angustifolium are 
 sometimes mixed with tea to the amount of 25 per cent.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 THE COFFEES. 
 
 Coftee used In Abyssinia from time immemorial Its introduction into Europe- 
 Consumption in the United Kingdom, in Europe, and in the whole world Varie- 
 ties of coffee, and prices in the London market Effects of the infusion of coffee 
 It exalts the nervous life, and lessens the waste of the system Constituents of 
 coffee The volatile oil, its production, mercantile value, and effects on tho 
 system The tannic acid, the theino or caffeine, and tho gluten Composition 
 of tea and coffee compared Loss of weight in roasting coffee Proportion of the 
 roasted bean taken up by water very variable Substitutes for coffee Seeds of 
 the water-iris, of the Turkish kenguel, of the roasted acorn, of roasted corn 
 and pulse, of roasted roots, and especially of chicory The chicory plant and 
 root How the root is prepared for use Gives a fictitious appearance of strength 
 to coffee Active ingredients in chicory The empyreumatic oil, and the bitter 
 principle Its effects on the system Mode of detecting chicory in coftee Adul- 
 terations of chicory. 
 
 II. THE COFFEES. The name of coffee is given to a 
 beverage prepared from the seeds of plants roasted, ground, 
 and infused in boiling water. The seeds of the Arabian 
 coffee-tree are most largely used for this purpose, but 
 various other seeds are more or less extensively employed in 
 a similar way. _ 
 
 1. ARABIAN corFEE.-r-The tree which produces thi? 
 seed is said to be indigenous to the countries of Enarea and 
 Caffa in southern Abyssinia. In these districts the coffee- 
 tree grows like a wild weed over the rocky surface of tho 
 country. The roasted seed or bean has also been in use as
 
 166 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 a beverage in Abyssinia generally, from time immemorial 
 and is at the present day extensively cultivated in that 
 country. In Persia it is known to have been in use as early 
 as the year 875. From Abyssinia it was introduced into 
 Arabia in the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it 
 partly superseded the older chaat, or Abyssinian tea. About 
 the middle of the sixteenth century it began to be used in 
 Constantinople, and in spite of the violent opposition of 
 the priests, became an article of general consumption. In 
 the middle of the seventeenth century (1652), the first 
 coffee-house was opened in London by a Greek named Pas- 
 qua; and twenty years after, the first was established in 
 Marseilles. Since that time both the culture and consumption 
 of coffee have continually extended. It has become the staple 
 produce of important colonies, and the daily and most cherish- 
 ed drink of probably more than a hundred millions of men ! 
 
 The consumption in the United Kingdom in 1852 amount- 
 ed to 35 millions of pounds, of which upwards of 20 millions 
 were brought from Ceylon, 4 millions from Jamaica, and 8 
 millions from Costa Ilica and Brazil. On the Continent it 
 is much more generally used than among ourselves. The 
 total European consumption was estimated a few years ago 
 at 75 thousand tons, or 168 millions of pounds, valued at 
 4 millions sterling. It probably approaches now to 200 
 millions of pounds. The entire weight of coffee raised over 
 the whole world is guessed at about 600 millions of pounds. 
 
 The quality of raw coffee does not appear to depend so 
 much on the mode of collecting and drying it as that of tea 
 does. Soil and climate are the circumstances which chiefly 
 affect its commercial value. The flavour and quality of the 
 beverage prepared from it depend very much, however, upon 
 thp manner of roasting the bean, and of subsequently prepar- 
 ing the infusion. 
 
 In the London market the coffees of different countries 
 are arranged, as to quality and price, in the following order.
 
 THE COFFEE-TREE. 
 
 167 
 
 The third column of this table shows the quantity of each 
 sort consumed in the United Kingdom in 1 852 : 
 
 Cevlon, native, . . 
 i)o. Plantation, 
 East India, 
 Costa Rica and Brazil, 
 
 Wholesale price 
 per cwt. 
 46s. to 47s. I 
 52s. to 80s. J 
 48s. to 78s. 
 50s. to 70s. 
 50s. to 100s. 
 
 Consumed in 1852. 
 
 20,500,000 Ib. 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 6,700.000 
 4,000,000 
 
 Mocha (ungarbled), 
 Do ... 
 
 60s. to 60s. 1 
 68s. to 90s. J 
 
 1,800.000 
 
 Other sorts, 
 
 
 400,000 
 
 The Arabian or Mocha 
 
 cof- 
 
 85,000,000 Ib, 
 Fig. 88. 
 
 fee is small, and of a dark yel- 
 low colour. The Javan and East 
 Indian are larger, and of a paler 
 yellow. The Ceylon, West In- 
 dian, and Brazilian have a blu- 
 ish or greenish-grey tint. 
 
 The coffee-tree (fig. 33) 
 when in good health, and full 
 grown, attains a height in some 
 countries not exceeding 8 or 10, 
 but in others averaging from 15 
 to 20 feet, and is covered with 
 a dark, smooth, and shining ftr 
 liage. It is sown in nurseries 
 transplanted when about six 
 months old in three years 
 comes into full bearing, and in 
 favourable circumstances will 
 continue to bear for twenty 
 years. It delights in a dry soil 
 and a warm situation. On dry 
 and elevated spots the berries 
 are smaller, and have a better 
 flavour ; but berries of all sizes 
 improve in flavour or ripen, by 
 keeping, The small berries of 
 Arabia will ripen in threeyears,
 
 168 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 but the worst coffee produced in America will, in from 
 ten to fourteen years, become " as good, and acquire as 
 high a flavour, as the best we now have from Turkey." 
 (ELLIS.) 
 
 The sensible properties and effects of coffee, like those 
 of tea, are too well known to require to be stated in detail 
 It exhilarates, arouses, and keeps awake ; it allays hunger 
 to a certain extent, gives to the weary increased strength and 
 vigour, and imparts a feeling of comfort and repose. Its 
 physiological effects upon the system, so far as they have 
 been investigated, appear to be, that, while it makes the brain 
 more active, it soothes the body generally, makes the change 
 and waste of matter slower, and the demand for food in con- 
 sequence less.* All these effects it owes to the conjoined 
 action of three ingredients, very similar to those contained 
 in tea. These are a volatile oil produced during the roast- 
 ing a variety of tannic acid, which is also altered during 
 the roasting and the substance called theine or caffeine, 
 which is common to both tea and coffee. 
 
 First, The Volatile Oil. When the coffee-bean is gath- 
 ered and dried in the air it has little smell, and only a slight- 
 
 * The influence of coffee in retarding the waste of the tissues as indicated by 
 the quantity of phosphoric acid, common salt, and urea discharged under its influence 
 in a day was shown by estimating the proportions of each of these ingredients voided 
 In his urine by the same person, in the same circumstances, when ho drank coffee 
 and when he took none. 
 
 r . ( 
 rine 'i 
 
 contain- J Phosphoric Common 
 ing 1 acid. salt. 
 
 grammes grammes grammes 
 
 H. 8., without coffee, voided 1635 c, e. 4.421 9.865 81.298 
 
 With coffee from H oz. of beans 2005 " 8.001 8.819 21.833 
 
 Difference, . . + 370 c. c. 1.420 1.046 9.410 
 
 In this experiment, while the absolute quantity of urine discharged in the twenty- 
 four hours was increased more than one-fifth, the absolute quantities of urea and of 
 phosphoric acid contained in the urine were diminished one-third. That is to say, 
 the change or waste of matter, as indicated by the contents of the urine, was dimin- 
 ished to that extent by the influence of the coffee. And the natural inference from 
 this is, that the occupation of the individual being the same, the necessary demand 
 for ordinary food would be lessened in a somewhat corresponding degree.
 
 * 
 
 VOLATILE OIL IN COFFEE. 
 
 ly bitter and astringent taste. As with the tea-leaf, it is 
 during the roasting of coffee that the much prized aroma and 
 the greater part of the taste and flavour are brought out or 
 produced. In tea, as we have seen, the proportion of vola- 
 til oil amounts to about one pound in a hundred of the dried 
 leaf, but in roasted coffee it rarely amounts to more than 
 one in fifty thousand ! And yet on the different proportions 
 of this oil which they severally contain, the aroma and the 
 consequent estimation in the market of the different varieties 
 of coffee in a great measure depend. A higher aroma would 
 make the inferior Ceylon, Jamaica, and East Indian coffees 
 nearly equal in value to the finest Mocha; and if the oil 
 could be bought for the purpose of imparting this flavour, it 
 would be worth in the market as much as 100 sterling an 
 ounce ! (PAYEN). How it comes by what slow chemical 
 change within the bean, that is, that coffee of the most infe- 
 rior quality so ripens by keeping as at length to yield, on 
 roasting, a coffee equal to the finest Mocha, we do not as yet 
 know. The oil is formed during the roasting by the action 
 of the heat on some substance present in the natural bean, 
 probably in small quantity only. It is possible that by pro- 
 longed keeping this substance is itself formed in the inferior 
 qualities of coffee ; so that when roasted after the keeping a 
 larger quantity of the valuable aromatic oil is formed in the 
 bean. 
 
 The effect of this volatile oil of coffee upon the system 
 has been made the subject of direct experiment. Whea 
 roasted coffee is distilled with water this oil passes over, and 
 by drinking the distilled water and oil together its effects 
 may be ascertained. Julius Lehmann found in this way that 
 is has an effect in retarding the waste of the tissues quite 
 equal to that of caffeine itself.* It produces also an agree- 
 
 * The relative effects of the volatile oil of coffee, of caffeine, and of the infusion 
 of coffee, made in the ordinary way, upon the same individual (Q. M.) in bis usual 
 8
 
 170 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 able excitement, and a gentle perspiration, dispels the sen 
 sation of hunger, and moves the bowels. In its exhilarating 
 action upon the brain it affects the imagination less than the 
 reasoning powers. 
 
 These effects followed when the quantity of oil yielded 
 by two ounces of coffee was taken in a day. If this dose 
 was doubled, violent perspiration came on, with sleeplessness 
 and symptoms of congestion. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the volatile empyreumatio 
 oily constituents of roasted coffee, though present only in 
 minute quantity, exercise a powerful influence upon the ani- 
 mal economy, exciting to greater activity both the vascular 
 and nervous systems, and yet retarding the waste of the tis- 
 sues in as great a degree as the caffeine itself, which the in- 
 fusion of coffee usually contains. This activity of the oil of 
 coffee justifies us in concluding, as I have already said, that 
 the similar oil produced in tea by the roasting takes a simi- 
 lar share in the effects which the infusion of tea as a beverage 
 produces. 
 
 Second, The Astringent Acid. The raw coffee contains 
 about 5 per cent, of an astringent acid the caffeine or caf- 
 fee- tonic which does not blacken a solution of iron, as the 
 
 Btato of health, and -when consuming the same food in kind and quantity, were found 
 by Julius Lehmann to be as follows : 
 
 Urine. j co ^ tatn - j Ph ^ ric C ^}^ n ^rea. 
 grammes grammes gramme* 
 
 Without coffee, he voided daily 1444 c. c. 4.140 9.363 27.232 
 
 With 4 grains caffeine, do., 1928 " 8.768 9.546 24.0SS 
 
 W 2^ e o71^ IMti ! 0ll . fr011 !} 1789 " 8 ' 479 10 ' 807 2 - 27 ' 1 
 
 With coffee, from IJoz. of beans, 1512 " 8.105 6.951 20.695 
 
 In all trials the quantity of the urine was increased ; but, in all, the total quantity 
 of saline matter contained in the urine was lessened. The urea, as shown in the last 
 column, was diminished most by the empyrennaatlc oil, but the waste of phosphoric 
 cid and common salt more by the coffee itself, which contained both, than by either 
 of the ingredients when used alone.
 
 ASTRINGENT ACID IN COFFEE. 171 
 
 infusion of tea does, but renders it green,* and does not pre- 
 cipitate solutions of gelatine. This acid is changed to some 
 extent during the roasting, but still retains a portion of its 
 astringent properties, and contributes in some degree to the 
 effects which the infusion of coffee produces upon the sys- 
 tem. 
 
 It will be observed that the proportion of this astringent 
 principle contained in coffee is much less than is contained 
 in tea. Hence it is not sufficient to retard the action of the 
 bowels as tea does, especially when associated with the em- 
 pyreumatic volatile oil, which, as we have seen, has a posi- 
 tive tendency to move them. To the same result the large 
 per-centage of fat contained in coffee may also contribute. 
 
 Tkird, The Theine, or Caffeine as it is also called, exists 
 in different proportions in different varieties of coffee. It 
 varies in the coffee usually employed in this country from 
 three quarters of a pound to one pound in the hundred 
 (STENHOUSE), though according to some experimenters, 
 three or four pounds in the hundred occur in certain varie- 
 ties of coffee. By rubbing common roasted coffee in a mor- 
 tar with a fifth of its weight of slaked lime, and then boiling 
 the mixture in alcohol, about half a per-cent. of theine may 
 be readily extracted. Weight for weight, therefore, tea 
 yields about twice as much theine as roasted coffee does to 
 the water in which it is infused. But as we generally use a 
 greater weight of coffee than we do of tea in preparing our 
 beverages, a cup of coffee of ordinary strength will probably 
 contain as much theine as a cup of ordinary tea. 
 
 The influence which this ingredient of the several bev- 
 erages has in producing the effects we experience from the 
 
 * Many varieties of the astringent, so-called tannic acids aro found in plants- 
 that which exists in tea has much resemblance to the tannin of the oak, while those 
 of coffee, of Paraguay tea, and the heaths (Ericaceae), form another class of acids 
 having much resemblance to one another, but differing in their properties from the 
 tannic acid of the oak.
 
 172 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 use of them, has already been explained when treating of 
 the effects of tea. 
 
 But the coffee-bean contains also about thirteen per 
 cent, of nutritious gluten, which, as in the case of tea, is 
 very sparingly dissolved by boiling water, and is usually 
 thrown away in the insoluble dregs of the coffee. Among 
 some of the Eastern nations, the custom prevails of drinking 
 the grounds along with the infusion of the coffee : in these 
 cases the full benefit is obtained from all the positively nu- 
 tritive matter which the roasted coffee contains. 
 
 The composition of unroasted coffee, compared with the 
 average composition of the tea-leaf as it comes to Europe, is 
 nearly as follows : 
 
 
 Tea. 
 
 Coffee. 
 
 
 (MULDER.) 
 
 (PATEN.) 
 
 Water, .... 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 Gum and sugar 
 
 21 
 
 151* 
 
 Gluten, 
 
 25 
 
 13 
 
 Theine, .... 
 
 i 
 
 X 
 
 Fat and volatile oil, . 
 
 4 
 
 13 
 
 Tannic acid, . . . 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 "Woody fibre, 
 
 24 
 
 84 
 
 Ash, . 
 
 5i 
 
 63 
 
 100 100 
 
 The proportion of theine in both tea and coffee, it will 
 be recollected, is somewhat variable. 
 
 Coffee swells by roasting, but loses in weight, and as- 
 sumes a brown colour more or less dark. These changes 
 vary, however, with the degree of roasting. Thus 
 
 Boasted to a 
 
 It loses in weight 
 
 And gains in bulk 
 
 Eeddish brown, 
 Chestnut brown, . 
 Dark brown, . 
 
 15 per cent 
 20 per cent. 
 25 per cent. 
 
 80 per cent. 
 50 per cent 
 50 per cent 
 
 * According to Dr. Stenhouse, coffee contains as much as eight par cent of cane
 
 CHEMICAL CHANGES CAUSED BY ROASTING. 173 
 
 The aroma is most agreeable when the heat is not 
 greater than is sufficient to impart a light brown colour to 
 the bean. When the roasting is carried too far a disagree- 
 able smell gradually mingles with the esteemed aroma, and 
 lessens the value of the product. 
 
 The quantity of the coffee-bean which is taken up by 
 water is nearly the same before and after roasting. It is 
 nearly the same also in some samples, whether they bo 
 much or little roasted. It differs, however, very much in 
 different samples. Thus three experimenters found that 
 water extracted from the samples of roasted coffee they ex- 
 amined, the following proportions per cent. : 
 
 Payen. Cadet. Lchmann. 
 
 Reddish brown, 37.0 12J 21* 
 
 Chestnut brown, ST.l 18J 
 
 Dark brown, 87.2 23i 
 
 Some infusions of coffee, therefore, even when roasted to 
 the same extent, contain three times as much of the solid 
 substance of the coffee as others do. But we have no ex- 
 periments upon the comparative effects which infusions 
 so differing have upon the constitution of the drinkers. It 
 is observed that some natural waters give a stronger and 
 better flavoured coffee than others ; and this has been 
 traced, as in Prague, to the presence of alkaline matter in 
 those which give the most agreeable infusion. Hence, to 
 obtain a more uniformly strong and well-flavoured coffee, it 
 is recommended to add a little soda to the water with which 
 the infusion is mads. About forty grains of dry, or twice 
 as much of crystallized carbonate of soda, are sufficient for 
 a pound of coffee. 
 
 The chemical changes caused by the roasting, are the 
 production of the active empyreumatic oil, and of a brown, 
 bitter substance, the chemical properties of which, and its 
 action upon the system, still remain to be investigated. 
 They are produced from the soluble part of the raw bean,
 
 174 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 but by what chemical changes is not yet known. In conclu- 
 sion, it is proper to state that coffee is reputed to possess 
 important medicinal virtues. The great use of coffee in 
 France is supposed to have abated the prevalence of the 
 gravel. In the French colonies, where coffee is more used 
 than in the English, as well as in Turkey, where it is the 
 principal beverage, not only the gravel, but the gout, is 
 scarcely known. Among others, also, a case is mentioned of 
 a gentleman who was attacked with gout at twenty-five years 
 of age, and had it severely till he was upwards of fifty, with 
 chalk stones in the joints of his hands and feet ; but the use 
 of coffee then recommended to him completely removed the 
 complaint.* 
 
 It has not been determined to which of the constituents 
 of coffee this curative action is due, or whether it is the 
 same in all constitutions. These points are worthy of care- 
 ful experimental investigation. 
 
 2. OTHER COFFEES. Besides the real Cojfea Arabica, 
 other species of the coffee-plant are grown in various coun- 
 tries, and yield a useful marketable bean. Thus, in Silhet 
 and Nepaul, the Coffea Bengkalensis is cultivated ; on the 
 coast of Mosambique, the Coffea Mosambicana ; on the 
 coast of Zanguebar, the C. Zanguebaria ; and in the Mau- 
 ritius, the C. Mauritiana. The seed of the last of these 
 tastes disagreeably sharp and bitter, and sometimes causes 
 vomiting, yet it is in some places cultivated instead of the 
 Cojfea Arabica. It is possible that these so-called different 
 species may, like the varieties of the tea-plant, be only dif- 
 ferently modified forms of the same original species. 
 
 But, besides the fruit of the different coffee-plants, nu- 
 merous other vegetables have, in different countries, been 
 proposed or used as substitutes for Arabian coffee. A suc- 
 cessful substitute must contain, like coffee, a fragrant aro- 
 
 * PTiarmaceutiodlJournal, vol. xiil. p. 830.
 
 SUBSTITUTES FOR COFFEE. 175 
 
 matio principle, a bitter principle, and an astringent prin- 
 ciple. These properties are found more or less satisfac- 
 torily 
 
 a. In the roasted seeds of Iris pseudacoris (yellow 
 water-iris), which are said to approach very near to coffee in 
 quality. 
 
 b. In the seeds of a Goumelia, called in Turkey Ken- 
 guel, which were shown at the Great Exhibition as exten- 
 sively cultivated in the Kair-ar-eh and Komah, where they 
 are roasted, ground, and used as coffee. 
 
 c. In the roasted acorn, which is said to be much used 
 on the Continent under the name of acorn coffee. 
 
 d. In the cicer or chick-pea roasted ; in beans, rye, and 
 other grains ; in nuts, almonds, and even in wheaten bread, 
 when roasted carefully. 
 
 e. In the seeds of Broom (Spartium scoparium), and 
 in the dried and roasted berries of the Triosteum pcrfolia- 
 tum (Caprifoliaceae). In the West Indies, the seeds of sev- 
 eral species of Psychotria (Cinchonacese) ; in Soudan, those 
 of Dura and Nitta (Inga bigiobosa) ; among the African ne- 
 groes, those of Parkia (Africana) ; and among the Tonguses, 
 those of a species of Hyoscyamus are all employed as sub- 
 stitutes for coffee. 
 
 /. In the dried and roasted roots also of many plants. 
 The carrot and turnip are used for this purpose, but more 
 commonly the roots of the common goose-grass ( Galium 
 aparine), especially in Ireland; while those of the dandelion 
 (Leontodun taraxacum] and of chicory are extensively em- 
 ployed both in this country and on the Continent. In none 
 of these roots, however, has the characteristic principle, 
 theine, been discovered, and none of them, therefore, can 
 serve physiological purposes as the seeds of our common 
 coffee. 
 
 Yet one of these roots (chicory) has already, in other
 
 176 
 
 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 countries, crept into extensive use, and among ourselves ia 
 at present rapidly rising in public estimation. At first it 
 was only mixed with pure coffee as an adulteration by frau- 
 dulent dealers. But this practice extended itself so widely, 
 that, for the defence both of the honest dealer and of the 
 public, the sale has been legalised, and much chicory in the 
 unmixed state is now bought and used instead of or along 
 with genuine coffee. As one of the recognised beverages we 
 now infuse, therefore, the plant deserves a brief notice in 
 this place. 
 
 3. SUCCOR.I, chicory or wild endive (Cichorium inty- 
 Fig. 84 bus), fig. 34, is a native weed, which, 
 
 with its large pale-blue flowers, is 
 seen scattered about in numerous pla- 
 ces. It has a large white parsnip- 
 like tap-root, which increases in size 
 when the plant is subjected to culti- 
 vation. This root abounds in a bitter 
 juice, which has led to its use as a 
 substitute for coffee. The plant is now 
 extensively cultivated for the sake 
 of its root. In this country the cul- 
 ture is chiefly confined to the counties 
 of Surrey, Bedford, and York. On 
 the Continent it is largely grown in 
 Prussia, Belgium, and France. The 
 foreign is considered greatly superior 
 
 Cichorium intybuslbo Chloo. 
 
 17 plant. to that of English growth, and is 
 
 Scale, half-inch to a foot. largely imported into this country, 
 chiefly through Hamburg and Antwerp. 
 
 The root is taken up before the plant shoots into flower, 
 is washed, sliced, and dried ; it is then roasted till it is of a 
 chocolate colour. Two pounds of lard are roasted with each 
 hundredweight, and the root loses in roasting from 25 to
 
 CHICORY. 1 77 
 
 30 per cent. When ground and exposed to the air, it be- 
 comes moist and clammy, increases in weight, and acquires 
 a distinct smell of liquorice, and a sensibly sweet first taste. 
 It possesses in no degree the pleasant aroma which recom- 
 mends the genuine roasted coffee. When infused, even in 
 cold water, it imparts to it a dark colour, and a sweetish- 
 bitter taste. To many the addition of a little of this bitter 
 liquid to the infusion of genuine coffee appears an improve- 
 ment a remarkable illustration of the creation of a corrupt 
 taste by an adulteration, which taste demands afterwards the 
 continuance of the adulteration to satisfy its own craving. 
 The bitter substance however, is not considered unwhole- 
 some. Very many bitter substances of this kind possess a 
 tonic property, and it is not unlikely that the bitter of chi- 
 cory may be among the number. 
 
 But the use of chicory appears to have originated from 
 other causes than the discovery, or even the supposed pre- 
 sence, of a tonic property in its bitter ingredient. A little 
 of the roasted chicory gives as dark a colour to water, and as 
 bitter a taste, as a great deal of coffee, and hence it was ori- 
 ginally introduced into the coffeehouses for a purpose akin 
 to that which takes Cocculus indicus into the premises of 
 the fraudulent brewer. It gave colour and taste to the bev- 
 erage of the drinker, and at the same time saved the expen- 
 sive coffee of the seller. The public taste gradually accom- 
 modated itself to the fraudulent mixture ; it became by- 
 and-by even grateful to the accustomed palate ; and finally a 
 kind of favourite necessity to the lovers of bitter coffee. How 
 far circumstances are gradually giving to the infusion of chi- 
 cory, in some countries, the character of a national beverage, 
 may be judged of from the facts, that in 1845 the quantity 
 of chicory imported into this country was estimated at 2000 
 tons, or 4 millions of pounds, and it has since largely in- 
 creased ; that the quantity of the dried root consumed in
 
 178 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE 
 
 France amount already to 12 millions of pounds a-year; and 
 that in some parts of Germany the women are becoming re- 
 gular chicory-topers,* and are making of it an important 
 part of their ordinary sustenance. 
 
 The active ingredients in roasted chicory arc, first, tho 
 empyreumatic volatile oil ; this is produced during the roast- 
 ing, and though not so fragrant, this oil probably exercises 
 upon the system some of the gently-exciting, nerve-sooth- 
 ing, and hunger-staying influence of the similar ingredients 
 contained in tea and coffee ; and, second, the bitter prin- 
 ciple. When taken unmixed, this substance is to many, 
 while they are unaccustomed to it, not onry disagreeable, 
 but nauseous in a high degree. It may, however, like many 
 other bitter principles, possess, as I have said, a tonic or 
 strengthening property. Taken in moderate quantities, 
 these ingredients of chicory are probably not injurious to 
 health ; but by prolonged and frequent use they produce 
 heartburn, cramp in the stomach, loss of appetite, acidity 
 in the mouth, constipation, with intermittent diarrhoea, weak- 
 ness of the limbs, tremblings, sleeplessness, a drunken clou- 
 diness of the senses, &c. &c. At the best, therefore, chi- 
 cory is a substitute for coffee to which only those to whom 
 the price is an object ought to have recourse. 
 
 The simplest way of detecting an admixture of chicory 
 in coffee, is to put the powder in cold water. Chicory gives 
 a coloured infusion in the cold while coffee does not, and by 
 the depth of the colour the proportion of chicory may be 
 guessed at. The presence of coffee in chicory is ascertained 
 by boiling the supposed mixture with quicklime, filtering, 
 evaporating to dryness, adding sulphuric acid and peroxide 
 of manganese, and gently heating, when a substance called 
 kinon will sublime, if coffee is present. 
 
 * " Cichorien-Kaffee-Schwelgerinnen." STBCJIPF, Die Fortachritte der Ange- 
 viandten Chemie.
 
 MODES OF DETECTING ADMIXTURES. 179 
 
 The infusion or decoction of a suspected mixture may 
 be tested also by salts of peroxide of iron. The infusion of 
 chicory is brownish yellow, and becomes only a little darker 
 when such a salt of iron is added, giving no precipitate. 
 The infusion of coffee is of a brown colour, becomes green 
 when the iron solution is added, and gives a brownish-green 
 precipitate. 
 
 Another reason why the use of chicory should be avoid- 
 ed by those who can afford to buy pure coffee, is found in 
 the fact, that pure chicory is as difficult to be met with in 
 the market as unadulterated coffee. Venetian red is very 
 commonly employed to impart to the chicory a true coffee 
 colour ; and it is curious to observe how the practice of adul- 
 teration extends itself from trade to trade. The coffee- 
 dealer adulterates his coffee with chicory to increase his pro- 
 fits the chicory-maker adulterates his chicory with Venetian 
 red, to please the eye of the coffee-dealer ; and, lastly, the 
 Venetian-red manufacturer grinds up his colour with brick- 
 dust, that by his greater cheapness, and the variety of shades 
 he offers, he may secure the patronage of the trade in chi- 
 cory ! 

 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 THE COCOAS. 
 
 Cocoa, ancient use of, In Mexico. Brought to Europe by tho Spaniards. The tre 
 ami its fruit Varieties in the market Quantity imported into this country. 
 Manufacture of the bean. Cocoa nibs. Cocoa of commerce. Chocolate. Consti- 
 tuents of cocoa. The volatile oil. Tho peculiar bitter principle, theobromine. 
 The large proportion of fat which characterises cocoa. The starch and gluten. 
 Its general composition compared with that of milk. It forms a most nutritious 
 beverage. Substitutes for cocoa. The earth-nut and the guarana of Brazil. De- 
 coction of cocoa nibs not so nutritions. The cocoa husk or "miserable ; " impor- 
 tation of and beverage from. General view of the chemistry of tho infused bev- 
 erages.- Summary of their physiological action. Concluding reflections. Prison 
 dietaries. 
 
 III. THE COCOAS, as I have said, are more properly 
 soups or gruels than simple infusions. They are prepared 
 from certain oily seeds, which are first ground to a pulp by 
 passing them between hot rollers, and are then diffused 
 through boiling water for immediate use. 
 
 1. The MEXICAN COCOA is the seed of the Thcobroma 
 cacao (fig. 35). This is a small but beautiful tree, with 
 bright dark-green leaves, which is a native of the West In- 
 dies and of the central regions of America. It grows spon-
 
 
 MEXICAN COCOA. 
 
 181 
 
 taneously in Mexico, and on the coast of Caraccas and forms 
 whole forests in Demerara. 
 
 Thtcibroma cocao The Cacao, " Cocoa," or Chocolate tree. 
 
 Scale, 1 Inch to 10 feet 
 
 1, Leaf and flower. 2, Fruit or pod. 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 2 inches. 
 
 When the Spaniards first established themselves in Mex- 
 ico, they found a beverage prepared from this seed in com- 
 mon use among the native inhabitants. It was known by 
 the Mexican name of Chocollatl, and was said to have been
 
 182 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 in use from time immemorial. It was brought thence to 
 Europe by the Spaniards in 1520, and has since been intro- 
 duced more or less extensively as a beverage into every civ- 
 ilised country. Linnaeus was so fond of it that he gave to 
 the tree the generic name of Theobroma Food of the Gods. 
 
 The fruit of the tree, which, like the fig, grows directly 
 from the stem and principal branches, is of the form and 
 size of a small oblong melon or thick cucumber (see fig. 36). 
 It contains from six to thirty beans or seeds, imbedded in 
 rows in a spongy substance, like that of the water-melon. 
 When ripe, the fruit is plucked, opened, the seeds cleaned 
 from the marrowy substance, and dried. In the West Indies 
 they are immediately picked for market ; but in the Carac- 
 cas they are put in heaps, and covered over, or sometimes 
 buried in the earth till they undergo a slight fermentation, 
 before they are finally dried and picked for market. By 
 this treatment they lose a portion of their natural bitter- 
 ness and acrimony of taste, which is greater in the beans of 
 the mainland than in those of the American islands. The 
 cocoa of Central America is, however, of superior quality, or 
 at least is more generally esteemed in the European markets 
 than that which is grown in the West Indies. It still 
 retains a greater degree of bitterness, and this may be one 
 reason for the preference given to it. 
 
 The cocoa of Trinidad is the variety chiefly consumed in 
 this country. The quality of the mainland cocoas which 
 come to the English market from Bahia and Guayaquil for 
 example, has hitherto been always inferior. The reason oi 
 this has been, that, until the recent alteration of the tariff, 
 the duty on British province cocoa was Id. a-pound, and five 
 per cent, additional; while on foreign cocoa it was 2d. a- 
 pound, and five per cent. This difference was equal to one- 
 fourth or one-fifth of the whole price of the cocoa; and, 
 therefore, while it brought to our markets the best qualities
 
 CONSUMPTION OF COCOA IN BRITAIN. 183 
 
 produced in Trinidad and in our other colonies, it excluded 
 all foreign cocoas but those which were of such inferior 
 quality that, after paying this heavy duty, they could still be 
 sold as low as the produce of our own plantations. The 
 more choice varieties were sent to the markets of Mexico, 
 Spain, France, and Italy, in which countries the beverages 
 prepared from the cocoa-bean are more popular and in more 
 general use than among ourselves. Indeed, they have never 
 been favourites among us, nor has the consumption of cocoa 
 kept pace even with the increase of our population. Thus 
 the importation in 
 
 1840 was 8,490,746 Ibs. 
 
 1842 8,172,255 
 
 1852 8,400,000 
 
 so that for twenty years the quantity imported yearly into 
 the United Kingdom has been nearly stationary. By the 
 recent alteration of the tariff, however, the duty on foreign 
 cocoa has been reduced to a penny a-pound, the same as on 
 British plantation cocoa. All qualities, therefore / will now 
 come to us under equal advantages, and we may expect both 
 that the article will be cheapened in the market, and that 
 the consumption of it will largely increase. 
 
 The cocoa-bean of commerce is brittle, of a dark brown 
 colour internally, eats like a rich nut, and has a slightly 
 astringent but decidedly bitter taste. This bitterness is more 
 decided in the South American or mainland varieties. In 
 preparing it for use, it is gently roasted in an iron cylinder, 
 in the same way as coffee is roasted, till the aroma appears to 
 be fully developed, when it is allowed to cool. The bean is 
 now more brittle, lighter brown in colour, and both the 
 natural astringency and the bitterness are less perceptible 
 than before. It is manufactured for the market in one or 
 other of three principal ways. First, The whole bean after
 
 184 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 roasting is beat into a paste in a hot mortar, or is ground 
 between hot rollers adjusted for the purpose. This paste, 
 mixed with starch, sugar, and other similar ingredients in 
 various proportions, forms the common cocoa, rock cocoa, 
 soluble cocoa, &c., of the shops. These are often gritty from 
 the admixture of earthy and other matters which adhere to 
 the husk of the beans. Second, The bean is deprived of its 
 husk, which forms about 1 1 per cent, of its weight, and is 
 then crushed into fragments. These form the cocoa nibs of 
 the shops, and are the purest state in which cocoa can usually 
 be obtained from the retail dealer. Third, The bean, when 
 shelled, is ground at once into a paste, by means of hot roll- 
 ers, mixed with sugar, and seasoned with vanilla, and some- 
 times with cinnamon and cloves : this paste forms the long- 
 known chocolate. 
 
 When prepared, it is also used in three different ways. 
 First, The chocolate is made up into sweet cakes and bon- 
 bons, and is eaten in the solid state as a nutritious article of 
 diet, containing in a small compass much strength-sustaining 
 capability. Second, The chocolate or cocoa is scraped into 
 powder, and mixed with boiling water or boiling milk, when 
 it makes a beverage, somewhat thick, but agreeable to the 
 palate, refreshing to the spirits, and highly nutritious. 
 Third, The nibs are boiled in water, with which they form 
 a dark-brown decoction, which, like coffee, is poured off the 
 insoluble part of the bean. "With sugar and milk this forms 
 an agreeable drink, better adapted for persons of weak 
 digestion than the consumption of the entire bean. Another 
 variety of the cocoa beverages, and which may be called 
 cocoa-tea, is prepared by boiling the husks of the bean in 
 water, with which they form a brown decoction. This husk 
 is usually ground up with the ordinary cocoas, but it is always 
 separated in the manufacture of the purer chocolates. 
 Hence in the chocolate manufactories it accumulates in large
 
 MODES OF PREPARING COCOA. 185 
 
 quantities, which are imported into this country from Trieste 
 and other Italian ports, under the name of "miserable.'' 
 Here the husk is partly ground up in the inferior cocoas, and 
 is partly despatched to Ireland, where it is said to yield a 
 wholesome and agreeable beverage to the poorer classes. 
 
 Besides the exhilarating and sustaining properties which 
 it possesses in common with tea and coffee, cocoa, in its more 
 common forms, is eminently nutritious. Its active or useful 
 ingredients are the following : 
 
 First, The volatile oil, to which its aroma is due, and 
 which is produced during the roasting. The proportion of 
 this oil which is contained in the roasted bean has not yet 
 been determined, but it is no doubt very small. Its action on 
 the system is probably similar to that of the odoriferous oils 
 produced by the same process in tea and coffee. 
 
 Second^ A peculiar principle, resembling the theine of 
 tea and coffee, though not identical with it. Like theine, it 
 is a white crystalline substance, which has a slightly bitter 
 taste, and contains a large per-centage of nitrogen. It is 
 called by chemists tlieobrominc, from the generic name of 
 the cocoa tree ; and its composition, compared with that of 
 theine, is as follows : 
 
 Theine. Theobromlno. 
 
 Carbon, 49.30 46.43 
 
 Hydrogen, .... 5.03 4.20 
 
 Nitrogen, 28.83 35.85 
 
 Oxygon, 16.29 13.53 
 
 100 100 
 
 It is richer in nitrogen, therefore, even than theine ; and 
 as nearly all vegetable principles, rich in nitrogen, of which 
 the influence upon the system has been examined, are found 
 to be very active, the same is inferred in regard to theobro- 
 mine. And further, its analogy in chemical properties to 
 theine leads to the belief that it exercises a similar exhilarat' 
 ing and soothing, hunger-stilling and waste-retarding effect
 
 186 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 with the latter substance. The benefits experienced from the 
 use of cocoa are due, in part at least, therefore, to the theo- 
 bromine it contains. The proportion of this substance in 
 the cocoa-bean is small, but it has not yet, I believe, been 
 rigorously determined. It exists, also, in sensible quantity 
 in the husk of the bean. The decoction obtained by boiling 
 the husk in water, will not, therefore, be wholly devoid of 
 useful ingredients, or of good effect. 
 
 Third, The predominating ingredient in cocoa, and tho 
 one by which it is most remarkably distinguished from tea 
 and coffee, however, is the large proportion of fatty matter 
 known as cocoa-butter which it contains. This amounts to 
 upwards of one-half the weight of the shelled or husked 
 bean. Consumed in either of its more usual forms, there- 
 fore, cocoa is a very rich article of food, and for this reason 
 it not unfrequently disagrees with delicate stomachs. It is 
 in some measure to lessen the sense of this richness, that 
 sugar, starch, and fragrant seasonings are so generally 
 ground up with the roasted bean in the manufacture of co- 
 coa and chocolate. 
 
 Fourth, It contains also a large proportion both of 
 starch and gluten, substances which, as we have elsewhere 
 seen, form the staple constituents of all our more valuable 
 varieties of vegetable food. The average composition of the 
 entire bean, when deprived of its husk, is nearly as fol 
 lows : 
 
 Water, 5 
 
 Starch, gum, &a, . . . . . . ,23 
 
 Gluten, &c., ........ 17 
 
 Oil (cocoa-butter), with a little theobromino, ... 56 
 
 100 
 
 This composition reminds us of the richest and mooC nu- 
 tritive forms of vegetable food ; and especially of the <>iiy 
 seeds and nuts with which cattle are fed and fattened. Uf
 
 THE FATTY MATTER IN COCOA. 187 
 
 all the varieties of human food, however, it has the closest 
 resemblance to milk. Thus, dried milk (milk evaporated to 
 dryness), and the dry cocoa-bean, consist respectively of 
 
 Milk. Cocoa-bean. 
 Casein or gluten, . "... 85 18 
 
 Fat, 24 65 
 
 Sugar or starch, &c., ... 87 28 
 
 Ash, or minoral matter, ... 4 4 
 
 100 100 
 
 It is rich, therefore, in all the important nutritious prin- 
 ciples which are found to co-exist in our most valued forms 
 of ordinary food. It differs from milk chiefly by the greater 
 proportion of fat which it contains, and hence it cannot be 
 used so largely without admixture as the more familiar milk. 
 When mixed with water, however, as it is usually drank, 
 it is more properly compared with milk than with infusions 
 of little direct nutritive value, like those of tea and coffee. 
 And, on the other hand, it has the great advantage over 
 milk, over beef-tea and other similar beverages, that it con- 
 tains the substance theobromine, and the volatile empyreu- 
 matic oil. Thus it unites in itself the exhilarating proper- 
 ties of tea with the strengthening and ordinary body-sup- 
 porting qualities of milk. The cocoa, as shown in the above 
 table, is richer in fat, the milk in casein. Hence probably 
 has arisen the practice of making milk-cocoa, in which the con- 
 stituents of the one ingredient dovetail into and assuage the 
 influence of those of the other. The large proportion of oil it 
 contains justifies also, as fitting it better for most stomachs, 
 the practice of mixing or grinding up the cocoa with sugar, 
 flour, or starch, in the preparation of cocoa-paste or choco- 
 late. Both practices are indeed skilful chemical adjust- 
 ments, made without chemical knowledge, as the results of 
 long and wide experience. And, lastly, the general compo- 
 sition of the beans shows that, in chocolate cakes and com-
 
 '188 THE BEVERAGES \VE INFUSE. 
 
 fits, when faithfully prepared, there should reside, as expe 
 rience has also shown to be the case, much nutritive virtue, 
 and the means, both of supporting the bodily strength, and 
 of sustaining the nervous energy reduced into comparatively 
 small compass. 
 
 2. BRAZILIAN COCOA, or Gruarana. In Brazil the seeds 
 of the Paullinia sorbilis are collected, prepared, and used 
 in the .same way as those of the Theobroma cacao. They 
 are usually described by travellers as a variety of coffee 
 but the seeds, like the cocoa-bean, are pounded and made 
 into cakes, which are known as Gruarana bread. When 
 used, these cakes are mixed with water, as we do with the 
 cakes of cocoa or chocolate, and the mixture is sweetened 
 and drank. To what extent this article is prepared and 
 consumed in Brazil, I have not been able to ascertain. It 
 is a fact of great interest in regard to this substance, and 
 one which shows it to have a true place among the beverages 
 of which we are now treating, that like tea and coffee it has 
 been found to contain theine, and is, therefore, capable of 
 exeBcising upon the system an influence similar to that 
 which is experienced by those who use these two favourite 
 beverages. 
 
 3. OTHER COCOAS. The substances, as yet known, which 
 can be employed in the place of, or as substitutes for, Mexi- 
 can cocoa, are comparatively few in number. To fit them 
 for this purpose, they must contain an odoriferous principle 
 of some degree of fragrance, abundance of fat, and a con- 
 siderable amount of ordinary nutriment. Oily seeds and 
 nuts are almost the only vegetable productions from which 
 beverages resembling cocoa have anywhere been manufac- 
 tured. Among these the earth-nut (Arachis hyjjogcea), a 
 kind of oily underground pea, is roasted in South Carolina, 
 and then prepared and used in the same way as chocolate. 
 In Spain, the root of the Cyperus esculentus, or earth-
 
 BRAZILIAN COCOA, OR GUARA]NA. 
 
 chestnut, is Toasted and used as a substitute for both coffee 
 and chocolate, but especially for the latter, which is much 
 consumed in Spain. These are all the professed substitutes 
 for the cocoa-bean with which I am acquainted. Neither 
 of the two last-mentioned, however, contains a bitter prin- 
 ciple rich in nitrogen, of the nature of the theobromine of 
 the true cocoa, or of the theine contained in guarana. They 
 can never, therefore, be employed effectively to replace the 
 Mexican cocoa. 
 
 As adulterating materials, the substances chiefly em- 
 ployed by fraudulent manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate, 
 are the husks of the bean, starch, sugar, fat, ground roots, 
 and red ochre. 
 
 Before I leave this subject, it may interest the reader if 
 I briefly sum up what appears to be the actual state of our 
 knowledge regarding the chemistry and physiology of the 
 beverages we infuse. 
 
 First, As to the chemistry of the various leaves and 
 seeds we have mentioned, it appears that, when roasted and 
 ready for use, they all contain, 
 
 a. A volatile, odoriferous, aromatic oil, which does not 
 exist in the fresh leaf or seed, but is produced or developed 
 during the roasting. In tea this oil is most abundant, in 
 coffee probably next, and in cocoa least in quantity. In the 
 teas (Chinese and Paraguay), and in roasted coffee, the 
 quantity and activity of this oil appear to diminish by keep- 
 ing. In raw coffee, on the other hand, the power of develop- 
 ing this oil by roasting is greater the longer the bean is kept 
 or allowed to ripen. 
 
 b. A peculiar, bitter, crystallisable principle, containing 
 much nitrogen, and exerting a specific action on the system. 
 In the teas, in coffee, and in guarana, this principle is theine, 
 which contains 29 per cent, of nitrogen ; in cocoa it is theo- 
 bromine, which contains 36 per cent, of nitrogen. Weight
 
 190 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 for weight, the average qualities of <tea contain about twice 
 as much theine as the average qualities of coflFec, but in both 
 it varies between 1 and 5 per cent, as extremes. In cocoa 
 the proportion of theobromine has not been determined. In 
 well-roasted coffee, and in chicory, another bitter principle, 
 which is soluble, uncrystallisable, and free from nitrogen, is 
 produced during the roasting. The quantity and properties 
 of this substance have not been determined. 
 
 c. A variety of tannin or tannic acid, which gives their 
 astringency to the infusions prepared from all these sub- 
 stances. Of this ingredient the teas contain most, coffee 
 next, and cocoa the least. The tannin of Chinese tea gives 
 a black, that of mate anjl of coffee a green, with solutions 
 containing iron. 
 
 d. A nutritious substance resembling the gluten of wheat 
 or the fibrin of beef. In the tea-leaf this ingredient is most 
 abundant, in cocoa next, while coffee contains the least. It 
 dissolves but sparingly in water, and is therefore generally 
 lost to the consumer when only the infusion is drank. The 
 full benefit of this ingredient is obtained only when the tea- 
 leaves are eaten, when the coffee grounds are taken along 
 with the infusion, or when the whole material is made into a 
 beverage, as in the usual modes of preparing cocoa and cho- 
 colate. 
 
 e. A quantity of fat, which in cocoa forms more than half 
 the whole weight of the bean, in coffee one-eighth, and in tea 
 only 3 or 4 per cent. The presence of so large a proportion 
 of fat gives a peculiar character to cocoa, rendering it most 
 nutritious, especially when made with milk, to those whose 
 stomachs will bear it, but making it less suitable at the same 
 time to persons of weak digestive powers. 
 
 Of the infusions themselves which are yielded by the dif- 
 ferent varieties of tea, mate and coffee, it is to be observed 
 that they vary in strength with the sample employed. Of
 
 THEIR ACTION ON THE SYSTEM. 191 
 
 some Has and coffees, boiling water will extract and dissolve 
 as much as one-third of the whole substance ; of others, not 
 more than one-sixth. The proportions of the several ingre- 
 dients above-mentioned which the infusions we prepare are 
 likely to contain, must therefore be very variable and 
 uncertain. 
 
 Second, As to the physiology of these beverages, or their 
 action on the system, it appears 
 
 a. Generally, that they all exert a remarkable influence 
 on the activity of the brain exalting, so to speak, the ner- 
 vous life ; and yet they do so in a way different from opium 
 or ardent spirits, since they act as antidotes to the narcotic 
 influence of the one, and relieve the intoxication produced by 
 the other. 
 
 b. They all soothe the vascular or corporeal system, allay 
 hunger, retard the change of matter, and diminish the 
 amount of bodily waste in a given time ; and if this waste 
 must, in the healthy body, be constantly restored in the form 
 of ordinary food, this diminution of the waste is equivalent 
 to a lessening of the amount of food which is necessary to 
 sustain the body hence their value to the poor. They are 
 indirectly nutritious. 
 
 c. Specially, they dimmish the quantity of carbonic acid 
 given off from the lungs in a given time (PROUT) and that 
 also of urea, phosphoric acid, and common salt in the urine. 
 (JULIUS LEHMANN.) These are the chemical forms in which 
 the lessening of the change of matter manifests itself. In the 
 case of coffee it has been ascertained by experiment, that 
 this lessening of the waste is due more to the empyreumatic 
 oil than to the caffeine. The same is probably true also of 
 tea. 
 
 d. The increased action of the heart, the trembling, the 
 headache, and the peculiar intoxication and delirium which
 
 192 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 extreme indulgence in coffee sometimes produces, are mostly 
 caused by the caffeine. On the other hand, the increased 
 action of the kidneys, of the bowels, and of the perspiring 
 vessels, and generally the increased activity of the whole 
 system, are ascribed to the action of the oil. That Chinese 
 tea has an astringent or costive effect upon the bowels, may 
 arise either from the empyreumatic oil of tea not acting in 
 the same way as that of coffee, or from the larger proportion 
 of the astringent taunic acid which tea contains being able to 
 counteract the effect of the oil. That there is a specific dif- 
 ference in the action of the empyreumatic oils of tea and 
 mate, compared with that of coffee, is further probable 
 from the remarkably intoxicating effect which both the Chinese 
 and the Paraguay leaves possess when newly gathered and 
 roasted for use. 
 
 Of course the general effect of these beverages upon the 
 system is the combined result of the simultaneous action of 
 all their constituent ingredients. But possessing the two 
 characteristic influences of retarding the change of matter, 
 and of increasing at the same time the activity of the ner- 
 vous life, they cannot, according to our present knowledge, 
 bo replaced by the strongest soups or flesh teas, or by any 
 other infusions or decoctions which merely supply the ordi- 
 nary kinds of nourishment in more or less diluted and digest- 
 ible forms. 
 
 In some countries it is the custom to heighten the natu- 
 ral flavour of roasted coffee by the addition of spices. Thus 
 M. de Saulcy, in his recent tour round the Dead Sea, found 
 the Bedouins in the country of ancient Moab drinking coffee, 
 of which he says that it was " an absolute decoction of 
 cloves." * On the Continent, and in North and South 
 
 * Journey round the Dead Sea, vol. I p. 818,
 
 EXTENT OF THEIR CULTIVATION. 193 
 
 America, /nmlla is said to be employed largely for flavour- 
 ing coffee as well as chocolate. To the other more natural 
 influences of coffee these spices add a stimulating effect, 
 which appears to expend itself chiefly upon the animal pro- 
 pensities. 
 
 A perusal of the history of these beverages leaves lin- 
 gering in our minds some interesting general facts, which are 
 suggestive of many thoughts. 
 
 The first is, the vast extent to which the materials for 
 these beverages are cultivated and used, and the important 
 place they occupy among what may be called the artificial 
 necessities of life. Our data for forming correct calculations 
 as to the quantity of each beverage which is grown and 
 consumed are very defective, but we may guess them 
 at about 
 
 Chinese Tea, . . 2240 millions of pounds. 
 
 Mate, ... 20 
 
 Coffee, ... 600 
 
 Chicory, ... 80 
 
 Cocoa, ... 100 
 
 forming an aggregate of nearly 3000 millions of pounds of 
 the raw materials consumed annually in the preparation of 
 the beverages we infuse. 
 
 Nor is the number of people to whom these warm bev- 
 erages have become necessaries of life less surprising. 
 Thus 
 
 Is consumed in By about 
 
 Chinese tea, . \ ^^^SS^ISf } 5 f ' 
 
 Mate or Paraguay tea, Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, &c. 10 
 
 Coffee-tea, Sumatra, &c. 2 
 
 ( Arabia, Ceylon, Jamaica, Ger- ) lm 
 Coffco-bean. -j manyi France ; I? 
 
 Chicory, ^Germany, Belgium, France, Eng-j ^ ^ 
 
 9 
 
 | 8P ZWica? ly ' FranCe ' ***** t 5
 
 1 94 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 So that upon these four plants about three-fifths of the -whole 
 human race are dependent for one of their most useful and 
 most harmless forms of indulgence. 
 
 A second point which strikes us in the history of these 
 beverages at least of the teas and coffees is, that they 
 have come more and more into use in Europe and America, 
 as th intellectual activity -which distinguishes the leading 
 nations of modern times has developed itself. The kind of 
 ordinary food upon which the consumers of these beverages 
 usually live no doubt modifies the influence they exercise 
 upon the system. It is even probable that the nature of 
 this food is one of the causes which determine the preference 
 given to tea or to coffee by the different European nations. 
 And, reasoning from this probability, we might say that there 
 is too much of mere vulgar nutrition in cocoa to allow it to 
 influence the nervous or intellectual life to an equal degree 
 with tea and coffee ; and in this we might find a reason for 
 the less prominent intellectual position which has been occu- 
 pied by Spain and Italy, since cocoa has become an article 
 of such universal consumption amongst them. 
 
 A third striking fact is, that the poorest and humblest 
 among us, who has his own little earnings to spend, devotes 
 a small part of it to the purchase of tea or coffee. He can 
 barely buy bread and milk, or potatoes and salt, yet the cup 
 of tea or coffee is preferred to the extra potato or the some- 
 what larger loaf. And if thereby his stomach is less filled, 
 his hunger is equally stayed, and his comfort, both bodily 
 and mental, wonderfully increased. He will probably live 
 as long under the one regimen as the other ; and while he 
 does live, he will both be less miserable in mind, and will 
 show more blood and spirit in the face of difficulties, than if 
 he had denied himself his trifling indulgence. Besides the 
 mere brickwork and marble, so to speak, by which the hu- 
 man body is built up and sustained, there are rarer forms of
 
 THEIR CONSUMPTION BY THE POOR. 195 
 
 matter, as these chapters have shown, upon which the life 
 of the body and the comfort of animal existence most essen- 
 tially depend. This truth is not unworthy the consideration 
 of those to whom the arrangement of the dietaries of our 
 prisons, and other public institutions, has been intrusted. 
 So many ounces of gluten, and so many of starch and fat, 
 are assigned by these food-providers as an ample allowance 
 for everyday use.* From these dietaries, except for the 
 infirm and the invalid, tea and coffee are for the most part 
 excluded. And in this they follow the counsel of those who 
 have hitherto been regarded as chief authorities on the che- 
 mistry of nutrition. But it is worthy of trial whether the 
 lessening of the general bodily waste, which would follow 
 the consumption of a daily allowance of coffee, would not 
 cause a saving of gluten and starch equal to the cost of the 
 coffee ; and should this not prove the case, whether the in- 
 creased comfort and happiness of the inmates, and the greater 
 consequent facility of management, would not make up for 
 the difference, if any. The inquiry is an interesting one in 
 physiological economies, and it is not undeserving of the se- 
 rious attention of those benevolent minds which, in so many 
 parts of our Islands, have found in the prisons and houses 
 of correction their most favourite fields of exertion. 
 
 I might add, as a stimulus to such experiments, the evi- 
 dent craving for some such indulgence as a kind of natural 
 necessity, which is manifested in the almost universal prac- 
 tice among every people not absolutely savage, of preparing 
 and drinking beverages of this sort. If there be in the hu- 
 man constitution this innocent craving, it cannot be mis- 
 placed humanity to minister to it, even in the case of the 
 
 * See the Author's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, sixth 
 edition, p. 391
 
 196 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 depraved and convicted. Where reformation is aimed at, 
 tbe moral sense will be found most accessible where the 
 mind is maintained in most healthy activity, and where the 
 general comfort of the whole system is most effectually pro 
 moted.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 THE GRAPE AND CANE SUGARS. 
 
 Mineral sweets. Vegetable sweets. Number of these known to modern nations. 
 The grape sugars ; their sensible and chemical characters. Honey sugars. Tre- 
 bizond honey. Poisoning of Xenophon's soldiers. Fruit sugars. Starch or po- 
 tato sugar, manufacture of. Sugar from rags, from sawdust, and from Carrigeen, 
 Ceylon, and Iceland mosses. Tho cane sugars. Spread of the sugar cane from 
 Asia through Europe to America. Varieties of the sugar case. Nutritive quali- 
 ties of the raw cane juice. Extensive consumption of it. Composition of the 
 sugar cane. Manufacture of cane sugar. Difficulties in the manufacture. Great 
 loss of sugar in consequence. Improvements in the manufacture, and their effects 
 on West Indian prosperity. Total produce of cane sugar in the world. Consump- 
 tion of sugar in the United Kingdom. Sensible and chemical characters of cane 
 sugar. Beet or European sugar. Its importance on the continent of Europe. 
 Number and produce of the manufactories of France, Germany and Russia. 
 Composition of the sugar beet. Difficulties in extracting the sugar. Progress of 
 the manufacture. Its chemico-agricultural relations. Palm or date sugars. 
 Quantity produced yearly. Maple, or North American sugar. Quantity produced 
 in Canada, New England, and New York. Mode of extraction. Chemical changes 
 in the maple sap. Maize, or Mexican sugar ; manufacture of, in the United States, 
 and in France. Sorghum sugar, the cane of the north. Total quantity of sugar 
 extracted for use. Chemistry in its economical and social relations. 
 
 IN common life, the sweets we extract are a constant accom- 
 paniment of the beverages wo infuse. At least, as we use 
 them in Europe and America, sugar is a usual addition to 
 the infusions of tea, coffee, and cocoa. 
 
 Of substances which are sweet to the taste, the chemist 
 is familiar with many which have no relation to the wants
 
 198 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 or usages of common life. Sugar of lead is a well-known 
 poison, which derives its name from the sweetness of its taste. 
 Silver in certain of its compounds * is equally sweet. A 
 mineral earth called glucina (from yXv/crs, sweet), produces 
 many compounds which have a sugary taste when first put 
 into the mouth ; and numerous other instances might be 
 named. It is only those sweet substances, however, which 
 exist in or are extracted from plants, that are directly con- 
 nected with our modern comforts. These sweets not only 
 accompany, on our tables, the beverages we infuse, but are 
 the ingredients from which our brewers and distillers manu- 
 facture the liquors we ferment. They fall naturally to be 
 considered, therefore, in this place. 
 
 Of these vegetable sweets, modern nations use many va- 
 rieties. In such substances as luxuries of life, we are, in- 
 deed, far richer than any of the ancient nations. Thus, to 
 the honey, grape, manna, and fruit sugars, which were the 
 principal sweets of the ancient world, we now add the cane, 
 maple, beet, maize, and palm sugars. We manufacture sugar 
 also from potatoes and other substances rich in starch ; from 
 sea-weeds gathered by the shore ; even from sawdust when 
 an emergency arises ; and we extract it from the milk of 
 our domestic 'cattle. It has become to us, in consequence, 
 almost a necessary of life. We consume it in millions of 
 tons ; we employ thousands of ships in transporting it. Mil- 
 lions of men spend their lives in cultivating the plants from 
 which it is extracted, and the fiscal duties imposed upon it 
 add largely to the revenue of nearly every established gov- 
 ernment. It may be said, therefore, to exercise a more di- 
 rect and extended influence not only over the social comfort, 
 but over the social condition of mankind, than any other pro- 
 duction of the vegetable kingdom, with the exception, per- 
 haps, of cotton alone. 
 
 One called the hyposulphite of silver, for example, is very sweet
 
 THE GRAPE SUGAR. 199 
 
 The numerous varieties of useful sugars with which we 
 aio acquainted, may be arranged under four main kinds or 
 heads. These are the grape sugars, the cane sugars, the 
 manna sugars, and milk or animal sugar. I shall treat of 
 each in its order. 
 
 I. The GRAPE SUGARS include, as varieties, the sugar of 
 the grape, the sugars of honey, the sugar of fruits, and potato 
 or starch sugar. 
 
 1. Grape sugar. When the ripe grape is dried in the 
 air, it forms the well-known raisin of commerce. When this 
 raisin is opened, numerous whitish crystalline brittle granules 
 are seen within it, which are sweet to the taste. These consist 
 of what is called grape sugar, and they are the source of the 
 sweetness both of the grape and the raisin. It dissolves 
 readily in water, and if yeast be added to the solution, soon 
 enters into fermentation. 
 
 The results of this fermentation are, first, a spirituous 
 liquor resembling weak wine, and afterwards, as the fermen- 
 ^.tation proceeds, an acid liquor, like sour wine or vinegar. 
 
 In Syria, a sweet preparation is made from the juice of 
 the grape. It consists chiefly of grape sugar, and is exported 
 to Egypt under the name of dips or dibs* 
 
 2. Honey sugars. The bee has been long known and 
 admired for its industry, and the honey it collects indulged 
 in as a luxury. This honey is formed, or naturally de- 
 posited, in the nectaries of flowers, and is extracted from 
 them by the working bees. They deposit it in their crop or 
 honey-bag, which is an expansion of the gullet (oesophagus), 
 and from this receptacle they disgorge it again when they 
 return to the hive. In the interval, it is probably somewhat 
 
 * In Genesis, xliii. 11, this word is translated honey, though the sweet of the 
 grape is probably meant Dibs is also the word used for Samson's honey (Judges, 
 xiv. 8), though Assal is also the word now employed in Syria and Egypt to denote the 
 honey of the bee.
 
 200 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 altered by admixture with the liquids which are secreted in 
 the mouth and crop of the insect so that the honey we ex- 
 tract from the hive may not be exactly in the same chemical 
 condition as when it was sucked up from the flowers by the 
 laborious bee. 
 
 "When liquid honey is allowed to stand for a length of 
 time, it gradually thickens and consolidates. By pressure in 
 a linen bag, it may then be separated into a white solid 
 sugar, consisting of minute crystals, which remain in the 
 bag, and a thick semi-fluid syrup which flows through it. In 
 old honey the proportion of syrup is often small, the sugar 
 of the syrup gradually crystallising in greater quantity. 
 Both the solid and liquid sugars have the same general pro- 
 perties. They are both equally sweet ; both have the same 
 chemical composition, and both begin to ferment when water 
 and a little yeast are added to them. The solid sugar of 
 honey is identical with the sugar of the grape. The liquid 
 sugar differs from the solid chiefly in refusing to crystallise, 
 and in containing an admixture of colouring and odoriferous 
 substances produced by the flowers from which the bee has 
 extracted it. 
 
 To these foreign substances honey owes the varied 
 colours, flavours, and fragrances, which in different countries 
 and districts it is known to possess, and for which it is often 
 highly prized. Hence the estimation in which the honey of 
 Mount Ida, in Crete, has been always held. Hence also the 
 perfume of the Narbonne honey, of the honey of Chamouni, 
 and of our own high moorland honey when the heather is in 
 bloom. Sometimes these foreign substances possess narcotic 
 or other dangerous qualities, as is the case with the Trebi- 
 zond honey, which causes headache, vomiting, and even a 
 kind of intoxication in those who eat it. This quality it de- 
 rives from the flowers of a species of rhododendron (Azalea 
 pontica), from which the honey is partly extracted. It was
 
 FRUIT SUGARS. 201 
 
 probably this kind of honey which poisoned the soldiers of 
 Xenophon, as described by him in the retreat of the Ten 
 Thousand.* 
 
 3. Fruit sugars. Many of our fruits pass, in the 
 Course of ripening, from a sour to a sweet state. The apple, 
 the pear, the plum, the peach, the gooseberry, the currant, the 
 cherry, &c., are of this kind. Most of them, even when fully 
 ripe, are still a little acid ; the mixture of sweet and sour in 
 their juices, adding to their agreeable and refreshing qualities. 
 All such fruits, as a general rule, contain, and owe their 
 sweetness to, grape sugar. From many of them this sugar 
 can be readily extracted for- use ; but, in general, it is more 
 economical and agreeable to employ it in the form of dried 
 and preserved fruits, or to make wine of it, as we do of that 
 which exists in the grape, the gooseberry, the apple, and the 
 pear. 
 
 4. Potato or starch sugar. It is a property of starch 
 of all kinds to be insoluble in cold water, but to dissolve 
 readily in boiling water, and to thicken into a jelly or paste 
 as it cools. Even a lengthened boiling in water, however, 
 produces little further change upon it. But if a small quan- 
 tity of sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) be added to the water 
 in which it is boiled, the solution gradually acquires a sweet 
 
 * The effects of this honey upon his soldiers are thus described by Xenophon 
 " And there was there (in a village near Trebizond) a number of bee-hives ; and as 
 many of the soldiers as ate of the honey-combs became senseless, and were seized 
 with vomiting and diarrhoea; and cot one of them could stand erect Those who 
 had swallowed but little, looked very like drunk men ; those who ate much were 
 like madmen ; and some lay as if they were dying. And thus they lay in such num- 
 bers, as on a field of battle after a defeat. And the consternation was great. Yet no 
 one was found to have died; all recovered their senses about the same hour on the 
 following day. And on the third or fourth day thereafter, they rose up as if they had 
 suffered from the drinking of poison." XENOPUON, Anabasis, book iv. chap. 8. 
 Ta Se afjLt]vr), <fec. 
 
 Auguste St Hilare, While travelling in the Brazils, experienced symptoms of poi- 
 soning after having eaten of honey extracted by a native bee from a plant belonging, 
 to the poisonous family of Apocynacece, or dogbanes.
 
 202 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 taste, and ultimately the whole of the starch is converted 
 into grape or honey sugar. A pound of acid diluted with 
 a hundred pounds of water, and employed in this way, 
 will convert into sugar a great many pounds of potato, 
 wheaten, or sago starch. If the acid be then separated by- 
 lime, and the liquor boiled down, either a rich syrup or a 
 solid sugar may be obtained. Or, instead of sulphuric acid, 
 we may mix with the water, 12 or 15 Ibs. of malt for every 
 100 Ibs. of starch; heat for three hours to 160 or 170 
 Fahr., and then filter and evaporate the syrup. Sugar thus 
 prepared from starch has the same sweetness, chemical com- 
 position, and general properties as that of the grape. It 
 does not always crystallise readily, however, and in this re- 
 spect has more resemblance to the liquid sugar of honey 
 than to the solid sugar of the dried grape. It is used for 
 ordinary sweetening purposes, for adulterating cane sugar, 
 and for the manufacture of spirituous liquors. On the con- 
 tinent of Europe it is largely prepared for all these uses. 
 The syrup is extensively employed by the French confec- 
 tioners, and brandy distilled from it is very generally drunk 
 in northern Europe. The manufacture of starch sugar is 
 illegal in this country. 
 
 Instead of starch, woody fibre may be employed for the 
 manufacture of this kind of sugar. Paper, raw cotton and 
 flax, cotton and linen rags, and even saw-dust, may be trans- 
 formed into sugar by digestion in diluted sulphuric acid. 
 The operation is only a little slower, and therefore requires 
 more time. This is partly explained by the fact that the 
 acid first changes the fibre into starch, and then the starch 
 further into sugar. 
 
 It is known that many sea-weeds, when boiled in water, 
 yield a jelly which is wholesome, nutritious, and more or 
 less agreeable to the palate. Among these are the well- 
 known Carrigeen moss ( Ckondrus crispus and mamillosus],
 
 THE CANE SUGARS. 203 
 
 which is collected in large quantities on the west coast of 
 Ireland, and the Ceylon moss (Plocaria Candida), which 
 is exported from the islands of the Indian Archipelago to 
 the markets of China. The jelly yielded by these sea- 
 weeds, as well as by the Iceland and other land mosses, is 
 in like manner converted into grape-sugar, when digested 
 with diluted sulphuric acid. 
 
 The number of vegetable substances, therefore, which by 
 means of this acid can be transformed into the sugar of 
 honey and fruits, is very great. Starch, however, is the 
 only one to which the process has hitherto been applied 
 with a profit. The way in which these singular transforma- 
 tions of matter are brought about, will be illustrated at the 
 close of the succeeding chapter. 
 
 5. Elderberry sugar. In the berries of the elder tree 
 (Sorbus aucuparia), a peculiar species of sugar has recently 
 been discovered, to which M. Pelouze has given the name 
 of sordine. In the degree of sweetness it possesses, and in 
 chemical composition, it agrees with grape sugar; but it 
 differs from it in its other properties, and in its crystalline 
 form. As yet, however, this variety of sugar is of no eco- 
 nomical value. 
 
 II. THE C*XE SUGARS. The plants or fruits which 
 possess distinctly acids or sour juices, yield grape sugar. 
 Those which have little acid in their saps, contain for the 
 most part cane sugar. The chemical reason for this is, that, 
 by the action of acid substances, cane sugar is gradually 
 transformed into grape sugar, even in the interior of the 
 growing plant. The principal varieties of cane sugar known 
 in commerce, are the cane sugar properly so called, beet 
 sugar, palm or date sugar, maple sugar, and maize sugar. 
 
 1. Sugar cane or Chinese Sugar. The sugar cane (fig. 
 36) is the chief source of the sugar of commerce. About
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTEACT. 
 
 Fig. 36. 
 
 eleven-twelfths of all the sugar extracted for use is obtained 
 from this plant. Though almost unknown to the Greeks 
 and Romans, and now cultivated 
 most extensively in America, it is a 
 native of the Old World. It was 
 familiar in the East in most remote 
 times, and appears to have been 
 cultivated in China and the South 
 Sea Islands long before the period 
 of authentic history. Through Si- 
 cily and Spain it reached the Cana- 
 ry Islands, thence was transplanted 
 to St. Domingo by the Spaniards 
 in 1520, and from this island 
 it has gradually spread over the 
 West Indies and the tropical re- 
 gions of the American continent. It 
 flourishes best where the mean 
 temperature .is from 75 to 77 
 Fahr.; but it thrives, and can be 
 economically cultivated where the 
 mean temperature does not exceed 
 66 to 68 Fahr. Hence it is 
 grown far beyond the tropics. And 
 although the countries most pro- 
 ductive in sugar, and which yield it at the least cost, lie for 
 the most part within the torrid zone and at low elevations, 
 yet the sugar can.e is profitably grown in some parts of the 
 south of Europe ; on the table-land of Nepaul, in India, at 
 a height of 4500 feet, and on the plains of Mexico, as high as 
 4000 to 6000 feet above the level of the sea. It rarely 
 ripens its seed, however, even in the most propitious locali- 
 ties. Young plants are raised, therefore, from portions of 
 the stem planted for the purpose ; and when cultivated for 
 
 Bcicchnrum officinarum 
 
 The Sugar Cane. 
 Scale. 1 inch to 4 feet.
 
 THE STRIPED CANE OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 205 
 
 Fig. ST. 
 
 sugar, they are rarely allowed to come to flower as is repre- 
 sented in fig. 36. 
 
 There are many varieties of the sugar cane, as there are 
 of nearly all long-cultivated plants. In general, the varieties 
 most common in each country and district are best adapted 
 to the local climate and to the soils in which they grow. 
 Those which yield the sweetest juice, and in the greatest 
 abundance, if otherwise suited to the climate, are the most 
 esteemed. In Louisiana, five different varieties are culti- 
 vated, one of the most elegant of which is represented in the 
 annexed drawing, 
 (fig. 37.) In each 
 locality that variety 
 is selected by the 
 planter -which he 
 finds to give, on the 
 whole, the most sure 
 and profitable crop.* 
 And so in our West 
 India colonies the 
 Tahati cane was in- 
 troduced as a new 
 variety, because in 
 the same time, and 
 from the same extent 
 of land, it yielded 
 one fourth more 
 juice than the com- 
 mon varieties, while 
 it produced also a 
 larger and more so. 
 lid growth of wood 
 to be used as fuel.f 
 
 In Europe and Striped Cane of Louisiana. 
 
 American Patent Office Report, 1843. P. 231. 
 t MEYEN, Geoff, of Plants, p. 382.
 
 206 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 most northern countries, cane sugar is only an article of 
 luxury, though one with which many would now find it diffi- 
 cult to dispense. In many tropical regions, however, the 
 sugar cane forms a staple part of the ordinary food. The 
 ripe stalk of the plant is chewed and sucked after being made 
 soft by boring it, and almost incredible quantities are con- 
 sumed in this way. Large ship-loads of raw sugar cane are 
 daily brought to the markets of Manilla and Rio Janeiro ; 
 and it is plentiful in the market of New Orleans. In the 
 Sandwich and many other islands of the Pacific, every child 
 has a piece of sugar cane in its hand ; while in our own sugar 
 colonies the negroes become fat in crop time on the abun- 
 dant juice of the ripening cane. This mode of using the cane 
 is, no doubt, the most ancient of all, and was well known to 
 the Roman writers. Lucan (book iii. 237) speaks of the 
 eaters of the cane as 
 
 "Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine SUCCOR." 
 
 " And those who drink sweet juices from the tender 
 reed." 
 
 This nutritive property of the raw juice of the sugar 
 cane arises from the circumstance that it contains, besides 
 the sugar to which its sweetness is owing, a considerable pro- 
 portion of gluten, as well as of those necessary mineral sub 
 stances which are present in all our staple forms of vegetable 
 food. It is thus itself a true food,* capable of sustaining 
 animal life and strength without the addition of other forms 
 of nourishment. This is not the case with the sugar of com- 
 merce, which, though it in a certain sense helps to nourish 
 us, is unable of itself to sustain animal life. 
 
 The juice of the sugar cane varies in composition and 
 richness with the variety of cane, the nature of the soil, the 
 mode of cultivation, and the dryness of the season. Its 
 
 * See THE BEEAD WE EAT.
 
 COMPOSITION OF THE SUGAR CANE. 
 
 average composition in sugar plantations, when the canes are 
 fully ripe, is about 
 
 Sugar, . . 18 to 22 
 
 "Water and gluten . 71 
 
 Woody fibre, . 10 
 
 Saline matter . 1 
 
 100 
 
 The richness in sugar varies with many circumstances, 
 and especially with what is called the ripeness of the cane. 
 For it is a curious circumstance in the chemical history of 
 this plant that the sap sweetens only to a certain distance up 
 the stem ; the upper somewhat green part, which is still 
 growing, yielding abundance of sap, but comparatively little 
 sugar. One reason of this probably is, that as fast as the 
 sugar ascends with the sap, it is converted into woody mat- 
 ter, which is built in to the substance of the growing stem 
 and leaves. In consequence of this want of sweetness, the 
 upper part of the cane is cut off, and only the under ripe 
 part employed in the manufacture of sugar. In Louisiana, 
 where the canes rarely ripen so completely as in the West 
 Indies, the proportion of sugar contained in the juice is set 
 down as low as 12 to 14 per cent.* 
 
 For the extraction of the sugar, the canes are cut with 
 a large knife, the labourer proceeding between the rows (fig. 
 38). The leaves and tops are then chopped off and left in 
 field, while the under ripe part is carried to the mill. These 
 ripe canes are passed between heavy iron crushing-rollers, 
 which squeeze out the juice. This juice is run into large 
 vessels, where it is clarified by the addition of lime and other 
 applications. The action of this lime is twofold. It re- 
 moves or neutralises the acid which rapidly forms in the 
 fresh juice, and at the same time combines with the gluten 
 
 * Patent Office Keport, 1844.
 
 208 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 Fig. 38. 
 
 of the juice, and carries it to the bottom. This gluten acts 
 as a natural ferment, causing the sugar to run to acid. Its 
 
 speedy removal, there- 
 fore, is essential to 
 the extraction of the 
 sugar. After being 
 clarified in this way, 
 and sometimes filter- 
 ed, the juice is boiled 
 rapidly down, is then 
 run into wooden ves- 
 sels to cool and crys- 
 tallise, and, finally, 
 when crystallised, is 
 put into perforated 
 casks to drain. What 
 remains in these casks 
 is Muscovado or raw 
 sugar ; the drainings 
 are well known by the 
 name of molasses. 
 
 Simple as this pro- 
 cess is in description, 
 it is attended with 
 many difficulties in 
 practice. It is diffi- 
 cult to sqeeze the whole of the juice out of the cane it is dif- 
 ficult to clarify the juice with sufficient rapidity to prevent it 
 from fermenting, and so completely as to render skimming un- 
 necessary during the boiling it is difficult to boil it down 
 rapidly without burning or blackening, and thus producing 
 much uncrystallisable molasses and it is difficult afterwards 
 to collect and profitably employ the whole of the molasses thus 
 produced. The difficulties, though none of them insur- 
 mountable, have hitherto proved so formidable in practice, 
 
 Cane plantation in Louisiana.
 
 DIFFICULTIES IN THE MANUFACTURE. 209 
 
 that, of the 18 per cent, of sugar contained in the average 
 cane-juice of our West India Islands, not more than 6 per 
 cent., or one-third of the whole, is usually sent to market in 
 the state of crystallised sugar ! The great loss which thus 
 appears to take place is thus accounted for 
 
 First, Of the 90 per cent, of sweet juice which the cane 
 contains, only 50 to 60 per cent, are usually expressed. 
 Thus one-third of the sugar is left in the megass, or squeezed 
 cane, which is used for fuel (KERR.) 
 
 Second, Of the sugar in the juice, one-fifth or more is 
 lost by imperfect clarifying, and in the skimmings removed 
 during the boiling (SHEIR.) 
 
 Third, Then of the juice when boiled down to the 
 crystallising point and set to cool, only from one-half to Jwo- 
 thirds crystallises : the rest drains off as molasses. Thus 
 of the whole sugar of the ripe cane 
 
 One-tliird is left in tho megass, . 6 per cent 
 
 One-third of the remainder in the skimmings, 2J " 
 One-third to one-half of the second remainder 
 
 in the molasses, .... 8 " 
 
 In tho Muscovado sent to market there are 6J " 
 
 18 
 
 The molasses and skimmings are fermented and distilled 
 for rum. But even of the molasses much is lost, the drain- 
 age from the raw sugar of the West Indies, while at sea, 
 is stated at 15 per cent., and afterwards, in the docks, at 2 
 per cent. And further, the leakage of the molasses itself, 
 which is shipped as such, is 20 per cent. ; so that of the un- 
 uncystallisable part of the sugar, also, there is a large waste. 
 In the interior of Java, where fuel is scarce, the molasses is 
 worthless, and is sent down the rivers in large quantities ; 
 but in the West Indies it has everywhere a market value, 
 and may be distilled with a profit. 
 
 The sugar manufacture, therefore, of our West India
 
 210 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 colonies, appears as a whole to be in a most unsatisfactory 
 condition. Neither mechanical nor chemical means have 
 been applied to it as they have been to the sugar manufac- 
 ture of Europe ; and it is not at all surprising that pecuniary 
 difficulties should of late years have gathered round the un- 
 improving planters. The same skill which now extracts 7 
 per cent, of refined sugar from the more difficult beet, might 
 easily extract 10 or 12 from the sugar cane. "Were this 
 result generally attained, the same weight of canes which is 
 now grown in the West Indies, and which yields less than 
 half the quantity of crystallised sugar actually consumed in 
 the United Kingdom, would alone produce enough to supply 
 the entire present home consumption. 
 
 The means by which this better result is to be attained 
 are, the use of improved crushing rollers, by which 70 and 
 even 75 per cent, of juice can be forced from the canes of 
 better modes of clarifying, which chemical research has re- 
 cently discovered of charcoal filters before boiling, which 
 render skimming unnecessary of steam and vacuum boilers, 
 by which burning is prevented, and rapid concentration ef- 
 fected of .centrifugal drainers to dry the sugar speedily and 
 save the molasses and of coal or wood as fuel where the 
 crushed cane is insufficient for the purpose. By the use of 
 such improvements, planters in Java, in Cuba, and, I be- 
 lieve, here and there in our own colonies, are now extracting 
 and sending to market 10 to 12 per cent, of raw sugar from 
 the 100 Ib. of canes ! Why should our own enterprising West 
 India proprietors spend their time in vain regrets and long- 
 ings for the past, instead of earnestly availing themselves of 
 those scientific means of bettering themselves which are wait- 
 ing to be employed, and which are ready to develop them- 
 selves to meet every new emergency ? It is not the readier 
 or cheaper supply of labour which gives the Dutch planter 
 of Java, or the Spanish planter of Cuba, 10 per cent, of
 
 HOW IT IS TO BE IMPROVED. 211 
 
 marketable sugar, but better machinery and more refined 
 chemical applications. And these are surely as much within 
 the reach of British subjects as of any other people on the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 The total quantity of sugar extracted from the sugar 
 cane over the whole globe, has been estimated by Stolle at 
 4527 millions of pounds. Of this the largest proportion is 
 yielded by the British East and West Indies. The consump- 
 tion in the United Kingdom amounts at present to about 
 two-elevenths of the enormous quantity above stated. In 
 1853 our home consumption amounted to 818 millions of 
 pounds of raw sugar. This is equal to 28 Ib. of sugar per 
 head of the population, and the quantity is rapidly increasing. 
 How wonderful a change in the tastes and habits of the people 
 does this imply since the year 1700, when the quantity con- 
 sumed in England was only 22 millions of pounds ! And the 
 consumption per head in Great Britain is considerably more 
 than the above 28 Ib., because the average consumption per 
 head in Ireland, of which no separate account has been kept 
 since 1826, is not more than one-third of the British con- 
 sumption. 
 
 An acre of land in the West Indies yields, according to 
 the present mode of extraction, from 1 to 3, or even 4 tons 
 of sugar, and for each ton of sugar about 70 gallons, or 
 1400 Ib. of marketable molasses. At an average of 3 tons 
 an acre of sugar and molasses, it requires upwards of 130 
 thousand acres of rich land to produce the sugar yearly con- 
 sumed in the British Islands ! 
 
 The cane sugars are popularly distinguished from the 
 grape sugars by greater sweetness or sweetening power. 
 This is said to be greater in the proportion of five to three.* 
 
 * The sense by which we appreciate the sweetness of bodies is liable to singular 
 modifications. Thus the leaves of the Gymnema sylvestrea. plant of Northern 
 India when it is chewed, takes away the power of tasting sugar for twenty-four 
 Uours, without otherwise injuring the general sense of taste.
 
 212 
 
 THE SWEETS \VE EXTRACT. 
 
 Fig. 39. 
 
 They also dissolve more readily in water. One pound of 
 cold water dissolves 3 Ib. of cane, but only 1 lb. of grape 
 sugar. The solution is also thicker and more syrupy, less 
 liable to change or run to acid, crystallises more readily, 
 and gives a harder candy. These superior economical pro- 
 perties sufficiently account for the preference so universally 
 given to this species of vegetable sweet. 
 
 Chemically the cane differs from the grape sugars, in 
 containing less of the elements of water, in being charred or 
 blackened by strong sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), and in 
 not readily throwing down the red oxide of copper from so- 
 lutions of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper). By the action 
 of diluted acids cane sugar is converted 
 into grape sugar, and hence the reason 
 why, as I have already said, cane sugar 
 is rarely found in plants which have acid 
 juices, and why the souring of the cane 
 juice changes a portion of its crystallis- 
 able sugar into uncrystallisable syrup or 
 molasses. 
 
 2. Beet-root or European sugar. 
 The root of the beet, and especially of 
 the variety called the sugar-beet (fig. 39), 
 contains often as much as a tenth part of 
 its weight of sugar. By squeezing out 
 the juice, as in the case of the sugar 
 cane, or by dissolving out the sugar from 
 the sliced root and boiling down the so- 
 lution, the raw sugar is obtained. In 
 this state the sugar possesses a peculiar, 
 unpleasant flavour, derived from the 
 beet-root ; but when refined, it is scarce- 
 ly distinguishable in any respect from 
 that of the sugar cane. 
 
 Sugar Beet 
 
 Scale, half an Inch to & 
 
 foot 

 
 BEET SUGAR MANUFACTURE. 213 
 
 The manufacture of this sugar is one of great and grow- 
 ing importance, especially in France, Belgium, Germany, 
 and Russia. Its history also illustrates in a very striking 
 way how chemical skill may overcome, as it were, the per- 
 versities of climate, and establish, upon an artificial basis, 
 an important national interest, which shall successfully com- 
 pete in the markets of the world with the most favoured na- 
 tural productions of the choicest regions of the globe. 
 
 As early as 1747, Margraaf, in Berlin, drew attention to 
 the large quantity of sugar contained in the beet, and recom- 
 mended its cultivation for the manufacture of sugar. Fifty 
 years later the attempt was made in Silesia, under royal 
 patronage ; but as only two or three per cent, of crystallised 
 sugar could be extracted, the work failed and was aban- 
 doned. Later, again, the continental system of Napoleon I. 
 which raised the price of sugar to five shillings (six francs) 
 a pound, and especially the offer of a prize of a million of 
 francs for the successful manufacture of sugar from plants 
 of home growth, stimulated to new trials both in Germany 
 and France. New methods, new skill, new machinery, and 
 the results of later chemical research, were all applied, and 
 with the aid of high duties on foreign sugar, the manufac- 
 ture struggled on through a period of very sickly infancy. 
 In Germany fewer improvements were introduced, so that 
 the new manufactories erected in that country, during the 
 reign of Napoleon were one after another given up ; but in 
 France they became so firmly established, that even after 
 the cessation of the continental system few of them were 
 abandoned. A more complete extraction of the sap, a 
 quicker and easier method of clarifying and filtering it, and 
 the use of steam to boil it down, enabled the French maker 
 to extract 4 to 5 per cent, of refined sugar from the 100 Ibs. 
 of beet, and thus to conduct his operations with a profit. In 
 this improved condition the manufacture, after a struggle 
 
 MWl
 
 214 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 of twenty years, returned again towards the north, and 
 spread not only over Belgium and the different states of 
 Germany, but over Poland, and into the very heart of Rus- 
 sia. At the present time, not less than 362 millions of 
 pounds of beet sugar are manufactured on the continent of 
 Europe. This is equal to about 7^ per cent, of all the sugar 
 consumed in the world. The proportion extracted iu the 
 different countries named is nearly as follows : 
 
 
 Number of 
 Manufac- 
 tories. 
 
 Average pro- 
 duce of each 
 Manufactory. 
 
 Total Produce of 
 the country. 
 
 Russia, . 
 
 360 
 
 200,000 Ibs. 
 
 70,000,000 Ibs. 
 
 France, . . . 
 
 884 
 
 440,000 
 
 150,000,000 
 
 German Customs Union, 
 
 2dT 
 
 560,000 
 
 130,000,000 
 
 Belgium, . 
 
 80 
 
 400,000 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 There are, besides, some manufactories in Austria which 
 produce on an average 160,000 pounds of sugar each. 
 
 The extraction of sugar from the beet has lately been 
 attempted in Ireland, and, as I am informed, with some 
 measure of success. Little is publicly known, however, of 
 the proceedings of the company by which the attempt has 
 been made. 
 
 The average composition of the root of the sugar beet- of 
 France, Belgium, and the Rhenish provinces, is nearly as 
 follows : 
 
 Sugar, . 
 Gluten, . 
 Fibre, &c. ; 
 "Water, . 
 
 8 
 5 
 
 8U 
 
 100 
 
 But this proportion of sugar varies very much. Thus it 
 is greater,
 
 PROPORTION OF SUGAR VARIES. 215 
 
 a In small beets than in large. 
 
 b In some varieties, as in the white Schleswick pear- 
 shaped beet, and in a spindle-shaped, red-skinned, white- 
 fleshed variety, both much cultivated in Germany. 
 
 c In dry climates, and especially where the climate is 
 dry after the roots have begun to swell. 
 
 d In light potato or barley than heavy soils. 
 
 e In the part under than above ground. 
 
 / When manure has not been directly applied to the 
 crop. 
 
 These facts show how much practical agriculture has to 
 do with the success of this important manufacture. The dif- 
 ference of climate, soil, and mode of culture have so much 
 effect, that, while the beets of Lille, a southern centre of the 
 manufacture, do not average more than 10 to 12 per cent, of 
 sugar, those of Magdeburg, a more northern centre, contain 
 from 12 to 14 per cent. Under certain very favourable con- 
 ditions, as much as 18 per cent, of sugar has been found in 
 the beet of North Germany. The proportion of sugar is so 
 much less in the part that grows above ground, that it is not 
 unfrequently cut off and fed to cattle. This reminds us of 
 the want of sweetness in the upper part of the sugar cane, 
 (p. 251), and the reason is probably the same in both cases, 
 that the sugar is in these parts transformed into woody 
 matter. 
 
 The average proportion of sugar extracted in Belgium 
 and France, is 6 Ib. from every hundred of fresh root. In 
 some well-conducted manufactories, it is said to reach 7, and 
 even 7^1b. from the hundred. In Germany, the average 
 yield is at present 7 or more ; and improvements now 'on 
 trial are expected to raise it to 8 Ib. from the hundred. 
 
 The mode of extraction is very simple. In France and 
 Belgium the root is ground to a pulp between saw-toothed 
 rollers, a small stream of water trickling over the teeth to
 
 216 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 keep them clean. This pulp is put into bags, and submitted 
 to strong pressure, by which the juice is squeezed out, while 
 the solid matter remains in the form of a dry cake. This 
 juice is treated with lime, heated, filtered, boiled down by 
 steam to the crystallising point, and then, as in the case of 
 cane sugar, cooled and drained from the molasses. From the 
 beet, the molasses thus obtained is colourless, but it has a 
 disagreeable taste, and cannot, therefore, like cane molasses, 
 bo directly employed for any sweetening purpose. The raw 
 sugar has also an unpleasant taste, and is in consequence 
 refined, for the most part, before it is brought to market. 
 
 In Germany, it is more usual to slice the beet, and to 
 wash out the sugar with hot water, treating the solution after- 
 wards as above described. The happy discovery of Melsens, 
 of Brussels, that sulphurous acid * has the property of 
 arresting fermentation in sweet juices, has been of much 
 service in making this German method of extraction 
 available. 
 
 It is interesting to remark how new improvements in this 
 manufacture constantly make known new chemical difficulties, 
 and present new chemical and agricultural problems to be 
 solved. The first great difficulty was, to prevent the fer- 
 mentation of the juice, the production of acid, and the simul- 
 taneous waste of sugar and conversion of a part of it into 
 uncrystallisable syrup. The second was, to boil it down so as 
 to prevent burning, and the production of uncrystallisable 
 molasses. The former has been overcome by various chemi- 
 cal means, and the latter by the use of steam. But as 
 the yield of sugar approached to 7 per cent., it was found 
 
 * Sulphurous acid is the name given by chemists to the strong-smelling fames 
 given off by burning sulphur. In one proportion, it forms with lime sulphite of lime; 
 in twice this proportion it forms ti-sulphite (bit twice). This bisulphite is soluble in 
 water, and a little of the solution added to the weak sugary liquors prevents them 
 from fermenting-
 
 m 
 
 APPLICATIONS OP CHEMISTRY. 217 
 
 that certain syrups remained behind, which, though they cer- 
 tainly contained cane sugar, refused stubbornly to crystallise 
 and the reason of this was traced to the presence of saline 
 matter, chiefly common salt, in the sap. This salt forms a 
 compound with the sugar, and prevents it from crystallising. 
 And so powerful is this influence, that 1 per cent, of salt in 
 the sap will render 3 per cent, of the sugar uncrystallisable. 
 To overome this difficulty, new chemical inquiries were neces- 
 sary. As results of these inquiries, it was ascertained 
 
 First, That the proportion of sugar was larger, and of 
 salt less, in beets not weighing more than five pounds. The 
 first practical step, therefore, was, that the sugar manufac- 
 turers announced to the cultivators who raised the beet, that 
 in future they would give a less price for roots weighing 
 more than five pounds. 
 
 Next, That a crop raised by means of the direct appli- 
 cation of manure, contained more salt, and gave more 
 uncrystallisable syrup, than when raised without direct 
 manuring. A larger price, therefore, was offered for roots 
 grown upon land which had been manured during the 
 previous winter ; a higher still for such as were raised after 
 a manured crop of corn ; and a still higher when, after the 
 manuring, two crops of corn were taken before the beet was 
 sown. 
 
 Thus, the difficulty was lessened by chemico-agricultural 
 means ; and though the crop was less in weight to the farmer, 
 the higher price he obtained in some degree made up the 
 difference. 
 
 In France and Belgium, the crops gathered average 14 or 
 15 tons an acre, while about Magdeburg they do not exceed 
 10 or 12 tons. But the latter are richer in sugar, and poorer 
 in salts, in proportion. A method is now under trial in 
 France for separating the sugar from the salts by a purely 
 chemical operation. When this is effected, the crops may be 
 10
 
 218 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 forced by manure as our turnip crops are, and a larger yield 
 obtained without fear of injuring the sugar extractor by a 
 superabundance of salts.* 
 
 One other point in this history is very interesting, as 
 illustrative of the way in which a tax upon manufacturing 
 industry may be made actually to promote, instead of retard- 
 ing its advancement ! The tax on beet sugar within the 
 bounds of the German Customs Union (Zollverein), is le- 
 vied, not on the sugar actually produced, but upon the weight 
 of raw beets employed by the manufacturer. It is assumed 
 that the roots will yield 5 per cent., or one-twentieth of their 
 weight of sugar ; and then upon every 20 cwt. of roots a tax 
 of two dollars is imposed. According to the assumed yield 
 of sugar, this is equal to a tax of two dollars on every hun- 
 dredweight of sugar. But in reality it is much less. By the 
 improved methods, one of sugar can now be extracted from 
 about fourteen of the root ; and the more he can extract, 
 the less duty in proportion the manufacturer pays. Thus 
 he is continually stimulated to improve his methods. The 
 absolute gain which he derives from an increased produce 
 per cent., is enchanced by the peculiar satisfaction which 
 arises from the. consciousness that every additional pound 
 he extracts is duty free. 
 
 And the profit he thus makes is at the same time a source 
 
 * It Is stated, also, that Mr. Hertz, a partner In a large sugar manufactory near 
 Hcidelburg, has made improvements by means of which, among other advantages, he 
 can extract from his beet 9 per cent of pure sugar. 
 
 1. He dries the roots whole in ovens, and thus can keep them all the year round 
 and work them when most convenient. 
 
 2. He washes ont the Sugar in vacno. This excludes the air, prevents fermenta- 
 tion, more fully extracts the sugar, enables him to work in warm as well as in cold, 
 weather, and thus, in the course of the year, to work up three times the material 
 With the same plant 
 
 TLere may be some exaggeration in the alleged results of these methods, but the 
 tdoa of extracting the sugar in vacuo is certainly good, if it can bo economically 
 fbcted, and generally applied.
 
 PALM OR DATE SUGAR, OR JAGGERY. 
 
 219 
 
 Fig. 40. 
 
 of gain to others. It is the character of all scientific pro- 
 gress, that an advanced step taken in one country is at once 
 a signal for similar steps in other countries, and an assurance 
 that they will by-and-by be taken. Thus the improvements 
 which arise out of the fiscal regulations of the German Zoll- 
 vereiu are gradually introduced into the boiling-houses of 
 Cuba, and, more slowly perhaps, yet certainly in the end, 
 will render more perfect and profitable the planting opera- 
 tions of our own West India colonies. 
 
 3. Palm or date sugar, or Jaggery. Most trees of the 
 palm tribe, when their top-shoot, or spadix as it is called, is 
 wounded, yield a copious supply of sweet juice. When boiled 
 down, this juice gives a brownish raw sugar, known in India 
 by the name of jaggery. The date palm (Phoenix dactyli- 
 fera, p. 94) affords this juice and sugar. The gommuti 
 palm (Saguerns saccharifer), 
 fig. 40, is still more produc- 
 tive, and, in the Moluccas and 
 Philippines, yields much su- 
 gar. The sap of the cocoanut 
 tree is boiled down in the 
 South Sea Islands till it has 
 the consistence of a brown 
 syrup, resembling very much 
 the molasses which drains 
 from raw cane-sugar ; but the 
 wild date-palm (Phoenix syl. 
 vestris) is the largest known 
 sugar-producer. From this 
 tree it is said that 60,000 
 tons,* or 130 million pounds, 
 are yearly extracted. Of this 
 quantity, 5000 tons, orl 1 mil- 
 
 Saguerus saccharifer The 
 
 Gommuti Palm. 
 Scale, 1 inch to 20 fee . 
 
 * ASOHTB'S Popular Economic Eotany, p. 140.
 
 220 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 Fig. 41. 
 
 lion pounds, are extracted in Bengal alone. Indeed, the 
 chief production as well as consumption of this date sugar is 
 in India. A small proportion of it is imported into this 
 country, sometimes under its true name of jaggery, but often, 
 also, under that of cane sugar. 
 
 This palm-sugar, indeed, from whichever of the trees it 
 is extracted, is exactly the same species of sugar as is yield- 
 ed by the sugar cane. It differs chiefly in the flavour of the 
 molasses which drains from and colours the raw sugar. 
 When refined, it cannot be distinguished from refined West 
 India sugar. The flavour of the molasses is not unpleasant, 
 
 so that it is readily eaten by 
 the natives of the various 
 tropical regions in which the 
 palm trees grow. 
 
 The total known produce 
 of palm sugar is estimated 
 at 220 million pounds. This 
 is bout one- twenty-fourth 
 part of all the cane sugar ex- 
 tracted for useful purposes. 
 Other non-acid fruits, 
 like the melon, the chestnut, 
 and the cocoa-nut, contain 
 cane sugar, but it is not ex- 
 tracted from them as an ar- 
 ticle of commerce. 
 
 4. Maple or North 
 American sugar. The su- 
 gar maple (Acer sacchari- 
 num), fig. 41, grows abun- 
 dantly in the northern parts 
 of New England, along the 
 lakes and in the British pro* 
 
 Acer taccJuirinum The Sugar Maple. 
 Scale, 1 inch to 30 feet 
 Leaf, 1 inch to 5 inches.
 
 MAPLE SAP, SUGAR, AND HONEY. 221 
 
 vinces of North America. The four States of New Hamp- 
 shire, Vermont, New York, and Michigan produce together 
 upwards of 20 million pounds, and the Canadas together 
 about 7 million pounds of maple sugar. The settlers gen- 
 erally, when they clear their virgin farms, reserve a few trees 
 to make sugar for the use of their families ; but, in many 
 places, extensive natural forests of maple trees still cover 
 fertile tracts of uncultivated country, and there the sugar is 
 manufactured in large quantities. The average yield of each 
 tree is estimated in Lower Canada at 1 Ib. a-head ; and the 
 right of making the sugar is there rented out by the pro- 
 prietor at one-fifth of the supposed produce, or one pound of 
 sugar for every five trees. When the month of March ar- 
 rives, the sugar-makers start for the forest, carrying with 
 them a large pot, a few buckets and other utensils, their 
 axes and a supply of food. They erect a shanty where the 
 maple trees are most numerous, make incisions into as many 
 as they can visit twice a-day for the purpose of collecting 
 the sap, boil down this sap to the crystallising point, and 
 pour it into oblong brick-shaped moulds, in which it solidi- 
 fies. In this way, in the valley of the Chaudidre, from 3000 
 to 5000 pounds of sugar are sometimes made during the sea- 
 son of two months by a single party of two or three men. 
 
 It is a singular circumstance in the chemical history of 
 the sap of this tree, that the first which flows for some time 
 after the incision is made, is clear, colourless, and without 
 taste. After standing a day or two this sap becomes sweet ; 
 and a few days after the sap has begun to run, it flows sweet 
 from the tree. The last sap which the tree yields is thick, 
 and makes an inferior sugar. When boiled carefully in earthen- 
 ware, or glazed pots, the clear sap gives at once a beautifully 
 white sugar, and especially if it be drained in moulds and 
 clayed, as is done with common loaf-sugar. In this pure 
 white condition it is not to be distinguished from refined
 
 222 THE SWEETS AVE EXTRACT. 
 
 cane-sugar. It is identical with pure cane sugar in all its 
 properties. 
 
 For domestic use it is generally preferred of a brown, 
 and by many of a dark- brown colour, because of the rich 
 maple flavour it possesses. This flavour, though peculiar, 
 and therefore new to a stranger in North America, soon be- 
 comes very much relished. The brown sugar is an article 
 of regular diet among the Lower Canadians. On fast days, 
 bread and maple sugar, or maple honey, as the molasses of 
 this sugar is called, are eaten in preference to fish. In spring, 
 when plentiful, it sells as low as 3d. a-pound ; in winter it 
 rises sometimes as high as 6d.* 
 
 It is an interesting character of the maple juice, when 
 boiled to the crystallising point, that the molasses which 
 drains from it is agreeable to the taste, and is relished as a 
 domestic luxury. In this respect it is superior even to the 
 molasses of the sugar cane. Were beet root molasses eat- 
 able in a similar way, the manufacture of beet sugar would 
 have fewer difficulties to overcome ; and it would have been 
 now both easier to conduct and more profitable in its results. 
 
 The total production of maple sugar has been estimated 
 at 45 millions of pounds, or the one hundred and twenty-' 
 fifth part (rir) of the whole quantity of cane sugar extracted 
 for the use of man. The manufacture of maple sugar dimin- 
 ishes yearly in proportion as the native American forests are 
 cut down. 
 
 5 . Maize or Mexican sugar. The green stalks of maize 
 or Indian corn contain a sweet juice, which, when boiled 
 down, yields an agreeable variety of cane sugar. This sugar 
 was known and extracted by the ancient Mexicans, and was 
 in use among them prior to the Spanish invasion. For this 
 reason I have distinguished it as Mexican sugar. 
 
 The manufacture of this sugar has been attempted of late 
 years in the United States, and many persons have success- 
 
 * See the Author's Noict on North America, vol. 1. p. 803.
 
 SORGHUM SUGAR. 
 
 223 
 
 Fig. 42. 
 
 fully extracted a sufficiency for their domestic consumption. 
 It has not hitherto, however, been prepared in such quan- 
 tity, or at such a price, as publicly to compete in the market 
 with sugar from the cane ; but there seems no reason why 
 this branch of industry should not be successfully prosecuted, 
 especially in those States of the North American Union which 
 are known to be more eminently favourable to the growth 
 of maize. 
 
 The extraction of sugar from this plant has also been 
 attempted in southern Europe. The only existing manu- 
 factory of it with which I am acquainted is in the south of 
 France, in the neighbourhood of Toulouse. It produces only 
 about 20,000 Ib. of sugar a-year. But 
 that this small manufactory can be pro- 
 fitably conducted in a climate less fa- 
 vourable to maize, affords a strong 
 presumption that, in the United States, 
 the cultivation of the plant for its su- 
 gar may yet become an important 
 branch of rural economy. 
 
 6. Sorghum sugar. In China, 
 under the name of " sugar cane of the 
 north," a species of sorghum is culti- 
 vated for the extraction of sugar. This 
 plant is allied to the Sorghum vulgare, 
 or dhurra plant, (fig. 42), of which 
 a description has already been given.* 
 This plant has recently been intro- 
 duced into France, and experiments 
 have been made upon it by Mons. Vil- 
 morin. He states that it is capable 
 of yielding, on an average, from an 
 acre of land, 26,000 Ib. of juice, con- 
 taining from 10 to 13 per cent, of 
 
 Sorghum vulgar* Darrha 
 plant 
 
 * See THE BREAD WE EAT, p. S9.
 
 224 THE SWEETS AVE EXTRACT. 
 
 sugar; and that this is more than the average yield of the 
 sugar beet. It is alleged, however, that the plant is adapted 
 to only a few parts of the south of France. More will no 
 doubt be heard of this plant should further experiments con 
 firm the favourable opinions already formed of it. 
 
 The total quantities of cane sugar of various kinds, which 
 are extracted for human use, have been estimated as follows 
 by Dr. Stolle ; 
 
 Millions of Percentage of th 
 
 pounds. whole production. 
 Cane sugar, . . 4527 87.7 
 
 Beet sugar, . . 862 7.3 
 
 Palm sugar, . . 220 4.2 
 
 Maple sugar, 45 O.S 
 
 5164 100 
 
 Wide differences exist among the quantities consumed 
 per head in different countries I instance only a few exam- 
 ples. Thus, the yearly consumption is, in 
 
 Russia, .... 1} Ib. per bead. 
 
 Belgium, ... 5 
 
 France, ... 7J 
 
 United Kingdom, . 23 
 
 Venezuela, 1801 
 
 With the peculiar circumstances which occasion so large 
 a consumption in Venezuela I am unacquainted. liefined 
 sugar is shipped to that country largely from Europe. 
 
 Before leaving this part of my subject, I may be permit- 
 ted, in the interest of chemical science, to ask my reader to 
 reflect 
 
 1. How important an interest, economical and social, 
 the history of sugar extraction exhibits to us as depending 
 directly upon chemical research and progress, and upon the 
 diffusion and application of chemical knowledge. 
 
 2. How largely successive applications of this branch
 
 VALUE OF CHEMISTRY AS REGARDS SUGAR. 225 
 
 of knowledge have already benefited the manufacture of 
 sugar, and aided in bringing this luxury within the reach of 
 the poorer classes ; and how much more benefit they pro- 
 mise still to confer. 
 
 3. And especially how chemistry has earned the de- 
 served gratitude of the European continent, by giving it 
 an entirely new industry, and by making it independent of 
 foreign countries for one of the most esteemed and now al- 
 most necessary luxuries of life. 
 
 It is not the fault of chemistry that our West India col- 
 onies have not equal cause to be grateful. 

 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 THE MANNA AND MILK SUGARS. 
 
 Manna sugars; their sensible and chemical characters. Manna of the ash ; its com- 
 position and uses. Occurrence of manna sugar in sea weeds. Gum-tree manna. 
 Other mannas. Oak, larch, and cedar mannas. Persian manna. The alhagi 
 and tamarisk mannas. The manna of the Scriptures ; trees supposed to produca 
 it The real manna not known. Liquorice sugar. Milk sugar. Analogies in 
 the composition of cane, grape, and milk sugar. How the two former are produced 
 from each other, from starch, and from humic acid. "What chemists understand 
 by chemical reactions. How a knowledge of these improves old and gives rise to 
 new chemical arts. Illustration in the manufacture of garancine, and the use of 
 madder in dyeing. 
 
 III. THE MANNA SUGARS form a third class of sugars 
 which are distinguished from the grape and cane sugars by 
 three principal characters. First, by their chemical compo- 
 sition ; second, by their inferior sweetness ; and third, by 
 their not fermenting when mingled with yeast. Of this 
 class, also, there are several varieties. 
 
 1. Manna of the ash. Two species of ash, the Fraxi- 
 nus ornus, and the F. rotundifolia, yield this species, of 
 sugar. The European supply is chiefly derived from Sicily 
 and Calabria. The F. ornus, a small tree of twenty to
 
 THE MANNA ASH. 
 
 227 
 
 twenty-five feet high, is there cultivated in plantations for the 
 purpose. In the months of July and August, when the pro- 
 duction of leaves has ceased, the sap is drawn from the tree. 
 For this purpose, cross cuts, about two inches long (fig. 43), 
 are made in the stem, 
 beginning at the lower 
 part near the soil. 
 These are repeated 
 every day in warm 
 weather, extending 
 them perpendicularly 
 upwards along the one 
 side of the tree, leav- 
 ing the other to be cut 
 in the following year. 
 The sap flows from 
 these incisions, and is 
 sometimes collected in 
 vessels and sometimes 
 allowed to harden on 
 the outside of the tree. 
 It is very rich in sugar, 
 and speedily concretes 
 in fine weather into the 
 manna of commerce. The quality of the manna varies with 
 the age of the tree, and with the part of the stem (lower or 
 higher) from which it flows, and with the period of the sea- 
 son in which it is extracted. From the upper incisions, 
 from trees of middle age, and in the height of the season 
 when the sap flows most freely, the flake manna, most es- 
 teemed in England, is obtained in largest quantity. 
 
 Manna besides a variable proportion of gum, which in 
 some varieties amounts to a third of its weight contains 
 two kinds of sugar. The larger proportion consists of a pe- 
 
 Fraecimu ornut The Manna Ash, and the mode 
 of collecting the manna.
 
 228 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 culiar, colourless, beautifully crystalline sugar, to which the 
 name of mannite is given. This forms from 30 to 60 per 
 cent, of the whole manna, and is properly the manna sugar. 
 Mixed with this there is from 5 to 10 per cent, of a sugar 
 resembling that of the grape, and which ferments with yeast. 
 Thus, the manna of commerce consists, on an average, of 
 about 
 
 Per cent 
 Manna sugar, or manuite, ...... 40 
 
 Grape sugar, (?)....... 10 
 
 Gum, with some gluten and other matters, ... 40 
 
 Water, '10 
 
 100 
 
 The large admixture of gum diminishes the sweetness of 
 the manna, and renders it less useful as a substitute for cane 
 sugar. 
 
 When newly extracted, manna is found to be nutritious 
 as well as agreeable to the taste ; and a considerable quan- 
 tity of it is used as food, especially in Calabria. As it 
 becomes old, however, it acquires a mild laxative quality, 
 which unfits it for use as a part of the ordinary diet. This 
 latter quality recommends it for use as a medicinal agent, 
 for which purpose it is exported to various parts of Europe. 
 The quantity yearly imported into Great Britain amounts to 
 about 11,000 Ibs., nearly all of which comes from Sicily. 
 
 This medicinal quality does not reside in the mannite or 
 true sugar of manna, but in the other matters with which it 
 is contaminated. By itself, in the pure or refined state, this 
 sugar has no appreciable medicinal action, and were it abun- 
 dant and cheap, might be employed for ordinary sweetening 
 purposes. It is less sweet than cane sugar, and for daily 
 use is not likely ever to compete with the latter in the mar- 
 ket. 
 
 It is a singular fact that this peculiar manna-sugar exists
 
 COMPOSITION OF MANNA. 
 
 229 
 
 in many familiar sea- weeds. It gives their sweet taste to 
 those which are collected for eating along various parts of 
 our coast, and is found in smaller quantity in many which 
 are not perceptibly sweet to the taste. The Laminaria 
 saccharina, when quite dry, contains above 12 per cent., or 
 one-eighth part of its weight, of mannite. When the plant 
 is dried in the air, the sugar exudes, and forms a white in- 
 crustation on its leaves. The Hahdrys siliquosa contains 
 from 5 to 6 per cent., and even the common Fucus vesiculo- 
 sus 1 or 2 per cent. (STEN- Fig.. 
 
 HOUSE.) No use is made of 
 this sugar of sea-weeds, except 
 in so far as it assists, in some 
 cases, in making them eatable. 
 
 Mannite in small quantity 
 may also be extracted from 
 common celery, and from the 
 root of the dandelion ; and it 
 can be formed artificially from 
 cane sugar. 
 
 2. Eucalyptus sugar, or 
 gum-tree manna. The genus 
 Eucalyptus, or gum tree of the 
 colonists (fig. 44), forms a dis- 
 tinguishing feature in the land- 
 scape and forest scenery of 
 Australia and Van Diemen's 
 land. At certain seasons of 
 the year, a sweet substance ex- 
 udes from the leaves of these 
 trees, and dries in the sun. 
 When the wind blows, so as to 
 shake the trees, this Australian 
 manna is sometimes seen to fall 
 
 vi i < -r -i 
 
 like a Shower of SnOW. Like 
 
 the true manna, this sweet sub- 
 
 Eucalyptus reainifera The Iron 
 Bark Gum-tree.
 
 230 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 stance contains a peculiar crystallisable sugar different, 
 however, in composition and in some of its properties from 
 the rnannite already described. Though it is said to be 
 produced in considerable quantities, I have not learned that 
 it is customary to collect it for use as a sweet, either in 
 'Van Diemen's land or in Australia.* 
 
 3. Other mannas. Other sweet substances also are 
 obtained from plants, to which the name of manna has been 
 given. Thus, oak manna exudes from the leaves of a species 
 of oak common in Kurdistan, and known to botanists as the 
 Quercus mannifera, or manna-bearing oak. Larch manna 
 is a sweet substance, which, in some countries, is found upon 
 the European larch (Larix Europcea) about the month of 
 June. Cedar manna occurs in small globules on the 
 branches of the Pinus cedrus. It is brought from Mount 
 Lebanon, where it sells as high as 20s. or 30s. an ounce. 
 It is much esteemed in Syria as a remedy for affections 
 of the chest. Persian manna, or Gen, called also Alhagi 
 manna, and by the Arabs Tereng jabim, is obtained from 
 the camel's thorn (Hedysarum alhagi, Linn.), a plant which 
 is indigenous over a large portion of the East. It yields 
 manna, however, only in Persia, Bokhara, Arabia, and Pales- 
 tine. Extensive plains are in these countries covered with 
 the alhagi, and it is of great importance as food for the 
 camels, as well as for sheep and goats. From the wounds 
 produced by the browsing of these animals the manna chiefly 
 exudes. It is collected by the Arabs and caravans which 
 cross the Desert, and is used as food. It is gathered by 
 merely shaking the branches. 
 
 Tamarisk manna is obtained from the Tamarix manni- 
 fera, a tree which grows abundantly in the neighbourhood 
 of Mount Sinai. The manna of the Old Testament is sup- 
 
 * See the Author's Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, 2d edi- 
 tion, p. 18L
 
 MANNA OF THE ISRAELITES. 
 
 231 
 
 Fig. 45. 
 
 posed by some to have been that of the camel's thorn, and 
 by others that of the tamarisk. Both trees grow in the 
 wilderness of Sin, along certain parts of the route of the an- 
 cient Israelites, and both yield limited supplias of a sweet 
 manna. If the produce of either of these trees was the 
 true manna of the Israelites, the miracle by which they 
 were so long fed with it consisted -first, in a wonderful 
 multiplication of the produce, so as to sustain millions where 
 probably not a score of persons could be sustained on the 
 quantity naturally produced ; and, second, in causing it to 
 follow and fall daily around them in parts of the wilderness 
 where none of the trees grow, and in equal abundance all 
 the year around. That is to say, the sustenance of the 
 wandering people was the result of a constant miracle, 
 whether the manna was of a kind which might or might not 
 have been derived from either of these natural sources. 
 
 In the Wady Feiran the 
 valley which leads from the 
 Gulf of Suez towards Mount 
 Sinai the traveller passes 
 through thick avenues of Tur- 
 feh or Tarfa trees ( Tamarix 
 mannifera, fig. 45), bending 
 over his head like the alleys 
 of a garden. This tree re- 
 sembles the weeping birch, 
 but is still more delicate in 
 appearance, and the so-called 
 manna flows in drops from the 
 extremities of its slender pen- 
 sile boughs. A small quanti- 
 ty is collected and carried to 
 the convent of Sinai, where it 
 
 Tamarws gattica manntfera Tna 
 
 is prepared by boiling and put Manna-bearing Tamarisk. 
 
 , iii- !_ i Scale, 1 inch to 12 feet 
 
 into Small tin cases, WniCu are Flowering branch, 1 to 5 Inchas.
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 disposed of to pilgrims and other visitors. In this state i\ 
 resembles melted gum with small rounded grains in it, and 
 has a somewhat similar taste, only sweeter and rather aro- 
 matic." * The manna is supposed to flow in consequence of 
 the puncture of the Coccus maniparus, an insect which in- 
 fests the tamarisk trees. It exudes as a thick syrup, which, 
 during the heat of the day, falls in drops, but during the 
 night congeals, and is gathered in the cool of the morning. 
 Its solution in water readily ferments. It is eaten in Pales- 
 tine and about Sinai as a delicacy, and, like the cedar 
 manna, is esteemed as a remedy in diseases of the chest. 
 The total quantity of this manna now collected in the desert 
 of Sinai appears to be comparatively trifling. 
 
 Dr. Milman and Dr. Lepsius both regard this sweet sub- 
 stance as the manna of Scripture, and consider its properties 
 to be generally the same as those ascribed by Moses to that 
 collected by the children of Israel. Dr. Robinson, on the 
 other hand, denies that their properties at all correspond. 
 I agree with Dr. Robinson. In doing so, however, I do not 
 lay so much stress on alleged differences in taste, in general 
 appearance, &c., as on the very remarkable property men- 
 tioned in the following passage : 
 
 " And Moses said, Let no man save of it till the morn- 
 ing*. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses, but 
 some of them left of it till the morning, and it bred worms 
 and stank, and Moses was wroth with them." (Exodus, 
 xvi. 19, 20.) 
 
 This rapid putrefaction, the smell, and the breeding of 
 worms, are properties which belong to no known variety of 
 sweet vegetable exudation. It implies something of an ani- 
 
 BARTLETT'S Forty Days in the Desert, p. 63. The figure I have given does not 
 represent the graceful tree described by BartletL It varies in appearance in different 
 localities, and I cannot find that any representation of the entire tree has anywhere 
 been published. In a book so beautiful as Mr. Bartlett's one might have expected 
 to find this tree, which he describes so graphically.
 
 LIQUORICE SUGAR. 
 
 inal nature, or the presence in considerable quantity of a 
 substance analogous to the gluten of plants or the fibrin of 
 animals.* And the presence of such a substance, again, ac- 
 counts for the very nutritious qualities ascribed to this 
 manna, and which is so superior to that of any other vege- 
 table sweet with which we are acquainted. The manna of 
 Scripture, therefore, I believe to be still unknown, as well as 
 the immediate or natural source from which it might have 
 been derived. 
 
 Orcin manna. Orcin is a sweet substance which exists 
 in certain species of lichen. By Berzelius it was named 
 Orcin sugar, because of its sweetness ; and by Robiquet it 
 was regarded as a variety of manna. In chemical composi- 
 tion and properties, however, it is very different from any 
 of our common sweets, and it has a disagreeable after-taste, 
 which would alone prevent it from finding a place among the 
 luxuries of life. 
 
 IV. LIQUORICE SUGAR. The' root of the common liquor- 
 ice (Glycyrrhiza glabra), fig. 46, contains a peculiar sweet 
 substance, which, when extracted with water, has the pro- 
 perty of becoming dark-coloured or black in the air. The 
 dried extract is known in this country under the names of 
 Spanish and Italian juice, from the countries in which it is 
 most abundantly produced. It differs in flavour from all 
 the other sugars I have mentioned ; it does not crystallise, 
 and it does not ferment when yeast is added to it. 
 
 For medicinal purposes the root is largely cultivated at 
 Mitcham in Surrey, and other places. The extract is im- 
 ported partly in the sticks, known under the name of Span- 
 ish Liquorice ; and partly in solid masses, run into boxes 
 containing about two hundredweight each. In 1850, about 
 500 tons were imported. It does not compete directly, 
 
 * See THE BEEF vrs COOK.
 
 234 
 
 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 rig. 46. 
 
 however, with cane sugar. A considerable quantity, n 
 doubt, is eaten as a sweet, and to give relief to affections of 
 the throat, but the principal con- 
 sumption is said to be by the brew- 
 ers in the manufacture of porter. 
 
 The roots of Glycyrrhiza echi- 
 nata, G. glanduhfera, of Trifo- 
 liuni qlpinum, and of Abrus pre- 
 catorius, are said to possess the 
 same properties as the common li- 
 quorice ; and among other sweets 
 which resemble that of liquorice, is 
 one which is found in the root of 
 the Otionis spinosa. To this va- 
 riety the discoverer has given the 
 name of Ononid. It is not likely, 
 1^.=' however, to become of any econo- 
 mical importance. 
 
 V. MILK SUGAR. Milk con- 
 tains a peculiar species of sugar, to 
 which the sweetness of milk is 
 owing. When the curd is separ- 
 ated in the making of cheese, the 
 sugar remains in the whey, and may 
 be obtained in the form of crystals 
 by boiling the whey to a small bulk, 
 and setting it aside to cool. This sugar is hard and gritty 
 when crushed between the teeth, is less soluble and less 
 sweet than cane sugar. In Switzerland, and some other 
 cheese countries, it is extracted for sale, but the manufacture 
 and consumption of milk sugar is on the whole very trifling. 
 In plants it rarely occurs the acorn being almost the only 
 common vegetable production in which it has, as yet, been 
 detected. 
 
 Glycyrrhiza gldfira Tho 
 Liquorice plant 
 
 Scale, half an inch to a foot
 
 MILK SUGAR. 235 
 
 Among the most important of the varieties of sugar 
 above described the grape, fruit, cane, and milk sugars 
 there exists a remarkable analogy in chemical composition. 
 They all consist of the three elementary bodies already de- 
 scribed under the names of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxy- 
 gen.* And in all of them the hydrogen and oxygen are in 
 the proportions to form water, so that we can, for simplicity 
 of language, say, that they are composed of carbon and 
 water. The proportion of this water is not the same in each 
 variety of sugar, neither is it always different. Thus 
 
 86 Ib. of carbon, end 54 of -water, form 90 of crystallised cane sugar. 
 86 63 99 of grape or fruit sugar. 
 
 86 54 90ofmiiksugar. 
 
 Thus, in the larger proportions of water it contains, we 
 seem to see a reason for the difference in sweetness, and 
 other properties which grape sugar exhibits when compared 
 with cane sugar. But on the other hand, the proportions of 
 carbon and water in crystallised cane and milk sugars are 
 identical, and yet between these two kinds of sugar, the dif- 
 ference of properties is equally great. This last is a very 
 remarkable circumstance, and presents the first example, 
 which has fallen in our way, of one of the most interesting 
 discoveries of modern chemistry that two compound sub- 
 stances may consist of the same elementary bodies united 
 together in the same proportions, and yet be very different 
 from each other in their properties. 
 
 Other kindred illustrations of this principle are pre- 
 sented by the woody or cellular fibre (cellulose), the starch, 
 and the gum, which, as I have explained (p. 201), may be 
 artificially converted into grape sugar by the action of weak 
 sulphuric acid. Thus 
 
 86 Ib. of carbon united to 45 Ib. of water, form 81 Ib. cither of cellulose, of starch, or 
 of gum. 
 
 * Seo chapters I. and II. THE AIR WE BREATHE, AND TOE WATEB WB DEIKK.
 
 236 THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT. 
 
 And yet each of these three substances is very different in 
 its properties from either of the other two. 
 
 Again, the dark-brown vegetable matter (humic acid) to 
 which the colour of soils is partly owing, consists of carbon 
 and water only, for 
 
 36 of carbon, and 27 of water, form 68 of humic acid. 
 
 Now, in regard to substances so composed, it is not diffi- 
 cult, with the aid of this knowledge, to form a general idea 
 of the way in which they may be transformed, one into the 
 other. Thus 
 
 63 of humic acid united to IS of water, may form 81 of cellulose, starch, gum. 
 
 or sugar. 
 
 81 of starch, with 9 of water, may form 90 of cane sugar. 
 90 of cane sugar, with 9 of water, may form 99 of grape sugar. 
 
 And changes of this kind really take place in nature. Thus 
 the humic acid of the soil enters the roots of plants, and in 
 the interior of the plant is changed into the cellulose or 
 woody matter of its growing shoots, and into the starch of 
 its seeds. The starch of the tasteless pear, of the banana, 
 and of the bread fruit (p. 96), changes into sugar as the 
 fruit ripens and becomes sweet. And by the action of acids 
 in the sour saps of plants, and in somewhat acid fruits, cane 
 sugar, which is first produced, is changed into grape sugar, 
 In all these cases, the substance which disappears only com- 
 bines with a little more water, to form the new compound 
 which is produced. 
 
 And we artificially imitate these natural operations 
 when, in the manufacture of potato sugar, we transform the 
 starch of the potato into a sweet resembling the sugar of 
 grapes, or when, by the prolonged action of sulphuric acid, 
 we change sawdust or rags into a similar sweet. 
 
 In these changes, the acid employed possesses the sin- 
 gular property of causing the carbon of the starch or woody 
 fibre to unite with a larger proportion of the elements of
 
 TRANSFORMATIONS. 237 
 
 water, and thus to assume the form of grape sugar. And it 
 is out of such observed reactions of bodies as such influ- 
 ences are called that new chemical arts are daily springing 
 up. Thus the manufacture of potato sugar, already de- 
 scribed, is a valuable independent art, founded solely upon a 
 knowledge of this action of sulphuric acid. But many other 
 arts, besides, have been either wholly based upon, or have 
 been greatly improved, by the application of this property 
 I instance only the manufacture of a dye-stuff called garan- 
 cine. 
 
 Madder, as is well known, is the root of a plant (Rubia 
 tinctorum) which is cultivated largely in certain parts of 
 Europe, and the Levant, for the sake of the beautiful red 
 colours it gives to the fibres of cotton and wool. This root, 
 when dried and ground to fine powder, is the common mad- 
 der of the dyer. But, besides the valuable colouring matter, 
 this root contains gum, gluten, mucilage resembling that 
 obtained from Iceland moss, and various other substances, 
 which interfere with its use as a dye, and render the use of 
 it difficult to the dyer, and the colour it imparts in some 
 degree uncertain. In the course of the many chemical in- 
 vestigations to which this substance has been subjected, 
 however, it was observed, that while sulphuric acid, under 
 certain circumstances, acted upon nearly all these useless 
 parts of the root, it had no effect upon the colouring matter. 
 The former it changed into easily soluble sugar, or alto- 
 gether destroyed; while to the latter it only gave new 
 brightness and beauty. The application of this was obvious. 
 The ground root was steeped for so many hours in sulphuric 
 acid mingled with so much water, and was then washed per- 
 fectly free from acid, and again dried. It was now the 
 colouring matter, or garancine, comparatively pure in 
 some cases 5, but usually about 3 times more powerful as a 
 dye than the natural root. It was less bulky and lighter
 
 238 THE BEVERAGES WE INFUSE. 
 
 for carriage in proportion, was more easy to use, and more 
 certain in the shades of colour it gave to cloth. 
 
 Thus, from the application to madder root of the observ- 
 ed action of sulphuric acid upon vegetable substances allied 
 to our sugars, arose both the new art of making garancine, 
 and important improvements in the old art of dyeing. 
 
 Thousands of similar reactions are known to chemists ; 
 and the origin of almost every art of life may be traced to 
 the first observation of some one of the countless visible in- 
 fluences which one form of matter exercises over another. 
 
 Melted soda dissolves sea-sand, and the solution, when 
 cold, is our common window-glass. Hence the magnificent 
 glass-trade of our time. 
 
 Potash melted with hoofs and horns, and thrown care- 
 lessly into water containing iron, gave an intense blue colour. 
 This was Prussian blue ; and hence a crowd of arts and 
 manufactures, and of beautiful applications of chemistry, 
 have sprung up. 
 
 Every day new arts sprout up, as it were, beneath our 
 feet, as we linger in our laboratories observing the new reac- 
 tions of probably new bodies ; and in each new art is seen a 
 new means of adding to the comforts and luxuries of mankind, 
 of giving new materials and facilities to commerce, and of 
 increasing the power and resources of nations. 
 
 For pleasing examples of such arts just bursting into 
 leaf like the buds before our eyes in the sunshine of our 
 English spring I refer the reader to a succeeding chapter 
 on THE ODOURS WE ENJOY.
 
 
 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 THE LIQUOKS WE FEKMENT. 
 
 THE BEERS. 
 
 Our ferm anted drinks. Grape sugar is changed into alcohol by fermentation. Cano 
 sugar and starch converted into alcohol. Production of diastase during the sprout- 
 ing of corn. Action of this substance upon starch. How the infant plant is fed. 
 Malt liquors ; principles involved in the preparation of. The malting of barley. The 
 making of beer. Influence of diastase on the processes. The fermentation of the 
 wort. Influence of the yeast How the yeast plant grows and multiplies; its re- 
 markable influence still inexplicable. Composition of beer. Proportions of malt 
 extract and of alcohol. Beer characterized by its nutritive quality and its bitter 
 principle. Chica or maize beer of South America. Maize malt Preparation 
 of chica mascada or chewed chica. How the chewing promotes the process and 
 gives strength to the chica. Influence of the saliva. Chica from other vegetable 
 substances. Bouza or millet beer of Tartery, Arabia, and Abyssinia. Murwa beet 
 of the Himalayas. Chemical peculiarities of these millet beers. Quass or rye 
 beer. Koumiss or milk beer ; mode of preparing it ; its composition and nutritious 
 qualities. Lactic acid in this beer. Ava, cava, or arva. Extensive use of this drink 
 among the South Sea Islanders; how it is prepared and used ; its narcotic qualities. 
 Effect of chewing on the ava root. Ceremonies attending its preparation and use 
 In the Tonga and Feejee islands. 
 
 THE liquors we ferment are all directly produced, either 
 from the natural sugars which we extract from plants, or 
 from the sugars which we prepare by art. I shall briefly 
 advert to the most interesting and important of these 
 liquors now in use in different parts of the world. The way
 
 240 THE LIQUORS WE FERMEXT. 
 
 in which these drinks are prepared, their chemical composi- 
 tion, and their chemico-physiological action upon the system, 
 are more or less connected with the common life of almost 
 every people. 
 
 I. THE BEERS. When grape sugar is dissolved in 
 water, and a little yeast is added to the solution, it begins 
 speedily to ferment. During this fermentation, the sugar is 
 split up into three different substances alcohol, water, and 
 carbonic acid.* The two former remains in the liquid while 
 the carbonic acid gas escapes in bubbles into the air. 
 
 When common cane sugar is dissolved in water and 
 mixed with yeast in a similar way, fermentation is induced 
 as before. The cane sugar is first changed into grape sugar 
 by the action of the yeast, and then the grape sugar is split 
 up into alcohol, water, and carbonic acid. These changes 
 take place in close as well as in open vessels, so that the pres- 
 ence of air is no way necessary to their perfect and rapid 
 completion. 
 
 If starch be converted into grape sugar by the action of 
 diluted sulphuric acid, or of a mixture of malt, as described 
 in a preceding chapter,* and yeast be then added to the 
 sweet solution, the same changes and the same production 
 
 * This splitting up takes place as follows: 
 Let C denote carbon, H hydrogen, and O oxygen 
 
 C H O 
 Then one of grape sugar, . . . = 12 14 14 
 
 Two of alcohol, . . . = 8 12 4 
 
 four of carbonic acid, . . .= 408 
 
 Two of water, . . . .= 022 
 
 And these together make . . . 12 14 14 
 
 So that the substance of one of grape sugar is split up into two of alcohol, four of 
 carbonic acid, and two of water. This splitting up is induced by the yeast, which, 
 however, affords none of the materials of which the alcohol, &c., consists. 
 * THE SWEETS WE EXTRACT, p. 197.
 
 STARCH CHANGED INTO SUGAR. 241 
 
 of alcohol take place. From potato starch, treated in this 
 way, large quantities of spirit (potato brandy) are manu- 
 factured in France, Germany, and the northern countries of 
 Europe. 
 
 But by a still more beautiful process the starch of barley 
 and other grains is converted into grape sugar before it is 
 removed from the seed, and is then split up as before, by 
 means of yeast, into alcohol, water, and carbonic acid. 
 
 In a previous chapter* it has been shown that these grains 
 consist essentially of two principal substances starch and 
 gluten. When moistened, in favourable circumstances, the 
 grain begins to sprout. The starch and gluten it contains 
 are, of course, intended to form the first food of the young 
 plant ; but these substances are insoluble in water, and 
 therefore cannot, in their natural state, pass onwards from 
 the body of the seed to supply the wants of the growing 
 germ. It has been beautifully provided, therefore, that 
 both of them should undergo chemical changes as the sprout- 
 ing proceeds. This takes place at the base of the germ 
 exactly where and when they are wanted for food. The glu- 
 ten is changed, among other products, into a white soluble 
 substance, which has been distinguished by the name of 
 diastase, and the starch into soluble grape sugar. Hence 
 the sweetness of sprouted corn. 
 
 Starch can be transformed into sugar, as I have explained 
 (p. 201), by the agency of a minute quantity of sulphuric 
 acid. It is so transformed also by this diastase. Produced 
 in the sprouting seed in contact with the starch, the diastase 
 changes the latter into sugar, and makes it soluble in the sap 
 just as it is required. By this means the infant plant ia 
 fed. 
 
 The maltster," brewer, and distiller, avail themselves of 
 
 * See THE BREAD WE KAT, p. 79. 
 11
 
 242 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 this natural change in the constituents of sprouting grain, 
 and on a large scale call into action the remarkable chemical 
 influence of diastase. This is abundantly illustrated by the 
 chemical history of the art of brewing. 
 
 1. MALT BEERS are so called because they are pre- 
 pared, either in whole or in part, from infusions of malted 
 barley. The manufacture of these drinks involves two dis- 
 tinct chemical processes : first, The change of the starch of 
 the grain into sugar ; and, second, The change of the sugar 
 into spirit-of-wine or alcohol. With a view to the first of 
 these ends, the grain is manufactured into malt; to attain 
 the second, it is submitted to fermentation through the me- 
 dium of yeast. 
 
 a. The malt. The maltster moistens his barley in heaps, 
 and spreads it on a floor in a dark room to heat and sprout. 
 When the germ (acrospire, he calls it) is about to burst 
 from the envelope of the seed, he arrests the growth by dry- 
 ing the grain gently on the floor of his kiln. It is now 
 malted barley, and has a sweet taste, showing that it already 
 contains sugar. Other grains such as wheat, oats, and 
 rye may be converted into malt by a similar process. 
 Even Indian corn is malted in North America ; and in 
 South America this malt has been used for making beer 
 from the remotest times. In Europe, however, barley has 
 been found by long experience to be best adapted for 
 this process though malted rye and wheat are employed 
 along with the barley for the manufacture of some particular 
 kinds of beer. 
 
 b. The beer. The brewer or distiller bruises the malt 
 and introduces it into his mash-tun, with water gently warm- 
 ed to 157 or 160 Fahr. This water dissolves first the 
 sugar which has already been formed in the seed, and after- 
 wards the diastase. This latter substance then acts upon 
 the rest of the starch of the seed, converting ft first into a
 
 THE BREWING OF MALT BEER. 
 
 species of soluble gum, and finally into grape sugar. If the 
 process has been well conducted, little but the husk of the 
 grain is left undissolved, and the liquor or wort has a de- 
 cidedly sweet taste. 
 
 Three circumstances are remarkable in regard to this 
 diastase. First, That even in good malt, about one pound 
 of diastase only is formed for every hundred parts of stajch 
 contained in the grain. Second, That this one pound of 
 diastase is sufficient to change a thousand pounds of starch 
 into grape sugar. And third, That by heating the solution 
 containing it to the boiling point, the diastase is killed, as 
 it were : its power of changing starch into sugar is "wholly 
 destroyed. 
 
 The first and second of these circumstances enable the 
 brewer, if he choose, to mix with his malt a certain portion 
 of starch, or of unmalted grain. The diastase of the malted 
 portion is sufficient to transform into sugar, not only the 
 whole starch of the malt, but all the starch also of the raw 
 grain. Thus both the expense and the waste which would 
 attend the malting of the latter is avoided. In this country 
 the brewer rarely avails himself of this opportunity of adding 
 raw grain. Continental brewers, however, and our home- 
 distillers, both practise it largely. 
 
 The third circumstance determines the time when the 
 wort may be safely boiled which is the next stage in the 
 manufacture of beer. The change of all the starch into 
 augar being effected, the diastase is no longer of service, and 
 the wort may be heated to boiling, with advantage. By this 
 higher temperature the action of the diastase is stopped, and 
 at the same time the albumen which the water has dis- 
 solved out of the grain is coagulated and separated in flocks. 
 Advantage is taken also of this boiling, to introduce the 
 nops ; and these, besides imparting their peculiar bitterness 
 and aroma to the liquid, help further to clarify it. Both the
 
 244 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 length of the boiling and the quantity of hops added to the 
 liquid vary with its richness in sugar, and -with the quality 
 of the beer it is intended to make. 
 
 The boiled liquor is run off into shallow vessels, and 
 cooled as .rapidly as possible to the best fermenting tempera- 
 ture, which lies between 54 and 64 Fahr. It is then 
 transferred to the fermenting tun ; a sufficient quantity of 
 yeast is added obtained, if possible, from the same kind of 
 beer it is desired to make and it is allowed to ferment 
 slowly for six or eight days. During this fermentation, the 
 sugar of the wort is split up into the alcohol and water, 
 which remain in the boer, and into the carbonic acid gas 
 which, for the most part, escapes from the surface of the 
 liquid and mingles with the surrounding air. 
 
 Three things are notable in this process : first, That the 
 quantity of yeast which is added, and the temperature at 
 which the liquor is afterwards kept to ferment, vary with 
 every kind of beer ; second, That the yeast has a tendency 
 to reproduce a beer which, in flavour, &c., shall resemble 
 that from which it has been obtained ; and third, That the 
 whole of the sugar contained in the wort is never in practice 
 transformed into alcohol. Good beer however clear, 
 hard, bright, and bitter always retains a pleasant sweetish 
 taste. From one-half to three-fourths only of the sugar in 
 the wort is decomposed. Were the fermentation not so 
 regulated as to leave this residue of undecomposed sugar, 
 the beer would refuse to keep. It would turn sour in the 
 cask.* 
 
 I do not follow further the manufacture of this impor- 
 tant beverage. But I cannot dismiss the beautiful series 
 of operations of which it consists, without calling the atten- 
 tion of my reader for a moment to the remarkable place 
 
 Uwt'i Didionary, pp. 103, 109.
 
 THE YEAST PLANT. 
 
 Fig. 47. 
 
 which the minute yeast plant (fig. 47) occupies among the 
 agents by which the final result is attained. I have already 
 described this plant ; how small it is ; 
 how mysteriously it appears, and how 
 rapidly it grows (p. 71). 
 
 As sulphuric acid and diastase, 
 by mere contact apparently with 
 starch, convert it wholly into sugar ; 
 so yeast, by a similar species of con- 
 tact, converts the sugar wholly into 
 alcohol, water, and carbonic acid. 
 How either of these transformations 
 is effected by the agents employed, 
 we cannot explain. 
 
 There is this interesting difference 
 in the way in which these three 
 agents operate that, while the sul- 
 phuric acid employed to transform HOW VeV'unite'fnto jointed 
 starch into sugar remains unchanged 
 
 in quantity, and while the diastase itself changes and disap- 
 pears, the yeast lives, multiplies, grows, increases in quan- 
 tity, and augments in size and vegetable development. The 
 minuteness of the yeast plant, consisting in its simplest form 
 of only a single cell, long prevented it from being gene- 
 rally regarded as a form of living matter. But the changes 
 it undergoes in the fermenting tub, day by day, as shown 
 by the microscope, prove it to be unquestionably a growing 
 vegetable. The drawing given above (fig. 47) shows the 
 appearance it has assumed after being in the wort only eight 
 hours. The cells have multiplied, increased in size, and 
 begun to string themselves together like beads. The draw- 
 ing in fig. 48 exhibits a still more developed and unques- 
 tionable plant-form sometimes found in the yeast deposited 
 by fully fermented London porter. The increase in the 
 
 Yeast after being in wort for 
 eight hours, showing 
 
 The transparency of the yeast 
 cells. 
 
 The grannies or nuclei in their 
 interior. 
 
 How the spores or seeds escape 
 from the interior of the cells. 
 
 How they germinate and mul- 
 tiply by budding.
 
 246 
 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 quantity of yeast during such fermentation is so great, that 
 35 Ib. of dry yeast employed in brewing 1250 gallons of 
 
 beer, have been known to 
 increase to, or yield, 247 
 Ib. 
 
 But that the veast 
 
 ^ ^\ IW W* S&f HI * 
 
 x \jn ~ 
 @ 
 
 lives and increases in the 
 fermenting liquid, does not 
 explain its action upon the 
 sugar. The mystery re- 
 mains none the less. How 
 this plant, in growing ra- 
 pidly itself, should induce 
 the sugar at the same time 
 to split itself up as I have 
 described, and that with- 
 out combining with or 
 otherwise appropriating 
 any of the new substances 
 produced this is still al- 
 together inexplicable. Nei- 
 ther chemistry nor physi- 
 ology can as yet hazard 
 even a plausible, light- 
 bringing conjecture upon 
 the subject. It is something, however, to be able to 
 see, in regard to any point that we have reached, the actual 
 limits of our positive knowledge. 
 
 The composition of the beer, obtained as I have describ- 
 ed, varies with almost every sample. 
 
 a. When beer is evaporated or boiled to dryness, it 
 leaves behind a certain quantity of solid matter, usually 
 spoken of as malt extract. This consists of undecomposed 
 sugar, of soluble gluten from the grain, of bitter substances 
 
 Mycoderma cervisice. A developed yeast- 
 plant. 
 
 The numbers indicate the successive 
 stages of the growth or development
 
 CONSTITUENTS OF BEER. 247 
 
 derived from the hop, and of a certain proportion of mineral 
 matter. It varies in quantity from less than 4 to upwards 
 of 8 Ib. in every 1 00 Ib. of good beer. In fine wine-like 
 beers, such as our modern English bitter beers, the quan- 
 tity of extract is small. In heavy sweet beers, it is large. 
 Good Edinburgh ale contains about 4 per cent., or nearly 
 half a pound to the gallon. The German Brunswick beers 
 are remarkable in this respect. A sweet small-beer of that 
 city contains 14 per cent, of extract; and a scarcely half- 
 fermented black drink, called Brunswick mumme, as much 
 as 39 per cent about 5 Ib. to the gallon. The nutritive 
 qualities of beer, which are often considerable, depend very 
 much Tipon the amount and nature of this extract. 
 
 b. But beer contains alcohol also, the result of the fer- 
 mentation ; and this varies in quantity quite as much as the 
 extract. Thus 
 
 Of Alcohol. 
 
 Small beer contains . . 1 to lj per cent, by weight 
 
 Porter, . . . 8$ to 6J " " 
 
 Brown stout, . . . 5J to 6J " " 
 
 Bitter and strong ales, . . 5J to 10 " " 
 
 By measure, these proportions of alcohol are about one- 
 fourth more than the numbers above given. 
 
 Upon this alcohol depends the purely intoxicating effect 
 of malt liquors. And in this respect our strong ales have 
 about the same strength and influence as hock and the light 
 French wines. But they contain, in addition, and as dis- 
 tinguishing them from the wines, 
 
 First, The nutritive matters of the extract which are 
 derived from the grain. These, as I have said, vary from 
 4 to 8 per cent. In milk, the model food, the nutritive 
 matter amounts to 12 per cent., and is, besides, somewhat 
 richer in curd, the ingredient which corresponds to the glu- 
 ten of plants. Beer, therefore, is food as well as drink. A
 
 248 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 little beef eaten with it makes up the deficiency in gluten, as 
 compared with milk ; so that beef, beer, and bread our 
 characteristic English diet are most philosophically put to- 
 gether, at once to strengthen, to sustain, and to stimulate 
 the bodily powers. 
 
 Second, The bitter narcotic principle of the hop. By 
 this, not less than by its nutritive quality, beer is distin- 
 guished from wine. Of this ingredient and its effects I shall 
 treat in a subsequent chapter.* 
 
 2. CHICA, or MAIZE BEER. The use of malt beer in 
 Germany, and probably also in England, is very ancient ; 
 but that of chica or maize beer in South America appears to 
 be equally remote. It was a common drink of the Indians 
 long before the Spanish conquest. 
 
 The usual way of preparing chica is to water or mois- 
 ten Indian corn, as the English maltster does his barley 
 to leave it till it sprouts sufficiently, and then to dry it in 
 the sun. It is now maize malt. This malt is crushed, 
 mashed in warm water, and then allowed to stand till fer- 
 mentation takes place. The liquor is of a dark yellow 
 colour, and has an agreeable, slightly bitter, acid taste, f It 
 is in universal demand throughout the west coast of South 
 America, and is consumed in vast quantities by the mountain 
 Indians. Scarcely a single hut in the interior is without its 
 jar of the favourite liquor. 
 
 In the valleys of the Sierra, however, the most highly- 
 prized chica is made in a somewhat different manner. ' All 
 the members of the family, including such strangers as 
 choose to assist in the operation, seat themselves on the floor 
 in a circle, in the centre of which is a large calabash, sur- 
 rounded by a heap of dried maize (malt). Each person takes 
 up a handful of the grain and thoroughly chews it. This is 
 
 * See THE NAECOTICS -WE ISTHTLGB nr. 
 t Vos TCHUDI, Travels in Peru, p. 15L
 
 HISTORY OF THE /EAST-PLANT. 249 
 
 deposited in the calabash, and another handful is imme- 
 diately subjected to the same process, the jaws of the com- 
 pany being kept continually busy until the whole heap of 
 corn is reduced to a mass of pulp. This, with some minor 
 ingredients, is mashed in hot water, and the liquid poured 
 into jars, where it is left to ferment. In a short time it is 
 ready for use. Occasionally, however, the jars are buried 
 in the ground, and allowed to remain there until the liquor 
 acquires, from age, a considerable strength, and powerfully 
 intoxicating qualities. 
 
 Chica thus prepared is called chica mascada, or che\ved 
 chica, and is considered far superior to that prepared from 
 maize crushed in the usual manner. The Serrano believes 
 he cannot offer his guest a greater luxury than a draught of 
 old chica mascada, the ingredients of which have been ground 
 between his own teeth.* 
 
 Disgusting as this process of manufacture appears to the 
 European, it is nevertheless founded in reason, and presents 
 a sort of instinctive or experience-born application of a beau- 
 tiful chemico-physiological principle. 
 
 We have seen that grain is malted in order that diastase 
 may be produced, and that it is then bruised and digested 
 in warm water, in order that this diastase may convert the 
 starch into sugar. But the saliva of the mouth possesses a 
 similar property of converting starch into sugar. Mix starch 
 intimately with saliva, and keep the mixture moderately 
 warm for a time, and sugar will gradually be produced. 
 
 This is what the Indian does in preparing bis chica 
 mascada. He chews the grain thoroughly : this reduces it 
 to a fine pulp, and at the same time mixes it intimately 
 with saliva. When set aside, this pulp sweetens and after- 
 wards ferments. 
 
 * The Leisure Hour, June, 1S58, p. 872.
 
 250 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 The maize he makes his liquor from is a large grain. 
 The diastase produced during the malting which is not 
 always well conducted is often insufficient to convert the 
 whole of the starch into sugar, but the mixture of saliva aids 
 the diastase, and insures the change. It also aids in pro- 
 ducing and promoting the fermentation which suceeds. 
 
 It is very interesting to discover so beautiful a chemico- 
 physiological reason for a practice so disagreeable and ap- 
 parently so unaccountable. 
 
 Chica is not always made from maize. It is prepared 
 also from barley, rice, pease, yuccas, pine-apples, grapes, 
 and even bread (Vox TCHUDI). The name, originally re- 
 stricted to the liquor obtained from maize, appears to have 
 been gradually applied to the fermented drinks of various 
 kinds which are in use in different parts of South America. 
 A variety of chica mascada is made in some places from the 
 pods of the Prosopis algaroba, which are very sweet, mixed 
 with the bitter stalks of the Schinus molle. Old women 
 are employed to chew these pods and stalks. The chewed 
 pulp is mixed with water, and the mixture soon ferments 
 and forms an intoxicating beer.* The addition of the bitter 
 ingredient in this case is interesting, not only because it re- 
 sembles our own more recent practice of adding hops and 
 other bitters to our beer, but because it intimates the exist- 
 ence of a remarkable similarity in natural taste among tribes 
 of men most remote in situation, and most unlike in under- 
 standing and habits. 
 
 3. BOUZA, MURWA, or MILLET BEER, is a favourite 
 drink of the Grim Tartars. They prepare it from ferment- 
 ed millet-seed, to which they add certain admixtures which 
 render it excessively astringent (OLIPHANT f). They call 
 it Bouza. 
 
 * Chemical GaaetU, 1S44, p. 131, note, 
 t Russian Shores of the Slack Sea, p. 377.
 
 BOTIZA, OR MILLET BEER. 251 
 
 The Arabians, Abyssinians, and many African tribes, 
 give the same name to a fermented drink which they usually 
 prepare from leff, the seeds of the Poa Abyssinica. They 
 occasionally employ millet- seed, however, and even barley, 
 for the purpose. Their bouza is described as a sour, thick 
 drink. 
 
 In Sikkim, on the southern slopes of the lower Hima- 
 laya, millet beer, under the name of murwa, is in very 
 general use. It is prepared by moistening the millet-seed 
 (Eleusine c&racana), and allowing it to ferment for some 
 days. On a portion of this, considered sufficient for the 
 occasion, or for the day's consumption, hot water is then 
 poured. It is usually drunk while still warm is served in 
 bamboo jugs, and sucked through a reed. When quite 
 fresh, it tastes " like negus of Cape sherry, rather sour." It 
 is very weak, but in a hot day's march is described as a very 
 grateful beverage (HOOKER).* 
 
 With the chemical peculiarities of these different forma 
 of millet beer we are at present unacquainted. The speci- 
 ality in their preparation seems to be, that they are ferment- 
 ed in the grain, and not in the wort, as is the case with 
 European beers ; and that the fermentation is spontaneous, 
 and not produced by yeast. Under these circumstances, 
 three chemical changes will be proceeding in the moist grain 
 at the same time : 
 
 First, The starch of the grain will be transformed 
 into sugar by the agency of the diastase, which is formed 
 during the sprouting that ensues after the grain is mois- 
 tened. 
 
 Second, This sugar is partly changed into alcohol by the 
 fermentation which spontaneously commences. 
 
 Third, A part of the sugar is changed also into lactic
 
 252 THE LIQUORS WE FERMEXT. 
 
 acid, or the acid of milk, through the action of the glutet 
 of the millet, which, during the spontaneous fermentation, 
 possesses the peculiar property of producing this change. 
 
 The drink obtained by infusing this altered grain in 
 water agrees with our European malt-liquors, therefore, in 
 containing nutritive matters derived from the starch and 
 gluten of the grain. But it differs from them in containing 
 lactic instead of acetic acid. The Indian murwa differs from 
 them also in being drunk like tea soon after it is infused, 
 and in containing no bitter addition resembling our hop. 
 The astringency of the bouza of the Crim Tartars seems to 
 indicate that they use something in preparing it besides the 
 fermented millet-seed. 
 
 It is a singular coincidence that the mode of infusing in 
 hot water and sucking through a tube, practised on the 
 Himalayas, is exactly the same as is practised in South 
 America in preparing mate or Paraguay tea. In each of 
 these remote districts the beverage prepared is taken hot, 
 and is in universal use ; and yet, so far as I am aware, this 
 mode of drinking is adopted only in North-Eastern Asia 
 and in Southern America. Is there anything more than a 
 mere coincidence in this ? 
 
 4. QUASS, or RYE BEER, a favourite Russian drink, 
 is a sharp, acid, often muddy liquor, which, in taste and ap- 
 pearance, resembles some of the varieties of bouza. It is 
 made by mixing rye-flour, and occasionally barley-flour, with 
 water, and fermenting. It may possibly contain lactic acid, 
 but I am not aware that its composition has yet been made 
 the subject of special chemical inquiry. 
 
 This is one of the cases in which un-malted grain is 
 employed in the manufacture of beer on the continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 5. KOUMISS, or MILK BEER. Milk, as I have explain- 
 ed in the preceding chapter, contains a peculiar kind of
 
 KOUMISS, OR MILK BEER.. 253 
 
 Bugai 1 , less sweet than cane sugar, to which the name of milk 
 sugar is given. This sugar, when dissolved in water, does 
 not ferment upon the addition of yeast ; but when dissolved 
 in the milk, along with the curd and butter, it readily fer- 
 ments, is transformed into alcohol and carbonic acid, and 
 gives to the liquor an intoxicating quality.* This fermen- 
 tation will take place spontaneously, but it is hastened by 
 the addition of yeast or of a little already fermented milk. 
 The fermented liquid is the koumiss of the Tartars. Mare's 
 milk is richer in sugar than that of the cow, and is usually 
 employed for the manufacture of milk beer. It is prepared 
 in the following manner : 
 
 To the new milk, diluted with " a sixth of its bulk of 
 water, a quantity of rennet, or, what is better, a sour kou- 
 miss, is added, and the whole is covered up in a warm place 
 for twenty-four hours. It is then stirred or churned to- 
 gether till the curd and whey are intimately mixed, and is 
 again left at rest for twenty-four hours. At the end of this 
 time it is put into a tall vessel and agitated till it becomes 
 perfectly homogeneous. It has now an agreeable sourish 
 
 * This transformation is effected, through the agency of the curd, in a way not 
 yet clearly understood. The mere change of substance that is, of the sugar into 
 alcohol and carbonic acid, supposing it to be produced directly appears very simple. 
 Thus, C representing carbon, II hydrogen, and O oxygen : C II O 
 
 One of milk sugar is . . . . . = 24 24 24 
 
 Four of alcohol are . . . . . = 16 24 8 
 
 Eight of carbonic acid, . . . . . = S 1C 
 
 -v-Sum, 24 24 24 
 
 So that, in one of milk sugar there are exactly the materials to form four of alcohol 
 and eight of carbonic acid. But the transfo mation is probably much more indirect 
 and circuitous the curd changing one portion of thp sugar into lactic acid, this acid 
 changing the rest of the milk sugar into grape sugar, and then the altered curd again 
 in some unknown way, causing this grape sugar to ferment and split up into alcohol 
 and carbonic acid. The non-chemical reader will understand in some degree, from 
 this example, how difficult it is to follow, and distinctly make out, the rapid and suc- 
 cessive changes which often take place In consequence of the mutual re-actions of 
 different chemical substances.
 
 254 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 taste, and, in a cool place, may be preserved for several 
 months in close vessels. It is always shaken up before it is 
 drunk. This liquor, from the cheese and butter it contains, 
 is a nourishing as well as an exhilarating drink, and is not 
 followed by the usual bad effects of intoxicating liquors. It 
 is even recommended as a wholesome article of diet in cases 
 of dyspepsia or of general debility." 
 
 By distillation, ardent spirits are obtained from this 
 koumiss, and, when carefully made, a pint of the liquor 
 will yield half an ounce of spirit. To this milk-brandy? 
 when only once distilled, the Kalmucks give the name of 
 arraca, and from the residue in the still they make a kind 
 of hasty-pudding. 
 
 The Arabians and Turks prepare a fermented liquor, or 
 milk beer, similar to the koumiss, which the former call 
 leban and the latter yaourt. In the Orkney Islands, and in 
 some parts of Ireland and of the north of Scotland, butter- 
 milk is sometimes kept till it undergoes the vinous fermen- 
 tation and acquires intoxicating qualities. 
 
 This milk beer has never, I believe, been chemically in- 
 vestigated ; but we know,_/zrs, That it agrees with the malt 
 beers in containing a considerable proportion of nutritive 
 matter. The butter and cheese of the milk remain as nutri- 
 tious ingredients of the beer. Second, That it differs from 
 the malt beers in containing more acid, and in owing its 
 sourness not to acetic acid but to the peculiar acid of milk, 
 the lactic acid. In both these respects it agrees remark- 
 ably with millet beer. We shall see in the next chapter 
 that, in the kind of acid it contains, milk beer agrees also 
 with cider. 
 
 6. AVA, CAVA, or ARVA. Similar to chica in the mode 
 of preparation is the ava or cava of the South Sea Islands. 
 This liquor is in use over a very wide area of the Pacific
 
 THE AVA PEPPER. 
 
 255 
 
 Ocean, and among the inhabitants of very remote islands. 
 In Tahiti, the use of it is said to have swept off many of the 
 inhabitants. In the Sandwich Islands it was some years ago 
 forbidden (SIMPSON). In the Samoan group it is the 
 only intoxicating liquor known, and old and young, male 
 and female, are very fond of it (WILKES). In the Tonga 
 Islands it is prepared and drunk on every festive occasion 
 (MARINER). And in the Feejee Islands, the preparation 
 of the morning drink of this liquor for the king is one of the 
 most solemn and important duties of his courtly attendants 
 
 (WlLKES). 
 
 The name of ava is given to the root of the intoxicating 
 long-pepper (Macropiper metkysticuni), fig. 49, which is 
 
 Fig. 49. 
 
 Macropiper methystieum. The Ava Pepper shrub. 
 
 Scale, 1 inch to 8 feet 
 
 Leaf, 1 Inch to 2 inches. Outline of leaf, natural size. 
 Part of stem and root, showing section, natural size.
 
 256 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 chewed, either in the fresh or in the dried state, as the 
 Indian chews his maize.* The pulp is then mixed with 
 cold water, which after a brief interval is strained from the 
 chewed fibre, and is ready for use. The taste, to one un- 
 accustomed to it, is not pleasant. It reminded Captain 
 Wilkes of the taste of rhubarb and magnesia ! According 
 to the white persons who have tried it, this infusion does 
 not intoxicate in the same manner as ardent spirits. It 
 more resembles opium in some of its effects, producing a 
 kind of temporary paralysis, tremors, indistinctness, and dis- 
 tortion of vision, and a confused feeling about the head. 
 
 The presence of a narcotic ingredient in the root of this 
 plant is very probable. Its leaf is used very largely for 
 chewing with the well-known betel-nut, f and is believed to 
 have a share in producing the pleasing state of mild excite- 
 ment in which the betel-chewer delights. The extraction of 
 this narcotic substance, during the process of mastication 
 and straining, accounts for the intoxicating qualities acquired 
 by the liquor, before ordinary fermentation and the produc- 
 tion of common alcohol has had time to begin. Still, 
 that the saliva produces a chemical change in the ingre- 
 dients of the root, upon which change their intoxicating 
 quality in some measure depends, is in itself very probable, 
 from what we know of the general properties of saliva. 
 And the probability of such a change becomes greater, 
 when it is considered that the intoxicating qualities of the 
 leaf only become sensible to the betel-chewer as the roll 
 he chews becomes softened in his inouth, and saturated with 
 saliva. 
 
 In the Tonga Islands, the ava root, when dry, is split 
 up into small pieces with an axe or other sharp instrument, 
 
 * Fig. 49 represents the leaf and a section of the root of the ara pepper. I have 
 been unable to procure a figure of the entire fresh root and plant. 
 t See THE NAECOTICS WE INDULGE ix.
 
 AVA-DRINKING IN THE FEEJEES. 257 
 
 is scraped clean, and is then handed to the attendants to 
 be chewed. No one offers to chew it but young persons 
 who have good teeth, clean mouths, and have no colds. The 
 women often assist (MARINER). But as the most curious 
 passage I have met with in connection with the preparation 
 and use of this liquor, I quote the following from Captain 
 Wilkes: 
 
 " The ceremony attending the ava-drinking of the king 
 at Somu-somu, one of the Feejee islands, is peculiar. Early 
 in the morning, the first thing heard is the king's herald, or 
 orator, crying out in front of his house, ' Yango-na ei ava,' 
 somewhat like the muezzin in Turkey, though not from the 
 house-top. To this the people answer, from all parts of the 
 koro, '-Mama ' (prepare ava). The principal men and 
 chiefs immediately assemble together from all quarters, 
 bringing their ava bowl and ava root to the mbure, where 
 they seat themselves to talanoa, or converse on the affairs 
 of the day, while the younger proceed to prepare the ava. 
 Those who prepare the ava are required to have clean and 
 undecayed teeth, and are not allowed to swallow any of the 
 juice, on pain of punishment. As soon as the ava root is 
 chewed, it is thrown into the ava bowl, where water is 
 poured upon it with great formality. The king's herald, 
 V{ith a peculiar drawling whine, then cries, ' Sevu-rui-a-na ' 
 (make the offering). After this a considerable time is 
 spent in straining the ava through cocoa-nut husks ; and 
 when this is done, the herald repeats with still more cere- 
 mony, his command, ' Sevu-rui-a-na.' When he has chanted 
 it several times, the other chiefs join him, and they all 
 sing, ' Mana endina sendina le.' A person is then com- 
 manded to get up and take the -king his ava, after which 
 the singing again goes on. The orator then invokes their 
 principal god, Tava-Sava, and they repeat the names of their
 
 258 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 departed friends, asking them to watch over and be gracious 
 to them. They then pray for rain, for the life of the king, 
 the arrival of wangara papalangi (foreign ships), that they 
 may have riches, and live to enjoy them. This prayer 
 is followed by a most earnest response, ' Mana endina ' 
 (amen, amen). They then repeat several times ' Mana 
 endina sendina le.' Every time this is repeated, they raise 
 their voices until they reach the highest pitch, and conclude 
 with ' 0-ya-ye,' which they utter in a tone resembling a 
 horrid scream. This screech goes the rounds, being re- 
 peated by all the people of the koro, until it reaches its 
 farthest limits, and, when it ceases, the king drinks his 
 ava. All the chiefs clap their hands with great regularity 
 while he is drinking ; and after he has finished nis ava, 
 the chiefs drink theirs without any more ceremony. The 
 business of the day is then begun. The people never do 
 anything in the morning before the king has drunk his 
 ava. Even a foreigner will not venture to work or make 
 a noise before that ceremony is over, or during the pre- 
 paration of it, if he wishes to be on good terms with the king 
 and people." * 
 
 It will strike the reader as a singular circumstance, 
 that this mode of preparing fermenting drinks the ava 
 and the chica by chewing the raw materials, should exist 
 in the islands of the Pacific, and amid the sierras of 
 South America, and there only. The materials employed 
 in the two regions are very different, and the chemical 
 changes produced by the chewing in the two cases very 
 different also, though the apparent result, in the pro- 
 duction of an intoxicating liquor, is the same. Where did 
 the custom originate ? Is its origin continental or insular ? 
 Is it in any way connected with the eastward migrations, 
 
 * WILKBS' United States' Exploring Expedition^ vol. it, p. 9
 
 COINCIDENCE IN CUSTOMS. 259 
 
 which the unknown past has doubtless witnessed, toward"? 
 the Pacific shores of the American continent ? Where ana- 
 logies of tongue and features fail, may not the occurrence 
 of strange customs point to old national relations which now 
 no longer subsist ?
 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 THE WINES. 
 
 The wines. Apple and pear wines. Cider and perry. Differences in qnaniy. 
 Varieties of cider apple. Composition of cider; tendency to eour. Grape wines. 
 Rapid fermentation of grape juice. Circumstances influence the quality of 
 fane. Composition of wine. Proportion of alcohol In different wines ; propor- 
 tion of sugar. Tartaric acid the peculiar acid of grape %vine. Proportions of acid 
 in different wines. CEnanthic ether gives the vinous flavour to wines. Peculiar 
 odoriferous principles which impart to each wine its own flavour or bouquet 
 Consumption of wine in the United Kingdom. Palm wine or toddy. How ex- 
 tracted from the cocoa-nut tree, and from the date tree. Extensive use of palm 
 wine. Sugar-cane wine, or guarapo. Pulque, or agave wine. 
 
 II. THE WINES. Wines are distinguished from beers 
 chiefly by three characters : First, They contain little of 
 that solid nutritious matter which enables our home-brewed 
 beer to feed the body as well as quench the thirst and ex- 
 hilarate the spirits. Second, They are free from any bitter 
 or narcotic ingredient, such as the hops we add so largely to 
 many of our English ales. Third, They are all fermented, 
 without the addition of yeast, by a spontaneous fermenta. 
 tion ; and in consequence they contain other acids besides 
 the acetic acid, or vinegar, to which sour beer owes its 
 acidity. 
 
 1. APPLE AND PEAK WIXES. Cider and perry are
 
 APPLE AND PEAR WINES. 261 
 
 well-known fermented drinks. The former especial. y is 
 largely prepared and consumed in England, France, and 
 North America. 
 
 The expressed juices of the apple and the pear contain 
 grape sugar already formed. When left to themselves they 
 soon begin to ferment, without the addition of yeast ; and 
 during this fermentation, the sugar is converted into alcohol 
 in the way already described. 
 
 Cider differs in flavour, in acidity, in strength, and con- 
 sequently in quality, with many circumstances. The kinds 
 of apples which are grown and used for the purpose, the de- 
 gree of ripeness they are allowed to attain before they are 
 gathered, the time given them to mellow or ferment before 
 they are crushed, the skill with which the several varieties 
 are mixed before they are put into the mill, the nature of 
 the climate, the character of the season, the quality of the 
 soil, the mode in which the trees are managed all these 
 circumstances materially affect the quality of the expressed 
 juice as it flows from the crushing-mill ; and then the after- 
 treatment of the juice may introduce a hundred new shades 
 of difference among the several ripe ciders produced from the 
 same juice. 
 
 In Normandy, not less than five thousand differently- 
 named varieties of the acid or bitter apple are known, and 
 grown for the manufacture of cider ! Some of these varie- 
 ties are distinguished by as many as eighteen different 
 names in different parts of the country. In that province 
 also it is remarked, that the cider produced upon chalk 
 soils, from the same varieties of apple, differs in flavour from 
 that of sandy districts, and both from that of clay soils ; so 
 that the flavour of the soil (gout de terrain] is in Normandy 
 a familiar expression in reference to the qualities of this fer- 
 mented drink.* 
 
 * Seethe author's Jfotes on North America, VoL 1. p, 170.
 
 262 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 Amid these differences in quality, however, there are 
 certain general chemical characters in which all ciders agree. 
 They contain little extractive or solid nutritious matter. 
 No bitter or narcotic ingredient has been added to them. 
 They contain, on an average, about nine per cent, of alcohol 
 thus resembling in strength the common hock, the weaker 
 champagnes, and our stronger English ales. They are also 
 chemically distinguished from malt liquors by containing 
 lactic instead of acetic acid. In this latter respect they 
 agree with the spontaneously-fermented bouza, or murwa beer 
 of Abyssinia and the Himalayas, and with the milk beer of 
 the Tartarian steppes. 
 
 Cider is further distinguished by the great facility 
 with which it becomes sour, or runs to acid. Hence the 
 frequency of hard cider, the difficulty of transporting it 
 unchanged from place to place, and the frequent disappoint- 
 ments which attend the efforts to keep it sound for any length 
 of time. 
 
 2. GRAPE WINE. The name of wine is usually given 
 among us, by way of eminence, to the fermented juice of the 
 grape. This juice, like that of the apple, contains grape 
 sugar ready formed ; and, like the juices of the apple, the 
 pear, the gooseberry, and most other fruits, it enters easily 
 and speedily into spontaneous fermentation. \Vithin half 
 an hour, in ordinary summer weather, the clearest juice 
 of the grape begins to appear cloudy, to thicken, and to 
 give off bubbles of gas. Fermentation has already com- 
 menced ; and within three hours a distinct yellow layer 
 of yeast has collected on the surface, and a sensible quan- 
 tity of alcohol has been formed in the body of the liquid. 
 It is still a mystery in what way the germ, seed, or sporule 
 of the yeast plant obtains admission into the liquid juice, 
 and in such quantity as to give rise to an almost instanta- 
 neous fermentation.
 
 SPIRIT AND SUGAR IN WINES. 
 
 263 
 
 Grape wine differs in composition and quality with a 
 thousand circumstances. The climate of the country, the 
 nature of the season, the soil of the locality, the variety of 
 grape, the mode of culture, the time of gathering, the way 
 in which the fruit when gathered is treated and expressed, 
 the mode of fermenting the juice or must, the attention 
 bestowed upon the young wine, the manner in which it is 
 treated and preserved, the temperature at which it is kept, 
 the length of time it is preserved, upon these, and numerous 
 other conditions, the composition and quality of wine are de- 
 pendent. All grape wines, however, contain 
 
 a. A notable proportion of alcohol, or pure spirit of 
 wine. This proportion is different in different kinds of wine, 
 and varies considerably also in wines of the same kind- 
 Thus the proportion of absolute alcohol, by measure, in our 
 best-known wines is as follows : 
 
 
 
 
 In 100 
 
 
 In 100 
 
 
 
 
 measures. 
 
 
 measures. 
 
 Port, . 
 
 
 
 21 to 23 
 
 Khenish, . 
 
 8 to 18 
 
 Sherry, 
 
 
 
 15 25 
 
 Moselle, 
 
 8,, 9 
 
 Madeira, 
 
 
 
 IS 22 
 
 Malmsey, 
 
 16 
 
 Marsala, 
 
 
 
 14 21 
 
 Tokay, . 
 
 9 
 
 Claret, 
 
 
 
 9 15 
 
 Champagne, 
 
 e is 
 
 Burgundy, 
 
 
 
 7 18 
 
 
 
 The wines we commonly drink in this country are, there- 
 fore, two or three times stronger in spirit than those of 
 France or Germany. 
 
 b. A more or less sensible quantity of grape sugar, 
 which has escaped the decomposing action of the fer- 
 mentation. This gives to wines their sweet taste and 
 fruity character. Wines are called dry when they con- 
 tain little sugar. The order of sweetness in certain wines, 
 as they are brought to the English market, is as follows, 
 ( JONES) :
 
 264 THE LIQUORS \VE FERMENT. 
 
 Claret, Burgundy, Rhine, and Mosello wines con- 
 tain no sensible quantity of sugar. 
 Sbony contains 4 to 20 grains in the ounce. 
 
 Madeira 6 20 
 
 Champagne 6 23 
 Port 16 84 
 
 Malmsey 56 66 
 
 Tokay 74 
 
 Samos 83 
 
 Paxarette 94 
 
 The four last-named are called sweet wines, and the ex- 
 treme fruitiness of some port wines is indicated by the large 
 proportion of sugar which this variety of wine sometimes 
 contains. Sugar is added to the juice of the champagne 
 grape by the grower. This is necessary, not only to give it 
 body, but to keep it sparkling, and to prevent its becoming 
 BOUT. And it is remarkable that the selection of the kind 
 of sugar which is added has great influence upon the flavour 
 of the wine. If doubly-refined cane and beet sugars be 
 added respectively to the same champagne, the one will give 
 the liquor the aroma and pleasant flavour of the cane-juice, 
 the other the disagreeable gout of the beet-root. In the 
 wine, the senses of taste and smell readily discover traces of 
 impurity derived from the sugar, which neither eye, nose, nor 
 mouth can detect in the purified sugar itself. 
 
 c. A variable proportion of free acid, which imparts to 
 them a more or less distinctly sour taste. We have seen 
 that neither malt, beer, nor cider are ever quite free from 
 acid, and the same is the case with wine. Only the grape 
 wine is made sour by tartaric acid.* Thus 
 
 Acetic acid (vinegar) is the acid otmaU 'beer. 
 
 Lactic acid is the acid of millet beer, milk beer, and cider. 
 
 Tartaric acid is the acid of grape wine. 
 
 * Tartaric acid is the acid which gives its sourness to cream-of-tartar, and which 
 wo use along with soda in making artificial seidlitz powders. It is so named, be- 
 cause it is extracted from the tartar or crust which deposits Itself on the sides cf wine- 
 easts 01 bottles, by long standing.
 
 ACIDITY OP LIQUORS. 265 
 
 In all the three liquors, acetic acid is present in greater 
 or less quantity, as this is always produced when the fer- 
 mentation of alcoholic liquors is allowed to proceed too far. 
 But lactic acid is found neither in malt beer, nor in grape 
 wine, in sensible quantity ; nor is tartaric acid found ft beer 
 or cider. These acids, therefore, characterise the liquors in 
 which they especially exist, and establish a marked chemical 
 distinction among the three classes of fermented drinks to 
 which they severally belong. 
 
 Wines made from unripe grapes sometimes contain 
 another peculiar acid which resembles the acid of lemons 
 (citric acid), but this acid disappears from the fruit as it 
 ripens. 
 
 Tartaric acid exists in the juice of the grape in com- 
 bination with potash, forming what is called bi-tartrate of 
 potash, or cream-of-tartar a substance which has a well- 
 known sour taste. When the fermented juice is left at rest, 
 this bi-tartrate gradually separates from the liquor, and de- 
 posits itself as a crust or tartar on the sides of the casks and 
 bottles. Hence by long keeping good wines become less acid, 
 and every year added to their age increases, in proportion, 
 their marketable value. 
 
 In regard to acidity, our common wines arrange them- 
 selves in the following order : 
 
 Sherry is the least acid. 
 Port comes next 
 
 Champagne 
 
 Claret 
 
 Madeira 
 
 Burgundy 
 
 Ehine wines 
 
 Moselle is most acid. 
 
 d. A minute proportion of an ethereal substance to 
 which the name of cenanthic ether is given, and to which 
 grape wines owe the agreeable vinous odour which charao- 
 12
 
 266 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 terises them all. When obtained in a separate state this 
 ether is a very fluid liquid, of a sharp, disagreeable taste, 
 but having an odour of wine so excessively powerful as to be 
 almost intoxicating. It does not exist in the juice of the 
 grape, but is produced during the fermentation. It seems 
 also to increase in quantity by keeping, as the odour of old 
 wines is stronger than that of new wines. So powerful is 
 the odour of this substance, however, that few wines con- 
 tain more than one-four-thousandth part of their bulk of 
 it ! Yet it is always present, can always be recognised by 
 its smell, and is one of the general characteristics of all 
 grape wines. 
 
 e. Besides the general vinous flavour derived from this 
 oenanthic ether, all wines contain one or more odoriferous, 
 more or less fragrant, substances, to which the peculiar 
 bouquet or scent of each is due. As these give the special 
 character to the wine, they are more or less different in each 
 variety. They are present even in more minute quantity 
 than the cenanthic ether, and their chemical nature is as yet 
 very little understood. 
 
 Grape wine is the principal fermented drink of the 
 southern European nations. The consumption in the United 
 Kingdom in 1853 amounted to upwards of seven millions of 
 gallons (7,197,572). This is chiefly consumed by the upper 
 classes. In England, beer is the poor man's substitute , 
 while in Scotland and Ireland, whisky, more or less diluted 
 with water, takes its place. 
 
 3. PALM WINE, or TODDY. The sap of many palm- 
 trees is rich in sugar. In some countries this sugar is 
 extracted by boiling down the collected juice, as cane 
 sugar is extracted from the expressed juice of the sugar 
 cane (see p. 219). In other countries the juice is allowed 
 to ferment, which it does spontaneously, and in hot climates 
 within a very short period of time. This fermentation con-
 
 PAT.M WINE, OR TODDY. 
 
 267 
 
 Fig. 60. 
 
 verts the sugar into alcohol, and the juice which contains it 
 into an intoxicating liquor. 
 
 In the islands of the 
 Indian Archipelago, the 
 Moluccas, and the Philip- 
 pines, an intoxicating li- 
 quor is prepared in this 
 way from the sap of the 
 gommuti palm, Saguerus 
 saccharifer. It is called 
 neva in Sumatra, and the 
 Batavian arrack is dis- 
 tilled from it. The cocoa 
 palm, Cocos nucifera (fig. 
 50), produces the palm 
 wine, known in India and 
 the Pacific by the name 
 of toddy. The mode of 
 collecting it in the islands 
 of the Pacific is thus de- 
 scribed by Capt. Wilkes : 
 
 " The karaca or toddy 
 is procured from the spathe 
 of the cocoa-nut tree, which 
 is usually about four feet 
 long and two inches in dia- 
 meter. From this spathe .__! 
 the flower and fruit are 
 produced ; but in order to 
 
 procure their favourite Cocos nucifera The Cocoa-nut Palm, 
 toddy, it is necessary to Scale, 1 inch to 1 2 feet. 
 
 prevent nature from taking her course in bringing forth the 
 fruit. With- this view they bind up the spathe tightly with 
 sennit, then cut off the end of the spathe and hang a cocoa-
 
 268 
 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 Fig. 51. 
 
 nut shell to catch the sap as it exudes. One tree will yield 
 
 from two to six pints of karaca. 
 When first obtained from the 
 tree it is like the milk of the 
 young cocoa-nut, and quite lim- 
 pid, but after it stands for a few 
 hours it ferments and becomes 
 acid. When the sap ceases to 
 drop, another piece is cut off the 
 spathe, and every time the flow 
 ceases the same process is re- 
 peated until the spathe is entirely 
 gone. Another spathe is formed 
 soon after, above this, which is 
 suffered to grow, and when large 
 enough is treated in the same 
 manner." * 
 
 This method of cutting the 
 spathe, or flowering head, is a 
 very common one for procuring 
 the sweet sap of the palm trees. 
 In some countries, however, it is 
 obtained, like that of the sugar 
 maple and the manna ash, by sim- 
 ply making an incision near the 
 top of the tree. This custom 
 prevails in the interior of Africa, 
 and in the Indian province 
 of Bahar, where the abundant 
 date-palm (fig. 51) is yearly 
 
 Phoenix dnctylifera The Date Palm, bled for the favourite toddy. Dr. 
 Scale, 1 Inch to 20 feet. _,. , -, > 
 
 Fruit, i inch to 2 inches. Hooker thus describes a grove 
 
 * United States' Exploring Esepedition, vc- ii., p. 280.
 
 WINE OF THE DATE TREE. 269 
 
 of date palms in which he encamped on the banks of the 
 Soane river in that province : 
 
 " All were curiously distorted, the trunks growing zig- 
 zag, from the practice of yearly tapping the alternate sides 
 for toddy. The incision is made just below the crown, and 
 elopes upwards and inwards. A vessel is hung below the 
 wound, and the juice conducted into it by a little piece of 
 bamboo. This operation spoils the fruit, which, though 
 eaten, is smaller and much inferior to the African date." * 
 
 In India, generally, it is the fan palm (Borassus) which 
 is chiefly bled for toddy. But in Bahar the date tree is 
 preferred, because its sap more readily ferments. In the 
 fertile oases which are sprinkled over the desert Sahara of 
 Northern Africa, where date- tree forests cover the soil, and 
 form the chief food and wealth of the inhabitants, this 
 variety of palm is constantly tapped in the flowering season 
 by the Arab and other Mahommedan tribes. They call the 
 sap Zagmi, and from two to three pints are yielded by 
 each tree in a single night. But wine of the best quality 
 is said to be yielded by the oil palms ( Cocos butyracea 
 and Elais guineensis) which grow on the west African 
 coast ; while for abundant yield few excel the Caryota 
 urens, the most beautiful of Indian palms, which will often 
 yield a hundred pints of toddy in the twenty-four hours ! 
 (ROXBURGH.) 
 
 In the oasis of Tozar, a dependency of Tunis, the date 
 wine is to be found in every house, and reeling Arabs are 
 frequently to be seen in the streets of its principal towns. 
 They are strict Mahommedans ; but they justify their ap- 
 parent disobedience to the Prophet by saying, " Lagmi is 
 not wine, and the Prophet's prohibition refers to wine." f 
 
 The juice of the palm tree varies in quality with the spe- 
 
 * Himalayan Journals, vol. i., p. 85. 
 
 t Evenings in my Tent. By the Kev. WILLIAM DAVIS.
 
 270 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 cies of palm, and with the locality in which it is grown. No 
 chemical examination of it has yet, I believe, been publish- 
 ed. As it flows from the tree it is sweet, and void of in- 
 toxicating properties ; but when allowed to stand for a short 
 time it usually ferments, and becomes first intoxicating, and 
 afterwards acid. Upon the tendency to ferment, the place 
 of growth appears to have an influence. This is shown by 
 the circumstance, that while the juice of the fan palm pro- 
 duces the usual toddy of India, that of the date tree is pre- 
 ferred to it among the hills of Bahar, because there the sap 
 of the fan palm does not readily ferment (HOOKER). 
 
 The date juice, in the Sahara, when drunk immediately, 
 tastes like genuine rich milk ; but when allowed to stand for 
 a night, or at most for twenty-four hours, it ferments, and, 
 except that it continues whitish, it acquires the sparkling 
 quality and flavour of champagne. This quality no doubt 
 differs with the kind of tree, and with the place of growth. 
 By distillation the fermented juice yields a strong brandy, 
 which is almost everywhere extracted from it in Africa, as 
 well as in Asia. At Monghyr, on the banks of the Ganges 
 which is celebrated not only for its iron manufactures but 
 for its drunkenness Dr. Hooker observes that the abundance 
 of toddy palms was quite remarkable. 
 
 In Chili, on the American coast, wine is made from a 
 species of palm ; in India, and other parts of Asia, palm 
 wine is extensively consumed ; while in Africa it is almost 
 the only fermented liquor in very general use. Though we 
 know so little of it in Europe, therefore, the wine of the 
 palm tree is drunk as an exhilarating liquor by a larger num- 
 ber of the human race than the wine of the grape. 
 
 4. SUGAR-CANE WINE, or GUARAPO. Like the sap of 
 the palm tree, that of the sugar cane ferments spontaneously, 
 and produces an intoxicating liquor. To this cane-wine the 
 negroes give the name of Guarapo, and they hold it in higb
 
 PULQUE, OCTLI, OK. AGAVE WINE. 
 
 esteem. It contains, of course, all the ingredients of the 
 cane juice, except those which are changed or naturally dis- 
 appear during the fermentation, and those which sub- 
 side when it clarifies. I am not aware, however, that any 
 special chemical examination of this drink has hitherto been 
 made. 
 
 5. PULQUE, OCTLI, or AGAVE WINE, is the favourite 
 drink of the lower classes in the central part of the table- 
 land of Mexico. It is produced by fermenting the sap of 
 the Maguey or American aloe (Agave Americana or Mexi- 
 cana), which is cultivated in plantations for the purpose. 
 This plant is of slow growth, but when full grown its leaves 
 attain a height of five to eight feet, and even more. It 
 flowers on an average only onco in ten years, and, as in the 
 case of palm wine, it is from the flower-stalk that the juice 
 is extracted. In the plantations, the Indian watches each 
 plant ao the time of its flowering approaches, and just when 
 the central shoot or flower-stem is about to appear, he makes 
 a deep cut, and scoops out the whole heart (el corazori) or 
 middle part of the stem, leaving nothing but the outside 
 rind. This forms a natural basin or well, about two feet in 
 depth and one and a half in width. Into this well the sap, 
 which was intended to feed the shoot, flows so rapidly that 
 it is necessary to remove it twice, and sometime three times 
 a-day. To make this more easy, the leaves on one side are 
 cut away and the central basin laid open, as is seen in 
 fig. 52. 
 
 The sap as it flows has a very sweet taste, and none of 
 that disagreeable smell which it afterwards acquires. It is 
 called aguamiel or honey-water. It ferments spontaneous- 
 ly, and a small quantity of old fermented juice speedily in- 
 duces fermentation in that which is newly drawn, as sour 
 leaven does in new dougV. It is usual, therefore, to set 
 aside a portion of sap, to ferment separately for ten or fifteen
 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMEJVT. 
 
 days, and to add a small quantity of this to each vessel 
 of fresh juice. Fermentation is excited immediately, and 
 
 Fig. 52. 
 
 Agave Americana The American Aloe. 
 
 As prepared for producing pulque, and with a distant flovvering-pknt. 
 Scale, 1 inch to 5 feet. 
 
 in twenty-four hours it becomes pulque in the very best 
 state for drinking. A good maguey yields from eight to 
 fifteen pints a-day, and this supply continues during two and 
 often three months (WARD).* 
 
 The chemical changes which take place during the fer- 
 mentation of this juice are the more interesting as they are 
 in some respects peculiar. 
 
 First, Alcohol is produced as in other fermented, liquors. 
 This is shown by the slightly intoxicating qualities of the 
 drink, and by its yielding, when distilled, an ardent spirit. 
 To this brandy the name of mexical is given, or of aguar- 
 diente de maguey. The average proportion of alcohol in 
 the pulque is not stated. 
 
 * Mexico in 1S2T, vol. I, p. 67.
 
 FERMENTATION OF AGAVE WINE. 
 
 273 
 
 Second, An acid is formed also the pulque, as a drink, 
 being described as resembling cider. But what is the nature 
 of the acid has not been determined. But, 
 
 Third, The most remarkable result of the fermenta- 
 tion is, that the nearly smell-less juice acquires a fetid and 
 disagreeable odour of tainted meat. This makes the liquor 
 be looked upon at first with disgust, especially by Europeans. 
 It is so cool, agreeable, and refreshing, however, that this 
 first disgust being overcome, the pulque is preferred, even by 
 Europeans, to every other liquid. 
 
 The nature of this evil-smelling ingredient, and the 
 chemical changes by which it is produced, have not been 
 investigated. It is probably similar in kind to that which 
 gives the bad smell to putrid fish (Trimethylamine).* Sub- 
 stances of this kind are sometimes produced in the living 
 plant. The Bladder-headed Saussurea, for example, which 
 grows in the Himalayas, emits as it grows the smell of putrid 
 meat; and the Stapdias are called carrion-flowers, because 
 of the disagreeable putrid odours they exhale. 
 
 The natives of Mexico ascribe many good qualities to 
 their national drink. It is an excellent stomachic, promotes 
 digestion, induces sleep, and is esteemed as a remedy in 
 many diseases. It is chiefly in the neighbourhood of large 
 towns, like Puebla and Mexico, that the maguey plantations 
 exist. The pulque so soon passes that state of fermentation 
 at which it is most pleasant to drink, that the manufacture 
 only pays where a speedy sale is certain. The brandy or 
 aguardiente, which is not liable to this inconvenience, is 
 largely manufactured, and more widely consumed than the 
 pulque itself. 
 
 * See in a subsequent chapter THE SHELLS wi DISLIKE.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 THE BRANDIES. 
 
 The brandies, or ardent spirits. Methods of distillation. Absolute alcohol Strength 
 of different varieties of spirits. Peculiarities in the preparatory processes of the 
 distiller. Use of raw grain mixed with malt ; profit of this. Average produce of 
 proof spirits. Peculiar flavour of cognac, rum, &c. Consumption of home- 
 made ardent spirits in tho three kingdoms. Quantity of malt used in brewing. 
 Spirits consumed in the form of beer. Comparative sobriety of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland. Consumption of foreign liquors. Alleged greater intemperance of 
 Scotland and Ireland: how this impression has been produced. Influence of 
 the nutritive matter, and of the hops contained in beer. Influence of general 
 food and temperament Ardent spirits serve the same purpose as the starch and 
 fat of onr food, and retard the waste of the body. Wine, " the milk of the aged." 
 Substances employed to give a fictitious strength to fermented liquors. 
 
 III. THE BRANDIES, or ARDENT SPIRITS. When fer- 
 mented liquors, such as those above described, are put into 
 an open vessel and heated over a fire till they begin to boil, 
 the alcohol they contain rises in the form of vapour, along 
 with a little steam, and escapes into the air. If this boiling 
 be performed in a close vessel, from which the vapours as 
 they rise are conducted by a pipe into a cooled receiver, 
 they condense again into a liquid state. This is the process 
 called distillation, and the vessel in which it is carried on is 
 called a still.
 
 PROCESS OF DISTILLATION. 
 
 275 
 
 1. THE DISTILLATION. A retort connected with a re- 
 ceiver, over which a stream of cold water is kept flowing 
 (fig. 53), represents the simplest form of such a still ; but 
 
 Fig. 53. 
 
 many more complicated forms of apparatus have been con- 
 trived for the purpose of conducting the process with economy 
 and efficiency. The following illustration (fig. 54) represents
 
 276 
 
 THE LIQUORS \\'E FERMENT. 
 
 a form of still, of common use in our laboratories, for distil- 
 ling water. The kettle A, which contains the water, is cov- 
 ered by the movable dome B, from which the pipe b c con- 
 ducts the vapour into the receiver R, which is surrounded 
 with cold water. Thence the condensed liquid descends 
 through a continuation of the tube, bent spirally, called the 
 icorm, by which it is exposed to the prolonged action of the 
 cold water, till at length it flows quite cool into the bottle 
 placed to receive it. Into the worm-tub a stream of cold 
 water constantly enters by the pipe p p, while a similar 
 stream of warm water as constantly escapes by the pipe q. 
 
 Arrangements somewhat different are made in the large 
 distilleries, chiefly with the view of economising time and 
 fuel. The following (fig. 55) represents a common form of 
 
 Fig. 55. 
 
 apparatus, where. the process of spirit-distillation is conduct- 
 ed on a large scale. The principal peculiarities in this are 
 first, The broad flat bottom of the pot or still A, by which 
 the effect of the heat is more quickly and fully obtained ;
 
 PROCESS OF DISTILLATION. 277 
 
 aud, second, The adoption of two worms, B and c, in differ- 
 ent vessels In the first of these vessels cold wort is put, 
 which is heated by the vapours as the distillation proceeds, 
 and when hot is run at once by the stopcock s into the still. 
 The second vessel contains cold water as before, and as this 
 water heats it is run off, and is employed in mashing the 
 grain. Thus heat is economised in various ways. 
 
 The spirit which passes off and condenses in the worm 
 is more or less mixed with water, but by means of succes- 
 sive distillations or rectifications, as they are called it 
 may be obtained quite free from water. It is then what 
 chemists call absolute alcohol. This pure or absolute alcohol 
 has a peculiar penetrating smell ; a hot, fiery, and burning 
 taste ; is about one-fifth part lighter than water ; * burns 
 readily, but with a pale flame when kindled in the air, 
 and is intoxicating in a high degree. It is used only for 
 chemical purposes. The spirit-of-wine, or common alcohol 
 of the shops, which we burn in our lamps, and employ for 
 other familiar uses, is already diluted with a considerable 
 proportion of water. 
 
 In the brandies, or varieties of ardent spirits which we 
 consume as exhilarating drinks, the alcohol is still further 
 diluted with water. 
 
 Thus the proportions of alcohol per cent., in some of the 
 common varieties of commercial spirits, are as follows (at 
 62 Fahr.) : 
 
 ALCOHOL. 
 By weight. By mcasuro. 
 
 British proof-spirit contains 50 57 
 
 Commercial Cognac, 
 Bnm, 
 Qeneva, 
 Whisky, 
 
 50 to 54 
 72 to 77 
 50 
 59 
 
 * A vessel which will hold 1000 grains of water will hold only 792 of absolute 
 alcohol. Its specific gravity is therefore said to bo 792, that of water being 1000 or 
 0.792, that of water being 1.
 
 278 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 So that on an average, we may say that the ardent spirits 
 we consume contain only half their weight, or three-fifths of 
 their bulk of absolute alcohol. They are about twice as 
 strong as our port, sherry, and Madeira wines. 
 
 Every different fermented liquor, when distilled, yields 
 an ardent spirit which has a flavour, and is generally distin- 
 guished by a name of its own. Thus wine yields what we 
 call brandy or cognac : fermented molasses yields rum ; 
 Indian corn, potatoes, and rye, yield liquors which are dis- 
 tinguished as corn, rye, and potato brandies ; while malt 
 liquors give our Scotch and Irish whiskies. If juniper 
 berries be added previous to distillation, as is usually done 
 in Holland, a flavour is imparted to the spirit which is 
 characteristic of gin or Hollands ; and if the malt be 
 dried over a peat fire, the smell and taste of the peat (the 
 peet-reek) accompany the spirit prepared from it ; and these, 
 in the estimation of the initiated, impart a peculiar value to 
 peet-reek whisky. 
 
 2. THE DISTILLERS' PROCESSES. But though malt and 
 other liquors, fermented in the usual way indeed, in almost 
 any way will yield brandy by distillation, yet the distiller 
 by profession conducts his fermenting operations in a some- 
 what different way from the brewer, whose object is merely 
 the production of beer. Thus 
 
 First, "We have seen that, in fermenting the wort for 
 the manufacture of beer, a large proportion of the sugar is 
 left in the liquor unchanged. The fermentation is stopped 
 before this sugar is transformed into alcohol, in order that 
 the beer may be pleasant to drink, and that it may keep in 
 the cask without turning sour. But the distiller's object is 
 to obtain the largest possible quantity of spirit from his 
 grain ; he therefore prolongs the fermentation until the 
 whole of the sugar is transformed, as nearly as possible, into 
 alcohol and carbonic acid. To leave any of it unchanged
 
 USE OF UNMALTED GRAIN. 279 
 
 would not only involve a loss of spirit, but, during the sub- 
 sequent distillation, might injure the flavour and general 
 quality of the spirit he obtained. The securing of this 
 point, therefore, requires on his part an attention to minute 
 circumstances, different a little in kind, but not less nice and 
 delicate than those which determine the success of the brew- 
 er's operations. 
 
 Again, the most agreeable and generally esteemed grain- 
 spirit is obtained when malted barley only is employed in 
 the manufacture. This yields in Scotland and Ireland the 
 best malt whisky. The profit of the distiller, however, is 
 often promoted by mixing with the malt a greater or less 
 proportion of unmalted grain, or even of potato starch. To 
 the reason of this I have already briefly alluded (p. 243), 
 but it is worthy of a fuller explanation. 
 
 We have seen that it is the diastase, produced during 
 the germination of the barley, which subsequently trans- 
 forms the starch of the grain into sugar. This diastase is 
 capable of so transforming nearly a thousand times its own 
 weight of starch ; but good malt contains only a hundred 
 of starch to one of diastase. The latter ingredient, there- 
 fore, will transform into sugar ten times as much starch as 
 it is associated with in the best malt. Hence a large quan- 
 tity of starch, either in the form of crushed unmalted grain, 
 or of potato starch, may be mixed even with ordinary malt 
 in the mash-tub, with the certainty that the diastase of the 
 malt will transform it all into sugar. 
 
 This is what the distiller does in making grain whisky ; 
 and the profit of it consists in this that he saves both the 
 expense of malting his grain and the loss of matter (usually 
 8 per cent.),* which barley always undergoes in malting. 
 
 * A hundred pounds of barley yield only eighty pounds of malt But of this loss 
 12 per cent consists of water driven off by the heat of the malt kiln, so that the real 
 loss of substance is 8 Ib. in the 100.
 
 280 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 He is able, also, to use for these additions of grain an in- 
 ferior or cheaper material than is usually employed for 
 conversion into malt.* The sweet wort obtained in this 
 way, when fermented and -distilled, yields a spirit of a some- 
 what harsher and less pleasant flavour than when malt alone 
 is used. 
 
 Along with the spirit, during the distillation of fer- 
 mented liquors, there always passes over a small but varia- 
 ble proportion of one or more volatile oily liquids, which 
 mix with the spirit and give it a peculiar flavour. These 
 volatile oils vary in kind, in composition, and in sensible 
 properties, with the source of the sugar which has been sub- 
 mitted to fermentation, and with the substances which are 
 present along with it in the wort. Hence the spirit obtain- 
 ed from almost every different fermented liquor is distin- 
 guished by its own characteristic flavour. Thus wine, brandy, 
 or cognac, derives its vinous flavour from the juice of the 
 grape ; and cognacs of different districts their special flavours 
 from the kinds of wine which are distilled in each. Rum ob- 
 tains its smell and taste from molasses, the scorched and 
 altered juice of the sugar cane ; whisky its peculiarities from 
 the barley-malt or grain that is mixed with it ; potato 
 brandy, from the mashed potato or its skin ; f palm brandy, 
 
 * Thus, in some of the Scotch distilleries, such a mixture as the following is em- 
 ployed : 
 
 Malt, 42 bushels at 40 Ib. a bushel. 
 Oats, 25 4T 
 Eye, 25 53 
 Barley, 153 63 
 
 250 
 
 The diastase in the 42 bushels of malt converts into sugar the starch of the whole 
 250 bushels, weighing eight times as much as the malt itsel This quantity of 
 grain yields on an average 583 gallons of proof whisky, or 14 gallons from 6 bushels of 
 the mixture. 
 
 t Potato brandy is contaminated, among other substances, by a volatile spirit 
 called amyle alcohol. And it is a singular circumstance that the cognac distilled in 
 the south of France from the grape husks known as Eau de vie de marc de raisin 
 also contains the same amyle alcohol. In the one case it i probably derived from th 
 skin of the root, in the other from the skin of the fruit
 
 CONSUMPTION OF ARDENT SPIRITS. 281 
 
 from the fermented toddy ; the aguardiente of Mexico, from 
 the strong-smelling pulque ; and the arraca of the Kalmucks, 
 from their fermented milk. And so with other varieties 
 of spirit. In each case a volatile substance, peculiar in 
 kind, accompanies the spirit ; and though this substance is 
 always very small in quantity, it is yet sufficient to impart to 
 each different variety a flavour at once characteristic and 
 peculiar to itself. 
 
 It is chiefly from malted and raw grain of various 
 kinds that ardent spirits are distilled in the British islands, 
 in Northern Europe generally, and in the North American 
 states and colonies. Maize or Indian corn is most exten- 
 sively employed for this purpose in the United States. 
 Potatoes are used to a considerable extent on the continent 
 of Europe ; and sugar is occasionally employed in our own 
 distilleries. 
 
 3. CONSUMPTION OF ARDENT SPIRITS The manufacture 
 and consumption of ardent spirits, especially in northern 
 climates, is exceedingly great. In the United Kingdom, the 
 quantity distilled and consumed, in the year ending on the 
 5th of January, 1854, was about 25 millions of gallons, 
 distributed as follows : 
 
 Distilled. Consumed. 
 
 England, .... 10,729,243 gallons. 10,850,307 gallon?. 
 Scotland, . . . 6,557,889 6,534,643 
 
 Ireland, .... 8,136,862 8,136,362 
 
 United Kingdom, 25,423,444 25,021,317 
 
 This is a very large quantity of ardent spirits to be con- 
 sumed by a population of less than thirty millions. The 
 numbers appear especially large in the cases of Scotland and 
 Ireland, and would seem at first sight to imply a much 
 greater proportionate consumption of alcohol in these coun- 
 tries than in England.
 
 282 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 But a simple application of chemical knowledge mate- 
 rially alters this first conclusion. 
 
 a. In the year ending on the 10th October, 1852,* the 
 quantity of malt consumed in each of the three kingdoms 
 in the making of beer, was in bushels 
 
 England, * 80,636,240 
 
 Scotland, 1,12T,224 
 
 Ireland, 1,266,344 
 
 United Kingdom, 83,029,808 
 
 From which numbers it appears, that of the 33 millions 
 of bushels of malt used in the three kingdoms for the 
 making of beer, 30 millions are consumed in England 
 alone. 
 
 Now, in the average of years, one bushel of malt yields 
 two gallons of proof spirit, so that the malt yearly made 
 into beer in England, if employed for making wliisky, 
 would yield the enormous quantity of 61 millions of 
 gallons ! 
 
 I have already stated, however, that in the fermentation 
 of the worts for the manufacture of beer, the whole of the 
 sugar is not transformed into alcohol. From one-fourth to 
 sometimes one-half of the whole sugar remains unchanged 
 in the beer. The quantity of malt, therefore, which is con- 
 sumed in England for the making of this milder drink does 
 not in reality indicate the consumption of so large a num- 
 ber of gallons of ardent spirits as the distiller would extract 
 from it. If we allow one-fourth of the whole for the sugar 
 remaining unchanged in the beer, then the quantity of ardent 
 spirits actually consumed in the three kingdoms would be 
 very nearly as follows (in gallons) : 
 
 * I use this return because I have not at hand any later one, which distinguishes 
 the malt used by the brewers from that used by the distillers.
 
 RELATIVE CONSUMPTION. 283 
 
 England. Scotland, Ireland. 
 
 Spii its consumed as such, 10,350,30T 6,534,648 8,136,362 
 
 Spirits consumed in the beer, 45,954,860 1,790,536 1,899,516 
 
 Total spirits consumed, 56,304,667 8,325,434 10,035,878 
 
 Now, if we divide these several total sums by the 
 population of each of the three kingdoms, we obtain the 
 following numbers for the quantity of ardent spirits con- 
 sumed per head in each country 
 
 England. Scotland. Ireland. 
 
 Total consumption in gallons, 56 J millions. 8J millions. 10 millions. 
 
 Population, .... 18 3 6i 
 
 Consumption per head in gallons, 3 J- 2^ ,- 1J 
 
 In so far as the mere consumption of alcohol, in the form 
 of home-made liquors, goes, therefore, it appears that Scot- 
 land does not in reality surpass England. On the contrary, 
 England somewhat exceeds Scotland, while both England 
 and Scotland greatly surpass Ireland. For every head of 
 its population, Ireland consumes less than half what is con- 
 sumed in England, and somewhat more than half of what is 
 consumed in Scotland. This very small comparative con- 
 sumption in Ireland is not to be ascribed to an increased 
 temperance caused by the labours of Father Matthew and 
 others. On the contrary, since his time the consumption 
 per head has greatly increased, as is seen by comparing the 
 last two decennial periods. Thus 
 
 And the consumption of spirit*. 
 
 In the year The population wa Total. Per head. 
 
 1842 8,175,124 5,290,650 6J pints. 
 
 1852 6,515,794 8,208,256 10 pints. 
 
 The consumption per head in Ireland is, therefore, 
 rapidly increasing ; and it is both fairer and safer, I 
 think, to ascribe this increase to a general advance in mate
 
 284 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 rial prosperity, than to augmenting intemperance and dis- 
 sipation. 
 
 b. But in estimating the actual and relative consump- 
 tion of alcohol in England and Scotland, there are still 
 two other items to be taken into calculation. Wine and 
 foreign spirits are imported into the United Kingdom, and 
 consumed in large quantities. Thus, in the year ending 5th 
 January, 1854 there was entered for home consumption, 
 in gallons, 
 
 Containing of prcof spirits. 
 Gallons. Gallons. 
 
 Vfino, . . T,19T,5T2 . 1,440,000* 
 
 Foreign spirits, ..... 5,131,618 
 
 Total, 6,571,618 
 
 Now, in England, the consumption of wine and foreign 
 spirits, among the middle and higher classes, is certainly far 
 more universal than among the same classes in Scotland. 
 A much larger proportion per head of the 6^ millions of 
 gallons of spirits, consumed in the form of imported liquors, 
 must therefore be ascribed to England. Let us suppose it 
 all to be consumed in Great Britain leaving the small con- 
 sumption of Ireland out of the question and that every 
 Englishman drinks two bottles for the Scotchman's one ; 
 then 
 
 The Englishman drinks 2| pints, and 
 
 The Scotchman ..... 1^ pints 
 
 of ardent spirits, in the form of imported liquors. Add- 
 ing this to the consumption, in the form of home-made 
 liquors, we have the total consumption per head as follows, 
 in gallons : 
 
 * Supposing foreign wines to contain an average of only ten per rent of alcohol, 
 which is probably one-half too low.
 
 GREATER SOBRIETY IN ENGLAND. 285 
 
 England. Scotland. 
 
 In hon-.e-made liquors, . . Sj. . . . 2J-| 
 In imported liquors, Op . . . Oj- 3 5 
 
 Total per head. ... 8| ... 2^ 
 
 Or, in England, the total consumption is about 3, and in 
 Scotland about 3 gallons per head. These numbers do not. 
 in themselves, imply very extreme intemperance in either 
 country. Were the total quantity of ardent spirits we use 
 really equally distributed and consumed in the above pro- 
 portions by the whole population, cases of drunkenness 
 would not necessarily occur. It is because many consume 
 more than their share that the evils of intemperance so often 
 manifest themselves. 
 
 c. Two chemico-physiological points in connection with 
 this subject are deserving of our consideration. It is very 
 generally believed, and has recently at least been very often 
 asserted and what is curious, most strongly and earnestly 
 in Scotland itself that in Scotland intemperance is a much 
 more common vice than in England. But how can this be, 
 since the average individual consumption of alcohol in Eng- 
 land is one-sixth part greater than in Scotland ? 
 
 And, again, Ireland has been reproached for its intem- 
 perance and for its love of whisky even more than Scotland, 
 and yet the individual consumption of alcohol in any form is 
 probably less in that island than in any northern country, 
 either European or American. Can this allegation be true, 
 or how is it to be accounted for ? 
 
 First, As to the alleged greater sobriety of England, it 
 is to be observed, that upwards of three-fourths of all the 
 alcohol drunk in that country is in the form of beer. This 
 liquor, as we have seen, feeds and nourishes while it exhila- 
 rates the Englishman. All which the distillers' fermented 
 wort contains, except its alcohol, remains behind in the still
 
 286 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 and is lost as food for man. All that the brewers' wort 
 contains, with the exception of what separates in the fining 
 of his liquor, is retained and drunk in the beer. Sugar and 
 gluten to the amount of from 4 to 8 per cent, of its weight, 
 exist in the malt liquor ; and these, by strengthening the 
 system, modify and mollify the apparent action of the alcohol 
 with which they are associated. They place malt liquors in 
 the same relation to ardent spirits as cocoa bears to tea and 
 coffee.* 
 
 Besides, beer is drugged, so to speak, with hops, the 
 tonic, narcotic, and sedative influences of which restrain, 
 retard, and modify the intoxicating action of the spirit. 
 Thus controlled by the nutritive and narcotic ingredients 
 it is associated with a larger proportion of ardent spirit 
 will produce a smaller sensible intoxicating effect than if 
 taken alone. And thus, a people may appear more temperate 
 and sober while in reality it consumes a larger proportion of 
 ardent spirits. 
 
 Second. But though these reasons may go far to ex- 
 plain the difference in the reputed sobriety of the two ends 
 of our own island, they scarcely explain why Ireland, which 
 consumes so little per head, should be charged with an 
 amount of intemperance greater even than Scotland itself. 
 Here I believe other causes come into play. Of these I 
 instance only two the less substantial food, and the more 
 excitable temperament of the Irish people. Every one 
 knows how easily a man becomes intoxicated if he pours 
 down ardent spirits into an empty stomach. And from 
 this extreme case the effect of a given quantity of spirits 
 becomes less as the quantity of good food eaten becomes 
 greater. It is least of all on the well-fed muscular beef- 
 eating labourer. 
 
 * Bee TOT BEVERAOM WE INTUS*.
 
 INFLUENCE OF TEMPERAMENT. "287 
 
 And, again, excitable people, even when well fed, are in- 
 fluenced more than others by intoxicating drinks. As a 
 people, it will, I believe, be conceded that the Irish are 
 more excitable than the British ; and likely, therefore, to 
 be overcome by a qiiantity of liquor which persons of a more 
 immovable temperament could, in the same circumstances, 
 drink with impunity. It is probable that the quality and 
 quantity of the national food has a material influence upon 
 national temperament. But however this be, I am inclined 
 to see, in the two things in the national food and the 
 national temperament an explanation of the alleged inso- 
 briety of a people who, it is certain, do really consume so 
 little intoxicating drink.* 
 
 This influence of temperament, in connection with that 
 of climate, has probable something to do also with the great 
 evils which are said to arise from the use of ardent spirits 
 among the European races settled in North America. These, 
 as is well known, have of late years given rise to much discus- 
 sion to strenuous efforts, on the part of the benevolent, to 
 check the consumption of fermented liquors and to the 
 passing of what is called the Maine Law, for the purpose of 
 effectually repressing it. 
 
 4. INFLUENCE OF ARDENT SPIRITS. In the ardour of 
 this crusade against fermented liquors, statements have 
 been hastily made by over-zealous champions of total absti- 
 nence, which are not quite borne out by chemical and physi- 
 ological researches. 
 
 Ardent spirits of every variety are little else than 
 alcohol diluted with a large proportion of water, and flavour- 
 
 * Good fellowship is an enemy to sobriety not for the vulgar reason that it pro 
 yokes to the passing of the bottle, but because it makes what is drunk have a greater 
 apparent effect. It is familiar to the knowing ones, that if a man wishes to drink, 
 he had better let his companions do all the talking. " Gin' ye're gaun to drink, sir, 
 dinna ye talk muckle." Here the temperament of the mercurial and excitable tell* 
 at onco.
 
 288 THE LIQUORS WE FERMENT. 
 
 ed with a minute admixture of volatile oil, the precise 
 action of which upon the system is not known. They con- 
 tain none, therefore, of the common forms of nutritive matter 
 which exist in our usual varieties of animal and vegetable 
 food. It does not follow from this, however, as some have 
 too broadly alleged, that they are incapable of serving any 
 useful purpose in the animal economy. On the contrary, it 
 is ascertained of ardent spirits 
 
 First, That they directly warm the body, and, by the 
 changes they undergo in the blood, supply a portion of 
 that carbonic acid and watery vapour which, as a necessity 
 of life, are constantly being given off by the lungs. They 
 so far, therefore, supply the place of food of the fat and 
 starch for example which we usually eat. Hence a 
 schnapps, in Germany, with a slice of lean dried meat, make 
 a mixture like that of the starch and gluten in our bread, 
 which is capable of feeding the body. So wo either add 
 sugar to milk, or take spirits along with it (old man's milk), 
 for the purpose of adjusting the proportions of the ingredients 
 more suitably to the constitution, or to the circumstances in 
 which it is to be consumed. 
 
 Second, That they diminish the absolute amount of 
 matter usually given off by the lungs and the kidneys. 
 They thus lessen, as tea and coffee do, (p. 191,) the natural 
 waste of the fat and tissues, and they necessarily diminish, 
 in an equal degree, the quantity of ordinary food which is 
 necessary to keep up the weight of the body. In other 
 words, they have the property of making a given weight of 
 food go further in sustaining the strength and bulk of the 
 body. And in addition to the saving of material thus effect- 
 ed, they ease and lighten the labour of the digestive 
 organs, which, when the stomach is weak, is often a most 
 valuable result. 
 
 Hence fermented liquors, if otherwise suitable to the
 
 ADULTERATIONS. 289 
 
 constitution, exercise a beneficial influence upon old people, 
 and other weakly persons whose fat and tissues have begun 
 to waste in whom the process of digestion, that is, does 
 not replace the tissues as fast as they naturally wt^te. 
 This lessening in weight or substance is one of the most 
 usual consequences of the approach of old age. It is a 
 common symptom of the decline of life. The stomach either 
 does not receive or does not digest food enough to replace 
 that which is daily removed from the substance of the body. 
 Weak alcoholic drinks arrest or retard, and thus dimi 
 nish the daily amount of this loss of substance. They 
 gently stimulate the digestive organs also, and help them 
 to do their work more fully and faithfully ; and thus the 
 body is sustained to a later period in life. Hence poets 
 have called wine " the milk of the old," and scientific philo- 
 sophy owns the propriety of the term. If it does not nour- 
 ish the old so directly as milk nourishes the young, yot it 
 certainly does aid in supporting and filling up their failing 
 frames. And it is one of the happy consequences of a tem- 
 perate youth and manhood, that this spirituous milk does not 
 fail in its good effects when the weight of years begins to 
 press upon us. 
 
 All this, of course, iu no way justifies the indulgence 
 in fermented liquors of any kind to excess, or palliates 
 the moral evils to which this excess invariably gives rise. 
 The good results I have spoken of follow only from a mode- 
 rate use of them. But the peculiar danger attendant upon 
 the consumption of intoxicating drinks arises from their ex- 
 treme seductiveness, and from the all but unconquerable 
 strength of the drinking habit when once formed. Their 
 peculiar malignity appears where they have once obtained 
 a mastery in their becoming the parent and nurse of every 
 kicd of suffering, immorality, and crime 
 
 " Who hath woe ? " says Solomon ; ' who hath sorrow ? 
 13
 
 290 THE LIQUORS wn FERMENT. 
 
 who hath contentions ? who hath babbling ? who hath 
 wounds without cause ? who hath redness of eyes ? They 
 that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed 
 \viu. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when 
 it giveth his colour in the cup. when it moveth itself aright 
 (sparkleth ?). At the last it biteth like a serpent, and 
 stingeth like an adder." 
 
 5. ADULTERATION OF FERMENTED LIQUORS. The real 
 strength of pure fermented liquors depends, as we have seen, 
 on the proportion of alcohol they contain. But in various 
 countries adulterating substances are added to them, chiefly 
 of a narcotic kind, for the purpose of imparting a fictitious or 
 apparent strength. 
 
 Thus, to malt beer, Cocculus indicus, grains of para- 
 dise, the root of the sweet flag, and even tobacco-leaves, are 
 added in England , the Ledum palustre and Ledum 
 latifolium, in North Germany ; the AckiUea millefolia, or 
 yarrow, in Dalecarlia ; and the seeds of Datura stramo- 
 nium in Russia, in India, and formerly in China. In Java, 
 ragi cakes, made of onions, black pepper and capsicums, are 
 fermented with boiled rice, to give a similar strength to rice 
 beer. 
 
 To grape wine poppy heads are now added in Persia. 
 In ancient Palestine, frankincense was added, especially to 
 the wine given to criminals, for the purpose of stupefying 
 them before the execution began ; and in ancient Greece, 
 sea-water in the proportion of 1 of water to 50 of wine, 
 with the view of aiding digestion, and preventing its affecting 
 the head. 
 
 To ardent spirits, seeds of thorn-apple are added in 
 India ; and in England, Malagueta pepper with capsicum, 
 calamus, and juniper berries, to give a hot, strong flavour to 
 London gin. 
 
 These substances are all foreign to the true nature and
 
 ADULTERATIONS. 291 
 
 composition of the liquors we ferment. They add nothing 
 to the amount of alcohol contained in these liquors. They 
 affect their quality generally bj T introducing narcotic ingre- 
 dients. The chemical properties of most of these narcotic 
 ingredients, and their action upon the system, will be treated 
 of in the immediately succeeding chapters upon the NAUCO- 
 
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 Memoirs of Napoleon, 
 
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 list of Stcrl HSnarabt'nsjy xorttat'ntJj t'n tl)is Hlustrattfo E&tiion. 
 
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 Party Leaders. 
 
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 SKETCHES OF 
 
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