Vickipedia

ROTATION OF CROPS. The plants like the animals of the farm differ much in their habits, and in the different sorts of food on which they subsist. The broad-leafed clovers, turnips, and mangold abstract from the air a large proportion of the materials of their growth; whilst the narrower-leafed grains and grasses, especially if their seeds are ripened, partake more largely of mineral food withdrawn from the soil. The cereals require for their healthy nutrition large supplies of phosphoric acid and silica; leguminous plants devour a large share of lime; turnips, carrots, and clover take up a great amount of potash. Corn-crops, occupying the ground during the greater part of the year, favor the growth of weeds; well-tended root-crops, on the other hand, afford better opportunity for deep culture, for the extirpation of weeds, for the convenient application of manures; whilst, being in great part consumed on the land, they raise its fertility. Mainly’ from such considerations, the farmer of arable land is led to grow a succession of dissimilar plants, or, in other words, to adopt a rotation of crops. The cereals exhausting the farm, en account of their ripened seeds being sold off. are generally alternated with fallow, root, or cleansing crops, or with beans and peas, which occupy a kind of intermediate position between the cereals and the roots; whilst clovers or grasses are taken at intervals of six or eight years. The rotation most suitable for a particular farm is, however, greatly modified by various circumstances, and especially by the nature of the soil, climate, markets, available supplies of extra manures, amount of live-stock kept, £c. That course of cropping is evidently the most desirable which will economically secure, with thorough cleanness of the soil, a high and increasing state of fertility.

Many rotations are based upon the Norfolk or four-course system, which consists of (1) Clover or mixed grass seeds; (3) Wheat, or in many parts of Scotland, oats; (3) Turnips, Swedes, mangold, potatoes, or bare fallow; (4) Barley. The details of this system are generally as follows. The clovers or grasses are mown or grazed; when cut, they are either used green or are dried for hay; the second crop is carted home for the cattle or horses; near towns, it is sold off; or it is consumed on the ground in racks by sheep, which on most highly cultivated farms receive besides a daily allowance of cake or corn. In districts where town-manure can be obtained, a top dressing is applied as soon as the first crop of grass is cut. On the poor and worse cultivated soils, the grass-crop occasionally remains down for two, or even three years, thus extending a four into a five or six years’ rotation. The clovers or mixed seeds are ploughed up in autumn, and followed generally in England by wheat, and in Scotland by oats. These crops are now usually drilled, to admit of horse and hand hoeing. After harvest, the stubble is, if possible, cleaned by the scarifier, grubber, or plough and harrows; or, where the management for several years has been good, any patches of couch-grass or other weeds are best forked out by hand. The land, especially if heavy, or intended for mangold drilled on the flat, as practised in the drier parts of England, may then be manured and deeply ploughed : the grubber and harrows, in April or May, suffice to prepare for the drilling of mangold or Swedes. Heavy land, intended either for roots or barley, should, in spring, be ploughed or disturbed as little as possible. In Scotland, and the cooler moist climates of the north and west of England, turnips and potatoes are grown on raised drills or balks, in which the manure lies immediately underneath the plant.

Frequent horse and hand hoeing should insure the thorough cleaning of the crop. Unless in the neighborhood of towns, where it is greatly more profitable to sell off the whole of the root-crop, part of the Swedes or mangold is taken home for the cattle, but the largest portion is consumed by sheep in the field. After the fallow or cleaning crop, another cereal crop is grown : under the Norfolk system, this is generally barley, with which the clovers or seeds are sown out. Where sewage or tank water is available, Italian rye-grass is often used, and on land in high condition, early large and repeated cuttings are obtained; but rye-grass has the disadvantage of being a worse preparation than clover for the wheat-crop which usually follows. The chief failing of the four-course system consists in the frequent recurrence of clover, which cannot be successfully grown oftener than once in six or eight years. To obviate this difficulty, one-half of the clover quarter is now often put under beans, peas, or vetches, thus keeping the grass or clover seeds eight years apart.

The Norfolk four-course system is unsuitable for heavy land, where a large breadth of roots cannot be profitably grown, and where their place, as a cleaning crop, is taken by bare fallow, vetches, or pulse. Bare fallows are, however, less frequent than formerly, being now confined to the most refactory of clays, or to subjects that are so hopelessly full of weeds as to require for their extirpation several weeks of summer weather, and the repeated use of the steam or horse ploughs, the scarifier, grubber, and harrows. In such circumstances, winter vetches are often put in during September or October, are eaten off by sheep and horses in June or July, and the land afterwards cleaned: this practice is extensively pursued on the heavier lands in the mid-land and southern counties of England.

In such localities, the following system is approved of—(1) The clover leas are seeded with (2) wheat; then come (3) beans, pulse, or vetches, manured, horse or hand hoed; (4) On good land, wheat succeeds; (5) Oats or barley often follow, but, to prevent undue exhaustion of plant-food, this system requires considerable outlay in artificial manures, cake, and corn; (6) A fallow, or fallow crop, deeply and thoroughly cultivated, and well manured, comes to restore cleanness and fertility; (7) Barley or wheat is drilled, and amongst this, the clover-seeds are sown. On the heavier carse-lands in Scotland, the following plan of cropping is generally practiced—(1) Clover; (2) Oats; (3) Beans; (4) Wheat; (o) Bare fallow or fallow crop, usually including a considerable breadth of potatoes; (6) Wheat; (7) Barley, with which the clovers or mixed grasses are sown. Under this system, it is difficult, with so few cleaning crops, to keep the land clean; roots, besides, are not produced in quantities sufficient properly to supply either cattle or sheep during the winter. To remedy these defects, roots may be introduced after the oats, and would be followed either by wheat or barley. This extends the rotation from seven to nine years.

In all well-cultivated districts, whether of heavy or light land, stock-farming is extending, and a more vigorous effort, is being made to raise the fertility of the land. Root-crops are accordingly more largely grown; indeed, it is sometimes found profitable to grow two root-crops consecutively; thus, after turnips, Swedes, cabbage, or mangold, well manured from the town or farmyard, and eaten off by sheep, potatoes of superior quality are produced with one ploughing, and a dose of portable manure. Specialities of management occur in almost every locality. In Essex, winter-beans follow wheat, are got off in August, and are succeeded by common turnips. Near London, and in other southern districts, early potatoes or peas are grown for market, and are immediately followed by turnips. In ninny parts of England, where the soil and climate are good, rye or vetches sown in autumn are consumed in early summer, and a root-crop then put in.

Good rotations do not necessarily insure good farming; they are merely means to an end. By carefully removing weeds, by deeply stirring the soil, and by applying appropriate manures, wheat may be grown on the same soil for an indefinite number of years. At Lois-Weedon, in Northamptonshire, the Rev. S. Smith has for twenty years cultivated alternate three-foot strips of wheat and well-forked bare fallow; the land that is wheat this year being fallowed next. Although no manure whatever is applied, and only one-half of the experimental plot is each year under crop, the yield continues to stand at four quarters per acre, which is about four bushels per acre in excess of the average acreable produce of Great Britain.

The Lois-Weedon system, owing to the outlay which it entails for manual labor, probably could not be carried out with profit on a large scale. It demonstrates, however, the inherent resources lying dormant, especially in clay-soils, and indicates how they may be rendered available by thorough cultivation. It is mainly by such cultivation that steam-power proves so serviceable in our fields. The soil is turned up deeply to the disintegrating solvent influences of wind and weather; the necessary operations are rapidly overtaken in good season; much work is accomplished in autumn; treading and poaching of the surface is avoided; whilst a larger breadth of roots is attainable for the healthy and economical support of the sheep and cattle-stock, which not only directly enhance the returns of the farm, but also raise rapidly its manurial condition.

As agricultural education and enterprise extend, fixed rotations will be less regarded. The market-gardener, who extracts a great deal more from his land than the farmer has hitherto been able to do, does not adhere to any definite system of cropping. If the farm is kept clean and in improving condition, there can be no harm in growing whatever crops it is adapted to produce. Cropping clauses are only requisite during the three or four last years of a tenancy. The restrictions found in some agreements, preventing the growth of clover for seed, flax, and even potatoes, are inadmissible. Equally objectionable are clauses against the sale of particular sorts of produce, such as hay or roots.

The farmer, if he is fit to be intrusted with the use of the land, ought to be permitted to grow or sell off any crop he pleases, provided an equivalent in manure be brought back. On well-cultivated land, in good condition, it is now the practice of the best farmers to take oats or barley after wheat; indeed, some of the best malting barley in Essex, on the Scottish carse-lands, and elsewhere, is now grown after wheat. The frequent growth of cereals, and the heaviest of hay and root crops, even when removed from the farm, may be fairly compensated for by large doses of town-dung or of sewage. The plant-food disposed of in the more ordinary sales of the farm is economically restored by the use of bones or superphosphate, guano or nitrate of soda, or by keeping-plenty of sheep, penning them over the land, and supplying them liberally with cake and corn.

ANTISEPTICS (anti, against, septikos, causing putrefaction) are substances which prevent or arrest putrefaction and analogous fermentive changes. It has been proved that Putrefaction (q. v.), fermentation of grape-juice (vinous fermentation), of milk, (lactic fermentation), and many, though probably not all other fermentations, depend upon the presence of microscopic vegetable organisms (see GERM THEORY). To prevent these processes, then, it is necessary either (1) to exclude these organisms altogether ; (2) to interfere with conditions which permit of their development; or (3) to destroy their vitality.

(1) These organisms, or their germs, are present in ordinary air; but it has been shown by Pasteur, Tyndall, Lister, Roberts, and others, that if air be filtered through cotton wool, or (if moving slowly) through a fine bent tube, it may be allowed to come in contact with putrescible substances, if these themselves contain no living organisms or germs, without causing putrefaction. This method, however, has had no important practical applications.

(2) Their growth may be arrested (a) by a low temperature. Thus large quantities of fresh meat are imported from America, and even Australia and New Zealand, in chambers cooled to near the freezing-point. Carcases of the long extinct mammoth, with the flesh still present, have been found in the ice-cliffs of Siberia. The longer time that meat, milk, &c., keep in cold than in hot weather is familiar. (b) By absence of moisture. Thus, if the contents of an egg be thrown out on a plate, and thoroughly dried in an oven, the whole becomes of a hard, horny consistence, and may be kept in this state for years. If soaked in water, it will soon begin to putrefy. In the same way meat may be kept fresh by thoroughly drying it. The preservation of fruits, &c., in strong syrup is an example of a similar action.

(3) The vitality of these organisms may be destroyed (a) by heat; e.g., meat and other eatables can be preserved for an indefinite time if they are boiled and hermetically sealed while still hot in tin vessels (see PRESERVES); (&) by various chemical substances. Some of the most important are common salt and saltpeter, used in curing fish, pickling meat, &c.; alcohol, in preserving zoological specimens, vegetable essences, fruits, &c.; sulphurous acid, boracic acid, and arsenious acid; many salts, as chloride of zinc (Burnett’s solution, q. v.), permanganate of potash (Condy’s fluid, see under MANGANESE), sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) corrosive sublimate, nitrate of silver; chlorine (given off by chloride of lime), iodine, iodoform (CHI₃), glycerine, boroglyceride (C₃H₅Bo₃), eucalyptus oil, thymol, creasote, carbolic acid, salicylic acid, tannic acid, quinine, the patent preparation ’sanitas,’ charcoal (both vegetable and animal), dry mould, used in the earth-closet system (see SEWAGE EARTH-CLOSET). All these substances act directly or indirectly as poisons to the organism-which produce putrefaction, &c.; most of them are either poisonous or very unpalatable to man, and cannot therefore be used in preserving food. Many of them are, however, used in the arts to arrest the decomposition of putrescible substances; e. g., in the manufacture of size for writing-paper from scraps of hides, sulphite of soda or antichlore, containing sulphurous acid, is added; hides are preserved by salt, or, when tanned, by tannin, a compound of tannic acid; timber is found less liable to decay if charged with an antiseptic, such as sulphate of copper, chloride of zinc, corrosive sublimate, or creasote. It is placed in a steam-box, so that the air contained in its pores is replaced by steam; the whole casing is then closed tight, and allowed to cool; the steam condenses and leaves a vacuum in and around the wood. If one of these substances is then introduced, it finds its way into the innermost pores of the timber (see also WOOD-PRESERVING). ,

But next to the preservation of food, the most important purposes for which antiseptic methods and substances are used, are the prevention of infectious diseases, and the treatment of wounds.

The properties of the infectious matter of infectious disease are closely analogous to those of the organisms that lead to putrefaction, &c.; and even in cases where its organic nature has not been proved (see GERM THEORY), can be rendered inert by a proper use of A., or by exposure to a high temperature. Thus anything that has come near the patient suffering from an Infections disease, and discharges from his person, can be made harmless by carbolic acid, chloride of zinc, or some other antiseptic; his bedding is roasted in an oven at a temperature of 212° P. or more; the room where he has been treated is fumigated with chlorine or sulphurous acid; and so the disease is prevented from spreading. This is, in fact, one of the chief aims of medical practice at the present day (see disinfectants).

Many of the evil effects which follow wounds and surgical operations are due to the presence of organisms (see PYAEMIA); and the effects of their antiseptic treatment, introduced by Mr. Lister, have been marvelous (see CARBOLIC ACID.).

ANTI’PATHY is the term applied to a class of cases in which individuals are disagreeably affected by, or violently dislike, things innocuous or agreeable to the majority of mankind. These peculiarities are no doubt sometimes acquired in early life by injudiciously terrifying children with some object, the mental impression becoming permanent. A large class of persons have an A, to animal food, and from childhood refuse to taste it. In others, again, the aversion is limited to one kind of meat, as veal or pork; others are averse to eggs or milk. Nor is this feeling a conscious caprice, which an exertion of the will might remove; for it is generally found that contact with the object of the A. is resented by the bodily economy, and symptoms of poisoning are rapidly produced. Some are affected with these symptoms who have no mental aversion to the article. We read of a countess who had a liking for beef-udder, but directly it touched her lips they became swollen. There is also the case of a boy, who, ‘if at any time he ate of an egg, his lips would swell, in his face would rise purple and black spots, and he would froth at the mouth.’ Some medicines affect particular persons dangerously, even when given in very minute doses: a single grain of mercury has been known to induce a profuse salivation, with destruction of the jawbones. On others, medicines have a peculiar effect—astringents my purge. Every summer, in Great Britain, persons may be seen with the most distressing irritation of the nasal and palpebral mucus membranes, produced by the exhalations arising from the fields during the inflorescence of the hay-crop. In others, an asthmatic condition is induced by the same cause. The air of some places has a similar influence on individuals: one gentleman was always attacked with asthma if he slept in the town of Kilkenny, and another rarely escaped a fit of that complaint if he slept anywhere else.

The most remarkable antipathies are those affecting the special senses. Nearly all persons have a loathing at reptiles, but some few faint on seeing a toad or lizard, others on seeing insects. ‘ The Duke d’Epernon swooned at sight of a leveret—a hare did not induce the same effect. Tycho Brahe fainted at sight of a fox, Henry III of France at that of a cat, and Marshal d’Albert at a pig.’—Millingen.

Hearing a wet finger drawn on glass, the grinding of knives, or a creaking wheel, is sufficient to produce fainting in some. Smelling mink or ambergris throws some into convulsions; and we have seen how articles of food affect others—often, no doubt, owing to perverted taste. The touch of anything unusually smooth has the same effect sometimes. Zimmerman records the case of a lady who was thus affected by the feeling of silk, satin, or the velvety skin of a peach.—This subject is also noticed under idiosyncrasy.

WEA’NING, and FEEDING IN INFANCY. The propriety of mothers nursing their own children is now so universally acknowledged, that it is the duty of the physician less frequently to urge maternal nursing than to indicate those cases in which it becomes necessary to substitute another mode of rearing the infant. ‘ Women,’ says Dr. Maunsell, ‘who labor under any mortal or weakening disease—as phthisis, hæmorrhages, epilepsy—are obviously disqualified from the office of nurse. Some who are in other respects healthy, have breasts incapable of secreting a sufficient supply of milk. In other instances, the breast may perform its functions well, but the nipple may be naturally so small, or may be so completely obliterated by the pressure of tight stays, as not to admit of its being laid hold of by the child. These are actual physical hindrances to nursing. Again, women may, and, in the higher classes, frequently do, possess such extremely sensitive and excitable temperaments, as will render it imprudent for them to suckle their own children. Frightened and excited by every accidental change in the infant’s countenance, and inordinately moved by the common agitations of life, such persons are kept in a state of continual fever, which materially interferes with the formation of milk both as to quantity and quality. Women, also, who become mothers for the first time at a late period of life, have seldom the flexibility of disposition or the physical aptitude for the secretion of milk, required to constitute a good nurse.’—A Treatise on the Management and Diseases of Children, 4th ed., 1842, pp. 39. 40.

In ordinary cases, the child should be put to the breast as soon as the latter begins to contain anything; and when the secretion of milk lias fairly commenced, it will require no other food until the seventh or eighth month, provided the mother be a good nurse. During the first five or six months, the infant should be put to the breast at regular intervals of about four hours; afterwards, when the teeth are beginning to appear, the child need not suck more than four times in the twenty-four hours, some artificial food being given to it twice during the same period. This at first may consist of soft bread steeped in hot water, with the addition of sugar and cow’s milk; and subsequently a little broth, free from salt and vegetables, may be given once a day. The spoon is now the best medium o£ feeding, as the food should be more solid than could be drawn through the sucking-bottle. The time of weaning should be that indicated by nature, when, by providing the child with teeth, she furnishes it with the means of obtaining its nourishment from substances more solid than milk. If the infant has been gradually accustomed to a diminished supply of maternal and an increase of artificial food, weaning will be a comparatively easy process; and much of that suffering both to parent and child will be spared, which commonly ensues when a sudden change is made. In ordinary cases, the period of weaning varies from the seventh to the twelfth month; sometimes the child is kept at the breast for a much longer period, from the popular idea that lactation prevents pregnancy, but such unnaturally prolonged lactation is usually injurious to both mother and child.

In those cases in which it is inexpedient or impossible for a mother to suckle her own child, the choice of a wet-nurse becomes a subject of much importance. Upon this subject, Dr. Maunsell lays down the following important practical rules: ‘The great thing we have to look to is to ascertain that both the woman and her child are in good health; and of this we must endeavor to judge by the following signs: The woman’s general appearance and form should be observed, and they ought to be such as betoken a sound constitution. Her skin should be free from eruptions; her tongue clean, and indicating a healthy digestion; her gums and teeth sound and perfect; the breasts should be firm and well formed—not too large or flabby—and with perfect, well-developed nipples. We should see that the milk flows freely, upon slight pressure; and we should allow a little of it to remain in a glass in order that we may judge of its quality. It should be thin, and of a bluish-white color; sweet to the taste; and when allowed to stand, should throw up a considerable quantity of cream. A nurse should not be old, but it is better that she should have had one or two children before, as she will then be likely to have more milk, and may be supposed to have acquired experience in the management of infants. Having examined the mother, we must next turn to the child, which should be well nourished, clean and free from eruptions, especially on the head and buttocks. We should also carefully examine its mouth, to ascertain that it is free from sores or aphthæ. If both woman and child bear such an examination, we may with tolerable security pronounce the former to be likely to prove a good nurse.’—Op. cit., pp. 44, 45. In one respect, we differ from this eminent physician. He holds that ‘ the more recently the nurse’s own confinement has taken place, provided she has recovered from its effects, the better.’ Supposing a nurse is required for a new born infant, this rule holds good; but provided a nurse is required for an infant of three or four months old (for example), it is preferable to obtain a nurse whose milk is of that age. We believe it to be a general physiological law that the age of the milk should correspond to the age of the infant; that is to say, that an infant taken at any given age from its mother, before the normal period of weaning, should be provided with a nurse who was confined about the same time as its own mother.

A wet-nurse should be very much preferred to any kind of artificial feeding; but peculiar cases may occur in which it is impossible to procure a nurse; or an infant whose mother is incapable of nourishing it may be the subject of a disease that may be transmitted through the infant to the nurse. In these cases, a food must be provided as nearly as possible resembling the natural food; and this is naturally sought for among the food of animals. The milk of the cow is most commonly used, in consequence of its being the most easily obtained; but ass’s milk more nearly resembles human milk, as is shown from the following comparative analyses by Professor Playfair :

The most important difference between cow’s milk and woman’s milk is the great excess of casein in the former. The former fluid may, however, be made to resemble the latter in composition in either of the following ways : (1) On gently heating cow’s milk, a membrane of casein forms on-the surface; by removing two or

three of these membranes as they form, we can reduce the quantity of casein to the desired extent; or (2) we may dilute cow’s milk with twice its bulk of pure water, and add a little sugar. This food should be administered at a natural temperature (of about 98°) through a sucking-bottle; and as the child grows older, it will soon be able to take natural cow’s milk without inconvenience. The nature and importance of the mixture of milk and farinaceous food known as Liebig’s Soup for Children, are described under SOUP.

The rules regarding the times &c. of feeding are similar to those laid down for suckling. Assuming that the infant, whether brought up at the breast or artificially reared, has been safely weaned, we have to consider what rules should be laid clown regarding its food subsequently. For some months after weaning the food should consist principally of semi-fluid substances, such as milk thickened with baked flour, or pap, to which a little sugar should be added. Light broth’s may also be administered, especially in the occasional cases in which milk seems to disagree; and bread and butter may be tried in small quantity. We shall con-elude this article with the following ‘ model of a suitable diet for children,’ which cannot be too strongly impressed upon the minds of all young mothers. ‘A healthy child, of two or three years old, commonly awakes hungry and thirsty at five or six o’clock in the morning, sometimes even earlier. Immediately after awaking, a little bread and sweet milk should be given to it, or (when the child is too young to eat bread) a little bread-pap. The latter should be warm; but in the former case, the bread may be eaten from the hand, and the milk allowed to be drunk cold, as it is well at this meal to furnish no inducement for eating beyond that of hunger. After eating, the child will generally sleep again for an hour or two; and about nine o’clock it should get its second meal, of bread softened in hot water, which latter is to be drained off, and fresh milk and a little sugar added to the bread. Between one and two, the child may have dinner, consisting, at the younger ages, of beef, mutton, or chicken broth (deprived of all fat), and bread. When a sufficient number of teeth are developed to admit of chewing being performed, a little animal food, as chicken, roast, or broiled mutton, or beef, not too much dressed, should be allowed, with a potato or bread, and some fresh, well-dressed vegetable, as turnips or cauliflower. After dinner, some drink will be requisite; and a healthy child requires, and indeed wishes for nothing but water.

Light, fresh table-beer would not be injurious to a child of four or five years old, but it is unnecessary. Between six and seven o’clock, the child may have its last meal of bread steeped in water, &c., as at nine o’clock in the morning. A healthy child which lias been in the open air during the greater part of the day, will be ready for bed shortly after this last supply, and will require nothing more till next morning. Similar regimen and hours may be adopted throughout the whole period of childhood; only as the fourth or fifth year approaches, giving, for breakfast and supper, bread and milk without water, and either warmer cold, according to the weather or the child’s inclination. The supply of food upon first awakening in the morning may also be gradually discontinued, and breakfast be given somewhat earlier.’ —Op. cit., pp. 80, 81.

PO’SSET, a dietetic preparation, made by curdling milk with some acidulous liquor, such as wine, ale, or vinegar. White wine or sherry is usually preferred, but sometimes old ale is used. The milk is boiled; and whilst it is still on the fire, the acidulous matter is added; if sherry, about a wine-glassful and a half to the pint of new milk is the proportion; or twice the quantity if ale. A teaspoonful of vinegar or of lemon-juice is sometimes used instead; one or two tablespoonfuls of treacle are added, to sweeten. Taken at bedtime, it is used for colds and coughs.

INDIGE’STION, or DYSPE’PSIA, is term somewhat vaguely applied to various forms of disease of the stomach or of the small intestines in which the natural process of digesting and assimilating the food is deranged.

The symptoms of indigestion are by no means constant in all cases. There is often anorexia (or want of appetite), but occasionally the appetite is excessive, and even ravenous. Nausea not unfrequently comes on soon after a meal; while in other cases, there is no nausea, but after the lapse of a couple of hours, the food is vomited, the vomited matters being very acid, and often bitter, from the admixture of bile. In severe cases, the vomiting has been known to occur after every meal for several months. Flatulence, relieving itself in eructations, is one of the standard symptoms of this affection, the gas that gives rise to this symptom being sometimes evolved from undigested matters in the stomach, and sometimes being apparently secreted by the walls of that viscus. It is very apt to occur in dyspeptic patients if they have fasted rather longer than usual. Cardialgia (popularly known as heartburn), Pyrosis (q. v.), or water-brash, and Gastrodynia (commonly designated spasm or cramp of the stomach, and coming on at uncertain intervals in most severe paroxysms), are other somewhat less common symptoms of indigestion.

The treatment of indigestion is more dietetic than medicinal. The quantity of food which can be dissolved by the gastric juice and intestinal fluids being limited (see DIGESTION), 1′are should be taken that this quantity is not exceeded; moreover, the meals should not succeed each other too rapidly. Mr. Abernethy, who was a great authority on this subject, laid great stress on the principle, that the stomach should have time to perform one task before another was imposed upon it, and he always recommended his patients to allow six hours to intervene between any two meals. With regard to the nature of the food best suited to dyspeptic persons, it may be safely asserted that a mixture of well-cooked animal and vegetable food is in general more easily digested than either kind taken exclusively. Mutton, fowls, and game are the most digestible kinds of animal food; and pork and all cured meats, such as salted beef, ham, tongue. &c., should lie avoided. Raw vegetables, such as salads, cucumbers, &c., must also be prohibited. In most cases, dyspeptic persons would probably do well to avoid all stimulating drinks; but in some cases, a little cold, weak brandy and water, or a glass of old sherry, or a little bitter ale, may be taken with advantage. But upon all points of eating and drinking a sensible patient must be mainly influenced by his own experience. The unquestionable benefit which dyspeptic patients often derive from a visit to a hydropathic establishment is due perhaps not so much to any specific action of the water, as to the well-regulated diet, the withdrawal of the mind from personal cares, and the change of scene. A six weeks’ or two months’ tour among the mountains of Scotland or Switzerland will in the same way often do a dyspeptic patient more good than he could have experienced from any amount of physicking at home.

A few words must be said regarding the mode of treating the most urgent of the individual symptoms. Loss of appetite may be remedied by the employment of bitters, such as quinine, gentian, chiretta, &c., or of mineral acids, or of both combined. Nausea and vomiting may be treated with hydrocyanic acid, chloroform, and creosote in very small doses. Two or three drops of dilute hydrocyanic acid in an effervescent draught are often an effectual remedy. In intense vomiting, the amount of food taken at a time must be reduced to the lowest possible limit. A tablespoonful of milk, mixed with lime-water, will sometimes remain on the stomach after all other kinds of food have been rejected. There is no better remedy for flatulence than peppermint-water; if it fails, a drop of cajeput oil on a lump of sugar may be tried. When the eructations are attended with an odor of rotton eggs—that is to say, when sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved from the decomposition of matters in the stomach—an emetic is the best cure. The remedies for the pain in the stomach vary with the character of the pain; bismuth, nitrate of silver, and opium are often serviceable, but should not be taken without advice. A teaspoonful of the aromatic spirit of ammonia in a wineglass of camphor-mixture, often gives instantaneous relief, audit not too often resorted to, can be taken with impunity.

ABSINTHE is a spirit flavored with the pounded leaves and flowering tops of certain species of Artemisia (q. v.), chiefly wormwood (A. Absinthium), together with Angelica-root, sweet-flag root, star-anise, and other aromatics. The aromatics are macerated for about eight days in alcohol, and then distilled, the result being an emerald-colored liquor. Adulteration is largely practised, even blue vitriol being sometimes found in so-called A. The best A. is made in Switzerland, the chief seat of the manufacture being in the canton of Neufchatel. It is chiefly used in France, but is of late largely exported to the United States. When to be drunk, the greenish liquor is usually mixed with water. The evil effects of drinking A. are very apparent; frequent intoxication or moderate but steady tippling, utterly deranges the digestive system, weakens the frame, induces horrible dreams and hallucinations, and may end in paralysis or in idiocy.

BI’SCUITS (Fr. twice-baked), small, flat bread, rendered dry and hard by baking, in order to their long preservation. They are divided into two classes�the unfermented and the fermented. Unfermented or unleavened, B., generally known as common sea-biscuits or ship-tread, are made of wheaten-flour (retaining some of the bran) water, and common salt. The materials are kneaded together, either by manual labor�that is, by the hands and feet of the workmen�or by introducing the materials into a long trough, or box, with a central shaft, to which a series of knives is attached, and which is made to revolve rapidly by machinery. The mass of dough so obtained is then kneaded and thinned out into a sheet the proper thickness of the B., by being passed and repassed between heavy rollers. This sheet being placed below a roller with knife-edge shapes, is readily cut into hexagonal (six-sided) or round pieces of dough of the required size of the biscuits. The indentation of the slabs of dough, in the case of the hexagonal B., is not complete, so that all the B. cut out of each slab remain slightly adhering together. These slabs of B. are then introduced into an oven for about 15 minutes, and are placed in a warm room for 2 or 3 days, to become thoroughly dry. The more modern oven is open at both ends, and the B. being placed in a framework, are drawn by chains through the oven. So rapidly is this operation conducted, that about 2000 lbs. weight of B. are passed through one of these ovens every day of ten hours.

Captain�s B. are prepared from wheaten-flour, water, with common salt, and butter, with an occasional small dose of yeast to cause partial fermentation. Milk is also sometimes employed. Water or hard B. are made of flour, water, with variable quantities of butter, eggs, spices, and sugar. Soft B. contain increased quantities of butter and sugar. Yeast B. are those the dough of which is mixed with a small quantity of yeast, yielding more porous biscuits. Buttered B. are made with much butter and a little yeast. Other varieties of B. are named in the following table, which gives the materials added to the sack of flour, 280 lbs. in weight:

�

�

Great care must be taken in the manipulative part of the process to incorporate the ingredients in a systematic manner. Thus, the butter is mixed with the flour in a dry condition, and then the water or milk added; and when eggs are used, they are thoroughly beaten up with water, and the sugar (if the latter is required) and the egg-paste added to the dough, which has been previously prepared with butter, or without butter. The various kinds of B. in the preparation of which yeast is employed, present a more spongy aspect than the unyeasted biscuits. Occasionally a little sesquicarbonate of ammonia (volatile salt) is added, to assist in raising the dough, and make a lighter biscuit. There are three principal varieties of the yeast or fermented B., and the following table gives the ingredients used in their manufacture from a sack of flour, or 280 lbs.:

�

�

Soft or spiced B. are prepared from flour, with much sugar, a great many eggs, some butter, and a small quantity of spices and essences. The eggs tend to give a nice yellow cream-color to the B., which is occasionally imitated by the admixture of a chromate of lead (chrome yellow); but this is dangerous, and has given rise to several cases of poisoning. Several of the soft or spiced B. are referred to in the following table, a sack, or 280 lbs., being the amount of flour employed in each instance:

�

�

The extent to which B. are now consumed may be learned from the fact, that several of the largest biscuit-manufactories each prepare and throw into market every week from 30,000 to 50,000 lbs. weight of B. of various kinds. One of the largest and most complete biscuit-manufactories in England is that of Can- at Carlisle, whose biscuits, sold in tin-boxes, are well known. Still more famous is that of Huntley and Palmer at Heading, employing over 3000 persons.