5*5 
* 
or lefs fhrtyelled, according to their degree of maturity. Thefe are 
imported here under the name of black pepper. 
White pepper \ *is the ripe and perfect berries ftripped of their outer 
coats : for this purpofe the berries are fteeped for about a fortnight in 
water, till by fwelling their outer coverings burn- ; after which they 
are eafily feparated, and the pepper is carefully dried by expofure to 
the fun. Pepper which has fallen to the ground over-ripe lofes its 
\ 
outer coat, and is fold as an inferior kind of white pepper. 
Of thefe pungent hot fpices the black fort is the hotter! and ftrongefl, 
and mofl commonly made ufe of for medicinal as well as culinary 
purpofes. They differ from mofl: of the other fpices in this, that 
their pungency refides not in the volatile parts, or eflentiai oil, but in 
a fubftance of a more fixed kind, which does not rife in the heat of 
boiling water. This fixed fubftance is probably the refinous part : 
the aromatic odorous matter feems to depend upon the efTential oil. 
The diftilled oil fmells ftrongly of the pepper, but has very little acri- 
mony; the remaining .decoction, infpiffated, yields an extract of con- 
iiderable pungency. A tincture made in rectified fpirit is extremely- 
hot and fiery; a few drops of it fet the mouth as it were in a flame. 
Some have fuppofed Pepper to be lefs heating to the fyftem than 
other aromatics ; and the learned Gaubius afferts, that on taking it in 
large quantities he never found it to warm his ftomach, nor to increaf 
the frequency of his pulfe. d But Dr. Cullen affirms, that when he took 
this fpice, even in a fmall quantity, it always felt warm on his ftomach, 
and heated his whole body ; and he thinks it was owing to the frequent 
ufe of Pepper that Gaubius did not experience the fame effects. 
Black Pepper is generally ufed as an aromatic and ftimulant. 
has been fuccefsfully employed in fome cafes of vertigo/ and in pa- 
ralytic and arthritic diforders. g Given in large dofes it has been found 
a remedy for intermittents ; but its ufe in thefe has, in fome inftances, 
produced fatal confequences. 
b White Pepper was formerly thought to be a different fpecies from the black, and 
was fold at the fales of the Eaft India Company (who have the monopoly of the Sumatran 
\ 
c 
h 
/. C. 
pepper trade J for treble the price of the black. Marfden^ 
c Gaubius found that the Pepper required to be boiled forty-three times in frefh 
quantities of water before its whole pungency was extradted. Jdverfar. p. 52. 
d L. c. p. 73. c Mat. Med. vol. 2. p. 208. f Hoffmann. Rem. domejl. §. 26. and 
others, s Off phyf. &f lit. vol. jr p. 449. h See M* Soc. Med. Hav, vol. i. p. 386. 
No. 38. 6Q^ 
PIPER 
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I 
