562 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
said Alice (tn Wonderland), “I won’t have any Pepper in my 
kitchen at all. Soup does very well without it. Maybe it’s 
always Pepper that makes people hot-tempered ; and vinegar 
that makes them sour; and camomile that makes them bitter ; 
and,—and barley sugar, and such things that make children 
sweet-tempered. I only wish people knew that!” The cross 
Duchess had been saying to Alice :— 
““T speak severely to my boy, 
I beat him when he:sneezes, 
For he can thoroughly enjoy 
The Pepper when he pleases. 
Bow! wow! wow!” 
The Capsicum, or Bird Pepper, a tropical production now 
cultivated freely throughout Great Britain as a stove plant, 
affords us Cayenne Pepper as its fruit pods, to be powdered for 
the kitchen, and the table. Another variety of this Capsicum is 
** Chillies.” Because thrushes, ruffs, reeves, and other such 
small birds can eat, and digest the small “Chilli,” its berry goes 
by the name of “‘ Piment des oiseaux.” The Bird Pepper by its 
Cayenne exercises important, and useful medicinal actions in 
culinary forms. Chemically it furnishes an essential oil, with 
a crystalline principle, “capsicin,’ of much vigour. The oil 
may be taken remedially in a dose of from half to one drop, 
rubbed up with some powdered white sugar, and mixed with a 
wineglassful of hot water; or an essence may be made for more 
convenient purposes by mixing certain proportions of the oil, 
and spirit of wine (one part to nine), so that the dose thereof 
shall be from five to ten drops in water. If one fluid ounce of 
this essence is mixed with five fluid ounces of water, a capital 
Capsicum lotion becomes compounded, which will prove signally 
useful for relieving externally the variety of lumbago in which 
there is no tenderness on pressure, but much pain on move- 
ment ; the lotion should be applied over the loins on a piece of 
lint, or a folded pocket handkerchief. It is found that shortly 
after stinging and redness have been produced the patient can 
move quite freely ; though perhaps some hours later a second 
application may become necessary. 
Very remarkable success attends the use of Cayenne Pepper 
as a substitute for alcohol with hard drinkers, and as a valuable 
drug in delirium tremens ; when full doses given repeatedly at 
