PINE: APPLE, 569 
in England as a hot-house plant (formerly by few growers only, 
but now more commonly), whilst a large importation of the 
foreign fruit takes place. Fresh Pine-apple juice has been 
recently found to possess remarkable digestive powers as 
exercised upon animal food, similar to those of the gastric juice 
within the stomach. The active principle of the Pine-apple is 
‘“‘bromelin,” which is potential enough to digest a thousand 
times its own weight of proteids within a few hours. Upon the 
coagulated white of egg the digestive process induced is slow ; 
while on the albumin of meat its action is first to produce a 
pulpy, gelatinous mass, which after a time completely dissolves. 
When a slice of Pine-apple is placed upon a raw beef-steak, 
the surface of the fresh steak becomes gradually gelatinous, 
owing to the digestive action of the enzyme of the juice. An 
average Pine-apple will yield more than half a pint of juice. 
The activity of this digestive agent becomes destroyed ina cooked 
Pine-apple ; but there is no reason why the tinned fruit (unless 
prepared under heat) should not retain the said digestive power ; 
of which the principle may be obtained from the juice by 
dissolving therein a liberal quantity of common salt; then a 
precipitate is obtained which includes the remarkable digestive 
agent; whilst the woody fibre, which is indigestible, should be 
rejected when eating Pine-apple, or expressing its juice. Pine- 
apple juice from the ripe fruit is decidedly acid ; its digestive 
principle, ‘ bromelin,” is very unstable, and therefore of limited 
commercial use; if applied to horny excrescences on the skin, 
such as corns, or warts, the fresh fruit juice is powerfully solvent ; 
so that if a thin slice of Pine-apple be kept in close contact with 
a corn for eight hours the corn will become so soft as to admit 
of easy removal. The natives of Pine-apple-growing countries 
are found to derive much relief from the external application 
of the juice in cases of leprosy, and elephantiasis. The Pine-apple 
is pulled into pieces, and their fresh raw surfaces are rubbed 
over the affected parts of the skin. Again, it is asserted that for 
breaking up, and resolving the tough membranous exudation 
which forms obstructively within a diphtheritic throat, nothing 
is so surely effectual as the juice squeezed from a ripe Pine-apple ; 
by this means many a life has been saved. Three ounces of 
fresh Pine-apple juice will dissolve from ten to fifteen grains of 
albumin in four hours; on which principle the juice is employed 
in America for applying to the leathery false membranes which 
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