DEM. | 62 
some very strikingly verifying this supporting 
power, was proved, because for weeks at a time, 
the little patients received no other aliment what- 
ever: and yet the disease mended, and the consti- 
tutional powers were reinstated, during the free — 
use of the gum, and during the very time I ob- — 
served the diapers to be stiff when dry, from the — 
gummy nature of the stools. But, even in these — 
cases I have been disposed to believe that the ar- — 
ticle was not pure, but adulterated during its pul- — 
verization, by a resembling gum, very difficult of — 
digestion, and far less, if at all capable, of support-_ 
ing the powers of life by its nutritive quality— 
gum-senegal. A strong predilection in early life, 
unaffected by subsequent experience, in favuur of 
the soothing and healing nature, and nutritive qual-_ 
ity of gumacacia, has led me to many experiments 
and much satisfaction with it: nor am 1 disposed 
at this time to admit that the genuine gum is 
surpassed in susceptibility of digestion, where the 
bowels are affected, and much emaciation exists, 
by any article in the whole Materia Medica. Lind 
tells us, that with the negroes along the banks of 
the Niger, it is almost their only food; and that 
the Moors live entirely on it when their crops of 
rice and millet fail. These are examples of nu- 
merous reports in favour of the nutritive property 
of the gum in question, which will be detaile 
when treating of the article. Fordyce has said 
that the nutrient principle of vegetables resides 
in their mucilage and gum. The nutritive prope! 
of sugar and oil is admitted; and the salubrious € 
fect of acid in diet, also acknowledged. Whe 
then are we to look for a nutrient, if gum-arabi 
which is not a simple substance, but contains 
gum, an oil, a mucilage, a sugar and an ach 
does not yield such?—With respect to the demu 
