VINEGAR AND ITS MOTHER. 383 



and rhubarb- and cranberry-sauce. The habitual use of vinegar in 

 considerable quantities leads to dyspepsia ; the form becomes wasted, 

 on account of insufficient nutrition ; and death has been known to 

 result. 



Vinegar is used in medicine for its astringent action, being em- 

 ployed locally to check haemorrhage. It is also a refrigerant, for 

 sponging the skin with diluted vinegar has a cooling effect. The 

 heat and pain of sprains and bruises are relieved by applying to the 

 place brown paper soaked in diluted vinegar. This use of vinegar is 

 celebrated in the lines of a certain well-remembered lyric : 



" And Jill had the job 

 To plaster his nob 

 With vinegar and brown paper." 



Aromatic vinegar, called also " Vinegar of the Four Thieves," Mar- 

 seilles vinegar, or camphorated acetic acid, is strong acetic acid, in 

 which are dissolved certain essential oils, and sometimes camphor. . It 

 is said to have been used by a band of four thieves, during a plague 

 at Marseilles, to protect them from infection while plundering the 

 houses and bodies of the dead. It is now used only in smelling-bot- 

 tles, or vinaigrettes, for cases of fainting, a bit of sponge or some 

 crystals of sulphate of potassium being put into the bottle and moist- 

 ened with the liquid. Aromatic vinegar is very fragrant and volatile, 

 and must be kept in closely stoppered bottles. A variety of recipes 

 for it are given : that especially recommended in the " United States 

 Dispensatory" is one and a half fluid drachm best oil of rose-gera- 

 nium, fifteen minims oil of cloves, and four fluid ounces glacial acetic 

 acid. i 



The tough, leathery substance, commonly called " mother," which 

 forms in vinegar, is one of the many fungi whose spores float in the 

 air, settle as dust on exposed objects, and fall into exposed liquids, 

 ready to grow into a bulky plant when conditions favor. The exact 

 position of the vinegar-plant among the fungi has not been settled. 

 Turpin, Berkeley, and others, say that it is the abnormally developed 

 mycelium, or vegetative part, of Penicillium glaucum, of which com- 

 mon mold is the reproductive part. Pasteur and others maintain that 

 it is a distinct species, calling it by the name Jlycoderma aceti, and 

 state that common mold frequently grows on its surface. Under the 

 microscope it has been found to exhibit two forms — the minute, 

 rounded particles called micrococci, and the rod-like forms known 

 as bacilli. The vinegar-plant develops during the process of aceti- 

 fication, and its presence tends to accelerate the operation. Manu- 

 facturers get rid of it as soon as possible, for it interferes with the 

 flow of the vinegar through their apparatus. It grows on the sur- 

 face of the vinegar, and if not disturbed will cover the whole surface, 

 conforming to the shape of the vessel. It has been known to reach a 



