128 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
sawce, good to be eaten with any grosse meats either fish or fleshe, because it doth help 
the digestion, warmeth the stomacke, and provouketh appetite. It also appeaseth the 
toothache being chewed in the mouth. It helpeth those that have their hair pulled 
off; it taketh away the blew and black marks that come of bruisings.” According to 
Coles, who wrote about 1657, Mustard was grown in the neighbourhood of Tewkesbury, 
ground up, made into balls, and sent to London, where it was considered the best. The 
Black Mustard is now largely cultivated both in England and the Continent, and is 
consumed in great quantities both as a condiment and for the sake of its oil. In Durham 
the cultivation and preparation of Mustard is an important feature of trade. Before 
grinding, the outer husk is removed from the seeds, and they are passed under rollers, 
and then reduced to a finer powder in a mortar. The Mustard used at table is generally 
a mixture of Black and White Mustard in equal proportions ; it is, however, very con- 
stantly adulterated with flour and coloured with turmeric. The French do not take 
away the husks from their seeds, so that the French Mustard has a blacker appearance 
than ours, and is more pungent, for the husks contain the acrid qualities of the plant in 
large quantities. The chemistry of Mustard, on which all the active properties of the 
seeds depend, has engaged the attention of many eminent chemists, and the results are 
interesting. According to the most recent inquiries, it appears that Black Mustard 
consists chiefly of a bland fixed oil, a peculiar bitter inodorous principle called myroxcic 
acid, and another principle termed myrosyne. By the addition of water an excessively 
pungent oil is obtained which does not originally exist in the seed, but is formed from 
these above-named substances by the action of water, and is called pyroxine. The saliva 
of the tongue applied to dry powdered Mustard eliminates this principle, and produces 
the pungent burning sensation so well known to us all. Manufacturers of Mustard for 
table use assert that pure unadulterated Mustard-flour would be too pungent to be 
palatable, and a mixture of the following kind is considered as the best form for use : 
Two bushels of black and three of white seed, yielding when ground 145 lbs. of flour, 
mixed to lessen the pungency and improve the colour with 56 lbs. of wheaten flour and 
2 lbs. of turmeric; the acrimony is restored without the pungency by the addition of a 
pound of chili pods and half a pound of ginger. Although the common table Mustard 
serves all the purposes for which it is used, medicinally the colleges and Pharmacopeias 
recognize only the pure farina of Sinapis nigra. In its action Mustard is an irritant, 
stimulant, emetic and stomachic. As an external application in the form ofa cataplasm 
it is one of the most effectual domestic remedies for removing pain, mitigating local 
inflammation, or rousing from stupor. From fifteen to twenty-five minutes is about 
the time necessary to endure the smarting process; if the patient be insensible it is 
not well to leave the application on too long lest ulceration and sloughing should ensue. 
The stinging pain which remains after the removal of the Mustard may be mitigated, 
if too violent, by sponging the part with cold water, or dropping ether on it. In large 
doses of two or three table-spoonfuls mixed with a tumbler of warm water it consti- 
tutes a most effectual emetic, and is most valuable as a domestic remedy in case of 
poisoning before medical aid can be obtained. As a condiment we hear of Mustard in 
the time of Shakespeare, and not less singular was the taste of the times then than is 
the fancy of some nowadays who eat Mustard with apple-pie. Shakespeare’s gourmands 
thought their Shrove Tuesday feast of pancakes incomplete without the Mustard; and 
we read of Touchstone enlightening Rosalind “ Of a certain knight that swore by his 
honour they were good pancakes, and swore by his honour the Mustard was naught: 
now ” (says Touchstone), “I'll stand to it, the pancakes were naught and the Mustard 
was good, and yet was not the knight forsworn.” 
