I>f\ Perclval on the Effe5fs of Famine , i£c. 499 



Other vegetable produftion, now ufed as food.§ 

 It has the property, alfo, of concealing the naufe- 

 bus tafte of fait water ; and confequently nnay be 

 of great advantage at fea, when the ftockof frefh 

 water is fo far confumed, that the mariners are put 

 upon ftiort allowance. By the fame mucilaginous 

 quality, it covers the ofFenfivenefs, and even, in 

 fome meafure, correfts the acrimony, of faked and 

 putrcfcent meats. But, as a prefervative againft 

 hunger, Saiep would be mori: efficacious, combined 

 with an equal weight of beef fuet. By fv/allowing 

 little balls of this lubricating compound, at proper 

 intervals, the coats of the ftomach would be de- 

 fended from irritation: And as oils and mucilages 

 are highly nutritive, of flow digeftion, and indif- 

 pofcd to pafs off by perfpiration, they are peculi- 

 arly well adapted to fupport life, in fmall quanti- 

 ties. This compofition is fuperior in fimplicity, 

 and perhaps equal in efficacy, to the following 

 one, fo much extolled by Avicenna, the celebrated 

 Arabian phyfician; to whom we are indebted for 

 theintrodudion of rhubarb, caffia, tamarinds, and 

 fenna, into the Materia Medica. " Take fweetal- 

 *' monds, and beef fuet, of each one pound; of 

 ** the oil of violets two ounces ; and of the roots 

 *■• of marfh mallows one ounce: Bray thefe ingre- 

 ** dients together, in a mortar, and form the mafs 

 ** into bolufes, about the fize of a common nut.'* 



§ See the Author's E/Tays Medical and Experimental, 

 vol. 11. 



K k a Animal 



