Of the Orchis Root i 161 



putrid. From this experiment it appears that rice, as an 

 aliment, is slow of fermentation, and a very weak corrector 

 of putrefaction. It is therefore an improper diet for hospi- 

 tal patients; but more particularly for sailors in long 

 voyages, because it is incapable of preventing, and will not 

 contribute much to check the progress of that fatal disease, 

 the sea-scurvy *. Under certain circumstances rice seems 

 disposed of itself, without mixture, to become putrid ; for 

 by long keeping it sometimes acquires an offensive fostor ; 

 nor can it be considered as a very nutritive kind of food, oa 

 account of its difficult solubility in the stomach. Expe- 

 rience confirms the truth of this conclusion : for it is ob- 

 served by the planters in the West Indies, That the negroes 

 grow thin, and are less able to work whilst they subsist 

 upon rice. 



Salep has the singular property of concealing the taste of 

 salt water t; a circumstance of the highest importance at 

 sea, when there is a scarcity of fresh water. T dissolved a 

 drachm and half of common salt in a pint of the mucilage 

 of salep, so liquid as to be potable, and tlie same quantity 

 in a pint of spring water. I'he salep was by no means dis- 

 agreeable to the taste, but the water was rendered ex- 

 tremely unpalatable. 



This experiment suggested to me the trial of the orchis 

 root as a corrector of acidity ; a property which would 

 render it a very useful diet for children. But the solution of 

 it, when mixed with vinegar, seemed only to dilute, like an 

 equal proportion of water, and not to cover its sharpness. 



Salep, however, appears by my experiments, to retard 

 the acetous fermentation of milk, and consequently would 

 be a good lithing for milk pottage, especially in large towns, 

 where the cattle, being fed upon sour draft", must yield aces- 

 cent milk. 



Salep in a certain proportion, which I have not yet been 

 able to ascertain, would be a very useful and profitable ad- 

 dition to bread. I directed one ounce of the pouder to be 

 dissolved in a quart of water, and the mucilage to be mixed 



* Cheese is now become a considerable airicle of ship provisions, 

 Wljen mellowed by age, it ferments readily with flesh and water, bu: 

 scparatci a rancid oil, which seems incapable of any furtherchange, and 

 must, as a septic, be pernicious in the scurvy ; for rancidity appears to 

 be a species of putrefaction. The same objection may be urged, with 

 still greater propriety, against the use of cheese in liospitals; because 

 convalescents are so liable to relapses, that the slightest error ot diet may 

 occasion them. Vide Percival's Letter to Mr. AJkin.— Thoughts on 

 Hospitals, p. 95. 



f Vide Dr. I.ind's Appendix, 



Vol. XVIII. No. 70. L with 



