SPICES, ETC.J 



CHEMISTRY. 



357 



centuries. A slander always leaves something behind ; 

 and even to the present time, the popular belief that 

 sugar injures the teeth, is as widely spread as, on the 

 counter-testimony of both experience and science, the 

 opposite doctrine ought to be : for the teeth of the negroes 

 in the West Indian colonies are of a bright white ; and 

 that which is thus proved by a whole community, remark- 

 able for the abundance of sugar consumed among them, 

 the example of many individuals nearer home amply 

 confirms. Phosphate of lime is the chief constituent of 

 the bones and teeth, but not before adult age ; and an 

 increase of the phosphate of lime is the essential charac- 

 teristic of the development of the bones of children. 

 Lactic acid dissolves the phosphate of lime of the food ; 

 and as sugar indirectly supports this solution, it facili- 

 tates the conveyance of the lime to the teeth. To this 

 it must not be objected that sugar causes pain in a hollow 

 tooth. Like sugar, a thousand other substances irritate the 

 nerve ; but who seriously believes that that is necessarily 

 injurious to the healthy, which gives pain to the diseased ? 



The prohibition of sugar to children, therefore, is 

 indefensible. Sugar is not dangerous to the teeth, but, 

 on the contrary, assists in providing them with lime ; 

 it is useful to the stomach, if it do not, by being taken 

 in excess, produce too great a quantity of lactic acid. 



87- Spices. Under the name of spices we shall com- 

 prise mustard and carraway seeds, common and Spanish 

 pepper, cinnamon and cloves, nutmegs and saffron. In 

 ion to albumen and wax, cellulose and gum, starch 

 resins, acids and salts, which manifest unimportant 

 differences with respect to then- proportionate quantity 

 and properties, all these spices contain a volatile oil of a 

 pungent odour, and an acrid or aromatic taste. 



It is only in the mustard, as we take it, that this oil 

 is a product of fermentation. Just as the ferment of 

 almonds (emulsine) transforms the principle of almonds 

 (amygdaline) into volatile oil of bitter almonds, so a 

 peculiar ferment of the black mustard decomposes a 

 certain constituent of the latter, which is not to be found 

 in the white mustard, into the volatile oil of mustard, 

 which contains, besides carbon and hydrogen, a pro- 

 portion of sulphur and nitrogen. Of a light yellow 

 colour and a pungent odour, the oil of mustard is soluble 

 only in a largo proportionate quantity of water. To this oil 

 the mustard owes its peculiar taste ; the mother-body of 

 the oil of mustard is of a bitter taste. The black mus- 

 tard contains a portion of stearic acid and two other fatty 

 acids ; which last are likewise to be found in white mus- 

 tard, but without stearic acid. 



The oils of the different spices above enumerated are 

 to be found, read}' formed, in the vegetable substances ; 

 rather aromatic than acid, they consist partly of carbon 

 and hydrogen, and partly of a combination of these two 

 elements with oxygen. With fatty oils, the volatile are 

 by no means to be confounded. The latter, though 

 scantily soluble in water, are not entirely insoluble in it ; 

 cannot be saponified with alkalies ; and are especially 

 remarkable for their disposition to turn into resins by 

 the absorption of oxygen. There exists no fat without 

 oxygen ; while several of the volatile oils contain nothing 

 of this element. 



Cloves are furnished with the greatest proportion of 

 volatile oil ; while its relative quantity in the more acrid 

 nutmeg scarcely amounts to one-third ; in the very acrid 

 Spanish pepper not even to one-fourth ; in the hot French 

 cinnamon to one five-and-twentieth only of the proportion 

 contained in cloves. Hence it follows, that in these 

 spices, the degree of pungency of taste is dependent, not 

 on the quantity of the volatile oil, but on its quality. 



88. Seating Effects of Spices. In the first instance, 

 it was, perhaps, only the pungent taste of the aromatic 

 oils to which the heating effect of spices was ascribed ; but 

 the excitement and palpitation produced by their use, 

 ehow that they accelerate the circulation. Not only, 

 moreover, are the palate and stomach heuted by direct 

 irritation, but the cheeks also become tinged with a rosy 

 glow under their influence. 



These spices, by irritating the digestive glands, are also 

 capable of promoting, to a certain degree, the solution of 



the aliments. Hence, the blood is not only provided 

 with a heating oil, but also with an abundant supply of 

 restorative substances ; and the nutrition is increased at 

 the same time. 



Thus sleep also is prevented, and the passions are 

 aroused. All nutriments causing sleeplessness irritate 

 the brain, and accelerate the movements of thought. It 

 is, therefore, not a mere fiction, that mustard for the 

 moment quickens the action of the memory : just like 

 the movement of the muscles, memory is an action of 

 the brain ; it is capable of being called into exercise like 

 every other manifestation of bodily power. But the 

 action, as an attribute of matter, is confounded with the 

 instrument itself, if we say that mustard produces a good 

 memory. It is true the instrument cannot exist without 

 matter ; moreover, it is not the bulk of the substance, 

 but the celerity and force of its motion, which is to be 

 considered the essence of increased action. The motion 

 ceases with the matter which excites it. When, there- 

 fore, the volatile oil has disappeared from the blood, the 

 excitement produced in the brain is over likewise ; the 

 mustard cannot, therefore, be an instrument of the 

 memory. We repeat it memory is a form in which the 

 action of the brain manifests itself. But to call the 

 brain an instrument of memory would lead to a greater 

 confusion of terms, than if we were to denominate the 

 muscle the instrument of speed. The brain thinks just 

 as the muscle moves ; sensation and will, recollection and 

 judgment, are different forms of thinking, just as stretch- 

 ing and shrugging, trilling and grasping, are different 

 forms of motion. 



The spices cannot bo called restoratives, as their most 

 essential substance does not convey to the blood an 

 essential constituent ; they are stimulants ; and whatever 

 stimulates, renders over-excitement possible. An excess 

 of stimulants, in the strictest sense, is therefore much 

 more dangerous than a superabundance of nutriments. 

 Sugar and common salt, butter and cheese, oil and 

 vinegar, are far superior to the spices with regard to the 

 service they afford to the body. When we consider the 

 restless passion, the choler and insidious jealousy of 

 those inhabitants of the tropics who take so great an 

 abundance of spices with thuir food, we find it impossible 

 to forgive the enmity with which the Europeans of n 

 former day sought to enrich their own part of the world 

 with pepper and cinnamon, cloves and nutmegs. Had 

 they never possessed any of these spices, the people of 

 Europe would have one superfluous and often obnoxious 

 addition to their food the less ; and the Spaniards, Portu- 

 guese, and Dutch would be able to erase a bloody page 

 from their history. 



In the preceding pages, we have given so much of Pro- 

 fessor Moleschott's remarks as exhibit the astonishing 

 variety of combinations and their uses, of which oxygen, 

 chlorine, fluorine, nitrogen, hydrogen, and carbon, are 

 the subjects in the animal economy. Our readers will 

 have learned how numerous are the changes of chemical 

 compounds and products which a few elements are 

 capable of producing ; and how rapid and unceasing those 

 changes occur in connection witli vitality. In future 

 pages we shall extend our observations to similar results 

 observed in connection with vegetable chemistry ; which, 

 although having less direct connection with the chemical 

 laws of our own existence, are only second to them in 

 philosophical and practical interest. It would, however, 

 be unjust were we to withhold that portion of the pro- 

 fessor's paper which shows the application of the prin- 

 ciples already laid down. It will assist to popularise the 

 subject of chemistry with those of our readers who simply 

 study the science as a branch of a literal education, or as 

 a subject of general interest and importance. After 

 introducing Dr. Moleschott's remarks on Diet, we shall 

 then proceed to give the natural history of the remainder 

 of the elements ; the relationship of which generally 

 exists in connection with the mineral kingdom, with tlio 

 exception of instances referred to in our previous pages. 

 Dr. Moleschott continues as follows : 



