534 PERCUSSION CAPS 



' Most of the processes of pen-making are performed by hand-presses, to cut out the 

 blanks, to pierce the hole, to form the nib, to emboss the pattern, and to mark the 

 name ; self-acting machinery being used only for the commonest export pens.' 



PEPERINO. Volcanic tufa : a light porous species of volcanic rock, so called on 

 account of the peppercorn-like fragments of which it is composed. 



PEPPER. (Poivrc, Fr. ; Pfeffer, Ger.) The pepper-tree (Piper nigrum) is cul- 

 tivated in many parts of India, and to some extent in the West Indies. When 

 the berries begin to change colour from green to red, they are collected, spread 

 out, and dried in the sun. The stalks are separated by hand-rubbing, and then 

 winnowing. The dry and shrivelled berries constitute the black pepper ; the soundest 

 grains are selected for white pepper. These are soaked in water until they swell 

 and burst their corticle, which is afterwards separated by hand-rubbing and win- 

 nowing. 



In McCulloch's ' Dictionary of Commerce ' is a paper on the production of pepper, 

 by Mr. Crawford, in which we find the following distribution : 



Ibs. 



Sumatra (west coast) 20,000,000 



Sumatra (east coast) 8,000,000 



Islands in the Straits of Malacca . . . 3,600,000 



Malay Peninsula 3,733,333 



Borneo 2,666,667 



Siam 8,000,000 



Malabar 4,000,000 



Total .... 50,000,000 

 Pereira particularises the following kinds of pepper : 



1. Malabar Pepper. The most valuable ; a brownish-black. 



2. Penang Pepper. Brownish-black; but dusty. Sometimes used in England to 

 manufacture white pepper. 



3. Sumatra Pepper. This is the cheapest sort. It is the black pepper of com- 

 merce. The heavier kinds are the most esteemed, and are known as shot pepper. 



4. Fulton's Decorticated Pepper. Black pepper, deprived of its husks by mechanical 

 trituration. 



5. Bleached Pepper. Penang pepper bleached by chlorine. 



6. White Pepper, described above. 



7. Tellicherry Pepper. 



8. Common White Pepper. Comes from Penang by Singapore. 



Pepper is stated to be adulterated with sago. This can always be detected by the 

 microscope, the starch grains of sago being very much larger than those of pepper. 

 Dr. Hassall has stated in the ' Lancet ' that, although he frequently found pepper to 

 be adulterated with linseed-meal, rice, and wheat-flour, yet, that out of forty-three 

 samples obtained from various sources, he did not detect sago-meal in any. 



Four pounds of black pepper yield only about one ounce of piperine, or 1 -636th 

 part. It is an insipid crystalline substance, insoluble in water, but very soluble in 

 boiling alcohol, and is extracted at first along with the resin, which may be separated 

 from it afterwards by potash. See PIPEEINB. 



PEPPER BETEXi. The Chavka betel and the C. Siriboa yield the leaf which, 

 mixed with slices of the betel nut (Areca catechu), is employed for mastication by 

 many of the nations of the East. See BETEL. 



PEPPER, JAMAICA. See PIMENTO. 



PEPPER, LONG. Chavica Roxburghii (Piper longum). This shrub is culti- 

 vated in Bengal, and forms a considerable article of commerce all over India. The 

 common long pepper is of a greyish-brown ; it is cylindrical, and of about an inch in 

 length. 



PEPPERMINT. The Mcntha piperita, a labiate herb, yielding preparations 

 having stimulant and carminative qualities, such as peppermint- water, essence of 

 peppermint, oil of peppermint, &c. 



PEPSIN 1 . The ' active principle,' or digestive ' ferment,' of gastric juice. 



A preparation is sold as pepsin for coagulating milk. It is prepared by drying 

 the glandular layer of a calfs or pig's stomach at a low temperature. Pepsin is 

 employed advantageously in medicine. See Watts's ' Dictionary of Chemistry." 



PERCUSSION CAPS. The universal employment of the percussion cap in the 

 place of the flint-lock has given rise to many most extensive manufactories dcvot^ I 

 to their construction. Thin-rolled copper, as pure as possible, is selected. This in 

 first cut into pieces called blanks. These are then punched up into the required shape. 



They are charged by touching the bottom of each cap with a strong adhesive 

 . liquid, and before this hardens, the fulminating composition is dropped in. All that 



