PEPPERMINT 



ailed Jamaica pepper (see ALLSPICE) from 

 the pimento tree. 



The sharp, biting taste of ordinary pepper 

 is due chiefly to an acrid resin and an acrid 

 oil. Though used principally for seasoning pur- 

 poses, this spice has medicinal value, and is 

 sometimes taken as a remedy for flatulence, or 

 gas on the stomach. 



PEPPERMINT, pep' er mint, a perennial 

 herb of the mint family cultivated extensively 

 for a pungent oil produced in glands of the 

 loaves. This oil, the widely-used peppermint 

 of commerce, is valuable medicinally and as a 

 flavoring. As alleviations for colic and tooth- 

 ache, peppermint preparations are well known. 

 The oil is probably the most popular of all 

 flavorings used in candy making, a recent esti- 

 mate showing that sixty times as much pepper- 

 mint is used as wintergreen, and four times 

 as much peppermint as spearmint. Pepper- 

 mint oil is obtained by means of pressure and 

 distillation. In America, Saint Joseph County, 

 Michigan, is the great center of the peppermint 

 industry ; the state produces about one-half of 

 tho world's supply of oil. 



The plant grows from one to two feet high 

 and bears smooth, sharp-pointed oval leaves 

 and small bluish-white flowers. It is cultivated 

 in England and in various sections of conti- 

 nental Europe; in the United States the pep- 

 permint sections outside of Michigan are in 

 New York and Northern Indiana. See illustra- 

 tion, in full-page picture, on page 3785. 



PEP 'SIN, a ferment found in the gastric 

 juice, which has the property of converting pro- 

 teids (tissue-building foods) into peptones. In 

 chemical composition it is not greatly unlike 

 the ferment of saliva, ptyalin, but its effects 

 are entirely clifTeront. It acts in the presence 

 of a weak acid, whereas ptyalin responds better 

 to a slightly alkaline medium. Pepsin has no 

 1 upon fats or carbohydrates. It is pro- 

 (1 commercially by drying the mucous lin- 

 ing of the stomachs of pigs and calves, an<l i- 

 then IIMM! to aid digestion by thoso having 

 weak stomachs. The pepsin procured from the 

 stomach of the pig is preferred. There arc 

 several commercial preparations of pepsin on 

 the market. 



itrintrii Snbjc. reader Is referred to 



the following articles In these volumes: 

 Food, subhead Peptones 



Che mi* try of Food 9 Proteids 

 Pancreatln Stomach 



PEPTONES, pcp'tohnz. In tho process of 

 -tjun proteid foods (such as lean meat. 



PEQUOT 



white of egg, peas and beans) are acted upon 

 by the ferment pepsin of the gastric juice, and 

 the ferment trypsin of the pancreatic juice. 

 These ferments change proteids into compounds 

 called peptones; the latter have the power to 

 pass through membranes and so can be absorbed 

 from the alimentary canal, while ordinary pro- 

 teids cannot. The change from proteids to 

 peptones is only for the purpose of absorption, 

 for in the walls of the intestine the products of 

 protein digestion are recombined to form 

 sue-building compounds that are taken iij 

 the blood vessels and the lymphatics. I 

 are on the market several preparations of pro- 

 digested foods, known as beef peptones, milk 

 peptones, etc. These are designed for conva- 

 lescents and dyspeptics. 



PEPYS, peeps, pep' is, or peps, SAMUEL 

 (1633-1703), an English diarist. He was bom 

 in London and educated at Saint Paul's School 

 and at Cambridge. Through the influence of 

 Sir Edward Montagu, he was given a clerk- 

 ship in the navy and later made secretary of 

 the admiralty. At the time of the Popish 

 plot he was accused of sharing in tho conspir- 

 acy to overthrow Charles II and the power of 

 Protestantism. The charge was false, and ho 

 was soon released without a trial and again 

 given his office in the admiralty, which he kept 

 until William and Mary came to the throno. 

 From 1684 to 1686 he was ' president of the 

 Royal Society. Pepys gave to Magdalene Col- 

 lege, Cambridge, a library formed, in part, of 

 a large number of old English ballads. II 

 left memoirs of his experiences in the n 

 and the celebrated Diary, which was written 

 in a kind of shorthand and was first made read- 

 able by the Rev. J. Smith. It was published 

 in 1825. This Diary covers the years from 1660 

 to 1669, and is a very valuable chronicle of 

 the history of England during the reign of 

 Charles II. It deals with ents and 



small, and as it has a large store of anecdote, 

 and is written in lively style, it is as intcrc- 

 as it is valuable. 



PEQUOT, pt-'ku-ot. a quarrelsome tribe of 

 the Algonquian family, \\hu-h was almost wiped 

 out in a war with the Knchsh settlers in 1637. 

 The original home of the Pcquots was in East- 

 ern Connecticut, in the region of the Mystic 

 r. on the banks of which they had built 

 their principal fort. In an attack on this fort 

 by a company of English under Captain John 

 Mason about 600 Indians perished ; many were 

 shot while attempting to escape, and ot! 

 were captured and sold into slavery. 



