160 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



the new root is first washed in warm water, when the 

 fine brown skin with which it is covered may easily 

 be rubbed .away, by means of a coarse cloth or a 

 brush. The roots being thus cleaned and peeled, are 

 to be arranged on a tin plate, and then placed within 

 an oyen, heated to the same degree as is necessary 

 for the baking of bread ; here they are to remain 

 from seven to ten minutes, in which time they will 

 exchange their opaque and milky whiteness for a semi- 

 transparent horn-like appearance, and a yellowish 

 colour, retaining their original bulk. Being then 

 withdrawn from the oven, they are exposed during 

 some days to dry and harden in the air ; or by the 

 employment of a very gentle heat they may be 

 brought to the same state in the course of a few hours: 

 all that is then required to adapt the salep for food, is 

 to boil it in water to the required consistency. 



It is said that salep contains a greater quantity 

 of nutriment in the same bulk than any other vege- 

 table body ; and for this reason it has been proposed 

 that it should be made to form a part of the provi- 

 sions of every ship that undertakes a distant voyage. 

 So high a nutritive power has been assigned to salep, 

 that, it is asserted, if one ounce of the powdered root, 

 mixed with an equal weight of the stiff animal jelly or 

 glue, known as portable soup, be boiled in two quarts 

 of water, it will suffice for the daily nourishment of an 

 able-bodied man. 



A small quantity of salep added to milk has been 

 found to retard the commencement of the acetous 

 fermentation in that fluid ; and there is reason to 

 believe that if it were used in a moderate proportion, 

 it would prove a very useful and economical addi- 

 tion to wheaten flower, in the preparation of bread. 

 Dr Percival, in his ' Medical arid Experimental 

 Essays,' mentions the results of some experiments 



