PUMPKIN 



PUTREFACTION. 



September, and be ploughed in before they 

 attain their full growth. In gravelly soils they 

 should be cut down after they have put forth 

 their second flower ; and in strong lands, where 

 a little more advanced. In the former of these 

 grounds they are turned in while young and 

 tender, that they may quickly rot; and in the 

 latter, are let stand till they grow stronger, that 

 they may produce a better effect on the stiff 

 clods of earth, and render them more "mellow 

 and friable. This practice is still extensively 

 followed in northern Italy. 



Peas, beans, lupins, vetches, and other suc- 

 culent plants, have also been strongly recom- 

 mended by the older writers on husbandry, as 

 excellent manures,especially for sandy ground ; 

 these plants enriching the earth greatly if 

 ploughed in, either green, or when in bloom. 

 In strong land they are advised not to be turned 

 down till the pods begin to harden. See GREEX 

 CROPS, LEGUMINOUS PLANTS, PEAS, ROTATION 

 or CROPS, otc. 



PUMPKIN (Cucurbit a pepo). The pumpkin 

 is extensively cultivated in the United States, 

 where there are many varieties, some of them 

 attaining the enormous size of 2 feet or more in 

 diameter. But such large ones are not so highly 

 esteemed. The better sorts are often used at 

 table, affording the celebrated pumpkin pie of 

 New England; and the coarser varieties are 

 esteemed for feeding stock. When growing in 

 the vicinity of squashes, the fruit of this is 

 liable to be converted into a hybrid, of little 

 or no value. Crops of pumpkins have been 

 totally spoiled by that cause, the fruit becom- 

 ing vt-i v hard and warty, unfit for the table, 

 and unvatV to give to cattle. Flora Cetlrica. 



PURGATIVES. In farriery, such medicines 

 as tend to evacuate the crudities of the bowels 

 by stool, and which are sometimes called ca- 

 thartics. See PUROINO. 



The purgatives most frequently employed 

 for horses and cows are sulphur, jalap, aloes, 

 gamboge, Rhamnut catharticus, and calomel. 

 Saline purgatives are not often required ; but 

 when they are, Epsom salts (the sulphate of 

 ma-m>sia\ is adequate for every purpose. 



PURGING is necessary in a variety of cases, 

 for ditFerent sorts of animals, particularly in 

 diseases of the inflammatory kind, swellings in 

 the extreme parts. Aloes is the best form of 

 physic; but Epsom salts, linseed, and olive oil, 

 are sometimes used on certain occasions as 

 laxatives with great propriety and benefit, and 

 in gross, full horses, in some disorders of the 

 stomach, liver, &c., but it should always be di- 

 rected with caution. 



Violent purging or scouring, attended with 

 inflammation, will sometimes arise when a 

 horse is worked hard upon green meat The 

 remedy is change of diet or less labour. As- 

 tringents should be used with much caution. 

 It is probably an effort of nature to get rid of 

 something that offends. A few doses of gruel 

 will assist in effecting this purpose, and the 

 purging will cease without astringent medi 

 cine. See ALOES, BALLS, DREXCHES, LIXSEED 

 OIL. &c. 



PI K^LANE (Portulaca : from porfo,to carry 

 and Itic, milk; juicy nature of the plants), 

 purslane is now but little noticed as a garden 



flower, but in Britain is still cultivated as a 

 salad and pot-herb. The species usually grown 

 in the kitchen garden are the green or garden 

 purslane (P.oleracea), and the golden purslane 

 (P. sativa). 



PUTREFACTION (Lat. Putrefactio). The 

 spontaneous decomposition of animal and ve- 

 getable substances, attended by the evolution 

 of fetid gases. The putrefactive fermentation 

 of animal substances is usually attended by 

 more fetid and noxious exhalations than those 

 arising from vegetable products. This appears 

 principally referable to the more abundant 

 presence of nitrogen in the former; and, hence, 

 those vegetables which abound in nitroginife- 

 rous principles, such as most (if not all) of the 

 cruciform plants, exhale peculiarly nauseous 

 effluvia; hence, also, such animal products as 

 are destitute of nitrogen, are either unsuscepti- 

 ble of what is commonly called putrefaction, 

 or suffer it slowly and imperfectly. The for- 

 mation of ammonia or of ammoniacal com- 

 pounds is a characteristic of most cases of 

 animal putrefaction ; while other combinations 

 of hydrogen are also formed, especially carbu- 

 retted hydrogen, and sulphuretted hydrogen, 

 together with complicated and often highly in- 

 fectious vapours or gases, in which sulphur and 

 phosphorus are frequently discerned. These 

 putrefactive elfluvia are, for the most part, 

 easily decomposed, and resolved into new and 

 comparatively innocuous compounds by the 

 agency of chlorine ; hence the importance of 

 that body as a powerful and rapidly acting dis- 

 infectant. The rapidity of putrefaction and the 

 nature of its products are, to a great extent, in- 

 fluenced by temperature, moisture, and access 

 of air; they do not ensue below the freezing 

 point, nor in dry substances, nor under the 

 entire exclusion of oxygen ; and hence various 

 means suggest themselves of retarding or pre- 

 venting putrefaction, as well as of modifying 

 its results. A temperature between 60 and 

 80, a due degree of humidity, and free access 

 of air are the circumstances under which it 

 proceeds most rapidly. The most effective 

 antiputrefactives, or antiseptics, are substances 

 which either absorb or remove a portion of 

 the water or moisture, and enter into new com- 

 binations with the organic matter. The astrin- 

 gent or tannic principle of vegetables is also a 

 powerful preserver of most organic tissues ; 

 it enters into chemical combination with the 

 albuminous and gelatinous membranes and 

 fibres ; and the resulting compound, of which 

 leather furnishes a characteristic example, is 

 comparatively little prone to change, although 

 the tanning material itself, as well as the animal 

 principles with which it unites, are separately 

 liable to decay. Among saline substances, the 

 antiputrefactive powers of salt are commonly 

 known : when a piece of flesh is salted, brine 

 runs from it, in consequence of the energy 

 with which the salt abstracts the component 

 water of the muscular fibre ; the flesh becomes 

 indurated, and its susceptibility to putrefactive 

 changes is greatly diminished; but it becomes 

 at the same time less easy of digestion as an 

 article of food. Corrosive sublimate is a far 

 more powerful preservative than common sail 

 and it appears to act not by the mere abttrar 



