188 



NEW fiiNGLAND FARMER, 



DECEMBER »S 



1833. 



From the New York Farmer. 

 USE OF THE TOMATO 

 IN QUICKENING THE ACTION OF THE ABDOMINAL 

 VISCERA. 



Like most persons of studious or sedentary 

 halms, I often am more or less incommoded, mid 

 my health impaired, hy inaction of the stomach 

 and howels, so as to he under the necessity of 

 resorting to medicine, principally cathartics. In 

 order to enahle our readers perfectly to appreciate 

 what I am about to say of a remedy, this state of 

 the bowels is always in some degree accompanied 

 with a sense of straitness of the chest, and besides a 

 general uneasiness, and lassitude, yet with the head 

 ache, or some degree of pain in region of the liver. 

 It seems to me a recurrence of those symptoms that 

 accompany attacks of what is called by niy physi- 

 cians, a liver complaint, to which I have been a 

 good deal subject. The appetite instead of being 

 keen becomes imperfect, with a peculiar taste of 

 the mouth, as if something was wanting, and in 

 the functions of digestion, to constitute perfect 

 health, for which cathartics are only a temporary 

 relie, fnot a remedy. 



The common Tomato, used in making gravy, at 

 once removes this taste of the mouth ; in a little 

 time quickens the action of the liver, and of the 

 bowels, and removes all the above noticed symp- 

 toms and feelings. I regard it as an invaluable 

 article of diet, or, if you please, as of medicine, or 

 of medical diatetics. With me it has always been 

 my object of solicitude, to find out such diet, as 

 should supersede the necessity of medicine. Ex- 

 cept in pickle, which I cannot use, I eat the To- 

 mato in every imaginable mode of dressing, and 

 find it perfectly adapted to my wants. In the 

 hope of being of some use to others, these facts 

 are stated. The Tomato is of great use to me. It 

 is raised with less trouble than any other vegetable 

 that I have any knowledge of. It was first planted 

 six years ago, drops its own seed into the ground, 

 and has produced bushels, every year since, with 

 no other trouble than once digging the same 

 ground, in spring, and one or two hoeings, on a 

 spot of perhaps six feet square. It makes a good 

 pickle, and is raised with one hundredth part the 

 labor and trouble of an equal quantity of cucum- 

 bers. But, one other object remains to be slated. 

 I incline to the opinion, though without having 

 yet fully tried it, that the Tomato may be made 

 into a rich sauce, for meat, and be kept through 

 the year, or from season to season of the fruit.* 

 The gravy, I know, even in the hottest weather 

 of summer, will keep perfectly unchanged for sev- 

 eral days, in a common open dish in a pantry ; 

 and this I know, because, as my cook does not 

 like the article, I have contrived to keep it over, 

 when she neglects my directions. If properly pre- 

 pared, and bottled, and well corked, it would cer- 

 tainly keep good, in an ice house, or perhaps in a 

 common cellar, or under water, of a low and uni- 

 form temperature. At any rate if found to be as 

 useful to others, as it is to me, it will be quite de- 

 sirable to find out how it may be best preserved 

 for use. As a pickle kept in brine, or vinegar, 1 

 could not use it, and I am inclined to think that 

 its good qualities would be much diminished, for 

 any one, by this mode of preservation. It seems 

 to me, that, of all the articles of diet, or medicine, 

 that have come to my knowledge, the Tomato acts 



* French cooks have a method of preserving lliem in die 

 form of cakes first having cut them into small pieces or ground 

 into powder. 



most directly upon the liver, and thus on the bile. 

 Publish this if you please, and let others try it, 

 and make their own observations. I know that 

 several persons of my acquaintance have derived 

 a like benefit from the use of it. 



Constitutionally predisposed to a torpor of the 

 liver, and the abdominal viscera, I have, through 

 life, been subject to the necessity of using cathar- 

 tics, until having discovered the good effects of 

 the Tomato. In all cases, except in such above 

 described, my flow of animal spirits have always 

 been uniform, rather abundant than otherwise, 

 sustaining severe mental effort, even to 12 and 1G 

 boms each 2-1, for weeks in succession, always 

 without other stimuli than ordinary food and 

 drink. Wine never exhilarates, except as it in- 

 creases my general health ; and ardent spirit al- 

 ways depresses the tone of my mind. How far 

 they may he regarded as peculiarities, I know not, 

 but think proper to state them, for the sake of a 

 clear understanding, and in a sincere desire to be 

 useful to others. I have never known the effect, 

 even in the slightest degree, of any sort of intoxi- 

 cating drinks. Health exhilarates, and ailments 

 depress my spirits. — When afflicted with inaction 

 of the bowels, head-ache, a bad taste of the mouth, 

 straitness of the chest, and a dull and painful 

 heaviness of the region of the liver, the whole of 

 these symptoms are removed by Tomato sauce ; 

 and the mind, in the course of some few hours, is 

 put into perfect tone, like a new violin. The facts 

 certainly merit a narration, and I can but hope 

 they may be of use to many persons. The true 

 plan of life for men of mind, and especially for 

 men of study, and much mental effort is, so to 

 live, as to have our food supply all that is neces- 

 sary of medicine. A wise man will soon learn to 

 relish what agrees with his temperament, and re- 

 ject all else, in food and drink. To which I will 

 only add, that much employment of the mind, par- 

 ticularly in men of slow habits of the body, slow 

 action of the bowels, calls for a larger proportion 

 than they generally use, if temperate men, of 

 liquid food or drink. 



From the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. 



USEFUL. PROPERTIES OF THE COMMON 

 ARTICHOKE. 



We find among the thicket of dull and specula- 

 tive essays that crowd the late numbers of the 

 English Medical Journals, a few of rare practical 

 value, which we shall not fail to transplant to our 

 pages. At present we wish to ask the attention 

 of the Faculty to the medical use recently made 

 of the common artichoke. Several cases are de- 

 tailed in the London Medical mid Surgical Journal, 

 in which rheumatic affections yielded very deci- 

 dedly and speedily to the internal use of the juice 

 of this plant. 



The botanical name of this plant, as the reader 

 well knows, is cynara scolymus. The leaves should 

 he gathered before their vitality is affected by the 

 frosts. The fibrous and fleshy portions of them 

 should be cut into strips, and by bruising in a 

 marble mortar the juice is readily extracted. In 

 onler to preserve this juice, one-fifth part of its 

 weight of alcohol may be added to it, and in this 

 way it is equally valuable for use, if not more so, 

 than when wrought into the more expensive form 

 of extract or tincture. 



The efficacy of this medicine in rheumatism 

 has been stated by several medical gentlemen with- 

 in a few mouths, and we will content ourselves at 



present with offering the 1st and 4th of the cases 

 last published, in the work before mentioned. 



" The first case is Elizabeth Harper, a'tat. 75, 

 a hale and strong woman, inhabiting a very ex- 

 posed situation. On June 10th, complained of 

 acute pain in both wrists, which on examination I 

 found to be painful on being touched, and very 

 much tumefied ; bowels very regular, free from 

 fever ; pulse 80 ; tongue clean ; pain aggravated 

 at night. Gave the following mixture: — R. Succi 

 cynara?, 5iv. Syrup, simp. 3q. Aq. font, ad gvj. 

 M. Capiat partem iv. am octavis horis. 



11th. Pain much relieved ; swellings slightly 

 reduced ; lias passed a better night.- — Continue 

 medicine. 



12th. Pain has ceased ; swellings considerably 

 less, and wrists no longer tender. A gentle ape- 

 rient was to-day necessary. — Cont. .Mist. Cynara. 



14tli. Quite well. The wrists have regained 

 their proper size, and the bands their use. This 

 patient continued quite free from pain until the 

 3rd of this month (August), when she complained 

 of pain in one shoulder, similar to what she had 

 felt at the wrists, and begged that she might have 

 some more of such medicine as she had had on the 

 former occasion. It was immediately sent to her, 

 and she was relieved as before. 



August 3rd. Samuel Fleur, tetat. 36, complains 

 of considerable pain in his right shoulder, which 

 prevents bis taking any rest at night, when it ap- 

 pears to be slightly aggravated. Bowels confined ; 

 pulse 90, and tongue white. Gave — It. Magnes. 

 Sulph. giss. Syrup. Sim. gss. Aq. Menth. Pip. 

 ad §vj. M. Capiat coch iij. mag. pro re nata, se- 

 cundis horis. 



4th. Bowels relieved soon after finishing the 

 mixture ; pain in the shoulder unabated, limb in- 

 capable of being moved from extreme pain and 

 stiffness ; pulse 80. — R. Succi Cynaroe, 3vj. Aq. 

 Menth. Pip. §vj. M. Capiat part. iv. am nocte 

 maneque. 



5th. Relieved; pain in shoulder less; has slept 

 for the first time for three nights. — Perstet. 



7th. Gradually improving ; bowels in good or- 

 der ; tongue clean, and pulse 70 ; shoulder less 

 stiff. — Perstet. 



12th. Is now so far recovered as to be able to 

 go out to glean corn, and has discontinued medi- 

 cine. 



In more acute cases I have found the same 

 medicine equally useful after bleeding, and in 

 many cases where I had previously given the Pulv. 

 Ipec. c, antimonials, and the whole tribe of medi- 

 cines usually esteemed in the treatment of this 

 class of disease, without effect. 



INDIA RUBBER. 



We learn from the Boston Centinel that there is 

 a manufactory of India Rubber leather cloth, 

 &c. which employs about one hundred persons. 

 Some years since, an American Chemist discover- 

 ed a method of dissolving India Rubber and reduc- 

 ing it to a paste, which, being spread with a brush 

 over the surface of cloth, and dried, rendered the 

 cloth water proof. He obtained a patent, and sold 

 it to the Roxbury Company, and is now in their 

 employment. They manufacture beds and pillows 

 without sewing, which a man may almost carry in 

 the crown of" his hat, and at night blow them up 

 to any size and sleep on them. They make gas- 

 pipes, engine-hose, garments of every description 

 without stiches or seams, &c. These garments 

 protect the person from rain and storm as complete- 



