t 468:3 



5 minutes at a temperature of {6o c to 65F. It dissolves 28 

 times its weight of coagulated albumin. It also to some 

 extent digests fibrin (the principal albuminoid of meat\ 

 some say 200 times its weight as well as white of eggs. No 

 action, however, takes place when there is much acid. It is 

 for this reason papaya acts so readily in softening fresh meat, 

 if the milk of the fruit is added to the meat a few minutes 

 before cooking. It is not such a ready alimentary digestive 

 in the presence of gastric juice which is highly acid. Papain 

 is present more or less in all parts of the plant, but chiefly 

 in young fruits, 



744. In preparing Papain, the juice should be obtained 

 from unripe fruit. Moisture spoils the ferment and great 

 heat destroys its activity. The juice should therefore be 

 dried as soon as possible at a low temperature. The fresh 

 but dried juice should be mixed with twice its volume of 

 rectified spirit ; and the mixture allowed to stand for a few 

 hours. The insoluble matter should then be filtered off. The 

 residue should be dried in the ordinary atmospheric tem- 

 perature, powdered and kept in well stoppered bottles. 



745. In the presence of alkali, Papain is not only a valu- 

 able aid to digestion but it is also a solvent of the gum of tusser 

 and other cocoons which are reeled with difficulty. The 

 Use of Papain as an aid to the reeling of tusser cocoons is 

 recommended for trial. 



CHAPTER LXXVIIL 



CASSAVA AS FAMINE FOOD. 



TOURING the late famine persons who went about in 



rural places could not have failed to notice, how 



certain crops fared better than others, how certain crops did 



not suffer at all from the drought and how poor people 



