238 CUMIN. 



they are used to flavour cheese, but the taste and smell thus im- 

 parted is to some persons very disagreeable. In some parts of 

 Germany they are put into bread to render it more pleasant 

 and wholesome. Partridges and pigeons are excessively fond 

 of the seeds, and hence they are used with success as a bait 

 for those birds. 



The seeds exhale a very strong, aromatic and heavy odour, 

 the taste is penetrating, rather bitter and unpleasant. By infu- 

 sion in water the greater part of their odour is extracted, but 

 very little of the taste ; in distillation, a strong pungent essen- 

 tial oil arises, smelling powerfidly of the seeds*. Rectified 

 spirit extracts the whole of the virtues of Cumin, and leaves 

 them nearly uninjured by evaporation. 



Medical Properties and Uses, — Cumin seeds f were ranked 

 by the ancient pharmacologists among the four gi'eater warm 

 seeds, and they are reckoned superior to those of Fennel and 

 Caraway. They are tonic and stimulant and have been cele- 

 brated by different authors as stomachic, carminative, diuretic, 

 sudorific and emmenagogue, and recommended internally 

 for flatulence, windy colic, vertigo, &c. CuUen J thought 

 them equal if not superior to any of the other carminative 

 seeds. According to some authors they constitute an ex- 

 cellent sudorific, and others have extolled their effects in 



* From every pound of the seeds Baume obtained half an ounce of essen- 

 tial oil. 



-f- It was a current opinion among some of the ancients that Cumin 

 woukl make those who drink it of a pale visage. Dioscorides and Galen 

 mention this. Avicenna (Canon. Medicinae, vol. i. p. 293) says, the distilled 

 water used as a lotion makes the countenance fair and strengthens the 

 sight, as does the moderate use of it internally. But he adds, the too great 

 use of it makes the countenance sallow. ' Pliny informs us that the disciples 

 of Porcius Latro, a famous master of the art of speaking, were reported 

 to have used Cumin in order to imitate that paleness which their master 

 had contracted in his studies.' — Paris'' Pharmacologia. Thus Horace, — 



" Proh si 



Pallerem casu, biberent exsangue Cuminum." 



Epist, xix. lib. i. lin : 18. 

 and Persius, — 



" Rugosum Piper et pallentis grana Cumini."— Sat. v. 

 Our i)uet Spenser says, 



"Rank smelling Rue, and Cumin good for eyes." 

 t 31at. Med. vol. ii- p. 15!J. 



