364 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1753. 



this they give a greater or less dose in proportion to its operation, which is both 

 by vomit and stool. After having taken it a week, it ceases to have the eftect of 

 evacuating; nevertheless they continue it another week; during which time the 

 patient is laid on a heap of fresh burdock leaves, and his body is also covered 

 with the same, which must be renewed every day. This method is said to cure 

 the disease radically. 



Russians, Tartars, and other nations in these parts, eat as food, either boiled 

 in milk, or roasted in the embers, various species of the roots of lilies. The 

 Tartars collect and dry the roots of the dens canis* of the botanists, and boil 

 them either with milk or broth, and consider them as very nutritious food. 

 This root certainly is in every respect nearly related to salep. 



The Siberian hunters, who kill various animals for their fur, are obliged to go 

 in search of them into the most desert parts of the country, and remain there 

 during their dreadful winters. It often happens that from the intenseness of the 

 cold, the leaven, which ferments their bread, is spoiled, and ceases to be of use. 

 In this case they collect the inner bark of the larch tree, which is very juicy and 

 sweet, and cut it into small pieces, and digest it over the fire in warm water. 

 They then add to it some rye flour, bury the whole in the snow, and let it re- 

 main there 12 hours; in which time the fermentation begins, and the faeces, 

 which fall to the bottom, make excellent leaven. 



Both the Russians and the people of Kamtschatka made great use of the 

 sphondylium -)> vulgare hirsutum of Caspar Bauhin and Tournefort; or, what we 

 usually call cow-parsnep. According to Gmelin, the plant in question differs 

 from that species frequently met with in the pastures of Germany and England, 

 only in its being much larger. This difference of size the Russian kind con- 

 stantly preserves, when planted in the botanic garden. What we generally meet 

 with here in England seldom grows higher than 3 feet, whereas the Siberian 

 plant is double that size. Our author has given us a very exact description of 

 it. This plant, which has never yet been applied to any useful purpose in these 

 parts of the world, is of very great importance to the Russians and people of 

 Kamtschatka. They indeed apply it to very different uses; the former distil their 

 brandy :}: from it; the latter dry it to eat in winter. 



Dodonaeus § relates, that the inhabitants of Poland and Lithuania make a 

 kind of liquor, which the poor people use as beer, from the fermented leaves 

 and seeds of the sphondylium. 



• Erythronium. Linnaei Hort. ClifF. p. 1 19. Flor. Sibiric. torn. i. p. 39. — Orig. 

 + Heracleum foliolis pimiatifidis. Lin. Hort. ClifF. p. 103. Flor. Sibir. torn. i. p. 213. Sphon- 

 dylium. Rivin. tab. iv. — Orig. 

 J Spiritum ardentem. — Orig. 

 § Dodon. Stirp. Histor. p. 304.— Orig. 



