VOL. LXVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 3Q7 



nature has dictated to these people is most highly antiseptic, and it may be doing 

 service to mankind to describe it minutely. This will probably give pleasure to 

 those gentlemen who have prescribed the new regimen to the British navy with 

 so much success. 



The only part of the food of the northern people, that does not come under 

 the description given, is salt meat and fish ; the latter they eat during their fasts 

 where fresh fish cannot be procured, at least not on terms that suit their cir 

 cumstances ; and there are also some places where the scarceness of fodder 

 during the winter obliges them to live much on salt meat ; yet in all these cases 

 they manage to correct the action of this additional leaven of putridity by mix- 

 ture with their prepared vegetables, in such a manner as to elude its baneful 

 effects, which furnishes another corroborating proof of the powerful antiseptic 

 qualities of this mode of preparation, which in fact is the main purpose of this 

 paper. 



One of their principal articles of food, and what enters into the composition 

 of most of the Russian soups, is their sour cabbage, which you are already so 

 well acquainted with. The 2d capital article is called quass, a liquor which not 

 only serves them for drink, but also as sauce to a number of dishes, especially to 

 such as have a tendency to bring on the disease which their situation threatens, 

 and is the basis of the favourite cold soup of the north, which is made by adding 

 cold meat cut in pieces with cucumbers, or with onions, or garlic, to a bowl of 

 this subacid liquor. This seems to be a good method of qualifying and eating 

 salt meat, to those that are fond of the acid taste, and should make the process 

 in the stomach very different from what we must suppose is the case when salt 

 beef is eaten oft' a biscuit, accompanied with nothing but what serves for a plate, 

 or the suet pudding of the navy. i 



To prepare the common Russ quass, they take a large potful of cold water, 

 and put into it as much rye-flour as will make a thin dough : they then place it 

 in an oven, moderately heated, for 3 hours, and then throw it into a tub of 

 cold water : this mixture they work till it froths, with a machine resembling the 

 staff" of a chocolate pot, but larger. To this liquor, thus prepared, is added a 

 couple of slop-basons full of the grounds of old quass, or leaven, or, if these are 

 not to be procured, which can hardly happen in" Russia, they use as a ferment a 

 piece of their sour bread, and cover the tub with a cloth to keep out the dust,* 

 till the liquor has acquired a sourish taste, which marks its being ready for use. 

 However, this depends on the temperature of the weather, as it acquires the 

 necessary acidity sooner or later, according to the season or degrees of artificial 

 heat that is employed. This liquor the poorest of the people drink as they draw 



* Or rather to keep in the heat. 



