291 ORTZA SATIVA 



proportion of starch, much less nitrogenous substances, and less 

 of fatty matters and inorganic constituents. 



Medical Properties and Uses. Eice has demulcent and nutritive 

 properties, like those of wheat, for which it is commonly substi- 

 tuted in tropical countries. Decoction of Rice, commonly called 

 Rice-water, is recommended in the Pharmacopoeia of India as an 

 excellent demulcent refrigerant drink in febrile and inflammatory 

 diseases, and in dysuria and other affections requiring this class of 

 remedies. It is rendered more palatable by being acidulated with 

 lime juice, and sweetened with sugar. This decoction may be 

 also used as an enema in affections of the bowels. Dr. Waring 

 speaks highly of a poultice of Rice as a substitute for that of 

 linseed meal ; and finely-powdered rice flour may be used like that 

 of wheat flour, as a local soothing application to erysipelatous 

 surfaces, burns, scalds, &c. Rice Starch is applicable in like cases 

 to that of wheat and other starches, both medicinally and in other 

 ways ; it is largely consumed at the present time. 



The chief consumption of rice is as a food substance, the 

 grain being more largely used for this purpose than that of 

 any other cereal; it is, however, less nutritive than wheat 

 and the other cereal grains in ordinary use, from the fact 

 already noticed, of its containing a much smaller proportion of 

 nitrogenous substances than is found in them. Being entirely 

 free, however, from laxative qualities, it forms a light, digestible, 

 and useful article of food for those in which there is a tendency to 

 diarrhoea. It has been observed, however, that when substituted 

 for potatoes in our workhouses in consequence of the failure of 

 that crop, it has after a few months produced scurvy. This effect 

 has been ascribed by Grarrod to the small proportion of potash 

 which rice contains in comparison with potatoes. Rice also con- 

 tains less vegetable acids than potatoes, which doubtless has 

 something to do with the injurious result attributed to its use. The 

 various other ill effects, such as disordered vision, cholera, &c., 

 which have been ascribed to its use, rest on no reliable foundation. 



A kind of spirit called Arrack is sometimes distilled from the 



