THE TECHNOLOGIST. [July 1, 1865. 



550 



PEPPER. 



BY JOHN R. JACKSON. 



Op all the senses with which we are endowed, that of taste is, perhaps, 

 the most fastidious ; unlike the senses of sight and hearing, it is not so 

 varied or widely affected by the force of education. To hear and appre- 

 ciate the eloquence of an oration, needs some cultivated refinement, and 

 is, in consequence, the belonging of a class. As applied to the sight, the 

 same may be said of a fine picture or other work of art ; but with the 

 senses of taste and smell the case is different, though refinement and 

 education undoubtedly lend a helping hand to the full appreciation of 

 both. With the former, however, the likes and dislikes are more affected 

 by nations than classes, and this, in a great measure, is doubtless to be 

 attributed to the diversity of the products of each clime, the love for 

 which is inherent in its people. For example, where canjan Englishman 

 find fare so well suited to his palate as in his own land ? And a similar 

 question may be asked of other nations, and yet there are countless pro- 

 ductions of foreign lands, the uses of which have not become general 

 with us solely through prejudice, and this applies not alone to articles 

 ot food, but also to materials useful in the arts and manufactures. It 

 needs a persevering energy to bring new produets into the English mar- 

 kets, and it needs even more to persuade the British public to give a fair 

 trial to such products, many of which might become a source of com- 

 mercial profit besides being advantageous to the consumer. As an ex- 

 ample of this, the most familiar illustration is tea, which but 200 years 

 since was scarcely known in this country. The Dutch East India Com- 

 pany having sent, in 1664, two pounds as a present to the king. When, 

 however, an importation of a few pounds took place three years later, 

 there was probably some prejudice against its general adoption. We 

 venture to doubt that, as a ne.w commodity in our own day, the pure 

 aroma of theine would find little favour at first with the general public, 

 though now, thanks to the energy and enterprise of modern commerce, 

 the tea trade employs upwards of 60,000 tons of British shipping be- 

 sides bringing an enormous revenue to the government. What we have 

 said of tea, might also be said of many other products, including pepper, 

 with which we now propose to deal ; even Pliny of old expresses some 

 surprise that an article, as he says, possessing neither flavour nor appear- 

 ance Fo recommend it, should become of such general use as it had in 

 his day. 



In a commercial sense, the word pepper has scarcely any restrictions 

 or limit, nearly everything hot or pungent comes under the designation. 

 Thus, we have cayenne pepper, which in reality is produced from various 

 species of capsicum ; nielagueta pepper, the seeds of Amomnum Mela- 

 gueta, and Ethiopian pepper, the fruits of Hahzelia JEthiopica. These 



