1884.] The Mczquit. 459 
If we take the dry pod, thoroughly triturate it in a mortar with 
water, and afterwards strain, we get an aqueous extract containing 
all of its nutritive elements. The residue, nearly one-half (forty- 
seven per cent) of the whole pod, consists of shreds of the epicarp, 
the broken endocarp, and the seeds; it is indigestible, and always 
voided with the fæces. The aqueous extract, containing fifty- 
three per cent of the pod, consists of vegetable albumen, gum and 
grape-sugar, with traces of fat and salts. Its pleasant sweetness 
to the taste at once reveals the presence of sugar; but, owing to 
some interfering principle, the usual reagents fail to show even a 
trace of it. It is only after extraction with alcohol, evaporation, 
and solution in water that Fehling’s test can be successfully ap- 
plied. A careful analysis yielded twenty-six per cent of glucose. 
Dr. Loew (Rothrock, Botany W. of the 1ooth meridian) found 
thirty per cent. 
Thus it is seen that mezquit “beans” differ widely from corn 
or oats in composition, and therefore cannot produce the same 
effects on animals. Only about one-half its weight being assimi- 
lable, itisa much more bulky food. It is rich in sugar and nitro- 
gen, but deficient in starch, fat and salts. Before the advent of 
<= » when grain was scarce in San Antonio, mezquit pods 
Were regularly brought to market and sold for a dollar a bushel. 
_They constitute a favorite food of Mexicans and Indians. The 
i nae 1S ground on the “matate,” the seeds picked out, and 
“ Coarse flour thus obtained is cooked into cakes, or, after sea- 
eh a in corn-husks like “tomales.” Mezquit “ atole” 
y throwing the pods into boiling water; when cooked, 
they are put in fresh water and pounded into a pulp, which is 
sient the liquor, containing in suspension and solution all the 
ment of the fruit, is drank ad libitum, and is a very pleasant 
oo" aa pods may be triturated first and the 
fishy mifusion of this flour can easily be made to undergo alco- 
: much used tation, whereby a weak beer is obtained, formerly 
by Comanche and Apache Indians. 
