JUICE OF THE PAP AW THEE. 



249 



fess that it has no perfect similitude with any 

 known animal matter. Nevertheless, I believe that 

 which it resembles most, is animal albumen ; since 

 dried, it dissolves, like it, in water. Its solution is 

 coagulated by heat, by the acids, by the alkalies, 

 the metallic solutions, and the infusion of nut-galls. 

 And, in fine, because, by distillation, it yields the 

 same products as any animal substances whatever. 

 ^ It is not the animal nature of this substance which 

 ought to surprise us ; for the juices of almost all 

 plants contain some of it ; but its abundance and its 

 purity in that of the papaw." 



To the preceding account, I may add, that since 

 it was written I have had confirmed to me, a fact 

 respecting the effect of the fruit of the Papaw in 

 its unripe state, (when eaten uncooked), on the mus- 

 cular fibre of animals, which I did not mention, as 

 I was in some doubt respecting it. I have been in- 

 formed by a gentleman of the first respectability of 

 the island of Barbadoes, who happened to be passing 

 through Edinburgh, that he knew two instances of 

 animals which had taken the Papaw in its uncooked 

 state into their stomachs ; and the flesh of which 

 was thereby so much intenerated, as to be unpleas- 

 ant to himself and others, who partook of it. This 

 fact clearly shews, that the effect of the Papaw juice 

 is the same on the muscular fibre, whether taken in- 



