402 
a child of culture, the wild kind being scarcely edible. The first printed 
authority we have for the cultivation of this plant forming a delightful salad, 
is that of Turner in 1562. The names of the present numerous varieties 
point out whence the seeds or plants were obtained, as the Egyptian, Green 
Cos, the Versailles, the Cilicia, Brown Dutch, Green Capuchin, Red Capu¬ 
chin, Roman Aleppo; not that we are to suppose all these were so derived 
* 
exactly as the different appellations express. 
Perhaps there is nothing that can evince more the power of art over 
nature, than the Turnep (Bkassica Rapa), which in its wild state is an un¬ 
profitable weed. Pliny among the ancients, and Tragus among the moderns, 
speak of Turnep roots as weighing each forty pounds; Amatus of some 
amounting to fifty, or sixty; and Matthiolus of many exceeding fifty pounds, 
and some approaching to an hundred. The greatest weight I am acquainted 
with, says Professor Martyn, in England is thirty-six pounds. At Stowe, 
in Gloucestershire, a farmer produced four turneps weighing one hundred 
weight, and offered to produce, from a small given space, eighty turneps 
which should weigh a ton. It is not many years since the practice of sow¬ 
ing turneps for cattle has been of general use. How it happened, that this 
advance in agriculture should have been so long neglected in England and 
every part of Europe is a matter of surprise, since Columella in speaking of 
could the case be effectually relieved. But it was at last cured by frictions with mercurial oint¬ 
ment. 
The preceding trial, I apprehend, shews, as decidedly as a single case can do, that the efficacy of 
dried Lettuce juice, as an anodyne , is at least equal to the dried poppy juice, commonly called Opium, 
if given in adequate doses. 
Tours, &c. 
G. Pearson. 
If it should be found on subsequent trials, that the milky juice of Lettuce possesses, as possibly 
it may do, all the valuable properties of the common Opium, Lettuces may become an important 
article of culture for the sake of their milky juice only. But the cultivation of Lettuces has this 
further advantage over that of poppies,—after having yielded what milky juice can be obtained from 
them, Lettuces afford very wholesome and nutritious food for cattle, especially hogs, which are known 
to be remarkably fond of them. 
There have not been wanting instances, as I have been informed, of Lettuces having been sown 
purposely to be given to hogs, particularly when first weaned. 
Edmund Cartwright. 
April 10, 1801. 
Mr. Charles Taylor. 
Since writing the above, I find a similar discovery has recently been made in America, the par¬ 
ticulars of which are detailed in the last volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical 
Society just published. The experiments that were there tried corroborate the one made by 
Dr. Pearson. 
