1799.) Ferment for Baking. —Words Reclufus and Reclufe.’ | 87° | 
enough ; pot-afh, being one of the faple 
commodities of the State, is cheap and 
‘plentiful, and they are all well acquainted 
with it; whereas foda is dearer and more 
fearce, and, being a foreign and imported 
article, they know very little about it. 
I mentioned, Sir, that the carbonate of 
pot-afh was a good thing for rendering 
bread or cake light, where yeaft or leaven 
were not to be got, and when ereat difpatch 
was neceflary. Yet there is a method of 
preparing a fermenting mixture, with 
which the Long-Ifland-women are well 
acquainted, that I fhall take the liberty of 
mentioning to you. It 
many hops as may be held between the 
thumb and three fingers, put them into a 
pint anda half or a quart of water, and 
boil them well together. If you have 
fome apples or a pumpkin in the houfe, 
cut a few flices of either of thefe and 
throw in, and it will be all the better. 
Then’ pour the liquor off, or ftrain it 
through a coarfe cloth, and add three or 
four fpoonfulls of melaffes, and ftir in jas 
much flour as will mingle with it to the 
confiftence of thin batter. Set the whole 
in the corner of’ the kitchen fire-place, or 
in any temperature of ‘moderate warmth, 
until a fermentation takes place, which 
will happen in a few hours, and then mix 
it with your flour, and knead it up with 
_ your dough, as in common cafes of bread-_ 
making. By this mixture there will be 
ya fufficiehey of carbonic acid gas extricat- 
ed to pufi up bread enough for one baking 
of a family of eight or ten perfons. 
Be pleafed, Mr. Editor, to take notice, | | 
that dough and bread are mdae light by 
an extrication of air fiom the yealt, leaven 
or alkali, and not by a fermentation, as is 
commonly believed, extending through the 
whole lump. As Tam perluaded, how- 
_ ever, that, befides the good done by the 
carbonic acid gas, when pot-afh is ufed in 
making cake, that’ the alkali alfo has fome 
bexeficial effe@ ; I cannot conclude with- 
out recommending the confideration of this 
matter to all the public economifts, and the 
ule of the bread made light with it generally © 
to the people at large.—I am, Sir, your’s, 
with much confideration and obfervance, 
MarcareETrTa A KEeruie. 
Cedar-Grove, on Long. Ifland. 
Augijt 19, 1799- ; 
ta : 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ' 
SHALL be thankful to any one of 
ycur learned correfpondents who will 
favour me with a folution of the following 
queftion ; . 
Occulta pecuma recluja funt. Tac. 
/ 
It is this: Take as. 
Why does the word reclufus in Latin 
always fignify ope, and the word reclufe 
in Englifh (which is manifeftly formed 
from the other) univerfally mean /but up? 
That the participle paffive reclufus al- 
ways means oper, is undeniable from the 
following quotations out of Ainfworth’s 
Dictionary : 
Reclufus, a, um part. (1) Opened, fet 
wide open. (2) Difcovered, revealed, dif- 
clofed. (1) Domus reclufa: Hor. Ep. ii. 3, 
103. (2) Reclufe fores: Ov. Met. wit. 647. 
Ann. 16. 
32. 4. 
That reclufe in Englifh, whether fub- 
ftantively or adjectively ufed, means /but, 
is immediately demonttrable out of John- 
fon’s Dictionary: 
. Reclufe, adj. [reclus, French ; reclufusy La- 
tin]. Shut up; retired. 
This mutt be the inference of a mere con- 
templative, a reclufe that converfes only with 
his own meditations. Decay of Piety. 
The nymphs 
Meliffan, facred and reclyfe to Ceres, 
Pour ftreams felect, and purity of waters. 
Prioz. 
Tall the live-long day 
Confume in meditation deep, /reclufe 
From human converfe.' PHILLIPs. 
Recluje, nx. f. a retired perfon. 
It feems you have not lived fuch an obfti- 
nate reclu/: from the difputes and tranfactions 
of men. HamMMoNpD. 
Yet it is extraordinary that the vers 
RECLUDE has the Latin fenfe in Exgl/h. 
To reclude [recludo, Latin}. ‘To open. 
The ingredients abforb the inteftinal fuper- 
fluities, reclude oppilations, and mundify the 
blood. HaArveEY. 
A logical explanation of the above cu- 
rious inconfiltencies will be highly fatis- 
fatory to, Sir, : 
Your obedient humble fervant, 
SAMUEL WESLEY. 
Highgate, November 9, 1799. 
Te 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N anfwer to the fir part of the inquiry 
of Suditone in laft month’s Magazine, 
p- 694, viz. ** Which as the bet Spanifb 
Diéiionary and Grammar?” It is my 
opinion (/a/vo meliorz) that, among all the 
Spanifh and French diétionaries, Gattel’s 
undoubtedly claims the preference; as it 
has been written after thofe of the French 
and Spanifh Academies. 1, know of none 
in Spanifh and Englith deferving recom- 
mendation; the only one tobe found = 
this 


