360 
Manioc,  or  Cassava. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I       July,  1890. 
the  root,  which,  on  standing,  deposits  in  the  form  of  powder,  and 
which,  if  dried  without  heat,  will  remain  so.  If  heat  be  applied,  it 
takes  the  form  of  the  irregular  masses  we  are  accustomed  to  see. 
The  root  has  the  taste  of  chestnuts,  and  may  be  eaten  raw.  It 
is  delicious,  wholesome  food  when  roasted  in  hot  embers  or  broiled. 
If  soaked  till  the  skin  can  be  drawn  off  and  the  fibrous  heart 
drawn  out  and  then  dried,  it  makes  good  bread  ;  or,  if  broken  up 
and  fried  in  palm  oil  and  salted,  it  is  a  good  relish,  and  the  Africans 
call  it  bomba. 
An  extremely  white  and  fine  flour,  called  fuba,  is  made  from  the 
soaked  and  dried  roots,  and  it  is  the  chief  food  in  Angola. 
The  flour  makes  a  thick  porridge  or  mush — -funje.  The  water  is 
boiled  and  salted  and  set  off  the  fire  ;  after  which  fuba  is  stirred  in 
until  it  can  be  cut  into  blocks,  which  may  be  taken  in  the  hands 
and  eaten  with  molasses  or  dipped  into  chicken  broth. 
The  staff  of  life  on  the  Congo  is  quanga,  or  bread  made  from 
the  manioc  by  soaking,  peeling  and  pounding  the  soaked  root  into 
a  pomace,  and  kneading  and  making  into  dough-loaves  of  four  by 
six  or  ten  inches.  These  loaves  are  wrapped  in  thin,  tough  leaves 
and  bound,  and  then  boiled  in  large  earthen  pots.  Then  the  bread 
is  ready  for  use  ;  or  it  may  be  sliced  and  browned  or  broiled,  as  one 
prefers. 
Farina  from  the  manioc  is  prepared  by  grating  the  green  root, 
drying  in  the  sun,  with  all  the  starch  and  tapioca  in  it,  browning  it 
slowly  over  the  fire;  after  which  it  is  eaten  by  stirring  it  into  soup 
or  boiled  beans. 
Grate,  strain  and  dry  slowly  in  the  sun,  and  you  have  a  starch 
for  puddings  or  any  other  purpose  for  which  starch  has  demand  in 
the  market.  Gluten  being  a  nerve-food,  indispensable  to  health  and 
vigor  of  both  body  and  mind,  the  great  abundance  of  it  in  the 
cassada — nearly  three  times  as  much  as  in  wheat  flour — the  cassada 
is  pre-eminently  "  the  staff  of  life,"  since  there  is  no  way  by  which 
its  abundance  of  gluten  can  be  wasted  in  preparation,  as  in  wheat. 
There  is  a  Providence  here  which  shapes  ends,  since  this  chief  food 
for  tropical  regions  has  so  much  nerve-supplying  elements  and  so 
little  of  the  heating  elements,  as  compared  with  food  in  colder 
climates. 
But  this  abundant  gluten,  as  compared  with  other  foods  for  the 
sick,  pre-eminently  fits  it  for  the  sick-room,  and  especially  so  when 
