OCR Text |
Show WINTER WHEAT. WINTER WHEAT. bottoms, are formed into powder and mixed with the milk, as being supposed to be Jess acescent. Sometimes children are ims prudently attempted to be reared by bread alone, boiled in water, which is called pap, when they become emaciated and rickety; for the bones of children are composed chiefly of the phosphate of lime, which is in abundance in the woman’s milk ; and when weaned, if cow's milk is ught not so well to agree, I have ordered asses’ milk, which comes the nearest to the human milk. As respects milk, parents ought to know, that before it can 3. With mucilaginous matter; as in thé potatoe, and many other roots, and in unripe corn. 78 nourish, it must be first curdled in the stomach; and rennet is what Nature hath destined in the calf’s stomach for this very purpose, which is so frequently an unnecessary object of terror to the tender parent. Wherethe stools of infants are curdly, or gripy, the defect is in the chylopoictic viscera (stomach and bowels), not in the food; and rhubarb ought to be given (Vide ” Y ma ou? article Rhubarb), oralittle calcined magnesia. But by all means avoid Dalby’s carminative, Godfrey’s cordial, syrup of poppies, and other heating drugs for your infant; for these are the snares that catch the ignorant, delude, entrap, and, alas! root out myriads scarce before they have seen the light of day. Mothers ought carefully to watch that the food is not sour, and ten makeit fresh ; for until there be a law to punish careless nurses, sour food will perpetually be crammed downthe throats of innocent babes. Starch.—Starch is a fine white powder, generally concretedin friable hexagonal columns, smooth to the feel, and emitting a particular sound when compressed. It has neither taste nor smell. It is decomposed by heat. It is not soluble in cold wateror ia alcohol. Warm water converts it into a kind of mucilage, which on cooling assumes a gelatinous consistence. This jelly, when dried by heat, becomes een and brittle like gum, but is Starch, after being thus dissolved in hot water, cannot be reduced to its original state. It is precipitated by infusion of galls, and the precipitate is redissolved on heating the mixture to 120°, but is not soluble in alcohol. It not soluble in cold water. is found ih many vegetables, combined with different substances. croy, accordingly, mal akes various species ofit > aS, come ; With gluten orfibrine; as in wheat, rye, and other similar Vith extract extractiveive; : as in be‘ans, pease, 2. With ; lupins, &c. 79 4. With saccharine matter; in most roots, and in corn after it has begun to germinate. 5. With oil; in the emulsive seeds, almonds, & 6. With an acrid principle; as in the root of the burdock, jatropha manilot, arum, asarum, and other tuberous roots. Mt IAL USE, Starch, in a medical point of view, is to be considered as a de» mulcent ; and aceordingly it forms the prit incipal ingr edient of an oflicinal lozeBes and amucilage prepared fromit often produces excellent effects, both taken by the mouth, and in the form ofa clyster, in i ile anddiarrhea, from irritation of theintestines. Moucitace or Starcn, (Mucilago Amyli. E. L. D.) Takeof starch, three drachms ; water, one pint: Triturate the starch, gradually adding the water; then boil them alittle. The Edinburgh college use half an ounce of starch to one pound of water. The mucilage thus formed is very useful in those cases where a glutinous substanceis required: it is often Successfully employed as a clyster in acrimony in theintestines There can be no doubt but. starch tremely useful in checking diarrhceas, dren, or infants; but the practitioner diarrhoeas depending on clysters have proy and in disorders oi car to remember, that the purging is often an effort of nature to get rid of irritati Offensive matter in the bowels, as foEoniens green bile, &c. 5 it would be criminal to palliate, as is too often the case, opiates being also added, by which means thousa Mocent victims have fallen by this delusive practi enemy, instead of being pent up in the bowels, must be driven out by cathartic medicines, especially rhubarb, to which umba may be added, orvitriolated kali, and the- starch only as an adjuvant, to blunt the violence of the acrimony : long protracted diarrheeas much advantage may bederive not so much from correcting acrimony as from someastringeut Property in the starch itself. In this latter disease, a dessert. *poontut of the starch mucilage in some agreeable simple water, |