The farina of the other cerealia affords also a very nutritive and wholesome aliment; though their flour, not so susceptible of the panary fermentation, cannot be formed into the light spongy texture of the wheaten loaf. Starch and mucilage are the chief alimentary principles of their farina. The bread formed from them is consequently' much inferior to that prepared from wheat ; but made into pottages and puddings, they afford abundance of wholesome nourishment.
Rice is the chief sustenance of some nations of the east; and, when well boiled, affords an agreeable and nourishing food, of easy digestion, and not so apt to sour on the stomach as some of the other grains. Barley bread is viscid, and not very digestible. The decoc tions of barley, barley water, and barley broth, are more used. The former, it is well known, is much employed as an agreeable and wholesome nourishment for the sick.
Rye bread is much used by some northern nations. It is very acescent, and not so easily digested ; but use ful sometimes in costive habits, front its tendency to open the bowels.
The farina of oats, made into cakes and pottage, is relished, and easily digested by those who have been accustomed to that kind of food from their youth. That it is nutritive and wholesome, cannot be doubted.
The flour of millet is well known in France, Spain. and Italy. It forms but indifferent bread, but excellent, wholesome, and nourishing pottages and puddings. Maize, or Indian corn, is a principal article of suste nance in America and the West Indies. It is suffi ciently nutritive, and gently laxative.
Next to the cerealia, the seeds of leguminous plants may be regarded as affording the greatest quantity of alimentary matter. Their ripe seeds abound in the fa rinaceous compound of starch and mucilage. Their meal has a sweetish taste, and forms also a sort of emulsion with water. But it does not fully appear, that the flour of the ripe seeds contains any very sensible quantity either of sugar or oil, notwithstanding what has been said to this effect by Dr Cullen. The farina of the leguminous seeds, however, though it forms but a coarse and indifferent bread, neither very palatable, nor very (lige:161)H Li? the nwst lomist stomachs, is yet highly nutritive. It is remarked by Dr Cullen, that
ou certain lasts of this country, upon which the Irgu mina arc produced in great abundance, the labouring .,ervants are much lid upon that kind of grain ; hut if such serl ants arc removed to a harm upon which the iegumina are not in such plenty, and therefore they are led with the ccrealia, they soon find a decay of strength ; And it is common For servants, in making such remo vals, to insist on their being provided daily, or weekly, with a certain quantity of the leguminous meal." We am not, however, to conclude, front this observation, that pease-meal bread is really more nutritive than wheaten bread, or than the meal of the other cerealia. We are rather disposed to regard it as an example of the effect of habit. To conclude, the whole of this tribe afford a much more agreeable and wholesome, though not a more nutritive aliment, when their seeds are used green, young, and tender, and simply boiled, than when fully ripened, and their farina baked. Vet with some constitutions, they arc apt to produce flatulency and disorder of the stomach and bowels.
The leguminous seeds are derived from the Pisum sativzon—Pea—Grcen pease, and pease-meal. Vida faba—Bcan—The green beans and meal. Phaseolus valgaris—Kidney bean—The green pods and seeds.
Many roots abounding in the amylaceous, mucilagi nous, and saccharine principles, yield a palatable and highly nutritive aliment.
Solanum tuberosum, potatoe.—The root of the potatoe boiled or roasted, as it is one of the most useful, is per haps, after the cercalia, one of the most wholesome and most nutritive vegetables in common use. Its alimen tary properties are undoubtedly very great, and require no other proof than general experience; and above all, that of the Irish peasantry, a robust and hardy race, who derive their principal sustenance from this inva luable root. It contains "much amylaceous farina, on which its alimentary powers seem to depend ; and which, when mixed with that of wheat, has been formed into a good and palatable bread, and used in seasons of scarcity.
Convoh. ulus batatas—Spanish, or sweet potatoe. Dioscorea bulbifera} alata . . . . Yams.