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Yeast

most wholesome vinous beverage, and withal of home production. So testifies the smock-frocked Devon labourer, weatherbeaten, rosy, and wrinkled of face. "Ay, buoy, an' when th' cider du be gude, 'tis th' best thing fur a man tu drink th't iver th' Almighty made! Aale du be gude; stout be summat none so ill; some folk du set gert store to furrin wines, and sich loike (though I niver taasted mun mysen), but gie oi gude cider, an' if mun don't loike mun, there be no countin some volks judgment." Old Nicholas Culpeper (1652) stated "the Vine is a gallant tree of the sun, very sympathetical with the body of man, which is the reason spirits of wine is the greatest cordial among all vegetables."

In the days of our grandfathers a calmative drink was in vogue known as Julep (from an ancient Arabian word). This drink contained opium, with mucilage. The title is still retained by doctors for certain medicinal waters, but alcohol has been substituted for the opium therein. In Scotland, for a cold recently caught, a rob of black currant jelly is taken with whisky toddy, generally having the result of a cure straightway. The French make a similar cordial liqueur de cassis, from black currants, "qui est stomachique, et stimulante."

WINES. (See ALCOHOL).

As " Milk is the wine of infancy, so wine is the milk of old age." It is well worthy of note that as remarkably helpful against diabetes, a wine known as the Vin Urané Pesqui is to be scientifically commended, and has repeatedly proved of undeniable efficacy. This wine consists of old Bordeaux with which Uranium (a specific antidote to diabetes) is properly incorporated. Under its use (as a pleasant beverage) the amount of sugar in the urine becomes much reduced, whilst the general health is sensibly improved. The metal, Uranium, when taken experimentally in varying large doses by healthy provers, has been found to produce all the symptoms of confirmed diabetes.

YEAST. (See BREAD).

THE Barm (or Levurine) which has been told about when treating here of bread, merits some fuller notice as an admirably useful form of yeast against the staphylococcus pyogenes, or mischievous microbe which is causative of most purulent inflammations in the human subject. This Levurine is actually fresh barm from the brewhouse, dried skilfully, and reduced to a powder, of a light chestnut colour, with a smell of fermenting beer. Treatment of putrid, or septic inflammations by it is found (in Paris) to be much superior to that by the yeast of fresh beer. It is well borne by the stomach, and can be given freely, even up to six teaspoonfuls of the powder in a day; such an energetic course being necessary when the septic poisoning by disease is intense. Furthermore, it will act as preventive of microbic assaults, if taken with this view at the time of surgical operations, where infection seems a thing to be feared. For unhealthy boils, or a sloughing carbuncle, as well as for septic pneumonia (lung inflammation of a low, prostrating type), or septic rheumatism, when acute, Barm, administered liberally in the manner now enjoined, may justly claim curative powers almost positively specific. The best way of giving it is by dissolving doses (a teaspoonful at a time) of the powder in a little beer, to be taken between meals; or it can be exhibited in cachets, as to be had from a druggist for any such purpose. Professor Doyen, of Paris, has brought this potential remedy before the notice of his medical brethren in the Revue Critique de Medecine, et de Chirurgie. Fresh Beer Yeast is employed medicinally as an antiseptic stimulant in low fevers of a putrid type; it is of much service when, because of inflammatory risks, wine is not admissible.

Virgil, the familiar Latin poet, has related in Homeric fashion the toils and troubles encountered by Æneas and his followers when seeking a friendly resting-place, where they might again establish themselves after their long wanderings since the fall of Troy. Oracular prophecy had foretold, through Ascanius, the son of Æneas, a happy termination to their laborious quest. 66 Quum te, nate, fames ignota ad litora vectum Accisis coget dapibus consumere mensas; Tum sperare domos defessus, ibique memento Prima locare manu, molirique aggere tecta."

My son, when famine on an unknown shore Shall make thee, failing food, the very plates devour, Then, worn and wearied, look to find home-ground, And build thy walls, and back them with a mound."