(seq. 39)

30

Materia Alimentaria

Gums

cellular membrane in disease, to support the body is in scurvy,
syphilis, and sometimes in a healthy state as in Bears during
their Hybernation. Oil has been said by some authors
to float on the blood this I believe to be a mistake supposing
it to be Chyle, and whenever this appears it may be considered
a sign of indisposition. Some winters ago I was attacked
in the night with a violent pain in the head, and was
bled, the blood after standing a few hours had a creem
like fluid on its surface, which coagulated by heat
showing it was not fat. In such states of the blood we might infer
indisposition if no other symptoms appear. Dr Russell
in his travels into Lapland where they use a great quantity
of oil, the people were fat and disposed to be feverish. Dr Stak
found he could subsist on a smaller quantity of oil than
of any other food. Gums. Are insipid destitute of smell
or colour when pure. Dr Hardice supposed gum the principal of
nutrition, some of the gums are very nourishing, as that
of the cherry tree, and gum Arabic combined with water. Heat
does not coagulate them. Many of the black tribe on the river
Niger and the Moors subsist almost entirely on gum Arabic