(seq. 41)

32

Materia Alimentaria

Gums

When powdered it resembles the farinacia, it is not a simple
body but a compound of sugar and oil in different proportions,
the Plumb, Cherry, Almond and also some of the bulbous
roots contain mucilage similar to gum Arabic. Those trees
which afford gum have generally astringent bark, though
this is not always the case, it is acid in some plants, cultivation
deprives plants of their astringency in some instances. Gums
contain more carbone and less oxygen than sugar. Dr
Gistanner says that animal mucilage contains little
nourishment, but this is to support a favorite theory rather
than truth, as he supposed it to depend on deficiency of oxygen,
but according to this theory Opium ought to be the most
nutritious article as it contains a great quantity of oxygen.
Dr Young my former pupil made a number of experiments
of Rabbits, confining some of them fourteen days to a
diet of Gum Arabic, the did not gain flesh but looked
healthy. To prove the nutritious qualities of gum Arabic
Dr Gistanner relates the case of a child with Catarrhus
visco, it discharged great quantities of mucilaginous fluid
somewhat resembling gelly. The Dr in the first place