Note 371 — PHARMACOLOGIA.

The fecula of various grains are employed as articles of diet for the sick, e. g. Sago, prepared from the pith of the Cycas Circinalis, its granular form is imparted to it by passing it, when half dry, through a coarse sieve. Salop, from the Orchis Mascula. Tapioca from the root of the Jatropa Manhiot. By expressing the root of this plant, the juice of which is extremely acrid, and baking the cake that is left, an alimentary substance is prepared called Cassava, the peculiar merit of which, like tapioca, is to swell and soften in water, and thus to make an excellent pudding. Arrow Root is from the Maranta Arundinacea. The arrow root however, usually sold, is the fecula of potatoes; 100 lbs. of which would yield about 10 lbs. of fecula, and it is worthy of remark that for this purpose frozen potatoes answer as well as those not spoiled by the frost. Dr. Ainslie, in his Materia Medica of Hindostan, informs us that “an excellent Arrow root, if it may be so called, is now prepared in the Travancore country from the root of the Curcuma Angustifolia, no way inferior to that obtained from the Maranta Arundinacea.”