College of Physicians of Philadelphia: Robert Pryor Richardson notes on the lectures of John Syng Dorsey, 1817 (10a-198)

Avena

fermentation before the rice—It was slow m and more like animal matter. There are few dyspeptic patients but can digest rice if boiled rightly. Whatever irritates the bowels in Dysentary & Diarrhoea occasions purging. I know of nothing better here than a decoction of rice it makes one of the most pleasant & proper food for the sick. Boiling rice flour to a jelly and sweetening it with loaf sugar is a most pleasant aliment for the sick, a little rose water may improve it. Children are very fond of it. Rice is good in soup—Rice milk constitutes one of the best kinds of food in bowels complaints & I have cured them by a diet of rice milk alone. In occasional diarrhoea of the summer a table spoon full of rice boiled in milk every hour will often affect a cure. Avena. oats only used in this country for cattle but in Scotland the inhabitants use it much for bread et&c. a pap made of

Fagopyrum et Zea

Oatmeal is an aperient and mostly has the effect of opening the bowels, hence the impropriety of using oat meal gruel in many diseases. Fagopyrum, Buckwheat one of the luxuries of our country and buckwheat cakes and plenty of butter are very good, but not for the dyspeptic—the stomach of the sick will not bear them—nor short cakes, nor muffins. Zea Maize Indian corn a native of america is extremely nutritious. It is sufficiently saccharine to be malted. but Corn when eaten whole & in a green state is very indigestible as is proves by its passing unchanged thro the alimentary canal. Dr Barton said that this was the most nutritious of valuable of all the Cerealia. Mush is a healthy & digestable mode of cooking it and it is so much softened by boiling that it becomes the best way it can be used. The best made mattrapes which we have

Cycas Circinalis et Orchis Morio, Arrowroot.

are made of the inner shuck of the corn, if we except those made of curled hair. In Italy these are much used. Sir H. Davy has tried to analyse all the cerealia wheat had 955 parts in 1000 of fecula. Barley & rye less—peas and beans 574 potatoes 200. Sage is the pith of the Cycas Circinualis. It is often spoken of as a demulcent but it is only simple gluten. When well boiled in water it forms an eligible aliment for the debilitated. When you prescribe sage don't give wine with it or you will make it too stimulating. Without wine it is safe and wholesome. I recommend to your perusal D^r Percivel's book on this subject. Tapioca this grows in South America. It is obtained from the root by maceration. By much boiling it is dissolved & makes a good aliment but it must be boiled at least 2 hours, when rightly cooked it is digetion. Arrow Root, This is the product of the Maranta

Summer fruits

arundinacea & grows in the West Indies & particularly in Jamaica. It also grows in Georgia—Dr Barton received a letter from there which stated its growth et&c et&c. It affords more mucilage than any thing else with which we are acqainted—In bowel complaints given no milk with it. In convalescence particularly this is a valuable remedy. I have now finished the Cerealia.

5^th Lecture. At our last lecture we finished what we had to say on the cerealia, and now we go on to speak of other vegatable aliments without regard to their botanical affinity, as this throws no light upon their nutritious or medical properties. The summer fruits next claim our attention they differ much from the cerealia, and are composed mostly of an acid & saccharine matter. The orange is a perfect example of them. D^r Cullen says they are good for allaying thirst which they

Continued

do partly by their cooling quality and by stimulating the mucous excretions of the mouth [fauces] & stomach. They excite the secretions & keep open the bowels, but they are not nutritious in a great Degree. In cases of dyspepsia & Gout they are to be avoided. I have seen gout and spasm of the stomach & bowels take place from their use—this effect is to be explained by the quantity of acid in the stomach. Besides the quantity of acid what is in the fruit itself, the stomach generates much acid. The pulp of these fruits is very indigestible. Even water melon is very indigestable in some instances, & I have seen it vomitted up 3 or 4 days after it was taken into the stomach and very little changed flatulency remitting purging—cholic &c follow the use of these if unripe.—The juice of the orange is easy of digestion, but the pulp is very difficult. This observation is applicable to the water-melon pine apple, lemon etc among my patients I