Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/135

Rh whence it is barrelled, with the addition of a due proportion of yeast, and fermented in the usual manner.

This American process has of late years been imitated in the cyder-countries, and particularly in the West of England, where several hundred hogsheads of cyder-wine are annually prepared; and being supposed to contain no particles of copper from the vessels in which it is boiled, the country people consider it as perfectly wholesome, and accordingly drink it without apprehension. In order to ascertain the truth, various experiments were instituted by the late Dr. ; from the result of which he proved, that cyder-wine does contain a minute portion of copper, which, though not very considerable, is sufficient to caution the public against a liquor, that "comes in so very questionable a shape."

Independently, however, of the danger arising from any metallic impregnation, we doubt whether the process of preparing boiled wines be useful, or reconcileable to economy. The evaporation of the apple-juice, by long boiling, not only occasions an unnecessary consumption of fuel, but also volatilizes the most essential particles, without which the liquor cannot undergo a complete fermentation, so that there can be no perfect wine. Hence this liquor is, like all other boiled wines, crude, heavy, and flat: it generally causes indigestion, flatulency, and diarrhœa. Those amateurs, however, who are determined to prepare it, ought at least to banish all brass and copper vessels, from this as well as from every other culinary process.  CYPER-GRASS, or Cyperus, L. a genus of plants producing seventy-nine species, of which the following are the principal:

1. The rotundus, or Round Cyperus, a native of the East Indies: its imported root is knotty, surrounded with tough, fibrous strings, of a brown colour externally, but grey internally; and of a pleasant odour, especially when fresh and well dried.

2. The esculentus, or Eatable Cyperus (earth-almonds), growing wild in the East, in Italy, and the South of France. Its pulpy and mealy root is agreeably sweet, not unlike chesnuts, and might be advantageously cultivated in this country, as an occasional substitute for bread.

3. The papyrus, or Paper-Cyperus, a native of Calabria, Sicily, Syria, and especially of Egypt, on the banks of the Nile. From this noble plant, the ancients manufactured most of their , their sail-cloth, mattresses, ropes, nay, even their apparel. Perhaps, we may soon be enabled to import an abundant supply of this valuable vegetable, in British vessels.

4. The longus, or Sweet Cyperus, or English Galingale, a native plant, which is chiefly found on the isle of Purbeck, where it flowers in July. Its root is of the size of an olive, full of little knots or specks, of an oblong figure and grey colour; of a warm, somewhat bitter taste; and almost destitute of smell, when newly taken out of the ground.

In medicine, the roots of the first, or round cyperus, as well as those of the English galingale, are esteemed cordial, diuretic, and cephalic; they occasionally have afforded relief in nephritic 