Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/288

258] The seeds yield an excellent aromatic oil, which is carminative, resolvent, and diuretic, without heating the body: on account of these valuable properties, as well as for its strong, pulpy, and esculent root, this plant is industriously cultivated on the Continent: it delights in a rich, but not too moist soil; and the seed is put in the ground soon niter it becomes ripe.

There are two varieties of this excellent vegetable reared in Italy, both of which might be cultivated in Britain; namely, 1. The dulce, or sweet fennel; and 2. The azonicum, or Italian fennel. The former easily degenerates, and requires a frequent supply of seeds produced on its native soil; the latter is a delicious plant, the stalks of which, according to, are thick, pulpy, and from four to five inches broad: they are highly esteemed by the Italians, who blanch and eat them as salad, prepared with flour, vinegar, and pepper. Hence the popular adage in that country, according to which "fennel and bread are the Italians' repast."  , the : See.  FENUGREEK, or Trigonella fœnumgræcum, L. is a native of the Southern parts of France, Germany and Italy, whence its yellowish seeds are annually imported. They possess a strong, disagreeable smell, and an unctuous, farinaceous, and somewhat bitter, taste. These seeds are chiefly employed in cataplasms, and fomentations, for softening, maturating, and discussing tumors: they are also occasionally used in emollient and carminative clysters.  FERMENTATION is, strictly speaking, a chemical process, and one of the most obscure phenomena in nature, which all the ingenuity of philosophers has hitherto been unable to explain. Instead, therefore, of perplexing the reader with different theories on the subject, we shall briefly relate the practical part of this interesting process, together with the circumstances attending it.

Fermentation may be defined to consist in a visible internal commotion of different bodies, reduced to a fluid state; emitting bubbles of air, and a sparkling, pungent, vapour. But, more properly speaking, it is a gradual and spontaneous change of a body, consisting of different ingredients variously mixed, and which are now decomposed and converted into a vinous liquor. Thus we obtain, according to the methods afterwards pursued, wine, ardent spirits, beer, or vinegar.—Hence fermentation is confined to the vegetable and animal kingdoms; and is divided into three regular stages; namely, the , , and . Vegetables only are susceptible of the first; the flesh of young animals in a slight degree undergoes the second; and all animal substances are peculiarly subject to the last stage, or putrefaction.

The most essential requisites in every process of fermentation, are: 1. That the substances be in a fluid state; 2. That there be a proper degree of uniform warmth, that is, in general between the 70°, and 80°, of 's thermometer; and 3. That the atmosphere be not entirely excluded from the fermenting bodies, nor that they be exposed to a current of air.

If, in the elementary mixture, or component parts of a vegetable body, there exist a portion of inflammable air, this spirituous  gredient