PRESERVATIVES AGAINST HUNGER AND THIRST. There were some compositions in vogue among the ancients, for averting the direful effects of hunger and thirst; and were held by them to be extremely necessary in time of scarcity, long voyages, and warlike expeditions. Pliny says, that a small portion of some things allays the hunger and thirst, and preserves strength: such as butter, cheese made of mare's milk, and liquorice. The American Indians use a composition of the juice of tobacco, with calcined shells of snails, cockles, oysters, &c. which they make into pills, and dry in the shade. Whenever they go upon a long journey, and are likely to be destitute of provisions by the way, they put one of these pills between the lower lip and the teeth, and by swallowing what they suck from it, feel neither hunger, thirst, nor fatigue, for four or five days together.
The following composition is an extract from a manuscript scholium on a book of Heron in the Vatican library; and one much to the same effect, with some others, may be seen in Philo's fifth book of Military Affairs. It was reputed an exceeding nutritive medicament, and also very effectual for banishing thirst. Both the besiegers of cities, and the besieged, fed upon it, in time of extremity, and called it the Epimenidian Composition, from the sea-onion, which was an ingredient in its composition. The process is thus:
The sea-onion being boiled, washed with water, and afterwards dried, it was cut into very thin slices, to which a fifth part of sesame was added, and a fifteenth of poppy; all which being mixed and worked up into a mass with honey, the whole was divided into portions about the bigness of a walnut, whereof two in the day, taken morning and evening, were sufficient to prevent hunger and thirst.
There was another way of preparing it, by taking a pint of sesame, the same quantity of oil, and two quarts of unshelled sweet almonds; when the sesame was dried, and the almonds ground and sifted, the sea-onions were to be peeled and sliced, the roots and leaves being cut off: then, pounding them in a mortar till reduced to a pap, an equal part of honey was to be added, and both worked up with the oil: afterwards all the ingredients were to be put into a pot on the fire, and stirred with a wooden ladle till thoroughly mixed. When the mass acquired a solid consistency, it was taken off the fire, and formed into lozenges; of which two only, as above, were very sufficient for a day's subsistence.
Avicenna relates, that a person, setting out upon a journey, drank one pound of oil of violets, mixed with melted beef-suet; and afterwards continued fasting for ten days together, without the least hunger. He says, that the oil of almonds and beef-suet will effect the same by their viscosity. Hence it was that this celebrated physician, who knew things more by unquestionable experiments than by idle speculations and conjectures, prescribed the following composition, which in time of famine, by sea or land, might be extremely serviceable:
"Take of sweet almonds, unshelled, one pound; the like
like quantity of melted beef-fuet; of oil of violets, two ounces; a sufficient quantity of mucilage; and of the roots of marsh-mallows, one ounce: let all together be brayed in a mortar, and made into bolusses about the bigness of a common nut. They must be kept so as to prevent their melting by the heat of the sun."—See also the article Gum-Arabic.