Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/299

BIS of the root, reduced to powder, and added to the dough in baking, communicates an agreeable taste to the bread, and improves its sa- lubrity. The Great Bistort has likewise been usefully employed in the arts of dyeing and tanning. According to Gleditsch and Bautsch, two creditable authors, the herb with its blossom has, by tanners on the Continent, been found to be a pro- per substitute for oak-bark 5 and Damboubn'ey assures us, that from the root of this plant he ob- tained a decodtion of a viordore shade, in which he dyed wool of a real beaver colour, after having previously immersed it in a ley, sa- turated with a solution oi bismuth. All the parts of this plant have a rough, austere taste : the root, in particular, is one of the strongest vegetable astringents produced in this climate ; and therefore justly recommended in intermittent fe- vers, immoderate hemorrhages, and other fluxes, both internally and externally, where the constitution of the patient requires such a me- dicine. According to a late popu- lar writer, it has often, and espe- cially in agues, been given in larger doses than those commonly admi- nistered : he has prescribed it both, alone, and together with gentian, to the amount of three drams in one day. It is allowed to be a very powerful styptic, and consequently possessed of antiseptic properties ; but we doubt, whether it is suffi- ciently efficacious to supersede the use of the Peruvian bark, or even that of the white willow. BISTORT (Small), Welch, or Alpine; c Polygonum viviparum, L. is likewise an indigenous plant, which grows on the moorlands in several parts of Westmoreland and B IT [269 the North Riding of Yorkshire : it has a smaller root than the pre- ceding species ; a simple slender stem, six inches high, spear-shaped leaves, and the stalks and branches terminate by spikes of whitish red flowers, which appear in June or July, and bear seeds in August. — ■ See With. 383 ; and Eng. hot. 669. Although we have no distinct account of the economical and physical uses of this plant, yet it may be rationally inferred, that it is not inferior to the preceding spe- cies. Indeed, Gmelin informs us, that its root is so far from being astringent, in die island of Kamt- schatka, that the inhabitants eat it in a raw state ; and Steller, a late traveller, found it sufficiently sweet and nutritive, to support him without any other aliment, for se- veral days. The Samoiedes also eat it as a sweet and wholesome food. Several other nations dry and reduce, this root to flour, of which, they bake good bread. If credit be due to Oloff, who has visited Iceland, the inhabitants of ti at inhospitable climate make bread, even of the small knots which grow on the upper part of the stalk. BITE, of a mad dog, an unfor- tunate accident which but too fre- quently happens in hot summers ; and is supposed to be occasioned chiefly by suffering that faithful animal to feed upon putrid meat, without supplying it with sufficient Mater ; but more probably origin- ates from a specific contagion, like the small-pox, &c. — The disease thence arising in the human spe- cies, is called Canine Madness, or, according to medical writers, Hy- drophoiia ; a term which literally signifies " dread of water." This