328 Materia Medica. — Hordcum distichum. part ii.

they soon recover their health and vigour. Dr. Johnson ad-vises the use of vinegar instead of salt, which is not apt to blis-ter the lips of the leech as salt does, preventing it from suckingfor some considerable time.

HORDEUM. Spec. Plant. Wild. i. 472.CI. 3. Ord. 2. Triandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Graminese.G. 151. Calyx lateral, two-valved, one-flowered, three-fold.Species 3. H. distichon. Common Barley. Viborg-Cereal.35.t.3.Officinal. Hordei semina, Lond. Hobdei distichi semina,

Edin. Hordeum distichum ; semina, Dub. Barley.

Syn. Orge (F-), Gerstengraupen (G.), Orzo (/.), Cebada (S.), low (H.),Barlee Arise (Tarn.).

Barley is asserted by Reidesel to be a native of Tartary, butthe fact is not well ascertained. 1 It is an annual plant, andcultivated in almost every country of Europe. This species,which is the most generally cultivated in Britain, has a longflat spike or ear, with a double row of defective or male floretson each flat side, and a single row of fertile florets at each edge.The valves of the calyx, or outer chaff, are linear, and one halfshorter than the corolla or inner chaff, which terminates in astraight, serrated awn or beard, sixteen times its own length.When ripe, the husk is coriaceous, angular, and continues closeabout the grain, which, when freed from it, is ovate, grooved,and angular.

Barley is used as an article of food, but less so than it wasin former times ; and it is now chiefly cultivated for the pur-pose of forming malt liquors and ardent spirits. It is formedinto pearl barley by two different operations; the barley is firstspread out and moistened; and then, in this state, by meansof machinery, is denuded of the cuticle, or shelled. It is after-wards rounded in a mill, which at the same time polishes thelittle granules into which it is formed.

Qualities, — Pearl barley is inodorous, and has a slightlysweetish taste. It consists of roundish granules of a pearlywhiteness, composed almost entirely of starch, with some glu-ten, mucilage, and saccharine matter ~, which are dissolved in

boiling water.

fermentation.

stance.

The decoction very soon runs into the acetousBarley is never used medicinally in sub-

1 Carden asserts that it is a native of Athol, in Scotland. Diodorus Siculus refersit to Egypt, where, he says, Osiris found it wild, and first cultivated it.

2 Einhof, who analysed barley both in the unripe and ripe state, found that 3840parts of barley, in grain, afforded 430 of a volatile matter, 720 husk, and 2090 ofineal; and from the same quantity of barley-meal, he obtained 360 of volatile mat-ter, 44 albumen, 200 saccharine matter, 116 mucilage, 9 phosphate of lime, with somealbumen, 135 gluten, 260 husk, with some gluten and starch, and 2580 of starch; 76parts were lost in the analysis. When this meal is macerated in alcohol it yields ayellow-coloured acrid thick oil, which is supposed to give the peculiar flavour tospirits from raw grain, and to be lost in malting. Thomson's Chemistry, v. 254,