is made by fully fermenting any vegetable substances which contain
starch, sugar or cellulose. The fermentation process is carried beyond
the alcohol stage and the vinegar plant is usually used to ensure
uniformity of the fermentative process.
Father Kneipp, the great continental Nature Cure exponent, used vinegar
to increase the effect of cold water applications upon the skin, since
it dissolves the surface layers of the skin in a corrosive way. In
this way a deeper penetration of the water was found to be possible.
In a strong form vinegar removes corns and warts, but it needs to be
carefully applied lest injury to the skin should occur, which may
induce eczema or other skin trouble.
Taken internally, vinegar injures the walls of the stomach and hinders
the formation of the blood. It is for this reason that silly people
sometimes drink it freely to become pale and thin. Its use in salad
dressing is unwise. It should be replaced by fresh lemon juice.
A good lotion for the hair used by Father Kneipp was made by dissolving
the heads of fresh stinging nettles in vinegar.
The late Dr. Kirk of Edinburgh, who was one of the pioneers of Nature
Cure methods in Scotland, also used and recommended a particular brand
of acetic acid (a refinement of vinegar) for external application. One
of his favourite methods was to first bathe the part in hot water, then
spread over it a thick lather of vegetable ash soap, repeating this
several times, then rub pure acetic acid into the skin, and finally do
the like with pure olive oil. (See _Papers on Health_, new edition,
1911, 2s. 6d. net).
Most food reformers are agreed that vinegar in the guise of food,
should be entirely avoided, as a form of poison which is even more
detrimental to the human tissues than alcohol itself. They use lemon or
lime juice in its place.
The Romans used vinegar as a beverage, diluted with water, when on
their marches; but probably this was in reality a very acid kind of
cheap wine.
It has been asserted that “vinegar, or acetic acid, plays a double
part in the body of first an acid of a neutral salt, and then in the
form of carbonic acid as the acid of an alkaline salt. This valuable
dietetic quality [which, by the way, is common to all fruit acids] is
partly counter-balanced in English vinegar by the circumstance that
sulphuric acid (1/1000 by weight) is allowed to be added to vinegar,
the sulphuric acid being hurtful from the tendency to form insoluble
salts of lime. This mineral acid is not necessary and its addition is
not permitted on the continent.”
W