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Zitierempfehlung
Alexander von Humboldt: „The milk tree“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1818-Sur_le_Lait-19-neu> [abgerufen am 23.04.2024].
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Permalink: https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1818-Sur_le_Lait-19-neu |
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| Titel | The milk tree | ||||||
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| Jahr | 1819 | ||||||
| Ort | New York City, New York | ||||||
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Nachweis in: The Belles-Lettres Repository, and Monthly Magazine 1:2 (15. Mai 1819), S. 74–75.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Spaltensatz; Auszeichnung: Kursivierung; Fußnoten mit Asterisken und Kreuzen; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||||
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Statistiken
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| Weitere Fassungen | |
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Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général (Paris, 1818, Französisch) |
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On the Milk extracted from the Cow Tree (l’ Arbre de la Vache), and on Vegetable Milk in general (London, 1818, Englisch) |
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Der Kuhbaum und die Pflanzenmilch (Stuttgart; Tübingen, 1818, Deutsch) |
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Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache (Paris, 1818, Französisch) |
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On the Milk of the Cow Tree, and on Vegetable Milk in general (Sherborne, 1818, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (London, 1818, Englisch) |
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Cow Tree (Edinburgh, 1818, Englisch) |
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On the Milk of the Cow-Tree, and on Vegetable Milk in general (London, 1818, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Edinburgh, 1818, Englisch) |
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Drzewo krowie i mléko roślinne (Lwiw, 1818, Polnisch) |
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Cow tree (Boston, Massachusetts, 1818, Englisch) |
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Cow tree (Baltimore, Maryland, 1818, Englisch) |
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Cow-tree (London, 1818, Englisch) |
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On the Milk of the Cow Tree, and on vegetable Milk in General (London, 1818, Englisch) |
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Notions sur le Lait de l’Arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général (Montpellier, 1818, Französisch) |
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Sul latte dell’ albero della Vacca e in generale sul latte dei vegetabili (Pavia, 1818, Italienisch) |
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Ueber die Milch des Kuhbaums und die Milch der Pflanzen überhaupt (Jena, 1818, Deutsch) |
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Cow-tree (New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch) |
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The milk tree (New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch) |
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Cow-tree (Natchez, Mississippi, 1819, Englisch) |
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On the Cow Tree of the Caraccas, and on the Milk of Vegetables in general (London, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow-tree (London, 1819, Englisch) |
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The Cow-tree (London, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow-tree (Kendal, 1819, Englisch) |
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Cow-tree (London, 1819, Englisch) |
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Cow tree (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow-tree (London, 1819, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (Providence, Rhode Island, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Hallowell, Maine, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Alexandria, Virginia, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Albany, New York, 1819, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (New York City, New York, 1819, Englisch) |
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De koe-boom en de planten-melk. (Uit het Hoogduitsch)’ (Amsterdam, 1819, Niederländisch) |
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Ueber die Milch des Kuhbaums und die Pflanzenmilch überhaupt (Nürnberg, 1819, Deutsch) |
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The Cow-Tree (London, 1820, Englisch) |
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Milk Tree in South America (London, 1821, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Trenton, New Jersey, 1824, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (York, 1825, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (London, 1826, Englisch) |
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Arbol de leche (London, 1827, Spanisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Buffalo, New York, 1827, Englisch) |
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Description of the milk tree in South America (London, 1829, Englisch) |
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Vegetable substances – the cow tree (New York City, New York, 1832, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Wien, 1833, Deutsch) |
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Der Milchbaum (Wien, 1833, Deutsch) |
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Der Kuhbaum (Wien, 1834, Deutsch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (London, 1834, Englisch) |
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The cow-tree of South America (London, 1834, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Castlebar, 1834, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Durham, 1834, Englisch) |
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The cow-tree of South America (London, 1834, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (Manchester, 1834, Englisch) |
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The Cow-Tree (London, 1834, Englisch) |
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Cow tree (Boston, Massachusetts, 1834, Englisch) |
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[Sur le Lait de l’arbre de la Vache et le Lait des végétaux en général] (New York City, New York, 1834, Englisch) |
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The Cow-Tree of South America (Merthyr Tydfil, 1835, Englisch) |
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Der Kuh- oder Milchbaum (München, 1838, Deutsch) |
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The cow tree (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1840, Englisch) |
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The Palo de Vacca (Belfast, 1841, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (Bolton, 1850, Englisch) |
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Arbol de leche (Mexico, 1852, Spanisch) |
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Milk, Bread, and Butter Trees! (Northampton, 1852, Englisch) |
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Milk, bread, and butter trees (Wells, 1852, Englisch) |
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Milk, bread, and butter trees (Cirencester, 1852, Englisch) |
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Milk, bread, and butter trees (Sligo, 1852, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (London, 1852, Englisch) |
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The palo de vaca or cow-tree (Enniskillen, 1853, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (Haverfordwest, 1853, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (Greensburg, Indiana, 1853, Englisch) |
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The cow tree (Loudon, Tennessee, 1854, Englisch) |
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Milk, bread and butter trees. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1856, Englisch) |
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Milk and butter trees (London, 1856, Englisch) |
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The Cow Tree (Salisbury, North Carolina, 1857, Englisch) |
|74|
|Spaltenumbruch|
Amid the great number of curiousphenomena which have presentedthemselves to me in the course ofmy travels, I confess there are fewthat have so powerfully affected myimagination as the aspect of the cow-
tree. Whatever relates to milk,whatever regards corn, inspires aninterest, which is not merely that ofthe physical knowledge of things,but is connected with another orderof ideas and sentiments. We canscarcely conceive how the humanrace could exist without farinaceoussubstances, and without that nourish-ing juice which the breast of themother contains, and which is appro-priated to the long feebleness of theinfant. The amylaceous matter ofcorn, the object of religious venera-tion among so many nations, ancientand modern, is diffused in the seeds,and deposited in the roots of vege-tables; milk, which serves us as analiment, appears to us exclusivelythe produce of animal organization.Such are the impressions we havereceived in our earliest infancy; suchis also the source of that astonish-ment which seizes us at the aspectof the tree just described. It is nothere the solemn shades of forests,
|Spaltenumbruch|the majestic course of rivers, themountains wrapped in eternal frost,that excite our emotion. A fewdrops of vegetable juice recal to ourminds all the powerfulness and thefecundity of nature. On the barrenflank of a rock grows a tree with co-riaceous and dry leaves. Its largewoody roots can scarcely penetrateinto the stone. For several monthsof the year not a single showermoistens its foliage. Its branchesappear dead and dried; but whenthe trunk is pierced, there flowsfrom it a sweet and nourishing milk.It is at the rising of the sun that thisvegetable fountain is most abundant.The blacks and natives are then seenhastening from all quarters, furnish-ed with large bowls to receive themilk, which grows yellow, and thick-ens at its surface. Some employtheir bowls under the tree itself,others carry the juice home to theirchildren. We seem to see the fa-mily of a shepherd who distributesthe milk of his flock.
I have described the sensationswhich the cow-tree awakens in themind of the traveller at the firstview. In examining the physicalproperties of animal and vegetableproducts, science displays them as
|75|
|Spaltenumbruch|closely linked together; but it stripsthem of what is marvellous, and per-haps also of a part of their charms,of what excited our astonishment.Nothing appears isolated; the che-mical principles that were believedto be peculiar to animals are foundin plants; a common chain links to-gether all organic nature.
Long before chemists had recog-nised small portions of wax in thepollen of flowers, the varnish ofleaves, and the whitish dust of ourplums and grapes, the inhabitants ofthe Andes of Quindiu fabricated ta-pers with the thick layer of wax thatcovers the trunk of a palm-tree.* Itis but a few years since we have dis-covered in Europe caseum, the basisof cheese, in the emulsion of al-monds;† yet for ages past, in themountains of the coast of Venezuela,the milk of a tree, and the cheeseseparated from that vegetable milk,have been considered as a salutaryaliment. What is the cause of thissingular course in the unfolding ofour knowledge? How have the vulgarin one hemisphere recognised whatin the other has so long escaped thesagacity of chemists, accustomed tointerrogate nature, and seize her inher mysterious progress? It is thata small number of elements andprinciples differently combined arespread through several families ofplants; it is that the genera and spe-cies of these natural families are notequally distributed in the torrid, thefrigid, and the temperate zones: itis that tribes, excited by want, andderiving almost all their subsistencefrom the vegetable kingdom, discovernourishing principles, farinaceousand alimentary substances, wherevernature has deposited them, in the sap,the bark, the roots, or the fruits of
|Spaltenumbruch|vegetables. That amylaceous fecu-la which the seeds of the cerealplants furnish in all its purity, isfound united with an acrid, and, some-times, even poisonous juice, in theroots of the arums, the tacca pinna-tifida, and the iatropha manihot.The savage of America, like the sa-vage of the islands in the PacificOcean, has learned to dulcify the fe-cula, by pressing and separating itfrom its juice. In the milk ofplants, and in the milky emulsions,matter extremely nourishing, albu-men, caseum, and sugar, are foundmixed with caoutchouc, and with de-leterious and caustic principles, suchas morphin and the hydrocyanic acid.*
These mixtures vary not only in thedifferent families, but also in the spe-cies which belong to the same ge-nus. Sometimes it is the morphin,
or narcotic principle, that charac-terizes the vegetable milk as in somepapaverous plants; sometimes it iscaoutchouc, as in the hevea, and thecastilloa; sometimes albumen and
caseum, as in the cow-tree.
the milk tree.
Humboldt, vol. iv.
* Ceroxylon andicola, which we have de-scribed in our Plantes Equinoctionales, vol. i.p. 9. pl. i. and ii.† Proust in the Journ. de Physique, vol. liv.p. 430. Boullay and Vogel, in the Annales deChimie et de Physique, vol. vi. p. 403.* Opium contains morphin, caoutchouc, &c.