Table beer.If the quantity to be brewed is taken as a barrel, or six and thirty gallons, two bushels and a half of malt will be sufficient. The dimensions of the vessels may be supposed to correspond with those used in a moderate family, and the copper holding about thirty gallons. A quantity of boiling water being poured into the mash tub, is suffered to remain there till the steam is nearly all evaporated. The malt previously ground, is then thrown into the water, and thoroughly stirred and mixed with it. This agitation of the malt and water, commonly called mashing, is kept up for a quarter of an hour, by which the malt is more effectually brought into contact with the water, and a greater proportion of its soluble matter extracted. After this the mash tub is covered over in order to retain as much heat as possible, and the whole is suffered to remain undisturbed for an hour and a half or two hours. At the end of that time, the water thus impregnated with the malt, in which state it is commonly called sweet wort, is slowly drawn off into another vessel. The quantity of water used in the first mashing is about twenty-five gallons; of which, not above fifteen are afterwards obtained, the rest being absorbed by the malt, with the exception of a small quantity carried off by evaporation. This first wort being drawn off from the malt, a fresh portion of hot water is thrown into the mash tub, and the process of mashing is repeated for ten minutes. The tub being again covered, the whole is suffered to remain for about an hour, when a second wort is drawn off. The quantity of water used in this second mashing is about fifteen gallons; and the malt having already retained as much water as is sufficientto saturate it, the whole amount of the fifteen gallons is afterwards recovered from the mash tub. About twelve gallons of hot water is now added to the malt, and the mixture being mashed for a few minutes, is suffered to remain another hour, in order to form a third wort. In the meantime a part of the two first worts is poured into the copper, with a pound and a half or two pounds of hops, and boiled for an hour, or an hour and a half; after which it is strained through a sieve into another vessel. The third wort is now drawn off from the mash tub, and being mixed with the remaining part of the first and second wort, it is boiled for an hour or more, with the hops used in the former instance. The three worts are then distributed into shallow vessels or coolers, and suffered to remain there till the liquor is reduced to a lukewarm state. It is then collected into the tun tub, and fermented with about a quart of yeast, which converts it into beer. But as table beer is sometimes brewed in considerable quantities for the use of large families, and in a still more economical manner, an estimate will be given, in order to show the saving that is made in private brewing. The following is a preparation for ten barrels.
£s.d.Malt, one quarter2100Hops, eight pounds0100Colouring, ditto040Spanish liquorice, 8oz.008Treacle, ten pounds034————380————Ten barrels bought at the brewery at 16s.800Ten barrels brewed at home380————Clear gain4120————
Liquorice root and other flavouring substances may be added: what are here inserted are only the general requisites.—Another way of making a cheap and wholesome table beer, is to dissolve four pounds of coarse sugar in ten gallons of water. Then put in three ounces of hops, boil the whole for three quarters of an hour, and let it work as usual. It should be kept a week or ten days before it is tapped, and it will improve daily afterwards, if not kept too long. Or for a still smaller quantity, put a pound of treacle to eight quarts of boiling water: add two bay leaves, and a quarter of an ounce of powdered ginger. Boil the whole for fifteen minutes, then let it cool, and work it with yeast.
TAINTED MEAT. When the weather is so hot that meat will scarcely keep from day to day, wrapping it in a thin cloth dipped in vinegar, and not wrung very dry, will help to keep it from being tainted. Or rubbing the meat with black pepper will preserve it, and let it be hung up as usual. It is much better however, that meat should not be kept so long as to risk its being tainted.
TAN GLOVES. To dye gloves to look like York tan or Limerick, put some saffron into a pint of water boiling hot, and let it infuse all night. Next morning wet the leather over with a brush, but take care that the tops of the gloves be sewn close, to prevent the colour from getting in.
TANSEY. To make a tansey, beat up seven eggs, yolks and whites separately. Add a pint of cream, nearly the same of spinach juice, and a little tansey juice, gained by pounding it in a stone mortar; a quarter of a pound of Naples biscuit, a glass of white wine, and a little sugar and nutmeg. Set all in a saucepan, just to thicken, over the fire; then put it into a dish, lined with paste to turn out, and bake it.—Another.Beat ten eggs very well with a little salt, half a pound of loaf sugar pounded, half a pint of spinach juice, and a spoonful of the juice of tansey; mix them well together, and strain it to a quart of cream; grate in half a pound of Naples biscuits, and a nutmeg; add a quarter of a pound of Jordan almonds blanched and beat fine, with a little rose water, and mix all well together; put it into a stewpan, with a piece of butter the bigness of a golden pippin. Set it over a slow charcoal fire; keep it stirring till it is hardened; then butter a dish very well, that will just hold it: put in the tansey, bake it in a moderate oven, taking care that it is not scorched. When it comes home, turn it upon a pie plate, cut Seville oranges in small quarters, and lay round it, and on the tansey, citron, and orange peel cut thin, with double refined sugar laid in little heaps between. If you have not Naples biscuits, grate seven ounces of the finest stale bread you have.—A boiled tansey.Cut the crumb of a stale penny loaf thin, pour over as much hot cream as will wet it, and cover it over till cold; then beat and strain six eggs to it, a little lemon peel shred fine, a little grated nutmeg, and salt; green it as you did the baked tansey, and sweeten it to your taste; stir all very well together, butter a bason, that will hold it, butter also a cloth to lay over the top, tie it tight, and boil it an hour and quarter; turn it into a dish, and garnish with Seville orange; stick candied orange cut thin on the top.
TANSEY PUDDING. Grate four ounces of bread, blanch two ounces of sweet almonds, and beat them fine in a marble mortar, with orange-flower water. Mix these, and four ounces of fine powdered sugar with the bread. Add five eggs, a little salt, a pint of cream, a grated nutmeg, half a pint of spinach juice expressed from the leaves, beaten in a marble mortar, and strained through a cloth, and two or three spoonfuls of tansey juice beaten out and strained in the same manner. Stir the whole together, and put it into a saucepan with a small piece of butter. Set it over the fire till it thickens, stirring it all the time, but do not let it boil. When done, cool it in a basin, then pour it into a dish well buttered, and bake it half an hour. Turn it out of the dish before it is sent to table, sift some fine sugar over it, and lay a Seville orange round it cut in pieces, and squeeze the juice upon it.
TAPIOCA JELLY. Choose the largest sort, pour on cold water to wash in two or three times, and then soak it in fresh water five or six times. Simmer it in the same until it become quite clear, with a bit of lemon peel. Then add lemon juice, wine, and sugar.
TAPIOCA PUDDING. Wash six spoonfuls of the large kind of tapioca, and stew it gently in a quart of milk till it is pretty thick. Let it stand uncovered to cool. Add two eggs well beaten with some salt, and sugar to the taste. Bake it with a crust round the edge of a dish, in a moderate oven, for an hour.
TAR WATER. Pour a gallon of cold water on a quart of tar, and stir and mix them thoroughly with a ladle or flat stick, for the space of three or four minutes; after which the vessel must stand forty-eight hours, that the tar may have time to subside; when the clear water is to be poured off, and kept for use, no more being made from the same tar, which may still serve for common purposes. The general rule for taking it is, about half a pint night and morning, on an empty stomach, which quantity may be varied according to the case and age of the patient; provided it be always taken on an empty stomach, and about two hours before or after a meal. Tar water cures indigestion, and givesa good appetite. It is an excellent medicine in an asthma; it imparts a kindly warmth, and quick circulation to the juices, without heating, and is therefore useful, not only as a pectoral and balsamic, but also as a powerful and a safe deobstruent in cachectic and hysteric cases. As it is both healing and diuretic, it is very good for the gravel. It is believed to be of great use in a dropsy, having been known to cure a very bad anasarca in a person whose thirst, though very extraordinary, was in a short time removed by the drinking of tar water. It is also believed to be the best and safest medicine, either for preventing the gout, or for so strengthening nature against the fit, as to drive it from the vitals. It may likewise be safely used in inflammatory cases; and, in fact, hath been found an admirable febrifuge, at once the safest cooler and cordial. The salts and more active spirits of tar are got by infusion in cold water; but the resinous part is not to be dissolved thereby. Hence the prejudice which some, perhaps, may entertain against tar water, the use of which might inflame the blood by its sulphur and resin, as a medicine, appears not to be well grounded. It is observed by chemists, that all sorts of balsamic wood afford an acid spirit, which is the volatile oily salt of the vegetable. Herein is chiefly contained their medicinal virtues; and it appears that the acid spirit in tar water possesses the virtues, in an eminent degree, of that of guaiacum, and other medicinal woods. It is certain tar water warms, and therefore some may perhaps still think it cannot cool. The more effectually to remove this prejudice, let it be farther considered, that, as on one hand, opposite causes do sometimes produce the same effect; for instance, heat by rarefaction, and cold by condensation, do both increase the air's elasticity; so, on the other hand, the same cause shall sometimes produce opposite effects. Heat, for instance, in one degree thins, in another coagulates, the blood. It is not therefore strange, that tar water should warm one habit and cool another; have one good effect on a cold constitution, and another good effect on an inflamed one; nor, if this be so, that it should cure opposite disorders. A medicine of so great virtue in so many different disorders, and especially in that grand enemy the fever, must needs be a benefit to mankind in general. There are nevertheless three sorts of people to whom it may be peculiarly recommended; seafaring persons, ladies, and men of studious and sedentary lives. If it be asked, what precise quantity, or degree of strength is required in tar water? It is answered, that the palate, the stomach, the particular case and constitution of the patient, the very season of the year, will dispose and require him to drink more or less in quantity, stronger or weaker in degree. Precisely to measure its strength by a scrupulous exactness, is by no means necessary. It is to be observed, that tar water should not be made in unglazed earthen vessels, these being apt to communicate a nauseous sweetness to the water. Tar water is also recommended in the plague, and for the distemper among horned cattle; with what success must be left to experience.
TARRAGON VINEGAR. Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with tarragon leaves, gathered on a dry day, just before the plant begins to flower. Dry the leaves a little before the fire, steep them a fortnight in the best vinegar, and strain it fine through a flannel jelly bag. Pour it into half-pint bottles, cork them up carefully, and keep them in a dry place. This forms an agreeable addition to soups and salad sauce, and to mix with mustard.
TARTAR WINE. Add to a quantityof mare's milk a sixth part of water, and pour the mixture into a wooden vessel. Use as a ferment an eighth part of sour cow's milk; but at any future preparation, a small portion of old koumiss will answer better. Cover the vessel with a thick cloth, and set it in a place of moderate warmth, leaving it at rest for twenty four hours. At the end of this time the milk will become sour, and a thick substance will be gathered on its surface. Now with a churn-staff, beat it till the thick substance just mentioned, be intimately blended with the subjacent fluid. In this situation leave it at rest for twenty four hours more. Afterwards pour it into a higher and narrower vessel, resembling a churn, where the agitation must be repeated as before, till the liquor appear to be perfectly combined. In this state it is called koumiss, the taste of which ought to be a pleasant mixture of sweet and sour. Agitation must be employed every time before it is used. This wine, prepared by the Tartars, is cooling and antiseptic. Sometimes aromatic herbs, as angelica, are infused in the liquor during fermentation.
TARTS. Sweetmeats made with syrups are formed into pies and tarts the same as raw fruits, and the same crusts may be used for them. Tarts made of any kind of jam are usually formed with a crust round the bottom of the dish, the sweetmeat is then put in, and little ornaments of crust placed over the top, made with a jagging iron. Sugar paste is suitable for these. Little tartlets are made in the same way, only baked in tins and turned out.——Take apples, or pears, cut them in small quarters, and set them over the fire, with a piece of lemon peel, and some cinnamon; let them simmer in as much water as will cover them, till tender; and if you bake them in tin pattipans, butter them first, and lay over a thin paste; lay in some sugar, then the fruit, with three or four tea-spoonfuls of the liquor they were simmered in; put in a little more sugar, and lid them over. If your tarts are made of apricots, green almonds, nectarines, or green plums, they must be scalded before you use them, and observe to put nothing to them but sugar, and as little water as possible; make use of the syrup they were scalded in, as you did for your apples, &c.Cherries, currants, raspberries, and all ripe fruits need not be scalded; and if you make your tarts in china, or glass patties, lay the sugar at bottom, then the fruit, with a little more sugar on the top; put no paste at the bottom, only lid them over, and bake them in a slack oven. You have receipts how to make crust for tarts; mince pies must be baked in tin patties, that you may slip them out into a dish, and a puff paste is the best for them. When you make sweetmeat tarts, or a crocant tart, lay in the sweetmeats, or preserved fruit either in glass or china patties that are small, for that purpose; lay a very thin crust on the top, and let them be baked no more than till your crust is nicely coloured, and that in a slow oven. If you would have a crocant tart for the middle of the table, or a side-dish, have a glass, or china dish, of what size you please, and lay in the preserved fruit of different sorts, (you must have a round cover just the size of the inside of your dish) roll out a sugar crust, the thickness of an half crown, and lay over the cover; mark it with marking irons made on purpose for that use, of what shapes you please; then put the crust, with the cover, into a very slack oven, not to discolour it, only to have it crisp. When you take it out of the oven, loosen it from the cover very gently, and when quite cold, take it carefully off, and lay over your sweetmeats, and it being hollow, you will see the fruit through it.If the tart is not eaten, only take off the lid, and your sweetmeats may be put into the pots again.
TEA. The habit of drinking tea frequently, and in large quantities, cannot fail to be injurious, as it greatly weakens and relaxes the tone of the stomach. This produces indigestion, nervous trembling and weakness, attended with a pale, wan complexion. When tea is taken only at intervals, and after solid food, it is salutary and refreshing; but when used as a substitute for plain nourishing diet, as is too commonly the case amongst the lower classes, it is highly pernicious, especially as large quantities of a spurious description are too frequently imposed upon the public. The policy which compels a very numerous class to purchase this foreign article, for procuring which immense sums are sent out of the country, while the produce of our own soil is comparatively withheld by an exorbitant system of taxation, cannot be too severely condemned, as alike injurious to health, to the interests of agriculture, and to the comfort and industry of the people. The duty on foreign tea has indeed been greatly encreased, but at the same time, so has the duty on malt and beer; no encouragement therefore is given to the home consumption, but the money which ought to be paid for the production of barley and malt is given to the foreigner, while by the enormous price of the article, a powerful stimulus is furnished for attempting an illicit importation, and for the pernicious adulteration of what is now esteemed almost a common necessary of life. It is desirable to lessen the injurious effects of tea as much as possible by mixing it with milk, which will render it softer and more nutritious. With the addition of sugar it may be made to form a wholesome breakfast for those who are strong and live freely, operating as a diluent for cleansing the bladder and kidnies, and the alimentary passages. Persons of weak nerves ought however to abstain from tea, as they would from drains and cordials, as it causes the same kind of irritation on the delicate fibres of the stomach, which ends in lowness, trembling, and vapours. Tea should never be drunk hot at any time, as it tends still more to produce that relaxation which ought to be carefully avoided. Green tea is less wholesome than black or bohea.
TEA CAKES. Rub four ounces of butter into eight ounces of flour, mix with it eight ounces of currants, and six of fine Lisbon sugar. Add two yolks and one white of eggs, and a spoonful of brandy. Roll the paste about the thickness of a biscuit, and cut it out with a wine glass into little cakes. The white of the other egg beaten up, may be washed over them, and then they may be dusted with fine sugar.
TEA-KETTLES. Hard water used for tea is apt to form an offensive crust inside the tea-kettle, which may be prevented by frequent cleaning, or putting a flat oyster shell at the bottom. This will attract the stony particles that are in the water, and the concretion will be formed upon it.
TEA-POTS. An infusion of tea is always more perfect in a metal tea-pot, than in one of stone or earthenware. If boiling water be poured into two tea-pots, one of bright silver or polished tin, and the other of black stoneware, and they be left in a room of moderate temperature, it will be found that the former will retain its heat nearly twice as long as the other. Tea-pots of polished metal are therefore to be preferred.
TEATS. Sore teats, in Neat Cattle, is an affection in those of the cow kind, to which some are much more subject than others; especially such as have newly or lately calved. When the teats of these animals are affected during the summer months, they often become ulcerated, and bythe teazing of the flies, the cattle are rendered difficult to be milked; they also become a very great nuisance at the periods of milking, as the discharges from them are apt, without much attention, to pass between the fingers of the operator into the milk-pail, and spoil the milk. The affection is caused by inflammation, irritation, and too much distention of the parts by the milk. In order to the removal of it, the milk should be first frequently drawn, and the parts well washed with soft soap and warm water; after which, a substance composed of elder ointment and wax melted together, to which is then added a little alum and sugar of lead, in fine powder, may be used to the parts after milking at night and in the morning; or a weak solution of white vitriol and a little sugar of lead, in soft water may be made use of in the same way, in some cases, with more advantage. The addition of a little assafœtida, and such like substances, in powder, is, it is said, beneficial in the summer season in driving away the flies. Great care is to be taken to keep the teats as clean as possible during the time of cure.
TEETH AND GUMS. In order to preserve the teeth and gums, they require to be cleaned very carefully; for if the enamel of the teeth be worn off by an improper mode of cleaning, they will suffer more injury than by a total neglect. A common skewer of soft wood, bruised and bitten at the end, will make the best brush for this purpose. Once a week dip the skewer brush into a few grains of gunpowder, after they have been bruised, and it will remove every spot and blemish till the teeth appear beautifully white. The mouth should be well washed after the operation, to prevent any ill effects of the gunpowder. Teeth, if notregularlycleaned, are apt to contract a false kind of enamel which is injurious to the gums, leaving the fangs of the teeth bare, so that they are soon destroyed, by being exposed to the air, and for want of being protected by the gums. This tartarous enamel must therefore be scaled off, that the gums may grow up to their proper place. Raspberries or strawberries eaten plentifully have been found to dissolve these concretions, and contribute to the preservation of the teeth and gums. Tooth powders and tinctures also have their use. A very convenient powder may be made of charcoal pounded in a mortar, and sifted fine. Apply a little of it to the teeth twice a week, and it will not only render them beautifully white, but also make the breath sweet, and the gums firm and comfortable. The charcoal may be ground in water, and so preserved for use. A tincture for the gums may be made of three ounces of the tincture of bark, and half an ounce of sal ammoniac, mixed together. Dip the finger into a tea-spoonful of the tincture, and rub the gums and teeth with it, which are afterwards to be washed with warm water. This tincture not only cures the toothache, but preserves the teeth and gums, and causes them to adhere to each other.
TENANT AT SUFFERANCE. When a lease is expired, and the tenant keeps possession without any new contract, he is deemed a tenant at sufferance. But on the landlord's acceptance of any rent after the expiration of the lease, the tenant may hold the premises from year to year, till half a year's notice is given.
TENANT AT WILL. A tenant at will is one who holds an estate or tenement at the will of the landlord, and may at any time be ejected. Meanwhile he is at liberty to leave when he chooses, on giving proper notice, and cannot be compelled to occupy.
TENCH. These are a fine flavoured fresh-water fish, and shouldbe killed and dressed as soon as caught. They abound very much in the dykes of Lincolnshire. When they are to be bought, examine whether the gills are red and hard to open, the eyes bright, and the body stiff. The tench has a slimy matter about it, the clearness and brightness of which indicate freshness. The season for this delicate fish is July, August, and September. When to be dressed, put them into cold water, boil them carefully, and serve with melted butter and soy. They are also very fine stewed, or fricasseed, as follows. To fricassee tench white. Having cleaned your tench very well, cut off their heads, slit them in two, and if large, cut each half in three pieces, if small, in two: melt some butter in a stewpan, and put in your tench; dust in some flour, and pour in some boiling water, and a few mushrooms, and season it with salt, pepper, a bundle of sweet herbs, and an onion stuck with cloves: when this boils, pour in a pint of white wine boiling hot; let it stew till sufficiently wasted; take out the fish, and strain the liquor, saving the mushrooms; bind your fricassee with the yolk of three or four eggs beaten up with a little verjuice, some parsley chopped fine, and a little nutmeg grated; stir it all the time it boils, scum it very clean, pour your sauce over the fish, and send it to table.—To fricassee tench brown. Prepare your tench as in the other receipt; put some butter and flour into a stewpan, and brown it; then put in the tench with the same seasoning you did your white fricassee; when you have tossed them up, moisten them with a little fish broth; boil a pint of white wine, and put to your fricassee, stew it till enough, and properly wasted; then take the fish up, and strain the liquor, bind it with a brown cullis, and serve it up. If asparagus or artichokes are in season, you may boil these, and add them to your fricassee.
TENCH BROTH. Clean the fish, and set them on the fire with three pints of water; add some parsley, a slice of onion, and a few peppercorns. Simmer till the fish is broken, the broth become good, and reduced one half. Add some salt, and strain it off. Tench broth is very nutricious, and light of digestion.
THICK MILK. Beat up an egg, and add to it a tea spoonful of flour. Mix it smooth with a tea-spoonful of cold milk, and put to it a pint of boiling milk. Stir it over a slow fire till it boils, then pour it out, and add a little sugar and nutmeg. The saucepan should have a little cold water put into it first, to prevent the milk from burning at the bottom, or marbles boiled in it will answer the same purpose.
THICKENED GRAVY. To a quart of gravy allow a table-spoonful of thickening, or from one to two table-spoonfuls of flour, according to the thickness required. Put a ladleful of the gravy into a basin with the thickening, stir it up quick, add the rest by degrees, till it is all well mixed. Then pour it back into a stewpan, and leave it by the side of the fire to simmer for half an hour longer, that the thickening may be thoroughly incorporated with the gravy. Let it neither be too pale nor too dark a colour. If not thick enough, let it stew longer, or add to it a little glaze or portable soup. If too thick, it may be diluted with a spoonful or too of warm broth or water.
THICKENED SOUP. Put into a small stewpan three table-spoonfuls of the fat taken off the soup, and mix it with four table-spoonfuls of flour. Pour in a ladleful of the soup, mix it with the rest by degrees, and boil it up till it is smooth. This may be rendered more savoury by adding a little ketchup. Thesoup should be strained through a tammis.
THICKENING. Clarified butter is best for this purpose, or put some fresh butter into a stewpan over a slow clear fire. When it is melted, add fine flour sufficient to make it the thickness of paste. Stir it well together with a wooden spoon for fifteen or twenty minutes, till it is quite smooth, and the colour of a guinea. This must be done very gradually and patiently, or it will be spoiled. Pour it into an earthen pan, and it will keep good a fortnight in summer, and longer in winter. Particular attention must be paid in making it; if it gets any burnt smell or taste, it will spoil every thing it is put into. When cold, it should be thick enough to cut out with a knife, like a solid paste. This is a very essential article in the kitchen, and the basis of consistency in most made dishes, soups, sauces, and ragouts. In making this thickening, the less butter and the more flour is used the better. They must be thoroughly worked together, and the broth or soup added by degrees. Unless well incorporated, the sauce will taste floury, and have a greasy disagreeable appearance. To prevent this, it must be finished and cleansed, after it is thickened, by adding a little broth or warm water, and setting it by the side of the fire to raise any fat that is not thoroughly incorporated with the gravy, that it may be carefully removed as it comes to the top. Some cooks merely thicken their soups and sauces with flour, or the farina of potatoe; and others use the fat skimmings off the top of broth, as a substitute for butter.
THORNS AND SPLINTERS. To run prickles or thorns, such as those of roses, thistles, andchesnuts, or little splinters of wood or bone, into the hands, feet, or legs, is a very common accident, and provided any such substance be immediately extracted, it is seldom attended with any bad consequences. But the more certain prevention is a compress of linen dipped in warm water, and applied to the part, or to bathe it a little while in warm water. If the thorn or splinter cannot be extracted directly, or if any part of it be left in, it causes an inflammation, and nothing but timely precaution will prevent its coming to an abscess. A plaster of shoemaker's wax spread upon leather, draws these wounds remarkably well. When it is known that any part of the splinter remains, an expert surgeon would open the place and take it out; but if it be unobserved, as will sometimes happen when the substance is very small, till the inflammation begins, and no advice can at once be procured, the steam of water should be applied to it first, and then a poultice of bread crumb and milk, with a few drops of peruvian balsam. It is quite necessary that the injured part should be kept in the easiest posture, and as still as possible. If this does not soon succeed, good advice must be procured without delay, as an accident of this kind neglected, or improperly treated, may be the occasion of losing a limb. In this and all other cases of inflammation, a forbearance from animal food and fermented liquors, is always advisable.
THRUSH. This disorder in children affects the mouth and throat, and sometimes the stomach. In the former case it will be sufficient to cleanse the mouth with a little sage tea, sweetened with the honey of roses, and mixed with a dram of borax. In the latter, great benefit may be derived from a decoction of carrots in water, or an ounce of linseed boiled in a pint of water till reduced to a consistence, and sweetened with two ounces of honey, a table-spoonful of which may begiven occasionally. This complaint may generally be prevented by a due attention to cleanliness, daily washing and bathing the child in lukewarm water, washing its mouth after it has been applied to the breast, giving it pure air, and removing any obstruction in the bowels by the use of manna or tamarinds.
THYME. These plants may be easily raised from seed, by slipping the roots and branches, and by cuttings; but the seed method is seldom practised, except with the second sort, or garden thyme. The seed should be sown in the early spring on light, rich, dry ground, which should be properly dug over, and the surface be made moderately smooth with the spade. As the seed is small, it should not be sown too thick, or be covered too deep: the seed is best sown while the ground is fresh stirred, either broad-cast on the surface, raking it in lightly, or in flat shallow drills, earthed over thinly: the plants appear in two or three weeks. It is necessary to be careful to keep them well weeded, giving occasional light waterings in dry weather; and by June they will require thinning, especially if the plants are to grow stocky, and with bushy full heads; in which case they should be set out to six or eight inches distance; when those thinned out may be planted in another place, in rows six or eight inches asunder, giving water till fresh rooted, keeping the whole clean from weeds by occasional hoeing between them in dry days, which will also stir the surface of the earth, and much improve the growth of the plants: they will be in perfection for use in summer, or early in autumn. Some think the common thyme best cultivated for kitchen use in beds or borders, in rows at least half a foot apart, employing for the purpose either the young seedling plants, which are fit to set out, or the root slips of old plants, each of which soon increase into plants of bushy growths proper for being cropped for the above use. It may also often be well cultivated as an edging to herbary and other compartments; in both of which methods the plants multiply exceedingly fast by offsets, and are abiding, furnishing the means of great future increase. Some should, however, always be annually raised from seed in the above manner, as such plants possess a stronger aromatic quality than those from old ones. When it is intended to increase any particular varieties, and continue them the same with certainty, it can only be effected by slips and cuttings. In respect to the offsets and slips, all the sorts multiply by offsets of the root and slips of the branches: the rooted slips are the most expeditious method, as the old plants increase into many offset stems rising from the root, each furnished with fibres; and by taking up the old plants in the spring, &c. and slipping or dividing them into separate parts, not too small, with roots to each, and planting them in beds of good earth, in rows half a foot asunder, giving water directly, and repeating it occasionally in dry weather till they have taken root, and begin to shoot at top; they soon grow freely, and form good bushy plants in two or three months. The strong slips of the branches without roots, succeed when planted any time in the early spring season in a shady border, in rows four or five inches distant, giving due waterings; and become good plants by autumn, when they may be planted out where they are to remain. The cuttings of the young branches grow readily, the same as the slips, when planted at the same season in a shady place, and well watered. The common thyme is in universal use as a pot-herb for various culinary purposes; it may also be employed in assemblage with other small plants, to embellish the fronts of flower-borders, shrubbery clumps,small and sloping banks, &c. placing the plants detached or singly, to form little bushy tufts, and in which the variegated sorts, and the silver thyme and lemon thyme particularly, form a very agreeable variety. The lemon thyme is also in much estimation for its peculiar odoriferous smell. Some of each of these sorts may also be potted, in order to be moved occasionally to any particular places as may be required, and under occasional shelter in severe winters, to preserve the plants more effectually in a lively state; likewise some of the mastick thyme. Spanish and Portugal thymes are also sometimes potted for the same purpose, and to place under the protection of a garden frame or greenhouse in winter, to continue them in a more fresh and lively growth; and sometimes some of the smaller thymes are sown or planted for edgings to particular beds or borders for variety, such as the lemon thyme, silver-leaved and variegated sorts; also occasionally the common thyme; and all kept low, close and regular, by clipping them at the sides and tops annually in the summer season. All the several sorts and varieties possess an aromatic quality, which principally resides in the leaves, whence it is imparted and affords a line agreeable fragrance. But the first three kinds are much the most noted and valued in kitchen gardens, and more especially the common thyme, which is so very useful as a culinary herb.
TIN COVERS. Properly to clean tin covers and pewter pots, get the finest whiting, which is only sold in large cakes, the small being mixed with sand. Powder and mix a little of it with a drop of sweet oil, rub the pots and covers well with it, and wipe them clean. Then dust over some dry whiting in a muslin bag, and rub the articles bright with dry leather. The last is to prevent rust, which must be carefully guarded against by wiping thoroughly dry, and setting them by the fire when they come from table. If covers are once hung up without wiping, the steam will be sure to rust the inside.
TINCTURE OF ALLSPICE. Bruise three ounces of allspice, and steep it in a quart of brandy. Shake it up occasionally and after a fortnight pour off the clear liquor. It makes a most grateful addition in all cases where allspice is used, in gravies, or to flavour and preserve potted meats.
TINCTURE OF BARK. To make the compound tincture, take two ounces of Peruvian bark powdered, half an ounce of Seville orange peel, and half an ounce of bruised cinnamon. Infuse the whole in a pint and a half of brandy, let it stand five or six days in a close vessel, and then strain off the tincture. Take one or two tea-spoonfuls twice a day in any suitable liquor, sharpened with a few drops of the spirits of vitriol. This tincture is highly beneficial in intermitting fevers, and in slow, nervous, or putrid fevers, especially towards their decline.
TINCTURE OF CINNAMON. This exhilirating cordial is made by pouring a bottle of the best brandy on three ounces of bruised cinnamon. A tea-spoonful of it, and a lump of sugar, in a glass of good sherry or madeira, with the yolk of an egg beaten up in it, was formerly considered as the balsam of life. Two tea-spoonfuls of it in a wine glass of water, are at present a very pleasant remedy in nervous languors, and in relaxations of the bowels. In the latter case, five drops of laudanum may be added to each dose.
TINCTURE OF CLOVES. Bruise three ounces of cloves, steep them for ten days in a quart of brandy, and strain off the tincture through a flannel sieve. It imparts an excellent flavour to mulled wine. In all cases tinctures are to be preferredto essences, as affording a much finer flavour.
TINCTURE OF LEMON PEEL. A very easy and economical way of obtaining and preserving the flavour of lemon peel, is to fill a wide-mouthed pint bottle half full of brandy or rum; and when a lemon is used, pare off the rind very thin, and put it into the spirits. In the course of a fortnight the liquor will be strongly flavoured with the lemon.
TINCTURE OF NUTMEG. Steep three ounces of nutmeg in a quart of brandy, and let it stand a fortnight. Shake it up occasionally, and then pour off the clear liquor.
TINCTURE OF RHUBARB. Take two ounces and a half of rhubarb, and half an ounce of lesser cardamon seeds; steep them for a week in a quart of brandy, and strain off the tincture. To make the bitter tincture of rhubarb, add an ounce of gentian root, and a dram of snake root. The tincture is of great use in case of indigestion, pain or weakness of the stomach; and from one to three or four spoonfuls may be taken every day.
TINGEING OF GLASS. The art of tingeing glass of various colours is by mixing with it, while in a state of fusion, some of the metallic oxides; and on this process, well conducted, depends the formation of pastes. Blue glass is formed by means of oxide of cobalt; green, by the oxide of iron or copper; violet, by oxide of manganese; red, by a mixture of the oxides of copper and iron; purple, by the purple oxide of gold; white, by the oxides of arsenic and of zinc; yellow, by the oxide of silver, and by combustible bodies.
TOAST AND WATER. Take a slice of fine and stale loaf-bread, cut very thin, (as thin as toast is ever cut) and let it be carefully toasted on both sides, until it be completely browned all over, but no wise blackened or burned in any way. Put this into a common deep stone or china jug, and pour over it, from the tea kettle, as much clean boiling water as you wish to make into drink. Much depends on the water being actually in a boiling state. Cover the jug with a saucer or plate, and let the drink stand until it be quite cold; it is then fit to be used; the fresher it is made the better, and of course the more agreeable. The above will be found a pleasant, light, and highly diuretic drink. It is peculiarly grateful to the stomach, and excellent for carrying off the effects of any excess in drinking. It is also a most excellent drink at meals, and may be used in the summer time, if more agreeable to the drinker.
TOASTED CHEESE. Mix some fine butter, made mustard, and salt, into a mass. Spread it on fresh made thin toasts, and grate some Gloucester cheese upon them.
TOMATOES. These are chiefly used in soups and sauces, and serve as little dishes at table at any part of a dinner. When they are to be baked, cut the tomatoes lengthways in the middle, with the part where there is a rind downwards. Strew upon each a seasoning of pepper, salt, and sweet herbs chopped small. Set them in the oven till they are soft, and serve them up, without any other sauce. The fruit of the purple egg plant is eaten, prepared in the same manner.
TOMATA SAUCE. For hot or cold meats put tomatas, when perfectly ripe, into an earthen jar. Set it in an oven when the bread is drawn, till they are quite soft; then separate the skins from the pulp, and mix this with capsicum vinegar, and a few cloves of pounded garlic, which must both be proportioned to the quantity of fruit. Add powdered ginger and salt to taste. Some white wine vinegar and cayenne may be used instead of capsicum vinegar. Keep the mixture in small wide-mouthedbottles, well corked, and in a cool dry place.
TONGUES. When a tongue is intended to be eaten cold, season it with common salt and saltpetre, brown sugar, a little bay salt, pepper, cloves, mace, and allspice, in fine powder, and let it lie a fortnight. Then take away the pickle, put the tongue into a small pan, and lay some butter on it. Cover it with brown crust, and bake it slowly till it becomes so tender that a straw would go through it. The thin part of tongues, when hung up to dry, grates like hung beef, and also makes a fine addition to the flavour of omlets.—To boil a tongue. If it is a dried tongue, soak it over night; the next day put it into cold water, and let it have a good deal of room; it will take at least four hours. If it is a green tongue out of the pickle, you need not soak it, but it will require near the same time. About an hour before you send it to table, take it out and blanch it, then put it into the pot again till you want it, by this means it will eat the tenderer.
TONGUE AND UDDER. Clean the tongue nicely, rub it with salt, a very little saltpetre, and a little coarse sugar, and let it lie for two or three days. When to be dressed, have a fresh tender udder with some fat to it, and boil that and the tongue gently till half done. Take them very clean out of the water, then tie the thick end of the one to the thin end of the other, and roast them with a few cloves stuck into the udder. Serve them up with gravy in the dish, and currant jelly in a tureen. A dried tongue to be boiled, requires to be previously soaked for ten or twelve hours. A tongue out of pickle is only to be washed, and boiled in the same way. It will take four hours to do it well, and for the first two hours it should only simmer. About an hour before it is done it should be taken up and peeled, and then put into the boiler again to finish it. Serve it up with turnips nicely mashed, and laid round it.
TOOTH ACH. The best possible preventive of this disorder is to keep the teeth clean, as directed for the Teeth and Gums. If the gums be inflamed, recourse should be had to bleeding by leeches, and blisters behind the ears. A few drops of laudanum in cotton, laid on the tooth, will sometimes afford relief. In some cases, vitriolic æther dropped on the cheek, and the hand held to the part till the liquid is evaporated, is found to answer the purpose. But it is much easier to prescribe the means of preventing the disorder, than to point out a specific remedy; and the nostrums generally given on this subject are either ineffectual or injurious.
TOURTE CRUST. To make a crust for French pies called tourtes, take a pound and a half of fine flour, a pound of butter, and three quarters of an ounce of salt. Put the flour upon a clean pie board, make a hole in the middle, and put in the salt, with the butter cut into small pieces. Pour in the water carefully, as it is of great importance that the crust be rather stiff; and for this purpose there should only be just water enough to make it hold together so as to roll it out smooth. Work up the butter and water well together with the hand, and mix it in the flour by degrees. When the flour is all mixed in, mould the paste till it is quite smooth and free from lumps, and let it lie two hours before it be used. This is a very nice crust for putting round the dish for baked puddings.
TOURTES OF FISH. Prepare the crust and put it into the dish, as for meat tourtes. Then take almost any kind of fish, cut them from the backbone, and lay them in slices upon the crust, with a little bunch of sweet herbs in the middle, some saltand pounded spice, according to the taste. Lay butter all over the top crust, and bake it an hour and a half. Cut the crust round after it is baked, take out the herbs, skim off the remainder of the fat, pour on a sauce of fish gravy, and serve it up. Mushrooms are very nice in the sauce, and so are capers, but the flavour of the sauce must be regulated by the taste. Truffles and morels may also be put in, as in the meat tourtes. Eels, pike, salmon, tench, whiting, are proper for the purpose. Nothing makes a nicer tourte in this way than large soles, taking off the flesh from the backbone, without the side fins. Lobsters also make an excellent tourte, and oysters are very nice mixed with other fish.
TOURTES OF MEAT. Prepare a crust of paste, roll it out, and line a dish with it not deeper than a common plate. Veal, chicken, pigeons, sweetbread, or game of any kind, may be prepared as follows. Cut in pieces whichever is preferred, just heat it in water, drain it, season it with pepper and salt, lay it upon the crust without piling it up high, and leave a border round the rim of the dish. Place some pieces of butter upon the meat to keep it moist, and add truffles, mushrooms, morels, artichoke bottoms, or forcemeat balls, at pleasure. Cover the whole with slices of fat bacon, and then lay a crust over it exactly corresponding with that underneath. Glaze over the upper crust with yolk of egg, and set the tourte into an oven. When it has been in a quarter of an hour, draw it to the mouth of the oven, and make a hole in the centre of the crust to let out the fumes. Let it stand nearly three hours longer in the oven, then take it out, cut the crust round with the rim, take it off, take out the bacon, and clear off any fat that may remain on the top. Have ready a rich ragout sauce to pour over it, then replace the crust, and serve it up. This dish is according to the French fashion.
TRANSPARENT MARMALADE. Cut the palest Seville oranges in quarters, take out the pulp, and put it in a bason, picking out the seeds and skins. Let the outsides soak in water with a little salt all night, then boil them in a good quantity of spring water till tender; drain, and cut them in very thin slices, and put them to the pulp. To every pound, add a pound and a half of double-refined sugar beaten fine; boil them together twenty minutes, but be careful not to break the slices. It must be stirred all the time very gently, and put into glasses when cold.
TRANSPARENT PAINTINGS. The paper must be fixed in a straining frame, in order to place it between the eye and the light, when required. After tracing the design, the colours must be laid on, in the usual method of stained drawings. When the tints are got in, place the picture against the window, on a pane of glass framed for the purpose, and begin to strengthen the shadows with Indian ink, or with colours, according as the effect requires; laying the colours sometimes on both sides of the paper, to give greater force and depth of colour. The last touches for giving final strength to shadows and forms, are to be done with ivory black or lamp black, prepared with gum water; as there is no pigment so opaque, and capable of giving strength and decision. When the drawing is finished, and every part has got its depth of colour and brilliancy, being perfectly dry, touch very carefully with spirits of turpentine, on both sides, those parts which are to be the brightest, such as the moon and fire; and those parts requiring less brightness, only on one side. Then lay on immediately with a pencil, a varnish made by dissolving one ounce of Canada balsam in anequal quantity of spirit of turpentine. Be cautious with the varnish, as it is apt to spread. When the varnish is dry, tinge the flame with red lead and gamboge, slightly touching the smoke next the flame. The moon must not be tinted with colour. Much depends on the choice of the subject, and none is so admirably adapted to this species of effect, as the gloomy Gothic ruin, whose antique towers and pointed turrets finely contrast their dark battlements with the pale yetbrilliantmoon. The effect of rays passing through the ruined windows, half choked with ivy; or of a fire among the clustering pillars and broken monuments of the choir, round which are figures of banditti, or others, whose haggard faces catch the reflecting light; afford a peculiarity of effect not to be equaled in any other species of painting. Internal views of cathedrals also, where windows of stained glass are introduced, have a beautiful effect. The great point to be attained is, a happy coincidence between the subject and the effect produced. The fine light should not be too near the moon, as its glare would tend to injure her pale silver light. Those parts which are not interesting, should be kept in an undistinguishing gloom; and where the principal light is, they should be marked with precision. Groups of figures should be well contrasted; those in shadow crossing those that are in light, by which means the opposition of light against shade is effected.
TRANSPARENT PUDDING. Beat up eight eggs, put them into a stewpan, with half a pound of sugar finely pounded, the same quantity of butter, and some grated nutmeg. Set it on the fire, and keep it stirring till it thickens. Then set it into a basin to cool, put a rich puff paste round the dish, pour in the pudding, and bake it in a moderate oven. It will cut light and clear. Candied orange and citron may be added if approved.
TRANSPLANTINGOF FLOWERS. Annuals and perennials, sown in March or April, may be transplanted about the end of May. A showery season is preferable, or they must frequently be watered till they have taken root. In the summer time the evening is the proper season, and care should be taken not to break the fibres in digging up the root. Chinasters, columbines, marigolds, pinks, stocks, hollyhocks, mallows, sweetwilliams, wallflowers, and various others, may be sown and transplanted in this manner.
TRAPS. Garden traps, such as are contrived for the purpose of destroying mice and other vermin; which are often conveyed into such places with the straw, litter, and other matters that are made use of in them; and which are extremely hurtful and troublesome in the spring season, in destroying peas and beans, as well as lettuces, melons, and cucumbers in frames. Traps for this purpose are contrived in a great many ways; but as field vermin are very shy, and will rarely enter traps which are close, the following simple cheap form has been advised, though it has nothing of novelty in it. These traps may be made by stringing garden beans on a piece of fine pack-thread, in the manner of beads, and then driving two small stake-like pieces of wood into the ground at the breadth of a brick from each other, and setting up a brick, flat stone, or board with a weight on it, inclining to an angle of about forty-five degrees; tying the string, with the beans on it, round the brick or other substances and stakes, to support them in their inclining position, being careful to place all the beans on the under sides of the bricks or other matters. The mice in eating the beans, in such cases, will also destroy the pack-thread, and by such means disengage the brick or other weighty body, which by falling on them readily destroys them. Mice are alwaysbest got rid of by some sort of simple open traps of this nature.
TREACLE BEER. Pour two quarts of boiling water on a pound of treacle, and stir them together. Add six quarts of cold water, and a tea-cupful of yeast. Tun it into a cask, cover it close down, and it will be fit to drink in two or three days. If made in large quantities, or intended to keep, put in a handful of malt and hops, and when the fermentation is over, stop it up close.
TREACLE POSSET. Add two table-spoonfuls of treacle to a pint of milk, and when ready to boil, stir it briskly over the fire till it curdles. Strain it off after standing covered a few minutes. This whey promotes perspiration, is suitable for a cold, and children will take it very freely.
TREATMENT OF CHILDREN. It ought to be an invariable rule with all who have the care of children, to give them food only when it is needful. Instead of observing this simple and obvious rule, it is too common, throughout every period of childhood, to pervert the use of food by giving it when it is not wanted, and consequently when it does mischief, not only in a physical but in a moral point of view. To give food as an indulgence, or in a way of reward, or to withhold it as a matter of punishment, are alike injurious. A proper quantity of food is necessary in all cases, to sustain their health and growth; and their faults ought to be corrected by more rational means. The idea of making them suffer in their health and growth on account of their behaviour, is sufficient to fill every considerate mind with horror. It is the project only of extreme weakness, to attempt to correct the disposition by creating bodily sufferings, which are so prone to hurt the temper, even at an age when reason has gained a more powerful ascendancy. Eatables usually given to children by well-meaning but injudicious persons, in order to pacify or conciliate, are still worse than the privations inflicted by way of punishment. Sugar plums, sugar candy, barley sugar, sweetmeats, and most kinds of cakes, are unwholesome, and cloying to the appetite. Till children begin to run about, the uniformity of their lives makes it probable that the quantity of food they require in the day is nearly the same, and that it may be given to them statedly at the same time. By establishing a judicious regularity with regard to both, much benefit will accrue to their health and comfort. The same rule should be applied to infants at the breast, as well as after they are weaned. By allowing proper intervals between the times of giving children suck, the breast of the mother becomes duly replenished with milk, and the stomach of the infant properly emptied to receive a fresh supply. The supposition that an infant wants food every time it cries, is highly fanciful; and it is perfectly ridiculous to see the poor squalling thing thrown on its back, and nearly suffocated with food to prevent its crying, when it is more likely that the previous uneasiness arises from an overloaded stomach. Even the mother's milk, the lightest of all food, will disagree with the child, if the administration of it is improperly repeated. A very injurious practice is sometimes adopted, in suckling a child beyond the proper period, which ought by all means to be discountenanced, as evidently unnatural, and tending to produce weakness both in body and mind. Suckling should not be continued after the cutting of the first teeth, when the clearest indication is given, that the food which was adapted to the earliest stage of infancy ceases to be proper. Attention should also be paid to the quantity as well as toquality of the food given, for though a child will sleep with an overloaded stomach, it will not be the refreshing sleep of health. When the stomach is filled beyond the proper medium, it induces a similar kind of heaviness to that arising from opiates and intoxicating liquors; and instead of awakening refreshed and lively, the child will be heavy and fretful. By the time that children begin to run about, the increase of their exercise will require an increase of nourishment: but those who overload them with food at any time, in hopes of strengthening them, are very much deceived. No prejudice is equally fatal to such numbers of children. Whatever unnecessary food a child receives, weakens instead of strengthening it: for when the stomach is overfilled, its power of digestion is impaired, and food undigested is so far from yielding nourishment, that it only serves to debilitate the whole system, and to occasion a variety of diseases. Amongst these are obstructions, distention of the body, rickets, scrophula, slow fevers, consumptions, and convulsion fits. Another pernicious custom prevails with regard to the diet of children, when they begin to take other nourishment besides their mother's milk, and that is by giving them such as their stomachs are unable to digest, and indulging them also in a mixture of such things at their meals as are hurtful to every body, and more especially to children, considering the feeble and delicate state of their organs. This injudicious indulgence is sometimes defended on the plea of its being necessary to accustom them to all kinds of food; but this idea is highly erroneous. Their stomachs must have time to acquire strength sufficient to enable them to digest varieties of food; and the filling them with indigestible things is not the way to give them strength. Children can only acquire strength gradually with their proper growth, which will always be impeded if the stomach is disordered. Food for infants should be very simple, and easy of digestion. When they require something more solid than spoonmeats alone, they should have bread with them. Plain puddings, mild vegetables, and wholesome ripe fruits, eaten with bread, are also good for them. Animal food is better deferred till their increased capacity for exercise will permit it with greater safety, and then care must be taken that the exercise be proportioned to this kind of food. The first use of it should be gradual, not exceeding two or three times in a week. An exception should be made to these rules in the instances of scrophulous and rickety children, as much bread is always hurtful in these cases, and fruits are particularly pernicious. Plain animal food is found to be the most suitable to their state. The utmost care should be taken under all circumstances to procure genuine unadulterated bread for children, as the great support of life. If the perverted habits of the present generation give them an indifference as to what bread they eat, or a vitiated taste for adulterated bread, they still owe it to their children as a sacred duty, not to undermine their constitution by this injurious composition. The poor, and many also of the middling ranks of society are unhappily compelled to this species of infanticide, as it may almost be called, by being driven into large towns to gain a subsistence, and thus, from the difficulty of doing otherwise, being obliged to take their bread of bakers, instead of making wholesome bread at home, as in former times, in more favourable situations. While these are to be pitied, what shall be said of those whose fortunes place them above this painful necessity. Let them at at least rear their children on wholesome food, and with unsophisticatedhabits, as the most unequivocal testimony of parental affection performing its duty towards its offspring. It is proper also to observe, that children ought not to be hurried in their eating, as it is of great importance that they should acquire a habit of chewing their food well. They will derive from it the various advantages of being less likely to eat their food hot, of thus preparing what they eat properly for the stomach, instead of imposing upon it what is the real office of the teeth; and also that of checking them from eating too much. When food is not properly masticated, the stomach is longer before it feels satisfied; which is perhaps the most frequent, and certainly the most excusable cause of eating more than is fairly sufficient. Thoughtless people will often, for their own amusement, give children morsels of high dishes, and sips of spirituous or fermented liquors, to see whether they will relish them, or make faces at them. But trifling as this may seem, it would be better that it were never practised, for the sake of preserving the natural purity of their tastes as long as possible.
TREATMENT OF THE SICK. Though an unskilful dabbling in cases of illness, which require the attention of the most medical practitioners, is both dangerous and presumptuous; yet it is quite necessary that those who have the care of a family should be able to afford some relief in case of need, as well as those whose duty it is more immediately to attend upon the sick. Uneasy symptoms are experienced at times by all persons, not amounting to a decided state of disease, which if neglected may nevertheless issue in some serious disorder that might have been prevented, not only without risk, but even with greater advantage to the individual than by an application to a positive course of medicine. Attention to the state of the bowels, and the relief that may frequently be afforded by a change of diet, come therefore very properly within the sphere of domestic management, in connection with a few simple medicines in common use. The sensations of lassitude or weariness, stiffness or numbness, less activity than usual, less appetite, a load or heaviness at the stomach, some uneasiness in the head, a more profound degree of sleep, yet less composed and refreshing than usual; less gaiety and liveliness, a slight oppression of the breast, a less regular pulse, a propensity to be cold, or to perspire, or sometimes a suppression of a former disposition to perspire, are any of them symptomatic of a diseased state, though not to any very serious or alarming degree. Yet under such circumstances persons are generally restless, and scarcely know what to do with themselves; and often for the sake of change, or on the supposition that their sensations proceed from lowness, they unhappily adopt the certain means of making them terminate in dangerous if not fatal diseases. They increase their usual quantity of animal food, leave off vegetables and fruit, drink freely of wine or other strong liquors, under an idea of strengthening the stomach, and expelling wind; all of which strengthen nothing but the disposition to disease, and expel only the degree of health yet remaining. The consequence of this mistaken management is, that all the evacuations are restrained, the humours causing and nourishing the disease are not at all attempered and diluted, nor rendered proper for evacuation. On the contrary they become sharper, and more difficult to be discharged. By judicious management it is practicable, if not entirely to prevent a variety of disorders, yet at least to abate their severity, and so to avert the ultimatedanger. As soon as any of the symptoms begin to appear, the proper way is to avoid all violent or laborious exercise, and to indulge in such only as is gentle and easy. To take very little or no solid food, and particularly to abstain from meat, or flesh broth, eggs, and wine, or other strong liquors. To drink plentifully of weak diluting liquor, by small glasses at a time, at intervals of about half an hour. If these diluents are not found to answer the purpose of keeping the bowels open, stronger cathartics must be taken, or injections for the bowels, called lavements. By pursuing these precautions, the early symptoms of disease will often be removed, without coming to any serious issue: and even where this is not the case, the disorder will be so lessened as to obviate any kind of danger from it. When confirmed diseases occur, the only safe course is to resort to the most skilful medical assistance that can be obtained. Good advice and few medicines will much sooner effect a cure, than all the drugs of the apothecary's shop unskilfully administered. But the success of the best advice may be defeated, if the patient and his attendants will not concur to render it effectual. If the patient is to indulge longings for improper diet, and his friends are to gratify them, the advantage of the best advice may be defeated by one such imprudent measure. Patients labouring under accidents which require surgical assistance, must be required strictly to attend to the same directions. General regulations are all that a physician or surgeon can make respecting diet, many other circumstances will therefore require the consideration of those who attend upon the sick, and it is of consequence that they be well prepared to undertake their charge, for many fatal mistakes have arisen from ignorance and prejudice in these cases. A few rules that may be referred to in the absence of a medical adviser, are all that are necessary in the present instance, more especially when the patient is so far recovered as to be released from medicines, and put under a proper regimen, with the use of a gentle exercise, and such other regulations as a convalescent state requires.—When for example, persons are labouring under acute disorders, or accidents, they are frequently known to suffer from the injudiciousness of those about them, in covering them up in bed with a load of clothes that heat and debilitate them exceedingly, or in keeping them in bed when the occasion does not require it, without even suffering them to get up and have it new made, and by never allowing a breath of fresh air to be admitted into the room. The keeping patients quiet is undoubtedly of essential importance; they should not be talked to, nor should more persons be admitted into the room than are absolutely necessary. Every thing that might prove offensive should immediately be removed. Sprinkling the room sometimes with vinegar, will contribute to keep it in a better state. The windows should be opened occasionally for a longer or shorter time, according to the weather and season of the year, without suffering the air to come immediately upon the patient. Waving the chamber door backward and forward for a few minutes, two or three times in a day, ventilates the room, without exposing the sick person to chilness. Occasionally burning pastils in the room, or a roll of paper, is also useful. The bed linen, and that of the patient, should be changed every day, or in two or three days, as circumstances may require. A strict forbearance from giving sick persons any nourishment beyond what is prescribed by their medical attendant, should invariably be observed. Some persons think they do well inthis respect to cheat the doctor, while in fact they cheat the patient out of the benefit of his advice, and endanger his life under a pretence of facilitating his recovery. In all cases it is important to wait with patience the slow progress of recovery, rather than by injudicious means to attempt to hasten it; otherwise the desired event will only be retarded. What has long been undermining the stamina of health, which is commonly the case with diseases, or what has violently shocked it by accident, can only beremovedby slow degrees. Medicines will not operate like a charm; and even when they are most efficacious, time is required to recover from the languid state to which persons are always reduced, both by accident and by disease. When the period is arrived at which sick persons may be said to be out of danger, a great deal of patience and care will still be necessary to prevent a relapse. Much of this will depend on the convalescent party being content for some time with only a moderate portion of food, for we are not nourished in proportion to what we swallow, but to what we are well able to digest. Persons on their recovery, who eat moderately, digest their food, and grow strong from it. Those in a weak state, who eat much, do not digest it; instead therefore of being nourished and strengthened by it, they insensibly wither away. The principal rules to be observed in this case are, that persons in sickness, or those who are slowly recovering, should take very little nourishment at a time, and take it often. Let them have only one sort of food at each meal, and not change their food too often; and be careful that they chew their food well, to make it easy of digestion. Let them diminish their quantity of drink. The best drink for them in general is water, with a third or fourth part of white wine. Too great a quantity of liquids at such a time prevents the stomach from recovering its tone and strength, impairs digestion, promotes debility, increases the tendency to a swelling of the legs; sometimes it even occasions a slow fever, and throws back the patient into a languid state. Persons recovering from sickness should take as much exercise in the open air as they are able to bear, either on foot, in a carriage, or on horseback: the latter is by far the best. The airing should be taken in the middle of the day, when the weather is temperate, or before the principal meal. Exercise taken before a meal strengthens the organs of digestion, and therefore tends to health; but when taken after a meal, it is injurious. As persons in this state are seldom quite so well towards night, they should take very little food in the evening, in order that their sleep may be less disturbed and more refreshing. It would be better not to remain in bed above seven or eight hours; and if they feel fatigued by sitting up, let them lie down for half an hour to rest. The swelling of the legs and ancles, which happens to most persons in a state of weakness and debility, is attended with no danger, and will generally disappear of itself, if they live soberly and regularly, and take moderate exercise. The most solicitous attention must be paid to the state of the bowels; and if they are not regular, they must be kept open every day by artificial means, or it will produce heat and restlessness, and pains in the head. Care should be taken not to return to hard labour too soon after recovering from illness; some persons have never recovered their usual strength for want of this precaution.—Common colds, though lightly regarded, are often of serious consequence. A cold is an inflammatory disease, though in no greater degree than to affect the lungs or throat, or the thin membrane which lines the nostrils, andthe inside of certain cavities in the bones of the cheeks and forehead. These cavities communicate with the nose in such a manner, that when one part of this membrane is affected with inflammation, it is easily communicated to the rest. When the disorder is of this slight kind, it may easily be cured without medicine, by only abstaining from meat, eggs, broth, and wine; from all food that is sharp, fat, and heavy. Little or no supper should be eaten, but the person should drink freely of an infusion of barley, or of elder flowers, with the addition of a third or fourth part of milk. Bathing the feet in warm water before going to bed, will dispose the patient to sleep. In colds of the head, the steam of warm water alone, or of water in which elder flowers or some mild aromatic herbs have been boiled, will generally afford speedy relief. These also are serviceable in colds which affect the breast. Hot and close rooms are very hurtful in colds, as they tend to impede respiration; and sitting much over the fire increases the disorder. Spermaceti is often taken in colds and coughs, which must from its greasy nature impair the digestive faculty, and cannot operate against the cause of a cold; though the cure of it, which is effected in due time by the economy of nature, is often ascribed to such medicines as may rather have retarded it. Whenever a cold does not yield to the simple treatment already described, good advice should be procured, as a neglected cold is often the origin of very serious disorders.—A few observations on the nature of the diet and drink proper for sickly persons, will be necessary at the close of this article, for the information of those who occasionally undertake the care of the afflicted. As the digestion of sick persons is weak, and very similar to that of children, the diet suited to the latter is generally proper for the former, excepting in the two great classes of diseases called putrid and intermittent fevers. In case of putrid fever no other food should be allowed, during the first weeks of recovery, than the mildest vegetable substances. When recovering from agues and intermittent fevers, animal jellies, and plain animal food, with as little vegetable as possible, is the proper diet. Meat and meat broth, generally speaking, are not so well adapted for the re-establishment of health and strength, as more simple diets. Flesh being the food most used by old and young at all other times, is consequently that from which their distempers chiefly proceed, or at least it nourishes those disorders which other causes may have contributed to introduce. It is of a gross, phlegmatic nature and oily quality, and therefore harder of digestion than many other sorts of food, tending to generate gross humours and thick blood, which are very unfavourable to the recovery of health. The yolk of an egg lightly boiled or beaten up raw with a little wine may be taken, when animal food is not forbidden, and the party cannot chew or swallow more solid food. The spoonmeats and drinks directed for children, and simple puddings made as for them, may all be used for invalids, subject only to the restrictions imposed by their medical attendant. Puddings and panadoes made of bread are better for weak stomachs than those made of flour.—Diet drinks may be made of an infusion of herbs, grains, or seeds. For this purpose the herbs should be gathered in their proper season, then dried in the shade, and put into close paper bags. When wanted for use, take out the proper quantity, put it into a linen bag, suspend it in the beer or ale, while it is fermenting, from two to six or eight hours, and then take it out. Wormwood ought not to be infused so long; three or four hours will be sufficient, or it will become nauseous, and soonturn to putrefaction. The same is to be understood in infusing any sort of well-prepared herbs, and great care is required in all preparations of this kind that the pure properties are neither evaporated, nor overpowered by the bad ones. Beer, ale, or any other liquor in which herbs are infused, must be unadulterated, or the benefit of these infusions will be destroyed by its pernicious qualities. Nothing is more prejudicial to health than adulterated liquors, or liquors that are debased by any corrupting vegetable substance. Those things which in their purest state are of a doubtful character, and never to be trusted without caution, are by this means converted into decided poisons.—Herb Tea of any kind should always be made with a moderate proportion of the herb. When the tea is of a proper strength, the herb should be taken out, or it will become nauseous by long infusion. These kinds of tea are best used quite fresh.—Herb Porridge may be made of elder buds, nettle tops, clivers, and water cresses. Mix up a proper quantity of oatmeal and water, and set it on the fire. When just ready to boil, put in the herbs, cut or uncut; and when ready again to boil, lade it to and fro to prevent its boiling. Continue this operation six or eight minutes, then take it off the fire, and let it stand awhile. It may either be eaten with the herbs, or strained, and should not be eaten warmer than new milk. A little butter, salt, and bread, may be added. Another way is, to set some oatmeal and water on a quick fire; and when it is scalding hot, put in a good quantity of spinage, corn salad, tops of pennyroyal, and mint cut small. Let it stand on the fire till ready to boil, then pour it up and down six or seven minutes, and let it stand off the fire that the oatmeal may sink to the bottom. Strain it, and add butter, salt, and bread. When it is about milk-warm it will be fit to eat. This is an excellent porridge, pleasant to the palate and stomach, cleansing the passages by opening obstructions. It also breeds good blood, thus enlivens the spirits, and makes the whole body active and easy.—A Cooling Drink may be made of two ounces of whole barley, washed and cleansed in hot water, and afterwards boiled in five pints of water till the barley opens. Add a quarter of an ounce of cream of tartar, and strain off the liquor. Or bruise three ounces of the freshest sweet almonds, and an ounce of gourd melon seeds in a marble mortar, adding a pint of water, a little at a time, and then strain it through a piece of linen. Bruise the remainder of the almonds and seeds again, with another pint of water added as before; then strain it, and repeat this process a third time. After this, pour all the liquor upon the bruised mass, stir it well, and finally strain it off. Half an ounce of sugar may safely be bruised with the almonds and seeds at first; or if it be thought too heating, a little orange-flower water may be used instead.—Currant Drink. Put a pound of the best red currants, fully ripe and clean picked, into a stone bottle. Mix three spoonfuls of good new yeast with six pints of hot water, and pour it upon the currants. Stop the bottle close till the liquor ferments, then give it as much vent as is necessary, keep it warm, and let it ferment for about three days. Taste it in the mean time to try whether it is become pleasant; and as soon as it is so, run it through a strainer, and bottle it off. It will be ready to drink in five or six days.—Boniclapper is another article suited to the state of sickly and weakly persons. Boniclapper is milk which has stood till it has acquired a pleasant sourish taste, and a thick slippery substance. In very hot weather this will be in abouttwenty-four hours from the time of its being milked, but longer in proportion as the weather is colder. If put into vessels which have been used for milk to be soured in, it will change the sooner. New milk must always be used for this purpose. Boniclapper is an excellent food at all times, particularly for those who are troubled with any kind of stoppages; it powerfully opens the breast and passages, is itself easy of digestion, and helps to digest all hard or sweeter foods. It also cools and cleanses the whole body, renders it brisk and lively, and is very efficacious in quenching thirst. No other sort of milkmeat or spoonmeat is so proper and beneficial for consumptive persons, or such as labour under great weakness and debility. It should be eaten with bread only, and it will be light and easy on the stomach, even when new milk is found to disagree. If this soured milk should become unpleasant at first, a little custom and use will not only render it familiar, but agreeable to the stomach and palate; and those who have neither wisdom nor patience to submit to a transient inconvenience, will never have an opportunity of knowing the intrinsic value of any thing. To these may be added a variety of other articles adapted to a state of sickness and disease, which will be found under their respective heads; such as Beef Tea, Flummery, Jellies of various kinds, Lemon Whey, Vinegar Whey, Cream of Tartar Whey, Mustard Whey, Treacle Posset, Buttermilk, Onion Porridge, Water Gruel, and Wormwood Ale.