Virginia Cookery-book

ful of allspice, and two dozen cloves; boil the ingredients until their strength is extracted; strain it, and when nearly cold put in one pint of best French brandy. This is considered efficacious in diarrhoea, and especially good for teething children. The dose for a child one year old is a teaspoonf ul, to be taken three times a day. Boiled Flour for Invalids. Take one pound of fine flour and tie it up in a strong linen cloth as tightly as possible; after frequently dipping it in cold water, dredge the outside with flour until a crust is formed around it which will prevent the water from soaking into it while boiling; then boil it until it becomes a hard, dry mass; grate two or three spoonfuls of this, and prepare it as you would arrow-root, for which it is an excellent substitute. To Cure a Cold. Take the juice of two lemons and three-quarters of a pound of loaf-sugar, simmering them together for half an hour; then remove from the fire, add two table-spoonfuls of paregoric, and bottle for use. Dose: one teaspoonf ul three times a day. An Admirable Cough Mixture. Three table-spoonfuls of molasses, two table-spoonfuls of vinegar, one teaspoonful of antimonial wine, and forty drops of laudanum. Take a teaspoonful after each fit of coughing, and it often cures. Cherry-bark Tea. There is no better tonic and cure for a cough at times than a tea made of the inner bark of the wild-cherry. It should be cut off in thin slips or chips, and a pint of hot water poured over a handful of these. When the decoction is of a light amber color it is ready for use. Take half a wineglassful three times a day. Brown Mixture for Coughs. One ounce of paregoric ; one ounce of gum-arabic ; one ounce of licorice ; one table-spoonful of antimonial wine. Although the following recipes may not appear altogether suitable for insertion in a cookery book, they are believed to be so valuable for reference, especially in country houses, where medical aid is not always promptly at hand, that we give them for humanity's sake. Moreover, they have peculiar interest as being copied (by permission of her daughter, Mrs. Page) from the manuscript book of one of the most gifted and distinguished women of her day, viz., Mrs. Elizabeth Coalter Bryan, granddaughter of Judge St. George Tucker, of Williamsburg, and the favorite niece of John Randolph of Roanoke. In person she was wont to administer these healing remedies to her servants, as well as children, with an effective tenderness, the memory of which abides up to this day. Burns. The best application for a bum is liniment made of lime-water and oil, beaten together till it looks like butter melted to dress vegetables for the table. It matters not whether common lime or the chloride of lime is used ; and either sweet-oil or linseed-oil will answer. Wrap the parts in fine linen covered with this mixture, and cover thickly on the outside with raw cotton to exclude the air. Never open but once in twenty-four hours, and then carefully soak off the rags with the lime-water and oil, so as not to injure the tender skin that may be forming on the wound. Bathe well with the liniment and cover with cotton as at first. When lime cannot be got, the next best dressing is soot and lard mixed well, melted, and strained to get out the coarse particles of soot. In this case you may first use alum-water to assuage the pain, and then put on a plaster of the above. In every case, over the rags put raw cotton to exclude the air and keep the part from being rubbed. Blisters.