profitable tea than Hyson; but though the _quantity_ to a pound
is greater, it has not so much _strength_. In point of economy,
therefore, there is not much difference between them. Hyson tea and
Souchong mixed together, half and half, is a pleasant beverage, and
is more healthy than green tea alone. Be sure that water boils before
it is poured upon tea. A tea-spoonful to each person, and one extra
thrown in, is a good rule. Steep a few minutes.
1281. _Turkish method of making Coffee._--The coffee must be slowly
roasted, not burnt, and brought only to an amber brown: it must
be roasted day by day. The flavor dissipates in a few hours; it
must be reduced by pounding to an impalpable powder. In making
it, two opposite and, apparently, incompatible ends are to be
secured--strength and flavor. To obtain the first, it must be boiled;
by boiling, the second is lost. The difficulty is surmounted by a
double process--one thorough cooking, one slight one; by the first
a strong infusion is obtained; by the second, that infusion is
flavored. Thus a large pot with coffee-lees stands simmering by the
fire; this is the sherbet. When a cup is wanted, the pounded coffee
is put in the little tin or copper pan, and placed on the embers; it
fumes for a moment, then the sherbet is poured on; in a few seconds
the froth (caïmah) rises; presently an indication that it is about to
boil is made manifest, when the coffee is instantly taken from the
fire, carried into the apartment, turned into the cup, and drank.
1282. _Cheap and valuable substitute for Coffee._--The flour of rye,
and yellow potatoes, are found an excellent substitute for coffee.
Boil, peel, and mash the potatoes, and then mix with the meal into
a cake, which is to be dried in an oven, and afterwards reduced
to a powder, which will make a beverage very similar to coffee in
its taste, as well as in other properties, and not in the least
detrimental to health.
1283. _Substitute for Cream._--If you have not cream for coffee, it
is a very great improvement to boil your milk, and use it while hot.
1284. _Cocoa_ is the foundation of chocolate; it may be pounded, and
either boiled as milk, or boiling water may be poured on it. It is
very digestible, and of a fattening nature.
1285. _Racahout des Arabes; a pleasant beverage for Invalids._--Mix
thoroughly one pound of ground rice; one pound of arrow-root; half
pound of fine chocolate. Put the mixture into a jar for use. When it
is wanted, make a tablespoonful of the Racahout into a paste with
cold water or milk; then stir it into half a pint of boiling milk,
and let it boil up for a minute or two; add sugar, if agreeable, and
drink it as you would chocolate.
1286. _How to judge the Properties of Nutmegs._--The largest,
heaviest, and most unctuous of nutmegs are to be chosen, such as are
the shape of an olive, and of the most fragrant smell.
1287. _To keep Grapes._--Gather the grapes in the afternoon of a dry
day, before they are perfectly ripe. Have ready a clean dry barrel
and wheat bran. Proceed then with alternate layers of bran and
grapes, till the barrel is full, taking care that the grapes do not
touch each other, and to let the last layer be of bran; then close
the barrel, so that the air may not be able to penetrate, which is an
essential point. Grapes, thus packed, will keep nine or even twelve
months. To restore them to their freshness, cut the end of the stalk
of each bunch of grapes, and put that of white grapes into white
wine, and that of the black grapes into red wine, as you would put
flowers into water, to revive or keep them fresh.
1288. _To keep Oranges and Lemons._--Take small sand and make it very
dry; after it is cold, put a quantity of it into a clean vessel;
then take your oranges, and set a laying of them in the same, the
stalk-end downwards, so that they do not touch each other, and strew
in some of the sand, as much as will cover them two inches deep; then
set your vessel in a cold place, and you will find your fruit in high
preservation at the end of several months.
1289. _Another Method._--Freeze the oranges, and keep them in an
ice-house. When to be used, put them into a vessel of cold water till
they are thawed. By this means they may be had in perfection at any
season of the year.
1290. _Keeping Apples._--Apples should be placed on a dry floor three
weeks before they are packed away in barrels. They should be kept in
a cool place; if inclosed in a water-tight cask, they may be kept all
winter in a loft or garret without further care, and will come out
sound and fresh in the spring.
1291. _To keep Onions._--Onions should be kept very dry, and never
carried into the cellar except in severe weather, when there is
danger of their freezing. By no means let them be in the cellar after
March; they will sprout and spoil.
1292. _A good way of cooking onions._--It is a good plan to boil
onions in milk and water; it diminishes the strong taste of that
vegetable. It is an excellent way of serving up onions, to chop them
after they are boiled, and put them in a stewpan, with a little milk,
butter, salt, and pepper, and let them stew about fifteen minutes.
This gives them a fine flavor, and they can be served up very hot.
1293. _To keep Parsnips._--Parsnips should be kept down cellar,
covered up in sand, entirely excluded from the air. They are good
only in the Spring.
1294. _To keep Cabbages._--Cabbages put into a hole in the ground
will keep well during the winter, and be hard, fresh, and sweet in
the Spring. Many farmers keep potatoes in the same way.
1295. _To keep Potatoes._--The cellar is the best place for them,
because they are injured by wilting; but sprout them carefully, if
you want to keep them. They never sprout but three times; therefore,
after you have sprouted them three times, they will trouble you no
more.
_Note._--Boiled potatoes are said to cleanse the hands as well as
common soap; they prevent _chaps_ in the winter season, and keep the
skin soft and healthy.
1290. _Boiling Potatoes._--The following method of dressing potatoes
will be found of great use at the season of the year, when skins are
tough and potatoes are watery. Score the skin of the potato with a
knife, lengthwise and across, quite around, and then boil the potato
in plenty of water and salt, with the skin on. The skin readily
cracks when it is scored, and lets out the moisture, which otherwise
renders the potato soapy and wet. The improvement to bad potatoes by
this method of boiling them is very great, and all who have tried
it find a great advantage in it, now that good potatoes are very
difficult to be obtained.
1297. _To keep Celery._--Celery should be kept in the cellar, the
roots covered with tan, to keep them moist.
1298. _To keep Lettuce._--If the tops of lettuce be cut off when it
is becoming too old for use, it will grow up again fresh and tender,
and may thus be kept good through the summer.
1299. _Good Squashes._--Green squashes that are turning yellow, and
striped squashes, are more uniformly sweet and mealy than any other
kind.
1300. _To dry Pumpkin._--Cut it round horizontally in tolerably
thin slices, peel them and hang them on a line in a warm room. When
perfectly dry, put them away for use. When you wish to use it, put it
to soak over night; next day pour off the water, put on fresh water,
stew and use it as usual, &c.
Another and, as some think, a much better way, is to boil and sift
the pumpkin, then spread it out thin in tin plates, and dry hard in a
warm oven. It will keep good all the year round, and a little piece
boiled up in milk will make a batch of pies.
1301. _To pickle large Mushrooms._--Pick them carefully, and take
out the stalks; put them into a jar, and pour on them boiling spiced
vinegar, with a little salt in it.
1302. _To preserve Green Currants._--Currants may be kept fresh for
a year or more, if they are gathered when green, separated from the
stems, put into dry, clean junk bottles, and corked very carefully,
so as to exclude the air. They should be kept in a cool place in the
cellar.
1303. _Walnut Ketchup._--Take half a bushel of green walnuts, before
the shell is formed, and grind them in a crab mill, or beat them in a
marble mortar; then squeeze out the juices through a coarse cloth,
and wring the cloth well to get all the juice out, and to every
gallon of juice put a quart of red wine, a quarter of a pound of
anchovies, the same of bay salt, one ounce of allspice, two of long
or black pepper, half an ounce of cloves and mace, a little ginger
and horse-radish, cut in slices; boil all together till reduced to
half the quantity; pour into a pan; when it is cold bottle it, cork
it tight, and it will be fit to use in three months. If you have any
pickle left in the jar after your walnuts are used, to every gallon
of pickle put in two heads of garlic, a quart of red wine, an ounce
each of cloves and mace, long, black, and Jamaica pepper, and boil
them all together, till it is reduced to half the quantity, pour it
into a pan, and the next day bottle it for use, and cork it tight.
1304. _To discover if Bread is adulterated with Alum._--Make a
solution of lime in aquafortis, and put a little of this solution
into water, in which you have steeped the bread suspected to contain
alum. If such should be the case, the acid, which was combined with
the alum, will form a precipitate or chalky concretion at the bottom
of the vessel.
1305. _To preserve Biscuit from Putrefaction._--To preserve biscuit a
long time sweet and good, no other art is necessary than stowing it,
well baked, in casks exactly caulked, and carefully lined with tin,
so as to exclude the air; at the same time the biscuit must be so
placed as to leave as little vacant room as possible in the cask; and
when the same is opened through necessity, it must be speedily closed
again with great care.
1306. _A good Yeast._--Put into one gallon of water a double-handful
of hops;--boil them fifteen or twenty minutes, then strain off the
water while it is scalding hot; stir in wheat flour or meal till it
becomes a thick batter, so that it will hardly pour;--let it stand
till it becomes about blood-warm, then add a pint of good lively
yeast, and stir it well; and then let it stand in a place where it
will be kept at a temperature of about seventy degrees Fahrenheit,
till it becomes perfectly light, whether more or less time is
required; and then it is fit for use;--or if it is desired to keep
a portion of it, let it stand several hours and become cool; and
then put it into a clean jug and cork it tight, and place it in the
cellar, where it will keep cool; and it may be preserved good, ten
or twelve days, and even longer.
1307. _The Dairy._--Dairymen will find a great advantage in cheese
making, by putting their milk, which is to stand over night, into
small air-tight vessels. They will also find it an advantage, when it
thunders, to suspend the vessels by a cord or chain, as the jarring
of the shocks, which sour the milk, will, in a great measure, be
prevented. We may prevent the commencement of sourness, which takes
place in milk standing in large quantities, by a wooden follower
being fitted to the vat, and pressed on the milk. If any one doubt
the utility of this, let him try the experiment for himself. Cover
the bottom of your cheese-vat to the depth of half an inch with milk,
and let it stand through the night, and then try to make a breakfast
of it in the morning. You could relish tallow as well, or a piece
of bread and butter that had lain in the sun an hour. Neither milk,
butter, nor cheese will do to stand in the light of the sun, though
it be reflected, as it will produce rancidity.
1308. _Butter._--Keep your pails, churn, and pans sweet. In winter
warm the pans and churns with hot water, in summer cool them with
cold. Keep your milk in summer where it is cool and airy, in winter
where it is warm. In warm weather skim your milk as soon as it is
thick; in colder weather skim as soon as there is a good thick cream,
and be careful not to let it remain too long, as it will acquire a
bad taste. Churn as often as you have cream enough, never less than
once a week. If the cream is of the right temperature when commenced,
it will not froth, and if it does, put in a little salt. Use no
salt but the best ground salt; work out all the butter-milk with a
ladle in summer, in winter use clean hands. If you wish to keep it
some time, put it down in a jar or firkin, or pickle in layers, as
clean and free from butter-milk as it is possible, leaving a space
for pickle over it, in the following proportions. Half a pail of
water, one quart of fine salt, two ounces of loaf-sugar, one ounce of
saltpetre, well boiled and skimmed. When cold, cover with this, and
it will keep good and sweet, the year round.
1309. _Cream._--The quantity of cream on milk may be greatly
increased by the following process: Have two pans ready in boiling
hot water, and when the new milk is brought in, put it into one of
these hot pans and cover it with the other. The quality as well as
the thickness of the cream is improved.
1310. _Method of curing bad Tub Butter._--A quantity of tub butter
was brought to market in the West Indies, which, on opening, was
found to be very bad, and almost stinking. A native of Pennsylvania
undertook to cure it, which he did, in the following manner:--
He started the tubs of butter in a large quantity of hot water, which
soon melted the butter; he then skimmed it off as clean as possible,
and worked it over again in a churn, and with the addition of salt
and fine sugar, the butter was sweet and good.
1311. _Method of taking the Rankness and disagreeable Taste from
Irish Salt Butter._--The quantity proposed to be made use of, either
for toasts or melting, must be put into a bowl filled with boiling
water, and when the butter is melted, skim it quite off; by this
method it is so separated from any gross particles, that it may
require a small addition of salt, which may be put into the cold
water that is made use of in melting butter for sauce; and though the
butter is oiled by hot water, it becomes a fine cream in the boiling
for sauce.
1312. _To remove the Taste of Turnips from Milk or Butter._--The
taste of the turnip is easily taken off milk and butter, by
dissolving a little nitre in spring water, which being kept in a
bottle, and a small tea-cupful put into eight gallons of milk, when
warm from the cow, entirely removes any taste or flavor of the turnip.
1313. _To make Salt Butter fresh._--Put four pounds of salt butter
into a churn, with four quarts of new milk, and a small portion of
arnotto. Churn them together, and, in about an hour, take out the
butter, and treat it exactly as fresh butter, by washing it in water,
and adding the customary quantity of salt.
This is a singular experiment. The butter gains about three ounces
in each pound, and is in every particular equal to fresh butter. It
would be greatly improved by the addition of two or three ounces
of fine sugar, in powder. A common earthen churn answers the same
purpose as a wooden one, and may be purchased at any pot shop.
1314. _Method of making Stilton Cheese._--Take the night's cream,
and put it to the morning's new milk, with the rennet; when the curd
is come it is not to be broken, as is done with other cheeses, but
take it out with a soil dish all together, and place it on a sieve to
drain gradually, and, as it drains, keep gradually pressing it, till
it becomes firm and dry; then place it in a wooden hoop; afterwards
to be kept dry on boards, turned frequently, with cloth-binders round
it, which are to be tightened as occasion requires.
In some dairies the cheeses, after being taken out of the wooden
hoop, are bound tight round with a cloth, which cloth is changed
every day until the cheese becomes firm enough to support itself;
after the cloth is taken away, they are rubbed every day all over,
for two or three months, with a brush; and if the weather is damp or
moist, twice a day; and even before the cloth is taken off, the top
and bottom are well rubbed every day.
1315. _Coloring for Cheese._--The coloring for cheese is, or at least
should be, Spanish arnotto; but as soon as coloring became general
in this country, a color of an adulterated kind was exposed for sale
in almost every shop; the weight of a guinea and a half of real
Spanish arnotto is sufficient for a cheese of fifty pounds' weight.
If a considerable part of the cream of the night's milk be taken for
butter, more coloring will be requisite. The leaner the cheese is,
the more coloring it requires. The manner of using arnotto is to tie
up, in a linen rag, the quantity deemed sufficient, and put it into
half a pint of warm water over night. This infusion is put into the
tub of milk, in the morning, with the rennet infusion; dipping the
rag into the milk, and rubbing it against the palm of the hand as
long as any color runs out.
1316. _To make Cement for Bottles or Preserve Jars._--Take one-third
bees'-wax and two-thirds rosin, according to the quantity of cement
required. Pound the rosin fine, and put it with the wax to melt in
any old vessel fit for the purpose. When it is melted, take it off
the fire, and add powdered brick-dust till it is as thick as melted
sealing-wax. Then dip the bottle necks into the cement, and in a few
minutes the mixture will be dry.
1317. _Blue Wash for Walls._--Take one pound of lump blue vitriol;
pound it in a stone mortar as fine as possible; dissolve it in a
quart or two of hot water. Slake about a quarter of a peck, or
perhaps a little more of lime, and when _cold_ pour in the blue water
by degrees, and make it whatever shade you desire.
The lime must be slaked and the vitriol dissolved in earthen or stone
ware, and the whole mixture stirred with a metal spoon. If wood is
used for any of the above purposes, the color will be changed. A
new brush should also be used to put it on the walls, and they must
first have a coat or two of whitewash, to destroy all smoke and other
impurities.
1318. _Yellow Wash for Walls._--One quarter of a pound of chrome
yellow, one quarter of a pound of gum senegal, two pounds of whiting.
EASY AND CHEAP MODE OF COLORING CLOTHING, &c.
1319. "_Blue Composition_," a compound of vitriol and indigo, is
usually kept by hatters and apothecaries. It colors a good and
durable blue. An ounce vial, that may be bought for a trifle, will
color a large number of articles. It is an economical plan to use
it for old silk linings, ribbons, &c. The original color should be
boiled out, and the material thoroughly rinsed in soft water, so
that no soap may remain in it; for soap ruins the dye. Twelve or
sixteen drops of the blue composition, poured into a quart bowl full
of warm soft water, stirred, (and strained, if any settlings are
perceptible,) will color a great many articles. If you wish a deep
blue, pour in more of the compound. Cotton must not be colored; the
vitriol destroys it; if the material you wish to color has cotton
threads in it, it will be ruined. After the things are thoroughly
dried, they should be washed in cool suds, and dried again; this
prevents any bad effects from the vitriol; if shut up from the air,
without being washed, there is danger of the texture being destroyed.
1320. _How to color Green._--If you wish to color green, have your
cloth free as possible from the old color, clean and rinsed, and, in
the first place, color it a deep yellow. Fustic boiled in soft water
makes the strongest and brightest yellow dye; but saffron, barberry
bush, peach leaves, or onion skins, will answer pretty well. Next
take a bowl full of strong yellow dye, and pour in a great spoonful
or more of the blue composition. Stir it up well with a clean stick,
and dip the articles you have already colored yellow into it, and
they will take a lively grass-green. This is a good plan for old
bombazet curtains, dessert cloths, old flannel for desk coverings, &c.
1321. _Slate Color._--Tea-grounds boiled in iron, and set with
copperas, make a very good slate color.
1322. _Purple Slate Color._--The purple paper, which comes on loaf
sugar, boiled in cider, or vinegar, with a small bit of alum, makes a
fine purple slate color. Done in iron.
White maple bark makes a good light-brown slate color. This should
be boiled in water, set with alum. The color is reckoned better when
boiled in brass, instead of iron.
The purple slate and the brown slate are suitable colors for
stockings; and it is an economical plan, after they have been mended
and cut down, so that they will no longer look decent, to color old
stockings, and make them up for children.
1323. _To make Nankin Color._--A pailful of lye, with a piece of
copperas half as big as a hen's egg boiled in it, will color a fine
nankin color, which will never wash out. This is very useful for the
linings of bed-quilts, comforters, &c. Old faded gowns, colored in
this way, may be made into good petticoats. Cheap cotton cloth may be
colored to advantage for petticoats, and pelisses for little girls.
1324. _Nankin Color, another way._--The common _birch-bark_ makes a
very beautiful nankin dye. Cover the bark with water, and boil it
thoroughly in a brass or tin kettle. Bark stripped from the trees in
autumn is best. Set the color with alum. A piece as large as a hen's
egg is sufficient for two pailsful of dye. Dip the articles, wet
thoroughly in clean water, into the alum water, then into the dye.
1325. _To make Straw-color and Yellow._--Saffron, steeped in earthen
and strained, colors a fine straw color. It makes a delicate or deep
shade, according to the strength of the tea. The dry outside skins of
onions, steeped in scalding water and strained, color a yellow very
much like the "bird of paradise" color. Peach leaves, or bark scraped
from the barberry bush, color a common bright yellow. In all these
cases, a little bit of alum does no harm, and may help to fix the
color. Ribbons, gauze handkerchiefs, &c., are colored well in this
way, especially if they be stiffened by a bit of gum-arabic, dropped
in while the stuff is steeping.
1326. _To make Rose-color._--Balm blossoms, steeped in water, color
a pretty rose-color. This answers very well for the linings of
children's bonnets, for ribbons, &c. It fades in the course of one
season, but it is very little trouble to re-color with it. It merely
requires to be steeped and strained. Perhaps a small piece of alum
might serve to set the color, in some degree. In earthen or tin.
1327. _To color Black._--Logwood and cider, boiled together, in
iron--add water for the evaporation--makes a good and durable black.
Rusty nails, or any bits of rusty iron, boiled in vinegar, with a
small piece of copperas, will also dye black; so will ink-powder, if
boiled with vinegar. In all cases, black must be set with copperas.
1328. _General Rules for Coloring._--The materials should be
perfectly clean; soap should be rinsed out in soft water; the article
should be entirely wetted, or it will spot; light colors should be
steeped in brass, tin, or earthen; and if set at all, should be
set with alum. Dark colors should be boiled in iron, and set with
copperas. Too much copperas rots the thread.
1329. _To Wash Carpets._--Put the carpets down on a perfectly clean
floor; wash them first with warm and weak soap-suds, wringing the
wash-cloth almost dry; rinse them with clear water. Open the windows,
that they may dry quickly.
It is obvious that the above directions are only applicable to the
lighter sorts of carpets, Scotch, Kidderminster, and Venetian. If
it be desired to cleanse a carpet which has an under-texture of
thread, as Brussels, tapestry, or velvet, the carpet having been well
beaten or shaken, and washed, should be spread out, and scrubbed with
a scrubbing brush and ox-gall. A pint of gall and three gallons of
water will clean a large carpet.
After the use of the gall, the carpet must be thoroughly rinsed, and
dried in the open air.
1330. _To Wash Clothes, on a small scale._--For a wash for three
persons put three-quarters of an ounce of soda in soap and water over
the fire. Wash the clothes first in soap and water; rub soap on the
soiled or greasy places, and throw them in the mixture. Let them boil
an hour; rinse them in clear, cold water; rinse them again in water
with a little bluing in it. If the clothes are much soiled, put them
to soak over night.
1331. _Washing of Woollen Articles; an excellent way._--It is a
common complaint that woollen articles thicken, shrink, and become
discolored in washing. The complaint applies both to the lighter
articles of knitted wool, such as shawls, &c., and to thicker and
heavier materials--table baizes, carpets, and men's woollen garments.
The difficulty in either case may be obviated by strict attention to
the method about to be explained. To clear the way, it may be well
first to point out some things which _never_ ought to be done, but
which frequently, perhaps generally, are done:--
1. Woollen articles are never to be washed in hard water, nor in
water softened by soda, potash, or anything of that kind. Soap even
should never touch them.
2. They are never to be rubbed at all.
3. They are never to be put in lukewarm water for washing, nor in
cold water for rinsing.
4. They are never to remain lying still in the water a single minute.
5. They are never to be wrung.
6. When taken out of the water, they must not be laid down at all,
before the process of drying is commenced, nor at any time afterwards
until they are perfectly dry.
These things are to be avoided:--Now what is to be done?
1. Let the things to be washed be first well brushed and shaken, to
get rid of the dust.
2. Before the woollen things are wetted at all, take care to have
everything that will be required, ready and within reach.
3. If several things are to be done, let each be begun and finished
separately. This makes no difference in expense or trouble. A smaller
vessel and smaller quantity of lather will suffice, and the stuff in
which one article has been washed, would do no good, but harm, to
others; it is, in fact, good for nothing.
4. Use only fresh rain water, or very clear river water; rain is
preferable.
5. With a piece of sponge or old flannel, rub up a very strong
lather of either soft soap or best yellow soap. For very large,
greasy things, the lather may be made of ox-gall, half a pint to
six quarts of water, whisked up with a handful of birch twigs (like
that old-fashioned thing, a rod). In either case, the lather may be
prepared with a small quantity of water, and the remainder added,
boiling hot, the moment before using it. The whole should be as hot
as the hand can bear it; the hotter the better. If the articles are
very dirty, two lathers will be required in succession; and unless
a second person is at hand, to rub up the second while the first is
being used, both had better be prepared in separate vessels before
the wools are wetted, leaving only the boiling water to be added.
6. Take the article to be washed, and without leaving hold of it,
keep on dipping and raising, dipping and raising, for two or three
minutes. By that time the lather will be absorbed by the wool, and
the liquor will resemble slimy suds.
7. Squeeze the article as dry as may be, without wringing it.
8. The second lather having been brought to the same heat as the
first, proceed in the same manner, dipping and raising. N. B.--If the
article was very little soiled, and after the first washing appears
quite clear and clean, the second washing may be in hot water without
soap. Whether lather or water only, a blue-bag may be slightly drawn
through before the second washing. When gall has been used, a third
washing in hot water only, will be required to take off the smell.
9. Having again squeezed the article as dry as may be, for the
lighter things, such as shawls, &c., spread it on a coarse dry cloth,
pulling it out to its proper shape; lay over it another coarse dry
cloth, roll the whole up tightly, and let it remain half an hour.
This rule does not apply to large, heavy things; they must be hung
out at once.
1332. _To make Soft Soap._--Bore some holes in your lye-barrel; put
some straw in the bottom; lay some unslaked lime on it, and fill your
barrel with good hard-wood ashes; wet it, and pound it down as you
put it in. When full, make a basin in the ashes and pour in water;
keep filling it as it sinks in the ashes. In the course of a few
hours the lye will begin to run. When you have a sufficient quantity
to begin with, put your grease in a large iron pot, let it heat, pour
in the lye, let it boil, &c. Three pounds of clean grease are allowed
for two gallons of soap.
1333.--_Of Fish as Food._--As food, fish is easier of digestion
than meats are, with the exception of salmon; this kind of fish is
extremely hearty food, and should be given sparingly to children, and
used cautiously by those who have weak stomachs, or who take little
exercise.
The small trout, found in rivers, are the most delicate and
suitable for invalids; lake fish are also excellent, and any kind
of fresh-water fish, if cooked immediately after being caught, are
always healthful.
But the ocean is the chief dependence for the fish-market, and there
is little danger (if we except salmon and lobsters) that its kind
of aliment will, in our country, be eaten to excess. It would be
better for the health of those who do not labor, if they would use
more fish and less flesh for food. But then fish cannot be rendered
so palatable, because it does not admit the variety of cooking and
flavors that other animal food does.
Fish is much less nutritious than flesh. The white kinds of fish,
cod, haddock, flounders, white fish, &c., are the least nutritious;
the oily kinds, salmon, eels, herrings, &c., are more difficult to
digest.
Shell fish have long held a high rank as restorative food; but a
well-dressed chop or steak is much better to recruit the strength and
spirits.
_Cod_, _whiting_, and _haddock_, are better for being a little
salted, and kept one day before cooking.
1334.--_Of Beef as Food._--Ox beef is considered the best; heifer
beef is excellent where well fed, and is most suitable for small
families. If you want the best, choose that which has a fine smooth
grain--the lean of a bright red; the fat white or nearly so.
The best roasting-piece is the sirloin; then the first three ribs--if
kept till they are quite tender, and boned, they are nearly equal to
the sirloin, and better for a family dinner.
The round is used for _alamode_ beef, and is the best piece for
corning.
The best beef steak is cut from the inner part of the sirloin. Good
steak may be cut from the ribs.
If you wish to practise economy, buy the chuck, or piece between
the shoulder and the neck; it makes a good roast or steak, and is
excellent for stewing or baking. The thick part of the flank is also
a profitable piece; good to bake or boil, or even roast.
The leg and shin of beef make the best soup--the heart is profitable
meat, and good broiled or roasted. The leg rand is used for mince
pies--it needs to be boiled till it is very tender. The tongue, when
fresh, is a rich part for mince pies. If eaten by itself, it should
be pickled and smoked.
1335.--_Of Pork as Food._--Pork, that is fed from the dairy, and
fattened on corn, is the best--potatoes do very well for part of the
feeding. But pork fattened from the still-house is all but poisonous;
it should never be eaten by those who wish to preserve their health.
The offals, &c., with which pork in the vicinity of a city is
fattened, make it unsavory and unwholesome. Such stuff should be used
for manure, and never given as food to animals, whose flesh is to be
eaten by man.
When pork is good, the flesh looks very white and smooth, and the fat
white and fine. Hogs two years old make the best--older than that,
their flesh is apt to be rank. Measly pork is very unwholesome, and
never should be eaten. It may be known, as the fat is filled with
small kernels.
When the rind is thick and tough, and cannot easily be impressed with
the finger, the pork is old, and will require more cooking.
If pork is not cooked enough, it is disagreeable and almost
indigestible; it should never be eaten unless it is thoroughly done.
The fat parts of pork are not very healthy food. Those who labor hard
may feel no inconvenience from this diet; but children should never
eat it; nor is it healthy for the delicate and sedentary. Fat pork
seems more proper as material for frying fish and other meats, and
as a garnish, than to be cooked and eaten by itself. It is best and
least apt to prove injurious during the cold weather.
1336. _Of Mutton._--Mutton is best from August till January. It is
nutritious, and often agrees better than any other meat with weak
stomachs. To have it tender, it must be kept as long as possible
without injury. Be sure and cook it till it is _done_; the gravy that
runs when the meat is cut, should _never show the least tinge of
blood_.
1337. _Of using Gravies._--Make it a general rule never to pour gravy
over any thing that is roasted; by so doing, the dredging, &c., is
washed off and it eats insipid.
SOME HINTS ON DIET, EXERCISE, AND ECONOMY.
1338. _Meat for Children._--Lamb, veal, and fowls are delicate and
healthy diet for the young and sedentary; and for all who find fat
meats and those of coarse fibre do not agree with them.
1339. _Economicals of Cooking Meats._--The most economical way of
cooking meat is to _boil_ it, if the liquid be used for soup or
broth, as it always ought to be.
Baking is one of the cheapest ways of dressing a dinner in small
families, and several kinds of meat are excellent, done in this way.
Legs and loins of pork, legs of mutton, and fillets of veal will bake
to much advantage; especially if they be fat. Never bake a lean,
thin piece; it will all shrivel away. Such pieces should always be
boiled or made into soup. Pigs, geese, and the buttock of beef are
all excellent baked. Meat always loses in weight by being cooked.--In
roasting, the loss is the greatest. It also costs more in fuel to
roast than to boil--still there are many pieces of meat which seem
made for roasting; and it would be almost wrong to cook them in
any other way. Those who cannot afford to roast their meat, should
not purchase the sirloin of beef. Stewing meat is an excellent and
economical mode of cookery.
1340. _Butter as Diet._--Butter, when new and sweet, is nutritious,
and, in our climate, generally healthy; during the winter, when made
very salt, it is not a good article of diet for some people.
1341. _Condiments._--Pepper, ginger, and most of the condiments, are
best during summer; they are productions of hot climates, which shows
them to be most appropriate for the hot season. On the other hand,
fat beef, bacon, and those kinds of food we denominate "hearty,"
should be most freely used during cold weather.
1342. _Eat Slowly._--Eat slowly. One of the most usual causes of
dyspepsia among our business men, arises from the haste in which they
swallow their food without sufficiently chewing it, and then hurry
away to their active pursuits. In England very little business is
transacted after dinner. There ought to be, at least, one hour of
quiet after a full meal, from those pursuits which tax the brain, as
well as those which exercise the muscles.
1343. _Of Breakfast._--Persons of a delicate constitution should
never exercise much before breakfast.
If exposure of any kind is to be incurred in the morning, breakfast
should always be taken previously. The system is more susceptible of
infection and of the influence of cold, miasma, &c., in the morning
before eating, than at any other time.
Those who walk early will find great benefit from taking a cracker or
some little nourishment before going out.
Never go into a room of a morning, where a person is sick with a
fever, before you have taken nourishment of some kind--a cup of
coffee, at least.
In setting out early to travel, a light breakfast before starting
should always be taken; it is a great protection against cold,
fatigue and exhaustion.
In boarding schools for the young and growing, early breakfast is
an indispensable condition to health. Children should not be kept
without food in the morning till they are faint and weary.
1344. _Of Supper._--Never eat a hearty supper just before retiring to
rest.
Food should never be eaten when it is hot--bread is very unhealthy,
eaten in this way.
1345. _Of Dinner._--It is injurious to eat when greatly heated or
fatigued. It would very much conduce to the health of laboring men,
if they could rest fifteen or twenty minutes before dinner.
The diet should always be more spare, with a larger proportion of
vegetables and ripe fruits, during summer. Fruits are most wholesome
in their appropriate season. The skins, stones, and seeds, are
indigestible.
Rich soups are injurious to the dyspeptic. Much liquid food is rarely
beneficial for adults; but a small quantity of plain, nourishing soup
is an economical and healthy beginning of a family dinner.
Meats should always be sufficiently cooked. It is a savage custom to
eat meat in a half-raw-half-roasted state, and only a very strong
stomach can digest it.
Rich gravies should be avoided, especially in the summer season.
1346.--_Of Drinks._--Most people drink too much, because they drink
too fast. A wine-glass of water, sipped slowly, will quench the
thirst as effectually as a pint swallowed at a draught. When too much
is taken at meals, especially at dinner, it hinders digestion. Better
drink little during the meal, and then, if thirsty an hour or two
afterwards, more. The practice of taking a cup of tea or coffee soon
after dinner is a good one, if the beverage be not drank too strong
or too hot.
Dyspeptic people should be careful to take but a small quantity
of drink. Children require more, in proportion to their food,
than adults. But it is very injurious to them to allow a habit of
continual drinking as you find in some children. It greatly weakens
the stomach, and renders them irritable and peevish.
The morning meal requires to be lighter and of a more fluid nature
than any other. Children should always, if possible to be obtained,
take milk--as a substitute, during the winter, good gruel with bread,
or water, sweetened with molasses, is healthy. Never give children
tea, coffee, or chocolate with their meals.
Coffee affords very little nourishment, and is apt, if drank strong,
to occasion tremors of the nerves. It is very bad for bilious
constitutions. The calm, phlegmatic temperament can bear it. With
a good supply of cream and sugar, drank in moderation, by those
who exercise much and take considerable solid food, it may be used
without much danger.
Strong green tea relaxes the tone of the stomach, and excites the
nervous system. Persons of delicate constitution are almost sure to
be injured by it. Black tea is much less deleterious. If used with
milk and sugar, it may be considered healthy for most people.
Chocolate, when it agrees with the constitution, is very nutritious
and healthy. But it seldom can be used steadily except by aged
persons who are very active. It agrees best with persons of
phlegmatic temperament; and is more healthy in the winter season than
during warm weather.
No kind of beverage should be taken hot--it injures the teeth and
impairs digestion.
1347. _A few Rules for Health._--Rise early. Eat simple food. Take
plenty of exercise. Never fear a little fatigue. Let not children be
dressed in tight clothes; it is necessary their limbs and muscles
should have full play, if you wish for either health or beauty. Wash
very often, and rub the skin thoroughly with a coarse towel.
Wash the eyes in cold water every morning. Do not read or sew at
twilight, or by too dazzling a light. If far-sighted, read with
rather less light, and with the book somewhat nearer to the eye, than
you desire. If near-sighted, read with a book as far off as possible.
Both these imperfections may be diminished in this way.
Clean teeth in pure water two or three times a day; but, above all,
be sure to have them clean before you go to bed.
Have your bed-chamber well aired; and have fresh bed linen every
week. Never have the wind blowing directly upon you from open windows
during the night. It is _not_ healthy to sleep in heated rooms.
Wear shoes that are large enough. It not only produces corns, but
makes the feet misshapen to cramp them.
Avoid the necessity of a physician, if you can, by careful attention
to your diet. Eat what best agrees with your system, and resolutely
abstain from what hurts you, however well you may like it. A few
days' abstinence, and cold water for a beverage, with cold or warm
bathing, as the case may require, have driven off many an approaching
disease.
If you find yourself really ill, send for a good physician. Have
nothing to do with quacks; and do not tamper with quack medicines.
You do not know what they are; and what security have you that they
know what they are?
1348. _A few Remedies for Sickness._--The _ague_ may be rendered
milder by the timely use of an emetic, given one hour before the fit
is expected to return. For this purpose, one scruple of ipecacuanha
may be given in an ounce of water. After each return of vomiting,
give half a pint of tepid chamomile tea, which may be repeated three
or four times, but not oftener. When the disease has continued for
some days, and the force of the fever is weakened by emetics, give to
an adult the following preparation of bark:--
Take of Peruvian bark, in fine-powder, one ounce; port wine, one
quart; mix them, and let them stand together for twelve hours. Shake
the bottle, and give four large spoonsful immediately after the hot
stage of the disorder, repeating it every second hour till the whole
be taken; unless the coming on of the next ague-fit should require
its suspension.
1349. _Hysteric Affections._--So numerous and various are the
symptoms said to belong to this disease, that it becomes difficult
to mark its peculiar character. It is frequently described by the
patient, as a round body moving in the bowels, ascending to the
stomach, and from thence affecting the throat with a sense of
stricture, threatening suffocation. The patient also complains of
palpitation, a costive habit, cold feet and legs, &c. To counteract
the force of these attacks, the bowels should be kept open by the
following aperient mixture:--
Take of infusion of senna, one ounce and a half; tincture of senna,
tincture of cardamoms, of each half an ounce. Three large spoonsful
to be taken occasionally.
The feet and legs should be kept warm, the head cool; the diet should
consist chiefly of animal food of easy digestion, as beef or mutton;
avoiding vegetables and malt liquor, indeed everything that has a
tendency to generate flatulency. As a beverage, weak brandy and
water, toast and water, tea or coffee, whichever suits the palate of
the patient, may be freely used. Much depends on the cause--as that
varies, so must the treatment. _A dash of cold water on the face will
frequently put an end to the paroxysm._
1350. _Mumps_ are sometimes epidemic and manifestly contagious;
they come on with shivering and a sense of coldness, followed by an
increased heat, and a considerable enlargement of the glands on each
side the neck, below the ear, near to the angle of the jaw bone. This
swelling continues to increase until the fourth or fifth day, when
it gradually subsides; but before it entirely disappears, it often
happens that other tumors take place in the breasts of women, to
which the male sex are also subject in different parts of the body.
They are more or less painful, but commonly run their course without
any alarming symptoms, and therefore scarcely require any remedies.
This entirely depends on good nursing; care should be taken to avoid
exposure to cold air, and no application should be used except a
slight additional covering. Fomentations, liniments, blisters, and
whatever may have a tendency to check the regular process of this
disease, may occasion a sudden determination to the brain, and prove
fatal to the patient.
A spare diet, gentle laxative medicines, and a free use of weak
diluting liquors, are the best means to be employed; these, with a
well-regulated temperature, will generally guard off the secondary
tumors. But when the disease has been improperly managed, and a
determination to any vital part brought on, send for the physician.
1351. _Measles_ frequently assume an alarming character, too much so
to entitle them to a place in the list of common casualties. They
are at all times too serious to be left, with safety, in the hands
of the domestic practitioner. Medical aid, therefore, should be
instantly sought for, as much depends on proper management during
the first stage of the fever. The approach of this disease may be
known, by attending to the symptoms which precede the eruption, in
the following order: First, the patient complains of shivering,
with a sense of coldness, a thin watery discharge from the nose,
hoarseness, cough, and a continued flow of tears from the eyes,
which appear red and inflamed. These symptoms continue to increase
in violence, until the eruption is completed, when they gradually
subside. As this disorder has frequently a putrid tendency, which can
only be counteracted by the scientific skill of the physician, and
which, if neglected, or improperly treated, proves fatal, there can
be no excuse for not calling for his aid at the commencement of the
attack. But that no time may be lost, should there be no physician
present, an emetic of some gentle kind may be given and repeated
every half hour till vomiting be excited. If it should not act on
the bowels, take mild aperient medicine every fourth hour; but this
is not to be repeated after a motion has been procured. The patient
should be kept in an equal temperature, near sixty-four degrees of
Fahrenheit; if exposed to a higher degree of heat, the fever might
be increased; if to a lower temperature, the cough and hoarseness
would be aggravated. Wine, or wine and water, and all other fermented
liquors must be avoided. Toast and water, barley water, apple-water,
rennet whey, tamarind tea, coffee, tea, or any other weak diluting
beverage, may be freely used, provided they are of an equal warmth to
milk when drawn from the cow; also, weak lemonade.
1352. _Soothing Beverage for a Cough, after Measles._--Two ounces of
figs, two ounces of raisins, two ounces of pearl barley, and half an
ounce of liquorice-root. Boil them together in a pint and a half of
water, and strain off the liquor. A tea-cupful to be taken night and
morning.
1353. _Costiveness_ may be relieved by a change of diet, exercise on
horseback, or any other exercise in the open air, or by taking one of
the following pills an hour before dinner:--
Take of Socotrine aloes, thirty grains; gum mastic, ten grains; oil
of wormwood, one drop; tincture of aloes, a sufficient quantity to
form the ingredients into a mass, which must be divided into twelve
pills.
_This is an excellent dyspeptic pill, and will afford great relief in
all cases of weak digestion._
1354. _Remedies for Dysentery._--Black or green tea, steeped in
boiling milk, seasoned with nutmeg, and best of loaf-sugar, is
excellent for the dysentery. Cork burnt to charcoal, about as big as
a hazel-nut, macerated, and put in a tea-spoonful of brandy, with
a little loaf sugar and nutmeg, is very efficacious in cases of
dysentery and cholera-morbus. If nutmeg be wanting, peppermint-water
may be used. Flannel wet with brandy, powdered with Cayenne pepper,
and laid upon the bowels, affords great relief in cases of extreme
distress.
1355. _Another Remedy._--Dissolve as much table-salt in keen vinegar
as will ferment and work clear. When the foam is discharged, cork it
up in a bottle, and put it away for use. A large spoonful of this, in
a gill of boiling water, is very efficacious in cases of dysentery
and colic.
1356. _Loss of Appetite._--This is generally symptomatic, and varies
according to the occasional cause. The continued use of warm tea, of
wine, or other spirituous liquors, diluted with warm water, or the
use of warm water alone, if long continued, will occasion a relaxed
state of the muscular coat of the stomach. This organ also suffers
from anxiety of mind, a sedentary life, or a costive habit; from
these and other causes it becomes weakened, irritable, and incapable
of digesting the most simple food. To restore the tone of the
stomach, first give this emetic:--
Take of ipecacuanha, in fine powder, one scruple; horse-radish tea,
two ounces. Mix them together. Between the times of the operation,
half a pint of horse-radish tea should be drank, but not repeated
oftener than twice or thrice. Afterwards keep the bowels regular by
the following aperient pills:--
Take, rhubarb, in fine powder, carbonated kali, of each thirty
grains; ginger, in fine powder, one scruple; balsam of Peru, a
sufficient quantity to form a mass; divide it into twenty-four pills.
Dose, three or four every other night, at bed-time.
At the same time, to restore the tone of the digestive organs, the
following decoction should be taken:--
Take of Peruvian bark, six drachms; Cascarilla bark, two drachms.
Bruise them in a mortar, and boil them in a pint and a half of water
for a few minutes; strain off the liquor while hot, then add tincture
of bark, two ounces; diluted nitric acid, a drachm and a half. Dose,
four large spoonsful, three times a day.
1357. _Cramp and Spasm._--It frequently happens that persons are
extremely annoyed by cramp during the night, which may be relieved by
the following tincture:--
Take of tincture of opium, two drachms; ether, half an ounce. Mix
them together, and take thirty or forty drops every night, at
bed-time.
1358. _How to apply Blisters._--A considerable degree of pain and
inflammation often follows the application of blisters, which may
be obviated, by covering the blister-plaster with very thin muslin,
which will prevent any part of it remaining on the skin, after the
removal of the blister. The muslin should be pressed down, and rubbed
with the finger upon the surface of the blister-plaster.
1359. _Mustard Plasters_--Should be covered with muslin, or the
poultice put in a cloth bag, before being applied to the skin.
1360. _To prevent Lock-jaw._--Immerse the part injured in strong lye,
as warm as can be borne. But first, as in all cases of wounds, apply
spirits of turpentine on lint.
1361. _For a Stiff Joint._--An ointment made from the common
ground-worms, which boys dig to bait fishes, rubbed on with the hand,
is said to be excellent, when the sinews are drawn up by disease or
from a sprain.
1362. _Easy Method of curing the Scurvy._--The root of the garden
carrot abounds in a nutritious saccharine juice, and is slightly
aromatic. These are desirable properties against the scurvy. To
experience the good effects of these properties, _the roots must be
eaten raw_. There is nothing unpleasant in this; on the contrary,
it is what the common people often do by choice. These roots would
keep well during the longest voyage, packed up in casks, having the
interstices filled with sand. Each sailor might be allowed to eat one
root every day, or every other day, according to the state of their
health, and the quantity of roots on board.
1363. _To make Cliver, or Goose-grass Ointment; remarkable for its
salutary effects in cases of inveterate Scurvy._--To a pound of
hog's-lard melted, without spice or salt, put as much clivers as
the lard will moisten, and boil them together over a slow fire;
after stirring it till it becomes a little brown, strain it through
a cloth; and when cold, take the ointment from the water that will
remain at the bottom, and it will be fit for use.
1364. _Easy Method of attracting Ear-wigs from the Ear._--A person
lately having an earwig crept into his ear, and knowing the peculiar
fondness that insect has to apples, immediately applied a piece
of apple to the ear, which enticed the creature out, and thereby
prevented the alarming consequences which might have otherwise ensued.
1365. _Simple remedies for Scarlet Fever._--"Open the bowels
regularly every day, with some mild aperient medicine, such as castor
oil, senna, etc., and keep the patient at rest, and comfortably warm;
sponge the surface with tepid water, two or three times a day; while
it is hotter than natural, admit fresh air; live on a bland diet,
such as a cup full of arrow-root, several times a day; toast-water
for common drink. Gargle made of strong sage tea, honey and alum,
or borax, may be used from the commencement, if the throat is
affected."--_Dr. T. P. Hereford._
1366. _The French Method of making Whey._--Mix together equal parts
of best vinegar and cold water; a table-spoonful of each will suffice
for a pint of milk. It is not, however, all to be put in, whether
necessary or not; but when the milk just boils, pour in just as
much of the acid as will turn it, and no more. Beat up together
the white and shell of one egg, which boil up in the whey. Then
set it aside till quite clear. Pour it off very steadily through a
muslin strainer. Sweeten to taste with loaf-sugar. This whey is very
pleasant, and answers every good purpose of white wine whey, while
it is not liable to the objection of being heating, and is also very
much less expensive.
1367. _Calves'-feet Jelly._--Take two calves' feet, and add to them
one gallon of water; which reduce, by boiling, to one quart. Strain
it, and when cold skim the fat entirely off. Add to this the white of
six or eight eggs, well beaten, half a pint of wine, half a pound of
loaf-sugar, and the juice of four lemons, and let them be well mixed.
Boil the whole for a few minutes, stirring it constantly, and then
pass it through a flannel strainer.
This forms a very nutritious article of diet for the sick and
convalescent. When it is desired, the wine can be omitted.--_Ellis._
1368. _Chicken Water._--Take half a chicken, divested of all fat, and
break the bones; add to this half a gallon of water, and boil for
fifteen or twenty minutes. Season with salt.
This was freely employed by the late Dr. Parrish in cholera at its
commencement. Taken warm, it produces vomiting, and washes out the
stomach.
1369. _Essence of Beef._--Put into a porter bottle a sufficient
quantity of lean beef, sliced, to fill up its body, cork it with a
paper stopple, and place it in a pot of cold water, attaching the
neck, by means of a string, to the handle of the vessel. Boil this
for three-quarters of an hour, then pour off the liquor, and skim it.
To this preparation may be added spices and salt.
1370. _A very reviving Odor._--Fill with recently gathered, and dried
lavender-flowers, stripped from their stalks, small wide-necked
scent-bottles, and just cover them with _strong_ acetic acid. A
morsel of camphor, the size of a hazel-nut, may be added, with
advantage, to the lavender, in each bottle. Sound, new, and closely
fitting corks should be used, to secure the mixture from the air. It
is exceedingly refreshing and wholesome, and has often proved very
acceptable to invalids. The lavender should be gathered for it before
it is quite fully blown.
1371. _Easy Method of obtaining Water in almost any situation._--The
ground must be perforated by a borer. In the perforation is placed
a wooden pipe, which is driven down with a mallet, after which the
boring is continued, that the pipe may be driven still farther. In
proportion as the cavity of the borer becomes loaded, it is drawn up
and emptied; and in time, by the addition of new portions of wooden
pipe, the boring is carried to any depth, and water is generally
obtained.
1372. _Method of Draining Ponds in Level Grounds._--At a certain
distance below the surface of the earth, there sometimes is a stratum
of loose sand, which freely admits the passage of water. This
stratum is at various depths, in different elevations; but it will
be generally found, that lands most subject to stagnant ponds have
but a shallow stratum of clay over the sand. All that is necessary,
therefore, is to dig a pit in the bottom of the pond, till you arrive
at this stratum of sand, when the water will be immediately absorbed,
and the pond emptied.
1373. _To preserve Fishing-rods._--Oil your rods, in summer, with
linseed oil, drying them in the sun, and taking care the parts lie
flat: they should be often turned, to prevent them from warping. This
will render them tough, and prevent their being worm-eaten; in time
they will acquire a beautiful brown color. Should they get wet, which
swells the wood, and makes it fast in the sockets, turn the part
round over the flame of a candle a short time, and it will be easily
set at liberty.
1374. _To gild Letters on Vellum or Paper._--Letters written on
vellum or paper are gilded in three ways; in the first, a little size
is mixed with the ink, and the letters are written as usual; when
they are dry, a slight degree of stickiness is produced by breathing
on them, upon which the gold leaf is immediately applied, and by
a little pressure may be made to adhere with sufficient firmness.
In the second method, some white-lead or chalk is ground up with
strong size, and the letters are made with this by means of a brush;
when the mixture is almost dry, the gold leaf may be laid on, and
afterwards burnished. The last method is to mix up some gold powder
with size, and make the letters of this by means of a brush.
1375. _To make Pounce._--Gum-sandarac, powdered and sifted very fine,
will produce an excellent preventive to keep ink from sinking in the
paper after you have had occasion to scratch out any part of the
writing.
1376. _Another Method._--Cuttle-fish bone, properly dried, one
ounce; best rosin, one ounce; and the same quantity of burnt alum,
well incorporated together, will make very good pounce equal, if not
superior, to any bought at the shops.
1377. _To cut Glass._--Take a red-hot shank of a tobacco-pipe, lay it
on the edge of your glass, which will then begin to crack; then draw
the shank end a little gently before, and it will follow any way you
draw your hand.
1378. _Mrs. Hooker's Method of preparing and applying a Composition
for Painting in Imitation of the Ancient Grecian Manner._--Put into
a glazed earthen vessel four ounces and a half of gum arabic, and
eight ounces, or half a pint (wine measure) of cold spring water;
when the gum is dissolved, stir in seven ounces of gum-mastic, which
has been washed, dried, picked, and beaten fine. Set the earthen
vessel containing the gum-water and gum-mastic over a slow fire,
continually stirring and beating them hard with a spoon, in order
to dissolve the gum-mastic; when sufficiently boiled, it will no
longer appear transparent, but will become opaque and stiff, like
a paste. As soon as this is the case, and the gum-water and mastic
are quite boiling, without taking them off the fire, add five ounces
of white wax, broken into small pieces, stirring and heating the
different ingredients together, till the wax is perfectly melted,
and has boiled. Then take the composition off the fire, as boiling
it longer than necessary would only harden the wax, and prevent its
mixing so well afterwards with water. When the composition is taken
off the fire, and in the glazed earthen vessel, it should be beaten
hard, and whilst hot (but not boiling) mix with it, by degrees, a
pint (wine measure) or sixteen ounces more of cold spring water;
then strain the composition, as some dirt will boil out of the
gum-mastic, and put it into bottles. The composition, if properly
made, should be like a cream, and the colors when mixed with it
as smooth as with oil. The method of using it, is to mix with the
composition, upon an earthen pallet, such colors in powder, as are
used in painting with oil, and such a quantity of the composition to
be mixed with the colors as to render them of the usual consistency
of oil colors; then paint with fair water. The colors, when mixed
with the composition, may be laid on either thick or thin, as may
best suit your subject; on which account, this composition is very
advantageous, where any particular transparency of coloring is
required; but in most cases it answers best if the colors be laid
on thick, and they require the same use of the brush as if painting
with body colors, and the same brushes as used in oil painting. The
colors, if ground dry, when mixed with the composition, may be used
by putting a little fair water over them; but it is less trouble to
put some water when the colors are observed to be growing dry. In
painting with this composition, the colors blend without difficulty
when wet, and even when dry the tints may easily be united by means
of a brush and a very small quantity of fair water. When the painting
is finished, put some white wax into a glazed earthen vessel over
a slow fire, and when melted, but not boiling, with a hard brush
cover the painting with the wax, and when cold take a moderately
hot iron, such as is used for ironing linen, and so cold as not to
hiss, if touched with anything wet, and draw it lightly over the
wax. The painting will appear as if under a cloud till the wax is
perfectly cold, as also whatever the picture is painted upon is quite
cold; but if, when so, the painting should not appear sufficiently
clear, it may be held before the fire, so far from it as to melt the
wax but slowly; or the wax may be melted by holding a hot poker at
such a distance as to melt it gently, especially such parts of the
picture as should not appear sufficiently transparent or brilliant;
for the oftener heat is applied to the picture, the greater will be
the transparency and brilliancy of coloring; but the contrary effect
would be produced if too sudden or too great a degree of heat was
applied, or for too long a time, as it would draw the wax too much to
the surface, and might likewise crack the paint. Should the coat of
wax put over the painting, when finished, appear in any part uneven,
it may be remedied by drawing a moderately hot iron over it again,
as before-mentioned, or even by scraping the wax with a knife; and
should the wax, by too great or too long application of heat, form
into bubbles at particular places, by applying a poker heated, or
even a tobacco-pipe made hot, the bubbles would subside; or such
defects may be removed by drawing anything hard over the wax, which
would close any small cavities.
When the picture is cold, rub it with a fine linen cloth. Paintings
may be executed in this manner upon wood (having first pieces of
wood let in behind, across the grain of the wood, to prevent its
warping), canvas, card, or plaster of Paris. The plaster of Paris
would require no other preparation than mixing some fine plaster of
Paris, in powder, with cold water, the thickness of a cream; then put
it on a looking-glass, having first made a frame of bees'-wax on the
looking-glass, the form and thickness you would wish the plaster of
Paris to be of, and when dry take it off, and there will be a very
smooth surface to paint upon. Wood and canvas are best covered with
some gray tint, mixed with the same composition of gum-arabic, gum
mastic, and wax, and of the same sort of colors as before-mentioned,
before the design is begun, in order to cover the grain of the wood
or the threads of the canvas. Paintings may also be done in the
same manner, with only gum-water and gum-mastic, prepared the same
way as the mastic and wax; but instead of putting seven ounces of
mastic, and, when boiling, adding five ounces of wax, mix twelve
ounces of gum-mastic with the gum-water, prepared as mentioned in
the first part of this receipt; before it is put on the fire, and
when sufficiently boiled and beaten, and is a little cold, stir in,
by degrees, twelve ounces, or three-quarters of a pint (wine measure)
of cold spring water, and afterwards strain it. It would be equally
practicable painting with wax alone, dissolved in gum-water in the
following manner: Take twelve ounces, or three-quarters of a pint
(wine measure) of cold spring water, and four ounces and a half of
gum-arabic, put them into a glazed earthen vessel, and when the
gum is dissolved, add eight ounces of white wax. Put the earthen
vessel, with the gum-water and wax, upon a slow fire, and stir them
till the wax is dissolved, and has boiled a few minutes; then take
them off the fire, and throw them into a basin, as by remaining in
the hot earthen vessel the wax would become rather hard; beat the
gum-water and wax till quite cold. As there is but a small proportion
of water in comparison to the quantity of gum and wax, it would be
necessary, in mixing this composition with the colors, to put also
some fair water. Should the composition be so made as to occasion
the ingredients to separate in the bottle, it will become equally
serviceable, if shaken before used, to mix with the colors.
1379. _The Best Season for Painting Houses._--The outside of
buildings should be painted during autumn or winter. Hot weather
injures the paint by drying in the oil too quickly; then the paint
will easily rub off. But when the paint is laid on during cold
weather, it hardens in drying, and is firmly set.
1380. _A cheap and simple Process for Painting on Glass, sufficient
for the purpose of making a Magic Lanthorn._--Take good clear
resin, any quantity, melt it in an iron pot; when melted entirely,
let it cool a little, and before it begins to harden, pour in oil
of turpentine sufficient to keep it liquid when cold. In order to
paint with it, let it be used with colors ground in oil, such as are
commonly sold in color shops.
1381. _To make Phosphorus._--Two-third parts of quick-lime (_i.e._
calcined oyster-shells), and one-third of flour of brimstone, put
into a crucible for an hour, and exposed to the air for an hour,
become phosphorus.
1382. _To make an Illuminated or Phosphoric Bottle, which will
preserve its Light for several months._--By putting a piece of
phosphorus, the size of a pea, into a phial, and adding boiling oil
until the bottle is a third full, a luminous bottle is formed; for,
on taking out the cork, to admit atmospheric air, the empty space in
the phial will become luminous.
Whenever the stopper is taken out in the night, sufficient light will
be evolved to show the hour upon a watch; and if care be taken to
keep it, in general, well closed, it will preserve its illuminative
power for several months.
1383. _To Marble Books or Paper._--Marbling of books or paper is
performed thus:--Dissolve four ounces of gum arabic in two quarts of
fair water; then provide several colors mixed with water in pots or
shells, and with pencils peculiar to each color; sprinkle them by way
of intermixture upon the gum-water, which must be put into a trough,
or some broad vessel; then, with a stick, curl them, or draw them out
in streaks to as much variety as may be done. Having done this, hold
your book, or books, close together, and only dip the edges in, on
the top of the water and colors, very lightly; which done, take them
off, and the plain impression of the colors in mixture will be upon
the leaves; doing as well the ends as the front of the book in like
manner, and afterwards glazing the colors.
1384. _To Write Secretly on a Pocket Handkerchief._--Dissolve alum
in pure water, and write upon a fine white handkerchief, which, when
dry, will not be seen at all; but when you would have the letters
visible, dip the handkerchief in pure water, and it will be of a wet
appearance all over, except where it was written on with the alum
water.
You may also write with alum water upon writing paper, which will not
be visible till dipped in water.
1385. _To keep Insects out of Bird-Cages._--Tie up a little sulphur
in a silk bag, and suspend it in the cage. For mocking-birds this is
essential to their health; and the sulphur will keep all the red ants
and other insects from cages of all kinds of birds. Red ants will
never be found in a closet or drawer, if a small bag of sulphur is
kept constantly in these places.
1386. _Of Books, Mental Cultivation, &c._--Our work would be
incomplete, without some reference to mental as well as material
improvement. In truth, we have aimed, throughout this and a former
book,[C] to make the connection between the cultivation of the mental
faculties and true household economy apparent. To work properly, we
must think rightly. Science is as necessary in the kitchen as in
the laboratory. The reason why men cooks are preferred above women
cooks, and better paid, is, the former study their art as a science.
Knowledge is power, in domestic life as well as in the political
arena. Let the woman elevate her position by her learning; let
her understand the nature and influence of her daily employments,
cultivating her taste and refining her manners by the true standard
of moral excellence; thus making her home-pursuits conduce to the
harmony and happiness of the general plan of life in which she, the
wife and mother, is the centre of attraction and volition, and how
important for humanity her sphere becomes.
1387. _Choice of Reading._--Never keep house without books. Life
is not life to any great purpose where books are not. The BIBLE is
indispensable. Out of its treasures of Divine wisdom all best human
wisdom is derived or directed. Then have other books, as your means
permit. If these are rightly chosen, every volume will be a teacher,
a friend--a fountain, from whence may be drawn sweet streams of
pleasure and profit. Poetry, story, biography, history, essays, and
religious works--I name these in the order a child chooses books--all
are needed. American literature--that is, books on subjects connected
with our own country, should be first in our reading. Bancroft's
"History of the United States," Sparkes' "American Biographies,"
Lippincott's "Cabinet Histories of the States," Mrs. Ellet's "Women
of the Revolution"--these should be accessible to every family in the
Union. Read on every subject connected with your own pursuits and
employments. Knowledge will aid you even in hand labor; and a good
book is a safe refuge in idle hours.
1388. _Of Periodicals and Newspapers._--Every family should take a
newspaper; this, the lady of the house should insist upon--kindly,
to be sure; for a pleasant request is as powerful as "a soft answer"
in "turning away wrath." Men, usually, are willing to subscribe for
a paper, though some are indifferent to this great source of family
instruction as well as pleasure; but they forget, when the year comes
round, to _renew_ their subscription in the right way. So the women
of the family should be sure to remember the printer.
Another important source of family improvement is the periodicals or
monthly magazines. These are now, thanks to the cheap postage system,
accessible to the dwellers in the most remote places of our wide
land. As a work for our own sex, Godey's Lady's Book is the best that
can be taken in a family, because it furnishes information on every
branch of home duties and pursuits; and moreover, upholds that pure
standard of morals in its lightest fiction, which renders it a safe
enjoyment for the young.
Many other periodicals might be named, all excellent of their kind,
and where the expense can be afforded, each household should obtain
one or more of these. A better way would be for a neighborhood to
unite and take a half dozen different publications, securing the
inestimable advantage of reading every month the best religious,
medical, agricultural, scientific, literary, and illustrated
magazines--thus keeping up with the progress of art, the march of
mind, the material advancement, and the moral improvement of the
world.
1389. _How can we Pay for the Magazines?_--Is the question with many
families. Very easily, if you have the will--one half of the money
spent on tobacco would, if laid out in books, soon give every family
a library. And, young ladies, if you cannot persuade your brothers to
throw aside their cigars, and subscribe, why, look over this book,
and see, if from its economical hints you cannot devise some plan of
earning or saving, whereby you may be able to pay for the magazines.
Do this one year; husband or brother will then be ready to aid. Woman
has everything to gain from Christian civilization; she should lead
the way.