_Coal Brandy_ (No. 22. p. 352.).--This is only a contraction of "coaled
brandy," that is, "burnt brandy," and has no reference to the _purity_
of the spirit. It was the "universal pectoral" of the last century; and
more than once I have seen it prepared by "good housewives" and
"croaking husbands" in the present, pretty much as directed in the
following prescription. It is only necessary to remark, that the
orthodox method of "coaling," or setting the brandy on fire, was
effected by dropping "a live coal" ("_gleed_") or red-hot cinder into
the brandy. This is copied from a leaf of paper, on the other side of
which are written, in the hand of John Nourse, the great publisher of
scientific books in his day, some errata in the first 8vo. edit. of
Simsons's Euclid, and hence may be referred to the year 1762. It was
written evidently by some {457} "dropper-in," who found "honest John"
suffering from a severe cold, and upon the first piece of paper that
came to hand. The writer's caligraphy bespeaks age, and the punctuation
and erasures show him to have been a literary man, and a careful though
stilted writer. It is not, however, a hand of which I find any other
exemplars amongst Nourse's correspondence.
"Take two glasses of the best brandy, put them into a cup which
may stand over the fire; have two long wires, and put an ounce
of sugar-candy upon the wires, and set the brandy on fire. Let
it burn till it is put out by itself, and drink it before you go
to bed.
"To make it more pectoral, take some rosemary and put it in the
brandy, infused for a whole day, before you burn it."
This is the fundamental element of all the quack medicines for "coughs,
colds, catarrhs, and consumption," from Ford's "Balsam of Horehound" to
Dr. Solomon's "Balm of Gilead."