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Cordials and Restoratives

IN olden times the good Elizabethan housewife was the doctor's great ally. In her still-room the lady with the ruff and fardingale was ever busy with cooling waters, surfeit waters, and cordial waters, or in preparing conserves of roses, spirits of herbs, and juleps for calentures, and fevers. Poppy water was good for weak stomachs; Mint and Rue waters were efficacious for the head and brain; even Walnuts yielded a cordial. Then there was Cinnamon water, and the essence of Cloves, Gilliflowers, and Lemon water, Sweet Marjoram water, and Spirit of Ambergris (an excrement of the Spermaceti Whale). Respecting the last mentioned of these restoratives, it should be told that Brillat Savarin has quite recently given to the public a remarkable recipe: "Take six large onions, three carrots, and a handful of parsley; chop them up, and put into a stewpan; heat them with a little, good, fresh butter until they change colour; when this is done, put in six ounces of sugar candy, twenty grains of ground Ambergris, with a crust of toast, and three bottles of water; boil up for three quarters of an hour, adding water anew to make up for the loss by evaporation. While this is on the fire, kill, pluck, and draw an old cock, and pound it up (flesh and bone) in a mortar with an iron pestle. Also chop up two pounds of good lean beef. This done, mix the fowl and beef together, and season with salt and pepper. Put the whole into another stewpan on a quick fire, and add from time to time a little fresh butter, so as to keep it from sticking to the pan. When it is heated through, pour in the broth from the first stewpan little by little, and when all is in give it a strong boil for three-quarters of an hour, always adding enough hot water to keep it to the same volume of liquid. At the end of this time the Restorative is ready, and it exercises a sure effect on the invalid if his stomach has but sufficiently retained its digestive powers. To use the Cordial give a cupful every three hours until it is time for the invalid to go to sleep. On the following day give a good cupful the first thing in the morning, and the same at night, continuing the said plan until the three bottlefuls are finished. Keep the invalid on a light, but nourishing diet, such as the thighs of poultry, fish, sweet fruits, preserves, etc. It will scarcely ever happen that a second dose of the Restorative will be needed at that time. On about the fourth day the invalid will be able to resume his ordinary occupation. If the Restorative thus prescribed is made use of at a banquet, the ancient rooster may be replaced by four old partridges, and the beef by a piece of leg of mutton (whilst the Ambergris and sugar candy are at option). It is well that everybody should know that though Ambergris, considered as a perfume, is distasteful to persons with too sensitive nerves, it is nevertheless admirably tonic, and exhilarating when taken internally. Our ancestors made great use of it in cookery, and were all the better for it. Richelieu is said to have habitually sucked pastilles flavoured with Ambergris; and other well-known persons, when feeling the weight of age, or oppressed by lack of bodily energy, by mixing a piece of Ambergris (ground with sugar) the size of a bean, with a large cupful of chocolate, and drinking this, have found beneficial effects. By means of such a tonic the action of life becomes easy, thinking is no difficulty, and insomnia (sleeplessness), which is," says B. Savarin, "with me the infallible consequence of drinking coffee, becomes obviated."

Given in detail, particulars may be found concerning numerous Cordials in our Kitchen Physic, such as Alcohol, Beer Soup, Coffee, Egg Cordial, Liebig's Meat Extract, the Mints, Quinces, Ratafia, Rum Punch, Tea Caudle, and Wine Whey. Others may be usefully added, to wit, Allspice, Caraway, Cinnamon, Cloves, Grapes, Honey in Mead, Raisins, Rosemary Wine, Saffron, and the Garden Thyme. The four Cordial flowers of English Simplers were the Rose, the Violet, the Alkanet, and the Borage. 66 Egg silky," as it is termed at the Cape, is another such excellent Cordial for a cold: "Put three entire eggs, covered with the juice of three fresh lemons, into a basin for three days, turning the eggs now and again so that all the shells shall become dissolved; then take away from the mixture the inner thin skins, which are unwholesome; beat up the eggs, whilst removing any specks; next add a dessertspoonful of sifted sugar, and a wineglassful of old rum; put the mixture into a bottle, and keep it corked; then take a wineglassful every morning before breakfast." Again "Punch à la Romaine," as it is called, which is served at dinner, usually after the remove (of the solids), is found to exercise the effect of considerably assisting digestion at such time; it forms an interlude between the principal acts of the play, being a sort of white ice made with lemon-juice, white of egg, sugar, and rum. The quaint old recipe for brewing West Indian Punch with Jamaica rum has an almost cabalistic ring about it :- "One of sour, three of sweet, Four of strong, and four of weak."

But, after all, Brandy is to be pronounced par excellence the prince of cordial restoratives. This (Brant wein, "burnt wine") is a spirituous liquor obtained by the distillation of wine. It contains an average proportion of alcohol from 48 to 54 per cent. In a peculiarly rich Brandy made from the ferment and stalks left from wine manufacture, a wine oil is found, Cognac oil, so called from its flavour. Genuine Cognac is distilled from the red, and white grapes of vineyards about Cognac, a small city in the Charente department. But the fact is manifest, that this Cognac could not possibly supply half the Brandy which is represented as such; even some of the costly brands are not expressed from grapes which grow in picturesque old Cognac. Beet-root plays an important part in Brandy distilling, not excepting "fine old Cognac” at sixty shillings the dozen. Another very frequent variety of Brandy is whisky distilled from corn, and flavoured with genuine Cognac, as well as with œnanthic ether. But Spain, which abounds with cheap wines, furnishes some fearsome brands of vile Brandies, coloured with burnt sugar, and contaminated with fusel oil, ether, etc. There is a pure, wholesome Cognac which is immensely valuable for medicinal purposes, being made from the grapes of La Folle, or St. Pierre, such as are carefully cultivated, and guarded, in the vineyards of Charente. These grapes are juicy, large, and very sweet, as well as rich in flavour. The wine expressed therefrom is stored in oaken casks for four years, at the end of which time it is rich in colour, and very astringent in quality, these being the virtues which confer its value as a medicine. In a good year six or seven bottles of wine should yield one bottle of Brandy. After from twenty to forty years Brandy comes to contain a considerable proportion of volatile ethers, and aldehydes, to which some of the most valuable properties of this Cordial spirit are to be attributed. British Brandy is distilled in England from malt liquors, and has the flavour, and colour, of French Brandy imparted to it artificially.

For Orange Brandy, which is an excellent tonic restorative, "to one gallon of best pale Brandy put one dozen Seville oranges; tear these oranges into very thin segments, and squeeze out the juice; next add two pounds of powdered loaf sugar, and stir until dissolved; let it stand a day or two, then shake up well, and leave it for a few months; afterwards bottle it."

Punch is an alcoholic drink in which lemon-juice is introduced, with a flavouring of the peel, as added to either of the principal distilled spirits, water, and sugar. Without doubt the most characteristic Punch is made with Rum, at least in part. It may be drunk hot or cold. As an immediate restorative, and in winter, hot Punch is best. It should never be stronger than the presence of alcohol to 20 per cent will make it; this is about the average strength of Sherry, or Port wine. The Punch will be more wholesome if containing less spirit (down to 10 per cent of alcohol). If milk be added, this will give to the Punch a body which develops, and accentuates its taste. The beverage always remains a little turbid, except when kept a long time; very little precipitation of curd (casein) takes place. "Hot Punch" (the Bagman's Story, in Pickwick) " is a pleasant thing, gentlemen, an extremely pleasant thing under any circumstances, but in the snug old parlour, before the roaring fire, on a cold winter's night, with the wind blowing outside till every timber in the old house creaked again, Tom Smart found it perfectly delightful. He ordered another tumblerful, and then another; I am not quite certain whether he did not order another again after that." Also, "when Mr. Pickwick at the skating party fell through the broken ice, and was extricated with much splashing, and cracking, and struggling, he ran off at the top of his speed, muffled in shawls, until he reached Manor Farm, then paused not an instant until he was snug in bed. A bowl of Punch was carried up promptly after some dinner, and a grand carouse was held in honour of his safety; a second, and a third bowl were ordered in, and when Mr. Pickwick awoke next morning there was not a symptom of rheumatism about him; which proves, as Mr. Bob Sawyer justly observed, there is nothing like hot Punch in such cases; and that if ever hot Punch did fail to act as a preventive, it was merely because the patient fell into the vulgar error of not taking enough of it." Furthermore, after "the leg-ofmutton swarry" at Bath, when Sam Weller played the host to the departing guests, "Mr. Tuckle, the coachman in red, laid aside his cocked hat, and stick, which he had just taken up, and said he would have one glass for goodfellowship's sake; and, as the gentleman in blue went home the same way, he was prevailed upon to stop, too. When the Punch was about half gone, Sam ordered in some oysters from the greengrocer's shop; and the effect of both was so extremely exhilarating that Mr. Tuckle, dressed out with the cocked hat, and stick, danced the frog hornpipe among the shells on the table, while the gentleman in blue played an accompaniment upon an ingenious musical instrument formed of a hair-comb and a curl paper." 66 66 Rum is a spirit usually produced by the distillation of fermented molasses, as obtained in the manufacture of raw sugar, but the best varieties are procured by direct fermentation of sugar-cane juice. "Rum," said Oliver Wendell Holmes, "I take to be the name which unwashed moralists apply alike to the product distilled from molasses, and the noblest juices of the vineyard. Burgundy in all its sunset glow is Rum! Champagne, the foaming wine of Eastern France, is Rum!" As a spirit it owes its dark colour to burnt sugar. A considerable quantity of the Rum sold in this country is made from "silent spirit," being flavoured chemically with ethyl-butyrate." The most esteemed Rum comes from the West Indies, as Jamaica Rum, Antigua, Grenada, or Santa Crux Rum. Our forefathers a generation ago were fond of Rum Shrub (from Shariba, drink), which was concocted by boiling fresh currant juice for about ten minutes with an equal weight of sugar, and adding a little Rum. Thackeray wrote (Phillip's Adventures) : "There never was any liquor so good as Rum Shrub, never! and the sausages had a flavour of Elysium." "Oh! my young friend," said the red-nosed Mr. Stiggins, the shepherd, to Sam Weller (in Pickwick), "all taps is vanities: if there is any one of them less odious than another it is the liquor called Rum, -warm, my dear young friend, with three lumps of sugar to the tumbler." Rum is remarkable for its freedom from fusel oil, or amylic alcohol. Again, a Sherry Cobbler (originally Cobbler's Punch) as a summer drink, to be sucked through a straw, is reviving, and wholesome in hot weather. It is made by mixing up together in a large glass pounded ice, wine, and sugar, with slices of orange, or pineapple.

Ratafia, deriving its name from the Malay "Tafia," a liqueur prepared from cane sugar syrup, is a sweet cordial flavoured with fruits, generally those yielding the essences of black currants, bitter almonds, or peach and cherry kernels. Ashton in his Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, telling of a Lady at the Play, says: "It would make a man smile to behold her Figure in a front Box, where her twinkling eyes, by her afternoon Drams of Ratifee, and cold tea, sparkle more than her pendants." Allspice (Pimento) is likewise popular as a warming cordial, having a sweet odour, and a grateful aromatic taste. The name is given because the berries afford in smell and taste a combination of cloves, juniper berries, cinnamon, and pepper. The special qualities of Pimento reside in the rind of its berries, and the tree is the Eugenia Pimento of Brazil. Pimento berries are put into curry powder, and are added to mulled wines; they are useful against flatulent indigestion, and as a carminative stimulant. Sack posset, an old American cordial (especially favoured at weddings), was made according to a familiar rhyme :- "From famed Barbadoes, on the Western Main Fetch sugar, half a pound: fetch sack from Spain, A pint and from the East Indian Coast pint : and from the East Indian Coast Nutmeg, the glory of our northern coast.

O'er flaming coals together let them heat, Till the all-conquering sack dissolves the sweet.

O'er such another fire set eggs, twice ten, New born from crowing cock and speckled hen; Stir them with steady hand, and conscience pricking To see the untimely fate of twenty chicken.

From shining shelf take down your brazen skillet; A quart of milk from gentle cow will fill it. quart of milk from gentle cow will fill it.

When boiled, and cooked, put milk and sack to egg, Unite them firmly like the triple league; Then, covered close, together let them dwell Till Miss twice sings 'You must not kiss and tell.' Each lad and lass snatch up their murdering spoon And fall on fiercely like a starved dragoon.' Concerning Blackberry Cordial as an excellent restorative, mention has been already made here in high commendation thereof.

Sweet Grapes, again, besides being of capital service for supplying warmth as combustion material by their ready-made sugar, are cordial by the essential flavours of the fruit, whilst a surplus of the glucose (Grape sugar) serves to form fat for storage.

The The Peppermint (Mentha piperita), or Brandy Mint, which grows not uncommonly in moist places about England, and is cultivated largely at Mitcham, yields by its fragrant, powerfully aromatic, and comforting essential oil, preparations which diffuse warmth in the stomach, and mouth, acting as a carminative stimulant, with some amount of sedative power against the pain of colic, flatulence, spasm, or indigestion. This is through the potential oil, of which the herb yields 1 per cent. leaves and stems exhale a strong, refreshing, characteristic aroma, which, whilst delicate at first, is quickly followed by a sense of numbness, and coldness, increased by drawing in the breath. Lozenges made of Peppermint Oil, or Essence, are admirable for affording ease in colic, flatulence, and nausea. They will also help to prevent sea-sickness, besides proving antiseptic if food has been taken of a putrescent tendency, or hard to digest. When Tom Hood lay a-dying, he turned his eyes feebly towards the window on hearing it rattle in the night whereupon his wife, who was watching him, said softly, "It's only the wind, dear!" to which he replied with a ready sense of humour, indomitable to the last, "Then put a Peppermint lozenge on the sill." The allied Spear Mint (Mentha viridis) , such as the cook employs for making Mint sauce, possesses likewise cordial properties by its aromatic essential oil, which is fragrant, and grateful to the stomach; it stimulates the digestive system, and prevents septic changes within the intestines. This is called also Mackerel Mint, and in Germany Lady's Mint (or Money). "The smell of Mint," quoth John Swan, in Speculum Mundi (1643), "stirreth up the mind , and must therefore be good for students." 66 "Marmalade of Quinces," says Austin, on Fruits (1665), " is known to be a good cordial, strengthening the stomach, and heart, both of the sick, and sound." This fruit, Cydonia, from Cydon (now Candia), had a former English title, "Melicotone." In ancient Rome it was regarded as sacred; now we banish the tree, because of its strong penetrating odour, to a corner of the garden. Lord Bacon commended quiddemy," a preserve of Quinces, for strengthening the stomach; and old Fuller said of this fruit, "Being not more pleasant to the palate than restorative to the health, they are accounted a great cordiall. " 66 Matthiolus (1751) commended Quinces boiled with honey, both for meat, and for medicine : "Ex melle tantum et cotaneorum carne confecta, tam ad cibi, quam ad medicamenti commoda." Rosemary Wine, as kept of old always in the still-room, and well worthy of being yet retained among the housewife's stores for the kitchen, acts, when taken in small quantities, as a quieting cordial to a weak heart, subject to palpitations. Furthermore, it stimulates the kidneys, thus preventing dropsy. This wine may be made by chopping up sprigs of Rosemary from the herb garden, and pouring on them some sound white wine, which is to be strained off after two or three days, and then used. Also, by stimulating the brain and nervous system it proves of service against the headaches of a feeble circulation, and of languid health. Rosemary from the kitchen garden has a pleasant scent, and a bitter, pungent taste, whilst much of its active volatile principle resides in the calices of the flowers; therefore in storing, or making use of the plant, these parts must be retained. It yields its virtues partly to water, and entirely to rectified spirits of wine.

Sultana Raisins, when stewed, will recruit and revive the tired body, and the jaded mind, besides being gently laxative. "Wash and pick one pound of Sultanas; soak them all night in cold water; next morning drain off the water, and put the Raisins into a pan, or basin, and barely cover them with water; add a little grated lemon-peel; put a plate over the top, and stew them in the oven until quite tender, and soft. Some of these Sultanas (hot, or cold), with a slice of whole-meal bread, or brown bread, make a very sustaining meal." Raisin tea, which is both refreshing, and as well supplied as milk with food proteids, may be made as follows: "Put half a pound of good Raisins (stoned) into a quart of cold water, laying open the pulp of the fruit; boil slowly for three or four hours, down to a pint; strain out the skins, etc., through a fine scalded sieve, and add fresh lemon-juice if too sweet. The tea may be taken cold as well as hot."

Yellow Saffron (from the stigmata of the Crocus vernalis) is much used by the cottagers of Cornwall and Devon in making their bread, and cakes; also by the professed cook for its rich colour, and its cordial properties. When concocted with sugar into a syrup, it pleases the eye by its splendid hue, and gently exhilarates the system at large, one or two teaspoonfuls being are given for a dose, with a wineglassful of water (hot, or cold). This syrup will serve to energize the organs within the abdomen of both males and females; likewise to recruit a feeble heart, and an exhausted brain. Ray tells that "Saffron has long enjoyed the reputation of comforting the heart, and raising the spirits, going thus far towards the relief of those who melancholy through grave mental burdens." In our rural districts there is a popular custom of giving Saffron tea for measles, on the doctrine, probably, of colour analogy; to which notion may likewise be referred the practice of adding Saffron to the drinking water of canary birds when they are moulting. Lord Bacon said: "The English are rendered sprightly by a liberal use of Saffron in sweetmeats, and broth." And Thackeray noted when in Paris :- "Green herbs, red pepper, mussels, saffron, Soles, onions, garlic, roach and dace; All these you eat at Ferré's tavern, In that one dish of bouillabaisse."

Likewise Chamomile tea is an excellent revivifying drink for aged persons, an hour or more before dinner. Francatelli directs to "put about thirty dried Chamomile flowers into a jug, and to pour over them a pint of boiling water, covering up the infusion ; when it has stood for a quarter of an hour, pour it off from the flowers into another jug, and sweeten with sugar, or honey." The true Chamomile is an aromatic garden herb of prostrate growth, and with a single flower on each stem, whilst signifying by its name Earth-apple. Its flowers grow with a convex yellow disc, exhaling a powerful odour, and having a clean, bitter taste, with the possession of an essential oil in only a small quantity. This medicament can scarcely be considered a food, but nevertheless it is a valuable kitchen adjunct; a teacupful of the infusion, sweetened with a dessertspoonful of moist sugar, and with a little grated ginger added, serves admirably as an appetizing tonic before a principal meal. 66 Borage" (which, with its gallant blue flower, is freely grown "doth in the kitchen garden for Claret cup, and the bees) exhilarate," says an old herbalist, "when taken in sallets, and maketh the mind glad almost as beneficially as a bracing sojourn by the seaside during an autumn holiday." Borago ego gaudia semper ago," or "Borage give always courage," tells a truthful Latin adage, so cordial is this popular herb even from classic times! According to Dioscorides and Pliny, the Borage was that famous nepenthe of Homer, which Polydamas sent to Helen for a token, "of such rare virtue that when drunk steep'd in wine, if wife, and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should die before thy face, thou couldst not grieve, or shed a tear for them." The Romans named Borage "Euphrosynon," because when put into a cup of wine it made drinkers thereof merry and glad. "Vinum potatum in quo sit macerata buglossa mærorem cerebri dicunt auferre periti" :- "To enliven the sad with the joy of a joke Give them wine with some borage put in it to soak."

The fresh herb has a cucumber-like fragrance, and when compounded with lemon, and sugar, in wine, with water, it makes a delicious "cool tankard," which is refreshing, and restorative, as a summer drink. Chemically the plant contains potassium, and calcium, combined with mineral acids. The fresh juice affords 30 per cent, and the dried herb 3 per cent, of nitrate of potash. The stems and leaves supply much saline mucilage, which, when boiled, and cooled, likewise deposits nitre, and common salt. It is to these saline qualities the wholesome, invigorating effects, and the specially recruiting properties of the Borage are supposed to be mainly due. Botanically the term Borage is a corruption of Cor-ago, because this herb gives strength to the heart; Quia cordis affectibus medetur." The plant was the Bugloss of the older herbalists, and was so named from the shape, and bristly surface of its leaves, which resemble "Bous-glossa," the tongue of an ox. "Sprigs of Borage," 66 66 66 66 wrote John Evelyn, are of known virtue to revive the hypochondriac, and cheer the hard student." Parkinson adds: 66 Borage helpeth nurses to have more store of milk, for which purpose its leaves are most conducing." The saline constituents promote activity of the kidneys, and for the same reason Borage is used in France to carry off feverish catarrhs. "It is a herb," saith Gerarde, "of force and virtue to drive away sorrow, and the pensiveness of the mind, and to comfort the heart." (After which method Sir Thomas Browne reasons in his Religio Medici, when claiming to cure vices by physick when they remain incurable by Divinity, the same obeying his pills when the precepts of the preachers are contemned.") John Swan, in his Speculum Mundi (1643), "advised his gentle readers to be discreet in their generation, and to gather to themselves great armsful of never-dying Borage (so called because of its fair blew flowers, ripe seeds, and buds, which may all be seen on it at once), and bravely plunge it into wine, where," saith Master Swan, "it cannot but be good, and comfortable, and pleasant for the brain, and heart; it increaseth wit, and memoire, engendereth good blood, maketh a man merrie, and joyfull, and putteth away all melancholie, and madness."

Our garden herb, Thyme (the Thyme of Candy, Musk Thyme), which is used by the cook as a flavouring, or for seasoning purposes, is an excellent cordial. Its proper name, Thymus serpyllum, denotes a procumbent creeping plant, whilst "thumos " signifies the courage which it inspires. It is anti-spasmodic, good against nervous, or hysterical headaches, for flatulence, and the headache which follows inebriation. Thyme tea is aromatic, fragrant, and refreshing. The plant depends for its virtues on an essential oil consisting of two hydrocarbons, with thymol as the fatty base, this thymol being a famous antiseptic. The Romans gave Thyme as a sovereign remedy to melancholy persons. A little of the herb added to wine imparts thereto a most grateful savour; mixed with food it helps dimness of sight. The herb, wherever it grows wild, denotes a pure atmosphere, and is thought to enliven the spirits by the fragrance which it diffuses into the air around. "I know a bank whereon the Wild Thyme blows," says Oberon, King of the Fairies, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Another variety of the same is Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus), distinguished by its particoloured leaves, and its lilac flowers. Small beds of this Thyme are cultivated at Penzance, in which to rear millepedes, or hog-lice, for administration against scrofulous disease in several of its forms. The said millepede was the primitive medicinal pill. It is found commonly in dry gardens, under stones, or rubbish, and rolls itself up in a ball when touched, having a brown, horny armour, in plates, around its diminutive body, which body abounds with a nitrous salt, this having long given the creatures a reputation for curing inveterate struma, as well as some kinds of bladder-stone. From three to twelve were ordered of old daily throughout a hundred days, in Rhenish wine, for overcoming cancerous disease. Other popular designations which it bears are Old Sow, Grammar Sow, Saint Anthony's Hog, Chiselbob, and Cudworm; the Latin name is Porcellus scaber.

After all considering of Cordials, "there can be no doubt," as Dr. Hutchison puts it, "that in any case presenting signs of profound prostration of nerves and heart, some alcoholic spirit which is old, and well matured, should be given as the restorative cordial; and it is only when in such, condition that spirits become really rich in ethereal bodies. Of Whisky, Rum, and genuine Brandy, the last is by far the best; the finest liqueur Brandy should then be alone employed, no matter how much one has to pay for it. There can be no doubt that its free and timely administration has saved many a life." Σ In the middle ages of England, and until a hundred years ago, the aforesaid wholesome custom obtained among great ladies, and prudent housewives, of personally distilling cordial waters, essences, and other salutary preparations, to be kept in store for domestic requirements. Thus we read in Armorel (Besant), concerning herself, and Roland Lee : "And then she took him into a room of the eighteenth century, which no longer exists there, or elsewhere save in name. It was the Still-room, and on its shelves stood the elixirs, and cordials of ancient time: the Currant-gin to fortify the stomach on a raw morning before crossing the Roads; the Cherry Brandy for a cold and stormy night; the Elderberry wine, good, mulled, and spiced at Christmas-time; the Blackberry wine; the home-made Distilled waters, Lavender water, Hungary water, Cyprus water, and the Divine Cordial itself, which takes three seasons to complete, and requires all the flowers of Spring, Summer, and Autumn." Sir Edwin Arnold recently discoursed at length concerning a marvellous cordial root which the Chinese get from the Korea, Ginseng, this being thought to transcend all other cordials, tonics, and restoratives. "It will renovate, and reinvigorate failing bodily powers beyond all other stimulants, stomachics, and energizers of vitality. The Korean people believe the said root to be an absolute panacea for all mortal ills, mental, or physical; it is packed and transmitted with the most scrupulous care and pains, in small parcels of white silk, the mouth and nose of the recipient having to be covered when unfolding these sacred envelopes of embroidered silk, or of crimson, and goldfish skin. The habitat of this wonderful root (in form like a man) is in the glens and slopes of the Kang-ge Mountains, and it can be found only by persons of blameless life, and purity of heart; when taken from the earth it is thought to utter a low musical cry. It is to be cooked in a special silver kettle, having a double interior, as an infusion, or with rice wine. The plant belongs to the order of Araliacea. From sixty to ninety grains of the dried root are a proper dose; it fills the heart with hilarity, whilst its occasional use adds a decade of years to the ordinary span of human life."