Page:Art of Cookery 1774 edition.djvu/367

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made Plain and Easy,
329

water be very cold. After this he must go in three times a week for a fortnight longer.

N. B. The lichen is a very common herb, and grows generally in sandy and barren soils all over England. The right time to gather it is in the months of October and November. Dr. Mead.

Another for the bite of a mad dog.

FOR the bite of a mad dog, for either man or beast, take six ounces of rue clean picked and bruised: four ounces of garlick peeled and bruised, four ounces of Venice treacle, and four ounces of filed pewter or scraped tin. Boil these in two quarts of the best ale, in a pan covered close over a gentle fire, for the space of an hour, then strain the ingredients from the liquor. Give eight or nine spoonfuls of it warm to a man, or a woman, three mornings fasting. Eight or nine spoonfuls is sufficient for the strongest; a lesser quantity to those younger, or a weaker constitution, as you may judge of their strength. Ten or twelve sponfuls for a horse or a bullock; three, four, or five to a sheep, hog, or dog. This must be given within nine days after the bite; if seldom fails in man or beast. If you bind some of the ingredients on the wound, it will be so much the better.

Receipt against the plague.

TAKE of rue, sage, mint, rosemary, wormwood, and lavender, a handful of each; infuse them together in a gallon of white wine vinegar, put the whole into a stone-pot closely covered up, upon warm wood-ashes, for four days: after which draw off (or strain through a fine flannel) the liquid, and put it into bottles well corked; and into every quart bottle put a quarter of an ounce of amphire. With this preparation wash your mouth, and rub your loins and your temples every day; snuff a little up your nostrils when you go into the air, and carry about your a bit of spunge dipped in the same, in order to smell to upon all occasions, especially when you are near any place or person that is infected. They write, that four malefactors (who had robbed the infected houses, and murdered the people during the course of the plague) owned, when they came to the gallows, that they had preserved themselves from the contation by using the above medicine only; and that they went the hole time form house to house without any fear of the distemper.

How to keep clear from bugs.

FIRST take out of your room all silver and gold lace, then set the chairs about the room, shut up your windows and doors, tack a blanket over each window, and before the chimney, and over the doors of the room, set open all closets and