about four small tea-spoon fulls every morning and evening; using it either alone or mixed with one tea-spoon full of real coffee, and sweetening it with sugar.
This kind of coffee has, by the frugal house-wife, been employed as an article of domestic economy, but has not obtained general sanction; nor do we pledge ourselves for its medicinal efficacy; though several foreign practitioners affirm that it is an excellent remedy in asthmatic, and other pectoral complaints.
Acorns possess an astringent quality, which may be extracted by steeping them in cold water, or boiling them. On expression, they also afford an oil, which may be advantageously used in the burning of lamps.
In the year 1756, an ingenious gentleman, Mr. Ellis, invented a method of preserving acorns for a considerable time, and of retaining in them the power of vegetation, by encasing them in wax. In this manner, they may be transported to distant climates, and preserved in a fresh state for several years; so that they can be transplanted with hopes of success.
Lastly, acorns afford a very proper and nutritious food for hogs, which are readily fattened by their use: and we are farther convinced, from their analogy to the horse-chesnut, that, by depriving them of their husks, soaking them carefully in several infusions of fresh water, then drying and reducing them to flour, they would, in times of scarcity, serve as a tolerable substitute for bread-corn; for by this simple, though troublesome, process, most of the astringent vegetables lose their acrid and bitter taste.
Acorus Calamus, L. See Sweet Flag.
ACRE, a denomination used in the measurement of land: an acre consists of four square roods, each containing 40 perches, or poles. In different countries it varies, according to the length of the pole, which is from 1612 to 28 feet. It is, also, divided into ten square chains, of twenty-two yards each, or 4840 square yards. According to Dr. Grew, the number of acres in England amounts to 46,080,000.
Actæa Spicata, L. See Herb Christopher.
Acton Water. See Mineral Waters.
ACUTE DISEASES are such as are either attended with inflammation, or other urgent symptoms, which bring on an early crisis, and render them dangerous in their consequence: hence they are opposed to chronic diseases, or those which, though of slower progress, may nevertheless terminate in dissolution. As the former are more in need of the immediate assistance of art, we shall state the most proper methods of treating them in their commencement, as well as the suitable diet and regimen to be observed in them, under the different heads of Apoplexy, Asthma (suffocative), Cholera Morbus, Colics, Convulsions, Cramps or Spasms, Epilepsy, Fevers (inflammatory), Fractures, Hydrophobia, Inflammations, &c. &c.
ADDER, in zoology, a name for the viper. As this reptile is well known in most parts of England, a particular description of it is unnecessary; but as accidents frequently happen by its bite, we shall present our readers with a list of the most esteemed remedies to be resorted to on such occasions, together with
