BEER. 93 
a yolk of egg, half an ounce of butter, and half a pint of ale. 
The milk is poured hot over a slice of toast ; the egg and butter 
are then added, and are allowed to bind, and the ale is mixed 
therewith whilst boiling; also sugar according to taste. For 
sea-sickness, if the stomach feels empty, and, still more, if dry 
retching occurs, bottled porter will do good, and biscuit spread 
with some butter on which Cayenne pepper is dusted. Also, for 
the sickness of pregnancy Hop tea is helpful, or a small glass of 
sound bitter ale two or three times in the day. 
Spruce Beer, or Beer of the Norway Spruce fir, or “ Sprouts 
Beer,” is an agreeable, and wholesome beverage, very useful 
against scurvy, and for chronic rheumatism. It is made with 
the young sprouts of the black Spruce fir (7.e., the leaves, and 
young branches), or with an essence of Spruce, boiled with sugar, 
or molasses, and fermented with yeast. There are two sorts 
of this Beer, the brown and the white, of which the latter is 
preferred by many as being made with white sugar instead of 
the dark molasses. It may be noted that the term “ spruce,” 
or “ pruce,” was formerly used in connection with fashionable 
wearing apparel, and applied allusively as to a land of cockayne, 
or of luxury. ‘“‘ He shall live in the land of spruce, milke, and 
honey, flowing into his mouth, sleeping.” “ Essence of Spruce ” 
is made by boiling the green tops of the black Spruce fir in water, 
and then concentrating the decoction by further boiling without 
the tops. The young shoots are seen to be coated with a resinous 
exudation, which becomes incorporated with the boiling water. 
Spruce Beer may be brewed at home, by boiling black treacle 
with water, spices,and essence of Spruce, and letting this ferment, 
with, or without yeast, and then boiling it again. The said 
essence of Spruce is a thick liquid with a bitterish, acidulous, 
astringent taste, to be got from the Norway Spruce fir, the black 
Spruce, and perhaps other species. Fennimore Cooper has told 
about the Beer therefrom in his novel, beloved of adventurous 
school-boys, The Last of the Mohicans: ‘‘‘ Come, friend,’ said 
Hawkeye, drawing out a keg from beneath a cover of leaves, 
‘try a little spruce: “twill quicken the life in your bosom.’ ” 
The resinous products of certain pines are of great value, 
and subserve important medicinal uses, as pitch, tar, turpentine, 
resin, etc., chiefly obtained from the Pinus palustris. Also 
from these resinous exudations there is procured pine oil, as 
employed in making varnishes, and colours. Again, from the 
