BISCUITS. 101 
sickness; it also eats ivy berries ; but the Song Thrush devours 
insects for the most part, being thus carnivorous. ‘ Soéil 
comme une grive”’ is a well-known French proverb, “‘ Drunk as 
a Thrush,” because the greedy, fat birds fill their crops with ripe 
juniper berries until they are too lazy to fly. 
As related in the British Medical Journal (1880), ‘‘ No less 
exalted a personage than the Princess Bismarck lately reported 
the Magpie, by its flesh dried, and powdered, to be an infallible 
cure for epilepsy, insomuch that Her Highness issued a circular 
to the members of the Eckenfoerd Shooting Association desiring 
them to furnish before a certain day as many Magpies as possible, 
from the burnt remains of which an anti-epileptic powder might 
be manufactured.” In the London Pharmacopewia (1696) it 
was stated: “ The flesh eaten helps dimness of sight, vertigo, 
epilepsies, melancholy, and madness.” 
BISCUITS. 
As is commonly known, Biscuits are multiform, and of various 
manufacture. Their general name signifies “twice baked” 
(bis cuits, or cocti), whilst they consist chiefly of flour, with water, 
or milk, and salt, or sugar, being baked in thin, flat cakes. When 
simply made, and newly baked, they are light, and easy of 
digestion, affording animal warmth, and fat, rather than structural 
support. ‘I am fearfully hot, and thirsty,” said Alice (Through 
the Looking-glass), after running with the Red Queen so exceed- 
ingly fast that she found herself sitting on the ground breathless, 
and giddy. “I know what you'd like,” said the Queen good- 
naturedly, taking a little box out of her pocket; “have a 
Biscuit !”? So Alice took one, and ate it as well as she could, 
but it was very dry, and she thought she had never been so nearly 
choked in all her life. ‘“‘ Have another Biscuit,” said the Queen, 
presently. ‘‘ No, thank you,” said Alice, ** one’s quite enough. 
In France, and Germany our Sponge Cake, or Savoy Cake, 1s 
known as Biscuit. The word Biscuit (bis cudt, twice baked) 
implied the process by which this form of food was made down 
to within the nineteenth century. : 
Baking powders, now much in vogue, are essentially com- 
posed of bicarbonate of potash, and cream of tartar (bitartrate 
of potash) in a proportion to neutralize one another; the com- 
bination forms tartrate of potash and soda, (Rochelle salt, mildly | 
