134 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
next stewed with butter, or some other wholesome, and palatable 
fat, and some standard broth, or stock, and when it is nearly 
done a little good wine is generally added. “The acme of all 
accompaniments ” (says Dr. Thudicum), “ not even excepting 
roast pheasant, is roast partridge with Sauer-kraut.” The 
juice of red Cabbage, made with sugar into a syrup, but excluding 
all condiments, is of excellent remedial service. in bronchial 
asthma, and for chronic coughs. Pliny commended the juice 
of a raw Cabbage, together with a little honey, for sore and 
inflamed eyes, when moist and weeping, but not when. dry, and 
dull. For the scrofulous, mattery eye-inflammation of infants, 
after the eyes have been cleansed thoroughly every half-hour 
with warm water, their sockets should then be packed repeatedly . 
with fresh young Cabbage-leaves cleaned, and bruised to a soft 
pulp. The flow of. mattery pus will be inéreased for the first 
few days,. but presently a cure will become effected. To 
strengthen weak eyes a poultice is employed in Hampshire, 
and applied cold, being made of bread-crust, and garden snails 
without the shells. “ Cabbages in general,” as Evelyn supposed, 
“are thought to allay fumes, and prevent intoxication; but 
some will have them noxious to the sight ; whilst others impute 
this harm to the Cauliflower, about which question the learned 
are not agreed.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, when growing old 
(in 1888), wrote :- “ My eyes are getting dreadfully dim: one 
of them has, I fear, though I don’t quite know, a cataract in the 
kitten state of development.” 
In 1772, on Septuagesima Sunday, “a printed paper was 
handed by a footman in mourning to each grande dame on her 
leaving the Church of St. Sulpice, Paris, which paper contained 
a recipe for stewing red Cabbage, this proceeding being carried 
out in accordance with a provision of the will of the Duchesse 
d’Orleans, who had died on the previous day.” It appeared 
that Louis the Fifteenth was so passionately fond of this dish 
that Madame de Pompadour, when she wished to specially please 
him, prepared it with her own hands. Sydney Smith (1840), 
in a letter from Green Street, London, said: “I have heard 
from Mrs. Grote, who is very well, and amusing herself with 
Horticulture, and Democracy,—the most approved methods 
of growing Cabbages, and destroying Kings.” Thomas Carlyle, 
comparing by parable the Cabbage (which of all plants grows 
most quickly to completion) with the majestic Oak (which takes 
