182 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
bag, (which should brew for a few minutes on the hob, and then 
‘be taken out) will sometimes secure a good night to an uneasy 
dyspeptic person, if taken immediately before lying down. 
Cloves are reputed to aid in preventing the deposition oi 
scrofulous tubercle in any of the glands, in the lungs, and in 
joints. An essence of Cloves bruised in brandy may be prepared, 
and kept for steady use with this intention, giving a teaspoonful 
of the essence once a day, with a spoonful or two of water, after 
some principal meal. Clove tea is excellent for soothing a 
qualmish stomach, and nausea. In Pickwick we read that 
Sam Weller and Job Trotter, at the Tap of the “ Angel Inn,” 
Bury St. Edmunds, “were soon occupied in discussing an 
exhilarating compound formed by mixing together in a pewter 
vessel certain quantities of British Hollands, and the fragrant 
essence of the Clove.” Also in Love's Labour Lost ‘‘ a Lemon 
stuck with Cloves” is told about with relish. Again, for its 
refreshing odour Miss Jenkyns (in Cranford, 1863) stuck an 
apple full of Cloves so as to be heated, and smell Pleasantly in 
the sick chamber of Miss Brown, a sad sufferer; and “as she 
put in each Clove she uttered a Johnsonian sentence.” 
COCHINEAL. 
A ricH crimson dye is frequently used for kitchen purposes, 
being altogether harmless, as obtained from the Cochineal 
insect, dried, powdered, and infused, or made into a liquid 
essence. This diminutive, silvery-looking kermes, or insect, 
of West Indian origin, often supposed by mistake to be a small 
seed, is in reality the parched, glistening carcase of the Coccus 
Cacti, so called because making the Nobal Cactus its habitat. 
The insects are found thus in Mexico, New Grenada, and the 
Grand Canary, where the peasants who manage the nobaleries 
sweep the same three times in the year with the edge of a 
feather from the broad lobes of this cactus, or “ prickly pear.” 
The diminutive bugs elaborate carmine within themselves ; but 
only the females are of service for this duty, chiefly whilst 
remaining unpaired. They are swept into bags of muslin, and 
plunged into boiling water, being afterwards dried in the sun, 
and packed in convenient parcels; when examined in this state 
they closely resemble the striped seeds which hang on our 
“ladygrass” of the fields. The colouring principle of the 
