242 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
diet should be interpreted thus: If you are excessively careful - 
you will eat only once a day, say about eight ounces of mixed 
diet ; if you are very careful you will eat twice daily, eight ounces 
at one meal, and four ounces at the other, of ordinary mixed 
diet; if you are moderately careful you will eat thrice a day, 
eight ounces at one meal, and from four to six ounces at each 
of the other two; say at 8 a.m., at 1 p.m., and at 7 or 8 p.m.; 
if you are careless you will eat four times a day, from two to 
three pounds in all of ordinary food; if you are reckless you 
will eat five times daily, to the amount of four or ‘five pounds 
of ordinary mixed diet. I know not what epithet to bestow on 
those who eat oftener than five times a day, and yet I have met 
with persons who ate eight times daily, and one person who ate 
ten times.” 
DRINKS. 
(See ALE, Beer, Correr, Minerau Warers, Tea, Water, and WINES). 
A Spring beverage which in former days went by the name of 
May-drink in England, and several parts of Europe, was flavoured 
with the garden herb Sweet Woodruff (Asperula odorata) ; this, 
by reason of the coumarin it contains, is scented like the Sweet 
Vernal Grass of our meadows, and the Sweet Clover, each being 
most fragrant when freshly dried; such coumarin powerfully 
stimulates the brain. Withering tells that “the strongly 
aromatic flowers of Sweet Woodrufi will make an infusion 
exceeding in spicy flavour even the choice teas of China.” The 
powdered leaves are also mixed with fancy snuffs because of their 
enduring fragrance. Another species of the same herb is the 
Quinsy Woodruff (Asperula cynanchica), so called because a 
most useful gargle can be made from this plant by infusion in 
boiling water, against quinsy (cynanche), or other such sore 
throat. “ Ahem!” as Dick Smith said when he swallowed the 
sponge, teaching to bear troubles bravely, and not to make a 
fuss about trifles. This herb is to be found growing in dry 
pastures, especially on a chalky soil; it has tufts of lilac flowers, 
and very narrow leaves. The Sweet Woodruff has small white 
blossoms set on a slender stalk, with narrow leaves growing 
around it in successive whorls, like the common well-known 
Goose-grass, or Cleavers. 
The lassitude felt in hot weather on its first access in early 
