258 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
taste for six months, and remain undistinguishable from eggs 
taken straight out of the nest. Ordinary egg shells, when 
powdered, are remedial against goitre, or enlarged throat gland, 
which entails a general deterioration of the whole bodily system, 
nutritive and structural, (myxedema, as this is called). Mix 
together three parts of powdered white sugar-candy, one part of 
finely powdered egg-shells (first dried in the oven), and two parts 
of burnt sponge. Then let six or eight grains of the mixed 
powder (kept dry in a well-corked bottle) be taken in a dessert- 
spoonful of water, or milk, at bedtime for a week together, and 
every alternate week throughout three months. 
ELDERBERRY. 
From the well-known purplish-black berries of the Elder (Sambucus 
nigra) is made Elderberry wine, which when combined as to its 
composition with raisins, sugar, and spices, may well pass for 
Frontignac ; or, if well brewed, and three years old, for English 
Port. This wine has curative powers of established repute, 
particularly as a pleasant domestic remedy for promoting per- 
spiration on the access of a catarrh, with shivering, soreness of 
throat, aching limbs, and general depression: under which 
conditions a jorum of hot steaming cordial Elderberry wine taken 
at bedtime proves famously preventive of further ills. ‘‘ A cup 
of mulled Elder Wine, served with nutmeg, and sippets of toast, 
just before going to bed on a cold wintry night, is a thing,” as 
Cobbett said, “* to be run for.” 
Again, the inspissated juice, or ‘“ rob,” extracted from crushed 
Elderberries, and simmered with white sugar, is cordial, laxative, 
and diuretic. One or two tablespoonfuls are to be taken with a 
tumbleriul of very hot water. To make this, five pounds of the 
fresh berries should be used, with one pound of loaf sugar, and 
the juice should be evaporated to the thickness of honey. 
Chemically, the berries furnish viburnic acid, with an odorous 
oil, combined with malates of potash, and lime. Elder-flower 
tea is also excellent for jodiaiag tals perspiration. ‘‘ The recent 
Rob of the Elder, if spread thick upon a slice of bread, and 
eaten before other dishes, is our wives’ domestick medicine, 
which they use likewise on their infants and children, whose 
bellies are stopt longer than ordinary: for, this juice is most 
pleasant, and familiar to children: or, drink a draught of the 
