404 . MEALS MEDICINAL. 
oil, when this cannot be tolerated by the patient. In coughs 
and colds Honey makes a useful adjunct to other expectorants, 
whilst being at the same time helpfully laxative. Samuel Pepys 
tells in his diary (1660), ‘‘ Rode to Huntsmore, and here I lay ; 
took a spoonful of honey, and a nutmeg, scraped, for my cold, 
by Mr. Bowyer’s direction.”’ Nevertheless, when it is old, honey 
will at times cause indigestion through an excessive production 
of lactic acid in the stomach, and some superficial soreness within 
the mouth will ensue; it being at the same time familiarly known 
that honey (particularly if mixed with some borax), will quickly 
cure a state of thrush in the mouth ensuing through other de- 
rangement of the health. In a Song of Sixpence, as asked for by 
Sir Toby Belch, (Tweljth Night), 
** The Queen was in her parlour 
Eating Bread and Honey.” 
** Mel mandit, panemque, morans regina culina, 
Dulcia plebeia non comedenda nuru.”’ 
(Black currant jelly in teaspoonful doses is useful for a child when 
suffering from thrush and a sore mouth. The fruit possesses 
a volatile bitter oil, residing chiefly in the skins, this oil giving 
its aromatic flavour to the berries.) A plain cake of currants, 
or seed, made with Honey in place of sugar, is a pleasant addition 
to the tea-table, and a useful preventive of constipation. Among 
the ancient Germans, Honey from the sacred ash was the first 
food put to the lips of a new-born babe. Likewise in the Scotch 
Highlands, at the birth of a child, the mother will take a green 
stick of ash, one end of which she thrusts into the fire, and while 
it is burning she will receive in a spoon the sap which oozes out 
from the other end of the stick, and will give this to the infant 
as its first food. Such is the kind of honey secreted by plants. 
Another sort is the product of leaf hoppers, or plant-lice (especially 
the Pulvinaris) which extract the sweet sap from the trees, and 
elaborate it within themselves into honey dew, or honey rore. 
“Yet where these hops and honey fall 
We'll lick the syruped leaves, 
And tell the bees that their’s is gall, 
To this upon the greaves.”’ 
Drayton (Boughs and Branches). 
Our ancestors concocted from honey boiled with water and 
