440 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
This fish is said in Somersetshire to come into season when 
Balaam’s ass speaks in church: that is, when the chapters 
twenty-three and twenty-four of the Book of Numbers are read 
as the first lessons for the day. Mackerel contains 65 per cent of 
water, and 24 per cent of nutrients. Its fat is difficult of digestion 
for ourselves ; but a young lady of the Sandwich Islands, even 
now, will swallow half a dozen raw mackerel for breakfast without 
incurring the least personal inconvenience. The fish, smoked 
whilst fresh, is a popular preparation in New York. Its charred 
bones when powdered, furnish alkaline phosphates, useful against 
acidity of stomach. 
MALLOWS. 
Att the Mallows (Malvacee), to the number of a thousand, 
agree in containing demulcent mucilage abundantly. French 
druggists, and English sweetmeat-makers, prepare from the 
Marsh Mallow (Althea hibiscus) a famous confectionery paste, 
Pate de gimauve, which is emollient, and soothing to a sore chest. 
The Romans esteemed this plant in deliciis, among their dainties, 
and they placed it of old as a first dish at their tables. The 
gently laxative properties of the Mallow as regards its leaves, 
and its root, were told about by Cicero, and Horace. Virgil, 
in one of his Eclogues, has taught how to coax goats with the 
Marsh Mallow :— 
‘“* Hedorumque gregem viridi compellere hibisco.” 
It grows wild freely in many parts of England, especially about 
marshes near the sea coast. The root is sweet, and very 
mucilaginous when chewed, containing more than half its weight 
of saccharine viscous mucilage. It is therefore well calculated 
to subdue irritation in hot, and inflamed parts, being much 
employed in domestic poultices, also in decoction as a medicine 
for pulmonary catarrhs, hoarseness, and painful diarrhea. 
Gerarde says: ‘‘ The leaves be with good effect mixed with 
fomentations, and poultices, against pain of the sides, of the 
stone, and of the bladder; also in a bath they serve to take 
away any manner of pain.” The decoction is to be made by 
adding five pints of water to a quarter of a pound of the dried 
root, then boiling slowly down to three pints, and straining 
through calico. Likewise Marsh Mallow ointment is a popular 
