530 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
quickly antidote by its application over any part, the acid 
venom from the sting of a wasp, or bee, and will afford 
speedy relief. The Onion has a very sensitive organism, and 
serves to absorb all morbid matter that comes in its way. It has 
been found that during an epidemic of cholera, a string of Onions 
hanging in a house amid other houses which were all infected, 
became unintelligibly diseased, and black, but proving thereby 
protective to the inmates of that particular house. Culpeper 
tells about Onions: ‘‘ They have gotten this quality, to draw 
corruption unto them, for, if you pill (peel) one, and lay it on 
a dunghill, you shall finde him rotten in half a day, by drawing 
putrefaction to it; then being bruised, and applied to a plague- 
sore, it is very probable it will do the like.” The volatile 
principle of the bulbs, which is sulphide of allyl, is powerfully 
antiseptic whilst they are raw, but when boiled they lose their 
odorous essential oil in a great measure, on which the anti- 
putrefying virtues depend, and which escape by the heat. 
A favourite Devonshire pie whereof the predominant flavour is 
that of the savoury Onion, is made thus (being best adapted for 
the “dura wlia messorum’”’): “ Take as ingredients three pounds 
of mutton, a pork cutlet, six large apples (sliced), plenty of 
finely chopped Onions, two ounces of sifted sugar, half a pint 
of mutton broth, with pepper and salt to taste. Place these 
in layers within a deep dish; cover with rich paste, and bake 
for an hour and a half; or place the whole in a crock, and stew 
for an hour and a half; serve piping hot. Sometimes clotted 
cream is eaten with this light, wholesome delicacy.” “ As to 
fair Italy, all the social atmosphere of that delightful land 
is laden with the fragrance of the Onion ; its odour is a practical 
democracy. In the Churches all are alike: there is one faith, 
one smell! The entrance of Victor Emmanuel into Rome was 
only the pompous proclamation of a unity which garlic had 
already accomplished ; (and yet we who boast openly of our 
democracy eat Onions in secret).” 
The author of My Summer in a Garden says: “1 am quite 
ashamed to take friends into my garden, and have them notice 
the absence of Onions: it isso marked. In ‘ Onion is strength,’ 
and a garden without it lacks flavour. The Onion in its satin 
wrappings is among the most beautiful of vegetables, and it is 
the only one which represents the essence of things; it can 
almost be said to have a soul. You take off coat after coat, 
