DOMESTIC ECONOMY, HYGIENE, DIETETICS. 



429 



their class. They are in season from June to 

 January, but are considered to be more whole- 

 some in the cold months. The middling sized, 

 when heavy, lively, and possessed of large 

 claws, are the best and sweetest ; if light, they 

 are poor and watery. When crabs are stale, 

 the eyes look dead, the claws hang down, and 

 there is no muscular activity ; in this condi- 

 tion they are not fit to eat. The female is 

 considered inferior to the male, and may be 

 distinguished by the claws being smaller, and 

 the apron, which appears on the white or un- 

 der side, larger. Soft shell crabs are deemed 

 a great luxury ; but they must not be kept 

 over night, as the shells harden in twenty-four 

 hours. 



CANCER. 



(1) The following is said to be a sure cure 

 for cancer : A piece of sticking plaster is put 

 over the cancer, with a circular piece cut out 

 of the center, a little larger than the cancer, 

 so that the cancer and a small circular rim of 

 healthy skin next to it is exposed. Then a 

 plaster, made of chloride of zinc, bloodroot, 

 and wheat flour, is spread on a piece of muslin, 

 the -size of this circular opening, and applied 

 to the cancer for twenty-four hours. On re- 

 moving it, the cancer will be found burned 

 into, and appear of the color and hardness of 

 an old shoe sole, and the circular rim outside 

 of it will appear white and parboiled, as if 

 scalded by hot steam. The wound is now 

 dressed, and the outside rim soon separates, 

 and the cancer comes out in a hard lump, and 

 the place heals up. The plaster kills the can- 

 cer, so that it sloughs like dead flesh, and 

 never grows again. The remedy was dis- 

 covered by Dr. King, of London, and has been 

 used by him for several years with unfailing 

 success, and not a case has been known of the 

 reappearance of the cancer when this remedy 

 has been applied. 



(2) An old Indian cancer doctor in Oregon 

 pronounces this a sure cure : Take common 

 wood sorrel, bruise it on brass, spread it in the 

 form of a poultice, and apply as long as the 

 patient can bear ; then apply bread and rnilk 

 poultice until the patient can bear the wood 

 sorrel again. Continue this until the cancer 

 is drawn out by the roots. 



(3) Take the blossoms of red clover and 

 make tea of them, and drink freely. It will 

 cure cancer in the stomach as well as on the 

 surface. 



EMBROCATIONS. 



Applications intended to relieve local pains, 

 either by counter-irritation, or by he anodyne 

 effects of their ingredients, or by aiding the 



friction, which cannot long be maintained with- 

 out some such application. 



(a) Liquor of ammonia, tincture of opium, 

 spirits of turpentine, and olive oil, of each 

 equal parts. Useful for rheumatism or any 

 local pains. 



(i) Flour of mustard, one half ounce ; vin- 

 egar, boiling, three ounces. Mix, and rub 

 into the parts to produce counter-irritation. 



(c) Laudanum, chloroform, and soap lini- 

 ment, in equal proportions, will often relieve 

 local pains. 



(rf) Chloroform alone may be applied, 

 sprinkled on a piece of spongiopiline (to be 

 had at the drug stores), and applied to the 

 parts affected with neuralgia. Care must be 

 taken not to inhale the vapor too long. 



(e) All embrocations may be applied with 

 good effect by wetting with them the inner 

 surface of spongiopiline, and keeping it to the 

 part. In this way, as the ammonia cannot 

 evaporate, embrocations made with it are much 

 more active. 



WHISKY. 



An ardent spirit distilled from barley, rye, 

 Indian corn, wheat, etc. It is the cheapest 

 and the most common form of intoxicating 

 liquor made in the United States, where its 

 production is very large. The whisky of Penn- 

 sylvania and Kentucky, and the better quali- 

 ties of that manufactured in New York, are 

 distilled chiefly from rye* most of that pro- 

 duced in the Western states is from Indian 

 corn, which contains a large quantity of fusel 

 oil. The peach whisky, the Monongahela of 

 Pennsylvania, and the Bourbon from Kentucky 

 are accounted the best. The peculiar and 

 much liked flavor of Scotch and Irish whisky 

 is said to be due to the peaty water which is 

 obtained in the mountains for the use of the 

 stills, or to the smoke of the fuel which is 

 used. New whisky is rough and fiery, quickly 

 intoxicates, and produces disease of the mu- 

 cous membrane of the stomach, of the liver, 

 spleen, and kidneys. Pure whisky improves 

 in smoothness of taste with age, but much of 

 the whisky sold as "pure" and "aged," 

 has been < ' doctored ' ' with drugs and ingre-* 

 dients which are seriously injurious to the 

 stomach and system. 



AMMONIA (Spirits of Hartshorn). 



An alkali which is the result of decomposi- 

 tion in animal and vegetable substances. It 

 exists almost universally in the air, and can be 

 obtained in many ways ; but the article of 

 commerce usually comes from the distillation 

 of coal in making gas. Ammonia has proper- 

 ties which are very injurious as food, but it is 



