300 . THE FARMER AT HOME. 



is matured the liquor becomes sour. Some full grown nuts will con- 

 tain a pint or more of this milk, the frequent drinking of which seems 

 to have no bad effects upon the Indians ; yet we should be cautious 

 of making too free with it at first, for when Lionel Wafer was at a 

 small island in the South Sea, where the tree grew in plenty, some of 

 his men were so delighted with it, that at parting they were resolved 

 to drink their fill, which they did ; but their appetites had like to have 

 cost them their lives, for though they were not drunk, yet they were 

 BO chilled and benumbed, tha* they could not stand, and were obliged 

 to be carried aboard by those who had more prudence than them- 

 selves, and it was many days before they recovered. The shells of 

 these nuts being hard, and capable of receiving a polish, are often cut 

 transversely, when, being mounted on stands, and having their edges 

 silvered or gilt, or otherwise ornamented, they serve the purpose of 

 drinking cups. The leaves of the tree are used for thatching, for 

 brooms, baskets, and other utensils ; and of the reticular web growing 

 at their base the Indian women make cauls and aprons. 



NUTS. There are several kinds of nuts used as articles of diet ; 

 but they are not in general to be much recommended. They abound 

 in oily matter, are viscid and glutinous, and are apt with many peo- 

 ple to prove very difficult of digestion. Dr. Paris thinks it would be 

 wise to banish nuts from our tables, for there is a fascination in them, 

 which will lead most persons who begin to eat them, to take a quan- 

 tity which the best disposed stomach cannot bear with impunity. 

 Hoffman observes, that dysenteric complaints are always more com- 

 mon in those years in which the harvest of nuts is plentiful ; and 

 there is not a physician in any practice who will be inclined to doubt 

 his statement. 



NUTMEG. In natural history, the kernel of a large fruit, not 

 unlike the peach, the produce of a tree called by botanists Myristica. 

 The nutmeg is separated from its investient coat, the mace, before it 

 is sent over to us ; except that the whole fruit is sometimes imported 

 in preserve, by way of sweetmeat, or as a curiosity. The nutmeg, as 

 we receive it, is of a roundish or oval figure, of a tolerably compact 

 and firm texture, but easily cut with a knife, and falling to pieces on 

 a smart blow. Its surface is not smooth, but furrowed with a num- 

 ber of wrinkles, running in various directions, though principally 

 longitudinally. It is of a grayish brown color on the outside, and 01 

 a beautiful variegated hue within, being marbled with brown and 

 yellow variegations, running in perfect irregularity through its whole 

 substance. It is very unctuous and fatty to the touch, when powdered, 

 and is of an extremely agreeable smell, and of an aromatic taste, 

 without the heat that attends that kind of flavor in most of the other 

 species. The largest, heaviest, and most unctuous of the nutmegs to 

 be chosen ; such are in shape of an oliv/ , and of the most fragrant 

 smell. 



