A CURE FOR INFLUENZA. 273 



and spring-like, as compared with that dreadful month or six 

 weeks of Baffin's Bay-like temperature, that, when it got fairly at 

 you, and off your guard, seemed capable of making the very blood 

 freeze in one's veins, even as it froze the water in our subterranean 

 and best guarded lead pipes. Nothing, perhaps, could more 

 pointedly illustrate the healthy vigour and vitality of our people 

 generally than the fact that, although we have amongst us many 

 who have arrived at extreme old age, and some who have been 

 more or less valetudinarian for years, there has not been a single 

 death in the district a district which, as we look around us, con- 

 tains some two or three thousand inhabitants since the beginning 

 of last December ; a fact which, considering the inclemency of the 

 weather, and the high death-rate everywhere else, is something 

 surely worthy chronicling. We are probably correct in believ- 

 ing that the worst at least of winter is already past, but much 

 cold and stormy weather may be still in store for us, and as colds 

 and coughs may return, we beg to make friendly offer of the 

 following probatum est recipe, quite a popular cure in this part of 

 the country for every form of winter influenza. Cure or no cure, 

 the recipe has at all events the merit of being extremely simple, 

 and to thousands of our readers very readily available at any time. 

 Take a pint say a tumblerful of sea water that has been 

 heated to the boiling-point, without having been allowed actually 

 to boil. Sprinkle over it some pepper, rather more plentifully 

 than you do in your soup ; drink this as hot as you can bear it as 

 you step into bed at night. Next day your cold and cough will 

 have disappeared like an unpleasant dream. You may be weak, 

 but you will, upon the whole, be well ! We cannot personally 

 vouch for the efficacy of this draught, but we find that many 

 pedple here invariably resort to it as a ready and popular cure for 

 their colds, and they speak highly of its virtues, and, contrary to 

 what one would expect, of its comparative pleasantness and palata- 



