TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 163 



observed is, that as onions absorb impurities very quickly, they should be kept 

 in a dry place where there is pure air, not in musty cellars or closets, with 

 decaying provisions and sour milk. To get their full benefit, raw onions and 

 their young shoots should be eaten at breakfast, as a salad, with bread and but- 

 ter. They banish worm complaints of the most aggravated type, and prevent 

 throat and blood disease in a large degree, absorbing and removing impurities 

 in the blood. * * * * I am going to give one or two old-fashioned recipes 

 for spring bitters which, home-made, of fresh roots and simples, are better than 

 expensive medicines, and the two following have especial virtues for the com- 

 plexion. 



III. Alterative Bitters, Cheap and Good. — Put 1 oz. of yellow dock root 

 and a cup of grated horse-radish in 1 quart of hard cider, cold. It will be 

 ready the next day and should be taken, a wine-glass full before each meal. 

 This made by the gallon and taken through the season will affect the growth of 

 the hair and improve the appearance in every way, provided the strength is 

 kept up by well selected food. 



IV. Alterative Beer of Our Orandmother' a Make. — The next is a strictly 

 temperance beer of the sort of our grandmothers used to administer in power- 

 ful doses. Take of best Jamaica ginger root, sassafras bark, from the root, 

 and wild cherry bark, each 2 ozs. ; burdock root and dandelion root, each 4 ozs. ; 

 bruise all, and add cream of tartar, 1 oz., and water, 2 gals. Boil 10 minutes, 

 strain, and add white sugar, \% lbs.; the rind of a lemon in bits; heat, stir 

 until the sugar dissolves, and pour into a stone jar with 3 ozs. of tartaric acid. 

 When lukewarm, put in a tea-cupful of hop yeast, stirring well. In a few days 

 it will be in high perfection and a very pleasant beer, with valuable alterative 

 properties. 



Remarks. — The author thinks that 1 oz. of tartaric acid will be plenty, 

 because, with the above amount, 3 ozs., it will become hard and sour too quickly. 



Bing-Worm Bemedies.— The form that this eruption takes gives its 

 name, as it is generally in a circle, itching considerably when the body is heated 

 by exercise, or in hot weather; and also if rubbed or scratched. A saturated 

 solution (all that will dissolve) of blue vitriol in water, touching the parts sev- 

 eral times daily, will cure them. 



SPBAINS— Capital Bemedy for.— The white of an egg, into which 

 a piece of alum about the size of a hickory-nut has been stirred, stirring con- 

 stantly until it forms a jelly or curd, is a capital remedy for sprains. It should 

 be laid over the sprain upon a piece of lint, and be changed or re- wet in the 

 whey as often as it becomes dry. 



Remarks. — I think it best to lay on a cloth, rather than lint, for convenience 

 of re-wetting, as in for Inflammation of the Eye; full directions there how to 

 make and use it. It allays inflammation and soreness quickly. 



1. CUTS AND BUBNS Shorn of Their Terrors.— A writer in 

 the Stratford (Ont.) Weekly Herald gives the following remedy for slight cuts 

 and small burns, which she claims to be so effectual as to remove the usual 

 terror arising in a family upon such occasions. She says: " Our own remedy 



