ONIONS AND LEEKS. 143 



with honey " hole [heal] ye bytying of a wod hond 

 [mad hound] and all maner of strokys yt [that] arn 

 venymus. And it schall fere nedderys [frighten 

 adders] and alle inanere of venymus bestys yat yei 

 [they] schall noyt come nyth ye for to do ye non 

 harme qhwil [while] it is vp on ye/' In which par- 

 ticular we must allow that the " nedderys" exhibit 

 particularly good taste ! " also/' continues the 

 writer, " also stamp it, and tempere it wt hony et it 

 will drawt out venym of bytyng or styngynge of 

 any maner best yt is venymus/' 



In a strange old broad-sheet printed in the year 

 1665, entitled "London's Lord have mercy on us," 

 in which penitential deprecation, and remedial pre- 

 scription are intermingled in a familiar style, which 

 even its evident earnestness barely rescues from the 

 charge of offensiveness, if not of profanity ; a drink 

 of garlic and warm milk, to be taken fasting, is 

 recommended as a " cheap medicine to keep from in- 

 fection" of the plague. Blanchard, in his "Physical 

 Dictionary," prescribes garlic beaten up with lard, and 

 applied, as an irritant, to the soles of the feet in 

 " stoppages of the lungs," and says that leeks cure 

 cough, shortness of breath, and loss of the voice, 

 &c.; and in fact onion porridge (i.e. onions boiled 

 in milk or water to a smooth pulp), taken at bed- 

 time, is still a favourite country remedy for coughs 

 and colds ; and it certainly is most efficacious to 

 those whose digestive organs are capable of assimi- 

 lating so trying a potion : for though the onion tribe 

 are possessed of most considerable nutritive powers, 

 they are singularly indigestible. The digestive func- 



