30 Washing Salads. 



young lady who was on a visit from Edinburgh, observed 

 something clear and glutinous, like small snails, fixed on the 

 backs of the leaves of the cresses; some said they were young 

 water snails ; others that they were young horse leaches, and 

 some took them for the eggs of worms. However that may 

 be, the whole family were disgusted with them, and it was 

 ordered that no more should be brought to table than what 

 were gathered in a running stream. Some days afterwards, I 

 collected some from the tail-dam of Lasswade mill ; but on 

 inspecting them it was found that there was also a white gelati- 

 nous substance that would not come off with common washing, 

 attached to the back of some of the leaves. There was now a 

 good deal of alarm, especially as a young woman who worked in 

 the garden, and had been in the habit of serving the kitchen 

 and gathering the cresses, was troubled with a swelling in her 

 stomach, accompanied with occasional loathing of food. This 

 alarm perhaps would not have taken place, had not a poor 

 woman m the village about a year ago, after being ill for a 

 long time with a stomach complaint, at last one morning 

 vomited up a small bag of caterpillars, which are supposed to 

 have hatched in her stomach from eggs, attached to some 

 vegetable that she had eaten. It now became a serious matter 

 to know how to wash water cresses, and my master talked of 



asking Doctor ■ who belongs to the London Horticul- 



tural Society, to write to the Secretary to know how they 

 washed them there. However this was not done, and it oc- 

 curred to me to ask some of the women who gather cresses 

 and brook-lime from the burns about Edinburgh, and call them 

 through the town, how .they did. I found they were not very 

 particular in washing them, and had never heard of, or seen 

 any thing like snails or vermin on the backs of the leaves. From 

 this I concluded that there was no danger in eating these things, 

 whatever they might be. The idea, however, was very unplea- 

 sant, and any that were sent up to table afterwards were care- 

 fully brushed with a cellery brush by the butler. But this was 

 too much trouble to be continued for any length of time. The 

 cook thought of washing them with ashes, which she said she 

 knew would kill mites in cheese. I thought of lime water, which 

 I knew would kill snails and worms, but on these plans being 

 mentioned by my master to Mr. Brown of Dalkeith, he suggest- 

 ed the idea of having a tub of salt water from the sea, and steep- 

 ing them a few minutes in that. We immediately adopted his 

 advice, and succeeded perfectly in detaching every thing of 

 the animal kind from the leaves. My mistress was so much 

 pleased with the thing that she has since had every kind of 

 salad washed in this way, especially such as grow close on 



