SOILS 75 



patients by drain and trench, promote their con- 

 valescence by a combination of ancient and modern, 

 external and internal, pharmacy ; let them unite the 

 old custom of cautery, as they burn their clay, with 

 the new precepts of homoeopathy, siniilia similibus 

 curantur. And with this object let them save every- 

 thing, as we are wont to do in our school-days when 

 the festival of Fawkes drew nigh for a bonfire. Keep 

 the prunings of your Rosary, that new Roses, like the 

 Phoenix, may spring from the funeral-pyre ; preserve 

 all other prunings, decayed vegetables, haulm, roots, 

 refuse, rubbish, weeds — 



* Since nought so vile, that on the earth doth live, 

 But to the earth some special good doth give/ 



and when you have a goodly omnium gatherum^ make 

 ready your furnace. Arrange your thorns and more 

 inflammable material as a base, then an admixture of 

 more solid fuel from your stores, likening and con- 

 densing alternately, and in the centre disposing some 

 large pieces de resistance^ such as old tree stumps, use- 

 less pieces of rotting timber, and the like, which, once 

 fairly on fire, will go smouldering on for a fortnight. 

 On this heap, well kindled, and around it, place your 

 clay, renewing it continually as the fire breaks 

 through. The pile must be watched so that the 

 flames may be thus constantly suppressed, the clay 

 burnt gradually, and not charred to brickdust. * The 



