238 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. the incision with a chisel in the body very neatly, in which they stick a 

 ■^^"^y^**^ leaf of the tree, as a lingula to direct it into the appendant vessel. 



8. The liquor of the Birch is esteemed to have all the virtues of the 

 spirit of salt, without the danger of its acrimony ; most powerful for the 

 dissolving of the stone in the bladder, bloody water, and strangury : Hel- 

 mont shows how to make a beer of the water ; but the wine is a most 

 rich cordial, curing, as I am told, consumptions, and such interior diseases 

 as accompany the stone in the bladder or reins. The juice decocted with 

 honey and wine, Dr. Needham affirms he has often cured the scorbut 

 Hi-'n^gr'si ■with. This wine, exquisitely made, is so strong that the common sort of 

 stone bottles cannot preserve the spirits, so subtle they are and volatile ; 

 and yet it is gentle, and very harmless in operations within the body, and 

 exceedingly sharpens the appetite, being drunk ante pastum : I will pre- 

 sent you with a receipt, as it was sent me by a fair lady, which I have 

 often, and still make use of 



To every gallon of Birch-water put a quart of honey, well stirred 

 together ; then boil it almost an hour with a few cloves and a little lemon 

 peel, keeping it well scummed ; when it is sufficiently boiled, and become 

 cold, add to it three or four spoonfuls of good ale to make it work, which 

 it will do like new ale ; and when the yest begins to settle, bottle it up 

 as you do other winy liquors. It wiU, in a competent time, become a 

 most brisk and spirituous drink, which, besides the former virtues, is a 

 very powerful opener, doing wonders for cure of the phthisic : This 

 wine may, if you please, be made as successfully with sugar, instead of 

 honey, one pound to each gallon of water ; or you may dulcify it with 

 raisins, and compose a raisin-wine of it. I know not whether the quan- 

 tity of the sweet ingredients might not be somewhat reduced, and the 

 operation improved : But I give it as received. The author of the Vine- 

 tum Brit, boils it but a quarter, or half an hour, then setting it a coohng, 

 adds a very little yest to ferment and purge it ; and so barrels it with a 

 small proportion of cinnamon and mace bruised, about half an ounce of 

 both to ten gallons, close stopped, and to be bottled a month after. Care 

 must be taken to set the bottles in a very cool place, to preserve them 

 from flying ; and the wine is rather for present drinking than of long- 

 duration, unless the refrigeratory be extraordinarily cold. The very smell 

 of the first springing leaves of this tree wonderfully recreates and ex- 

 hilarates the spirits. 



