106 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[March, 
Bake in gem-pans. If milk is used instead of water 
they will brown more quickly, but are no better. 
Shirred Eggs. —Heat a little butter in a pie-pan, 
then put in the eggs, taking care that the yolks are 
not broken, and bake in the oven. 
Corn Bread. —One pint of buttermilk; one 
heaping pint of meal; one even tea-spoonful of 
soda; two eggs. 
Ham Toast. —Chop cold boiled ham ; add milk 
to soften a sufficient quantity of toast; add butter, 
and season to taste. After dipping the toast, and 
just before dishing, stir in two or more eggs. As 
soon as it begins to thicken pour over the toast. 
Graham Bread.— Two tea-cupfuls of butter¬ 
milk ; two tea-cupfuls of sweet milk; one-half a 
tea-cup of molasses; one tea-spoonful of soda; 
salt; and Graham flour to make a stiff batter. 
Bake in gem-pans. 
Fried Rice.— Take cold boiled rice, stir in an 
egg, and drop by the spoonful on a hot griddle. 
Concerning Medical Matters. 
A lady in Illinois writes that she sent us several 
months ago some recipes that she had found ex¬ 
ceedingly useful in her family, and wonders that 
we have not published them. In respect to medi¬ 
cal matters we have some very positive opinions— 
one of which is that there is far too much medicine 
taken for the good of the people, and that, so far 
as we are concerned, we shall do nothing towards 
inducing our readers to dose themselves. Physi¬ 
cians are far in advance of the people in this 
respect; they do not give one-tenth part of the 
drugs they did twenty-five years ago, and were it 
not that their patients would not be satisfied if 
they did not “do something,’’ they would give still 
less than they do now. A sick person needs to 
have his mind treated as well as his body, and if he 
feels that something is being done for him his 
mind is at case, and he will not fret about himself. 
So a physician really does him a benefit by leaving 
some harmless thing, to be taken in exact doses 
every few hours—the oftener the better, as it will 
occupy the mind in looking out for the precise 
time. Every physician knows that while the pa¬ 
tient’s view of his services is confined to the medi¬ 
cine given, his trouble is to find out exactly what 
is the matter, and how far nature is tending 
to repair damages. If matters are going on well 
enough, and if not interfered with, nature will 
effect a cure; all he has to do is to amuse the 
patient with harmless doses. If he were to say, 
“there is nothing 6eriousthe matter with you; you 
have only to keep in bed and feed on slops, and 
you will be well in a week,” that doctor would be 
discharged, and one sent for who would “ un¬ 
derstand the case and give something to cure it.” 
The mental effect of the visits of a cheery doctor 
is of great help to patients who are not especially 
ill, and his services in this respect are worth all 
they cost. Nov r , we do not mean to say that there 
are no cases that need medicine, for there are 
many in which life may depend upon the most 
prompt and energetic treatment; but what we wish 
most especially to enforce, is the fact that when 
there is any serious illness no one who has not 
been educated to the matter can make a proper 
diagnosis, which is the medical term for finding out 
what is the matter, and is the most difficult thing 
to do ; if this be not correct the treatment may be 
useless, or even harmful. It would be folly for us 
to publish remedies for particular maladies when it 
is almost impossible for other than a physician to 
know whether such diseases arc present or not. 
We do not wish to convey the idea that a physician 
should be called for every minor ailment; colds, 
irregularities of the stomach and bowels, local 
pains, and other such ills can be treated with the 
domestic remedies at hand. Every family keeps a 
few simple remedies, which vary according to 
usage; but there should always be at hand, espe¬ 
cially in farm-houses—something to make a warm 
drink to promote perspiration, some cathartic or 
laxative to move the bowels, some astringent, and 
anodyne, and in fever and ague districts quinine or 
such other antiperiodic as is known to be useful. 
For the rest the kitchen may be depended upon 
for soda as an antacid, salt to check vomiting, cay¬ 
enne pepper as a stimulant, and mustard, one of 
the most useful of applications for local pains. 
When an illness does not yield, and promptly, to 
these domestic remedies do not hesitate about 
calling a doctor. The pain in the stomach or bow¬ 
els that does not yield to a mustard plaster and a 
few doses of paregoric or laudanum may be a 
symptom of some serious disease of those parts 
that requires an entirely different treatment. A sore 
throat with a pain not relieved at once by the usual 
remedies may indicate the severe and often fatal 
diphtheria, and a continued and increasing loose¬ 
ness of the bowels may be a symptom of some¬ 
thing more serious than an ordinary diarrhoea. 
Every sensible mother will, the moment that she 
is not sure she is right, call in the services of 
some one who knows more than she does. Delay 
may be dangerous. We think that those papers 
who under the head of a “ Hygienic Department” 
publish all sorts of remedies and recipes do more 
harm than good. Hygiene has very little to do 
with dosing. We may here perhaps properly answer 
questions which have been proposed probably a 
hundred times in one form or another—that is, if 
in our denunciations of all secret remedies, patent 
or proprietary medicines, we would not exempt 
this or that particular one which the writer has 
tried and found useful. No ; we do not except one. 
A large portion of these are frauds, being mere 
stimulants of the cheapest sort. Others are medi¬ 
cinal, but there is not one of them from beginning 
to end that is composed of any other than well- 
known drugs. No; we object to all these things 
put up in bottles and labelled, for the reasons that 
you do not know what you are taking, and that 
you are paying an enormous price for some cheap 
drug—fifty cents or a dollar for what could be 
bought for five or ten cents, simply because it is 
put up in a bottle with a showy label, and called 
somebody’s “balsam,” “panacea,” or what not. 
The hundreds of babies that have come to their 
untimely deaths from the use of “ soothing syrups,” 
which the mothers did not know contained deadly 
quantities of morphine, should be a sufficient warn¬ 
ing against secret compounds. Our friends who 
have sent us recipes for what they consider “ the 
best thing in the world ” for this or that disease, 
must excuse us if we do not publish them. It is a 
little curious that most persons recommend any 
remedy as “the best thing in the world,” while 
their knowledge of the world is exceedingly limited. 
-—-——c—-. - 
Minor Hints and Notes. 
A Careful Laundress can always be known by 
one sign. It is not the smoothness or polish of 
the bosoms and collars, but by a minor matter. 
Does she iron out strings ? There is nothing more 
annoying than to have a tape used as a string to 
drawers or elsewhere rolled and twisted into a cord. 
All good ironers make them flat and as good as new. 
Candied Honey.— The candying of honey is due 
to a part of the sugar becoming crystallized. The 
honey is just as good and as pure as ever, but not 
quite so pleasant to eat on account of the small 
grains of sugar. There is no way known to pre- j 
vent this, and the best honey, that made from 
clover early in the season, is more apt to be can- ' 
died at the present time than the later made. By 
placing the bottle or jar containing the honey in a 
vessel of water, with sticks under it to keep it from 
direct contact with the bottom of the vessel, and 
gradually heating it, the sugar will be dissolved 
and the honey become clear, and last in that con¬ 
dition a greater or less time, according to the tem¬ 
perature at which it is kept. If it should become 
candied again the heating may be repeated. 
Are Plants in Rooms Unhealthpul ?—We 
have answered No a number of times, but the 
question still comes, probably from new subscrib¬ 
ers. The atmosphere of a greenhouse crowded 
with plants has been analyzed, and found to be not 
essentially different from ordinary air. If it were 
unhealthful to breathe the air in which plants were 
growing we who live in the country should show 
it, and those who during summer camp out in the 
woods would hardly find the health they seek. 
There is no danger in sleeping in a room with 
plants. A whole roomful can not affect the air j 
nearly as much as an additional person or the 1 
burning of a night-lamp. The fact that certain, 
odors of flowers are unpleasant to persons particu- I 
larly sensitive to such things is another matter. It 
is usually a case of individual peculiarity, and 
easily remedied by removing the offending plant. 1 
Blacking Iron-Work. — “ S. M. T.” If the 
iron-work is not to be exposed to heat you can 
have nothing better than shellac varnish and lamp¬ 
black. We have before given directions for mak¬ 
ing the varnish, which are in brief: In a wide¬ 
mouthed bottle put shellac with sufficient strong 
alcohol to cover it. Put this in a warm place, or 
in a vessel of water with something to keep the 
bottle from touching the bottom of the vessel, and 
heat the water gradually; the shellac will soon 
dissolve. If the varnish is too thick add more 
alcohol. For black, put some lamp-black in a cup, 
wet it thoroughly with alcohol, and add some of 
the varnish and mix. This is to be used on the 
iron-work as paint. Put on another coat if needed. 
This black varnish dries bright on metals, but on 
•wood or other surfaces the first coat will sink in 
and be dull, and the application must be repeated. 
If wanted very smooth polish with a flannel and a 
very little sweet oil. Other colors that are not 
very delicate can be used in the dry state with the 
varnish, which is a handy thing in the house. 
In Kerosene Lamps the light often is unsatis¬ 
factory while all is apparently in good order. It 
should be borne in mind that, though the wick is 
but very gradually burned, it is constantly becom¬ 
ing less able to conduct the oil. During several 
weeks some quarts of oil are slowly filtered thro ugh 
the wick, which stops every particle of dust or 
other matter that will with the utmost care be in 
the best kinds of oil. The result is that the wick, 
though it is of sufficient length and looks as good 
as ever, has its conducting power greatly impaired, 
as its pores, so to speak, or the minute channels 
by which the oil reaches the place to be burned, 
become gradually obstructed. It is often economy 
to substitute a new -wick for an old one, even if 
that be plenty long enough to serve for some 
time to come. 
A Nie4EieB*I&n«t fiHi-eaSifast.—R. Van 
Oosterhout, Scott Co., Minn., writes: “I contend 
that the most wholesome breakfast is made of 
Java coffee, filtered, with cream and sugar added 
to the taste. A slice of white and Graham bread 
each, lightly buttered with good sweet butter, and 
a little grated or sliced cheese between. The dose 
repeated if needed. It is the national breakfast of 
the Netherlanders.” 
Johnny-Cake with Eggs. —Two cups of sweet 
milk ; half a tea-spoonful of salt; one table-spoon¬ 
ful of sugar; two eggs well beaten ; a small tea¬ 
cup of white flour mixed with a tea-spoonful of 
baking-powder, and corn-meal enough to make a 
batter. Sometimes I begin with the meal and 
scald it, and then use only one cup of sweet milk 
and no baking-powder, with no definite proportion 
of white flour—enough to make the batter right. 
The batter should always be thicker when the meal 
is scalded than when it is not, because in the latter 
case you must allow for the meal to swell some. 
Of course, the milk should be added to cool the 
scalded meal before the eggs are put in, or the hot 
mush would partially cook the eggs. 
Paradise Cake.— Three eggs ; one cup of butter; 
two and a half cups of sugar ; one and a half cup 
of sweet milk ; a small teaspoonful of soda ; four 
large cups of flour; one pound of raisins; cloves, 
cinnamon, and nutmeg. 
