September 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
440 
D 
M 
D 
W 
12 
To 
13 
w 
14 
Th 
15 
F 
16 
s 
17 
Son 
18 
M 
Meteo 
peratures 
the l/th, 
SEPTEMBER 12-18, 1854. 
V uvviuuuu Au pUliVibulUl 
14 Sunday after Trinity. 
Weathke neae London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&S. 
Moon's 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
29.996—29.874 
70—54 
s. 
03 
31 
21 
8 
44 
20 
3 
45 
255 
30.052-29.96l 
' 63—45 
N.W. 
07 
33 
19 
! 9 
13 
21 
6 
256 
30.081—59.912 
70—50 
s.w. 
— 
35 
17 
9 
50 
€ 
4 
28 
25 7 
29.987—29.934 
61—55 
N.E. 
19 
36 
14 
10 
37 
23 
4 
49 
258 
29.953—29.916 
65—54 
N. 
04 
38 
12 
11 
35 
24 
30.063—30.008 
69-43 
N.E. 
— 
39 
10 
morn. 
25 
5 
31 
260 
30.198—30.100 
70—42 
N.W. 
*— 
41 
8 
0 
41 
26 
5 
52 
261 
day, are 67/2°, and 46°, respectively. The greatest heat! 84°) occ'ur^ed on the l"th in 
During the period 100 day, were fine, and on 79 rain fell. 
1841; and the lowest cold, 29 °, on 
1 To our readers, who are accustomed to have certain 
reasons adduced in support of all the directions given 
them for the proper care of their dumb and inanimate 
favourites, we have endeavoured to explain, by analogy, 
the leading principles which it may concern them to 
understand respecting cholora and epidemics in general, 
borrowing our illustrations from the laws of life, of 
health, and of condition, in wild plants, in cultivated 
plants, and in domestic animals. Following out these 
principles, we will venture now to offer a few remarks 
on diet, or, rather, on those articles, whether of food or 
medicine, which are supposed to maintain the system 
in “ good condition,” a condition not easily misunder¬ 
stood, in which a good, clear, blooming complexion gives 
evidence of a healthy, sound state of the internal 
surfaces to correspond. 
We feel the importance of the awakening national 
desire for small investments in land, for the economical 
management of the soil, and for out-door employments, 
as conducive to health and morality. We have ever 
maintained that “ cottage gardeners,” men of simple, 
homely tastes and unsophisticated habits, living apart 
from crowded places, caring little what they shall eat or 
drink, or wherewith they shall be clothed, have the least 
to fear from the class of diseases in question, and have 
about them the best, because the plainest, means of 
prevention and purification. But, whether or no any of 
our friends may, by accident, be exposed to an attack of 
the epidemic, beyond doubt, all are more or less liable 
to suffer some inconvenience from the depressing in¬ 
fluences of the season. Nay, more: the disregard of all 
warnings, human and divine, on the part of men “ drest 
in a little brief authority”—neglect of the poor; neglect 
of daily scavenging: the first enpoisoning of our rivers 
by ill-planned drainage-works, and then giving the water 
to the people to drink, and allowing its unwholesome 
vapour to corrupt the air; neglect of at once clearing 
out, and, if need be, pulling down, all ill-constructed, 
over-crowded, low, damp, habitations; the contempt of 
medical precepts altogether; may, in some fated spot, 
lead the cholera to assume an aggravated form, in which 
it may, like scarlet fever or typhus, spread into suburban 
and remote places. 
lo counteract any subtle, unhealthy, material in¬ 
fluences in the air and in the food; and to restore the 
lost tone of the system, men have, from the very earliest 
times, held a certain class of vegetable productions in 
high repute. These are aromatics and condiments; 
not only “ myrrh, aloes, and cassia,” but saffron, ginger, 
cloves, allspice, mace, and likewise mint, thyme, mar¬ 
joram, sage, horse-radish, and other simples, which both 
poor and rich now too much neglect, contenting them- ’ 
selves with Cayenne pepper and mustard for the most part. 
“ The soup makes the soldier;” so say the French, and 
most Frenchmen being proprietors and cultivators of the 
soil, each small allotment affords its owner a ready supply 
of all the priceless ingredients which flavour his daily 
meal. With these ample materials has arisen a taste for 
cookery. Commonly, how often do we see the badly- 
cooked meal washed down with stimulants of another 
sort, not grown in the cottage garden ! 
Not less general has been the use of salt as a purifier- 
History (ancient, and we regret to say modern) shows 
us how all laws restricting its free use have brought 
national afflictions in their train. As an article of diet, 
then, salt should be freely used. 
As the earth is the best natural absorbent of corrupt¬ 
ible matters out of the body, so have we in good dry 
bread, not new, an admirable internal absorbent. For 
a similar purpose, and as a correction of acrid humours, 
also, we use lime internally in the shape of chalk. The 
common chalk mixture which is in such demand at pre¬ 
sent, is little»more than a combination of aromatics and 
absorbents. It is principally relied on for moderating 
the common bowel complaint of the season, and for 
restoring the lost tone of the bowels. The watery, 
painless, invidious choleraic diarrhoea, is a different 
thing; and for this a different remedy has come into 
repute, namely, the sulphuric acid treatment, to which 
we may have to refer by-and-by.* 
But, it would now appear that not only the aromatic 
mint, but the vinegar also, has its use in our mint sauce 
to lamb; and the same holds good for the acid juice as 
well as the pungent rind of the slice of lemon which 
accompanies our cutlet. Sorrel, the medicinal shamrock 
of St. Patrick, and even apple sauce, are coming into 
favour with the faculty. Some deeper reason than the ! 
mere force of habit is now assigned for the inveterate 
use of these traditional correctives of a class of viands, 
the wholesomeness of which depends upon their being 
readily assimilated in the system—a property which is 
accompanied by a certain proueness to putrefaction. 
An able medical contemporary republishes this year 
* It may be well to state here that the common yinegar of the shops 
contains sulphuric acid, and that sulphuric acid is sometimes added to 
common beer, when it is deemed desirable to impart a certain ** hard¬ 
ness ” to it. 
No. CCCXI., Vol. XII. 
