Part XIV.
Miscellaneous.
Of snuff-making.
Snuff is a powder applied to the internal membrane of the nose, either in a medicinal point of view, or as a pleasurable custom. It is composed principally of a foreign herb called to-bacco, the use of which is too well known to need any de-scription. Although tobacco is the usual basis of snuff, yet other matters are sometimes added, to give it an agreeable fla-vour and scent, to suit the peculiar palates and fancies of the several takers. Infinite are the names which the ven-ders of this article have invented ; and, perhaps, the suc-cession of days is adding to the catalogue. It will be sufficient therefore to say, that there are three classes of snuffs, under which all the rest may be placed, viz. {.granulated; 2. an impalpable powder; 3. the bran, or coarse parts remaining after the second sort has been sifted.
Lord Stanhope has made a calculation of the time wasted by professed snuff-takers, which, as it is both curious and amusing, shall be here inserted.
" Every professed, inveterate, and incurable snuff-taker," says his Lordship, " at a moderate computation, takes one " pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable " ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, and other " incidental circumstances, consumes a minute and a half. " One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing six¬" teen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours " and twenty-four minutes out of every natural day ; or " one day out of every ten. One day out of every ten, " amounts to thirty-six days and a half within the year. <; Hence if we suppose the practice to be persisted in forty " years, two entire years of the snuff-taker's life will be " dedicated to tickling his nose, and two more to blowing "it, The expence of snuff, snuff-boxes, and handker- "chiefs are not here insisted on, though they would make " a separate essay by themselves ; in which it might be " made to appear, that this luxury encroaches as much on " the income of the snufF-taker as it does on his time ; and £i that by a proper application of the time and money thus " lost to the public, a fund might be constituted for the dis¬" charge of the national debt."
Whimsical, however, as the above observations un¬doubtedly are, yet it may be ascertained that the snuff- taker is by no means a useless member of society ; for, if the consumption of tobacco be duly estimated, which pays no small duty to the state, and the wear and tear of apparel be added to the accompt, something is rather gained than lost by the public. Nor will the individual snuff-taker be injured ; as his Lordship assumes a term of forty years to his reckoning, as if life were even prolonged by the ope¬ration.
Among all the productions of foreign climes introduced into this kingdom, scarcely any has been held in higher O z J J o estimation than tobacco. In the countries of which it is a native, it is considered by the Indians as the most valuable offering that can be made to the beings they wqrship. They use it in all their civil and religious ceremonies.
When once the spiral wreaths of its smoke ascend from the feathered pipe of peace, the compact that has been just made, is considered as sacred and inviolable. Like¬wise, when they address their Great Father, or his guardian spirits, residing, as they believe, in every extraordinary production of nature, they make liberal offerings to them of this valuable plant, not doubting but that they are thus secure of protection.
Tobacco is made up into rolls by the inhabitants of the interior parts of America, by means of a machine called a tobacco-wheel. With this machine they spin the leaves, after they are cured, into a twist of any size they think fit ; and having folded it into rolls of about twenty pounds each, they lay it by for use. In this state it will keep for several years, and be continually improving, as it always grows milder. The Illinois Indians usually form it into the shape of carrots ; which is done by laying a number of leaves on each other, after it has been cured, and the ribs taken out, and then rolling them round with packthread till they be¬come cemented together. The rolls generally measure about eighteen or twenty inches in length, and nine round, in the middle part.
It has been supposed that Sir Walter Raleigh first intro¬duced tobacco into England, about the year 15S5, and that he taught his countrymen how to smoke it. Dr. Cotton Mather, however, (in his Christian Philosopher) says, that in the above year, one Mr. Lane was the first who brought some over from Virginia to Europe. Consider¬able quantities of this plant are cultivated in the Levant, on the coasts of Greece and the Archipelago, in Italy, and in the island of Malta. America also annually grows immense quantities, where the plant was discovered by the Spaniards in 1560, and by them regularly imported into Europe. It had been used by the inhabitants of America long before ; and was called by those of the islands yoli, and by the in¬habitants of the continent pactum. Into Spain it went from Tobaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was originally dis¬covered, and whence its name.
How to reduce Tobacco into Powder.
Uncord the tobacco, and spread the leaves on a carpet, to dry in the sun. Then pound them in a mortar, and sift through a coarse sieve to get the coarsest powder out of it.
As for sifting, you must observe to do it in due proportion as you pound and not to pound much at time. You may also take another method, that of grinding in one of those small mills which are made on purpose for grind¬ing tobacco. By these means you may, without much trouble, make as coarse and as fine as you like, by screwing the nut tighter or slacker.
How to purge Snujf, and prepare for admitting Odours.
Have a small tub pierced with hole at bottom, which you stop and unstop with cork as you want it. In this tub put very thick and close woven cloth, which turn over the rim of the tub, and fix there by the outside. Put your snuff in and pour water over it. After shall have soaked thus twenty-four hours, unstop the hole of the tub and let the water drain awav, wringing the cloth in which to help the expression of the water. Repeat this operation three different times, to purge the better.
When this operation performed, set the snuff to dry in the sun. When dry, put again in the tub, in the same manner as before, and soak again, no more with common water, but with some smelling ones, such as for example orange-flower water, cau-d'ange, &c. Twenty-four hours after, let the water run off and drain then set in the sun to dry as before. In the mean while, stir and mix again now and then with sniel ling-water. Such the indispensible preparation requisite to dispose snuff to receive the odour of flowers. If you do not care to have it so per¬fectly nice, and should not like to waste so much of you may give but one wash of the common water.
This moderate purgation will do pretty well, especially while drying in the sun, you knead the more often in proportion with your fragrant waters, and let dry each. time between.
IFoiu to perfume Snuff with Flozverf.
The tuberose, the jessamine, the orange flower, are those- which communicate the more easily their fragrancy to the snuff. To produce this, have box lined with white paper, perfectly dry, in which make bed of snuff of the thickness of an inch then one of flowers, another of snuff, and another of flowers again continuing so to do, till you have employed all your snuff. After having let this stratifica¬tion subsist for twenty-four hours, separate the flowers from the snuff, means of the sieve, and renew the same strati¬fication again, as before, with new flowers. Continue thus to do, till you find that your snuff has acquired sufficient fragrancy from the flowers then put in lead boxes, to keep.
Another Way to do the same.
There are people who make the stratification another way. They inclose their flowers between sheets of white paper filled with pin-holes as thick as possible this bed they lay between two of snuff; and, as for the small quantity which may have got in the papers through these holes, you sift out by means of sheer horse-hair sieve. The flowers must be renewed four or five times. This me¬thod seems the less troublesome and the snuff catches the odour nearly as well.
Another Method.
A preparation of snuff may be made of an ex¬cessive nice fragrancy with buds of roses. The process is this. Rob those buds of their green cup and the pistilium which is in the middle ; instead of which last, you are skil¬fully to introduce a clove, without damaging and breaking, or loosening the rose-leaves which are closely wrapped up one in another. Such buds, thus prepared, put into a glass vessel well covered over with a bladder, and a leather be¬sides, and expose them for a month in the sun j after which term, you make use of these buds as before directed for the other flowers.
Snuff of Mille-fleur.
This mille-fleur snuff, of snuff of a thousand flowers, is made by mixing together a number of various odorous flowers, managing the quantity of each of them accord¬ing to the greater or lesser degree of fragrancy they are empowered with, so that none be found to have a predo¬minancy over the others. When that is executed, you proceed, as before directed, to the alternative stratification of this mixture and of the snuff-powder.
Snuff, after the Method practised at Rome.
Take the snuff after being perfumed with flowers, and put it in a large bowl, or other proper vessel. Pour over it some white wine, with an addition, if you chuse, of es¬sences of musk and amber, or any other such like odours. Then stir your snuff, and rub it all between your hands. In this manner you may have snuff of whatever odour you desire, which, to distinguish from each other, you put into separate lead boxes, with a particular mark¬
The Snuff with the Odour of Ci'Jet.
Take a little civet in your hand vviih a little snuff; spread that civet, more a;id more, by bruising with your fingers, and an addition of snuff. After having mixed and remixed it thus in your hand with the whole quantity of snuff, put all again together in its box as before. You may do the same with respect to other odours.
Amber-snuff.
As for the amber-snuff, you had better heat the bottom of a mortar, and pound in it twenty grains of amber, add¬ing by degrees one pound of snuff to which you handle, rub, and mix afterwards with your hands, to introduce the odour the better among: it.
Snuff, Malthese fashion.
Take snuff ready prepared with orange flower-water (as directed in this chapter, art. 2.) then perfume with amber as we have just said after which, with ten grains of civet, which pound with little sugar in mortar, you introduce again your snuff bv degrees to the quantity of one pound for these ten grains, increasing either the snuff or the odours in the same proportion to eacn other.
The true Malthese Method preparing Snuff.
Take rose-tree and liquorice roots, which you peel. Reduce them into powder and sift then give what odour you like, adding white wine, brandy or spirit of wine, and mix your snuff wTell with this. Such the true Malthese method of preparing snuff.
The Spanish Method of preparing perfumed Snuff.
1. Pound in a small mortar twenty grains of musk, With a little sugar. Add by degrees as much as one pound of snuff to it: then pound ten grains of civet, and intro¬duce your pound of musked snuff to gradual man¬ner, as you did before, and rub all together between your
hands. .
2. The Seville-snuff the same with only an addition of twenty grains of vanilla, an ingredient which enters in the composition of chocolate.
3. They who are fond of milder and sweeter odour in their snuff, may increase the quantity of snuff for the pre¬scribed doses of odours, or diminish the doses of odours prescribed for the quantity of snuff. You must take great care not to let odorous snuff be uncovered in the air, but to keep very close, for fear should lose its fragrancy.
4. As the Spanish snuff excessively fine, and drawing towards reddish hue, to imitate in the above prescrip¬tion, you must chuse fine Holland, well purged, reddened
and granulated pound and sift through very fine silk sieve. Then you give whatever odour you like, after having purged the manner we prescribed in this chapter, art. 2.
5. There no inconveniency taking snuff already prepared with flowers, to give afterwards, when you like an odour, musk, amber, or other perfume. On the contrary, such snuff the readier to take the other odours, and preserve them so much the longer.
To give Red or Yellow Colour to Snuff.
Take tbe bulk of one or two nuts of red or yellow ochre, with which mix little white chalk, to temperate the above colours at your pleasure. Grind either of thes ochres, with three drachms of oil of almonds ; then, con¬tinuing to grind it on the stone, add, by little at a time, some water to till you see the paste admits of freely, and becomes very smooth and equal. Now take some gum-tragacanth water, and introduce likewise to the above paste, stirring and grinding continually, all the while. At last, gather out of the stone in large glazed bowl, and dilute with about one quart of common water, or thereabouts. Then take your snuff, well purged and pre¬pared as in Art. 2. and throw in this bowl, wherein handle and rub well, to make take the colour more regularly and equally. When thus made all into lump, let
rest twenty-four hours before putting to drv in the sun,
which, immediately after that time, you are to do, spread-
ing on dry cloth, and turning now and then to help its drying the faster. Then you gum again, by aspersion with gum-tragacanth pulverized and dissolved in some smelling water or you may again dip your hands into that water, and rub your snuff between your hands thus wetted which last method preferable, as gums the snuff infinitely more regular. Lastly, dry again in the sun and, when perfectly drv, sift through the finest sieve you can find and then will be ready to admit of whatever odour you please to impregnate with.
Secrets entertaining and useful
To whiten Wax.
Melt in pipkin, without boiling. Then take wooden pestle, which steep in the wax two fingers deep, and plunge immediately into cold water to loosen the wax from which will come off* like sheets of paper. When vou have thus got all your wax out of the pipkin, and made it into flakes, put it on a clean towel, and expose it in the air, on the grass, till it is white. Then melt it again, and strain it through muslin, to take all the dirt out of there be any.
Another way of whitening Wax, in large Manufactories.
Melt your wax in large copper, such as those brewing or washing coppers which are fixed in mortar. Near to the copper, have kind of trough, made of oak or deal, and six or seven feet long, at the farther end of which let a cock of cold water be placed in the wall to fill and at the other, towards the copper, tub laid upon to receive the wax from the copper. Let that tub have also cock at four lingers' breadth from the bottom, and in that tub pour, with wooden bowl, the melted hot wax from the copper. Cover with blanket in four doublets, to make retain its heat, and let rest thus couple of hours to give time to the dirt and nastiness, which may happen to be in to settle at the bottom of the tub. When that done, fill your trough with cold water then have kind of tin basket to fit the width of the trough so as to sit upon its edges, and bored at bottom with twelve or sixteen small holes, at equal and regular distances, and which you place so as to receive the melted wax from the cock of the tub, and render the trough through the said small holes of its bottom, while, with polished wooden stick or roller, under the tub, and armed at both ends with iron in the form of spit, and half of the thicks ness of which enters into the water, while the other keeps above you keep continually turning equally and regu¬larly. This process will make the wax flake in the water into small ribbons as thin as silver paper. Now, in fine clean hampers, or hand baskets, made of white peeled wjilow twigs, take your wax from the trough with a wooden.
424 THE LABORATORY.
shovel, and carry it to an open field, where lay it thick upon a thin coarse cloth in the sun, and turn it every other day once, for two weeks running, after which time it will be of a perfect whiteness.
2. Now clean well your copper, and put in alum water to warm, in which throw your whitened wax, and stir well/ When melted, renew the operation as before, and carry it again to the open field to expose it in the sun. In a week's time it will have its whiteness in the highest degree it can be carried to.
3. Melt it then for the third and last time, and put it in small round cakes, which is done by casting it in small moulds carved purposely on several boards.
How to multiply Wax.
Take bullock's suet, which pound well, and put a soak¬ing for seventy-two hours, in the strongest French wine-
vinegar, then boil afterwards for forty-eight hours, keeping perpetually skimming, as long as there appears any scum
upon it. When that is done, let it cool a while, and throw it afterwards into a tub of cold water, wherein beat and stir it till it resumes its wonted consistence and firm-ness. Then put it again into other fresh vinegar, and re¬peat the very same process all through and exactly, for three different times. Next to that, gather the tops of rosemary, sage, bay, and mint, which pound and boil well in water, then strain through a double flannel bag. In this water, boil for the last time your prepared suet as be¬
fore, and after it shall have boiled there one hour, it will have no more any bad smell. To colour you must put one drachm of saffron to each pound of suet, and melt
afterwards with an equal quantity of real bees wax, then will be impossible to discover the mixture-
To
MISCELLANEOUS.
425
To make Mutton-Suet Candles, in imitation of Wax Candles.
1. Throw quick-lime in melted mutton suet; the lime will fail to the bottom, and carry along with it all the nastiness of the suet, so as to leave it as pure and fine as wax itself.
2. Now, if with one part of that suet, you mix three of real wax, •■ol will have very fine boug e . or real wax can¬dles, in which nobody will ever be able to find out the mixture, not even in the moulding and casting way for figures or ornaments.
To make Soap.
They generally make three sorts of soap, white, black, and marbled. The white, or, as it is called, the Genoa soap, is made with wood-ashes, Alicant kali, lime and olive oil. The black is made of the same materials, with
this exception however, that it is made with the faces and tartar of the oils. The marbled is made with Aiicant kali,
lourde, and lime ; and, when it is almost done, they take some red earth, which they call cinnabar, with copperas ; they boil these together, and throw it in the copper where¬
in the soap is. It occasions a blue marbling, as long as the copperas keeps the better of the two ingredients ; but as soon as the cinnabar has at last absorbed the vitriol, this blue hue subsides entirely, and the red alone predomi¬
nates. In order, therefore, to form the soap, the me¬thod is to make different lyes with all these sorts of mat¬ters ; and, when they are sufFxiently charged (which be¬ginners know by their carrying an egg swimming, without its sinking to the bottom, and experienced soap-boilers are
judges of by degustation, and the time they have been at
work) they put ail these lyes in proper coppers, and pour at
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426 THE LABORATORY.
at the same time, in Provence and Languedoc, oil of olive ; in Germany, grease ; and in England, oil offish. That done they boil all together with a great blasting fire ; and,
eighteen or twenty days afterwards, these oils have so well imbibed all the salts of the lye, that this is left quite flat and
untasty. Then by the cocks which are at the bottom of the coppers, the water or lye is let out, and the lump of soap taken out and placed to dry in drying-houses built on purpose, to make it take a sufficient consistence, and such as we know it to have.
To prevent any Thing from burning in the Fire.
Pound into powder cherry-tree gum and alum in equal quantities, and imbibe that powder with strong wine-vine¬
gar, which leave thus a digesting on warm ashes, for the space of twenty-four hours. If with this composition you rub any thing and throw it in the fire, it will not be consumed by it.
To prevent burning one's. Fingers in melted Lead.
Take two ounces of bole armenie, one of quicksilver, half a one of camphor, and two of brandy. Mix all together with the pestle in a brass mortar, and rub your hands with this composition, before steeping them into a pot of melted lead, and this will have no effect upon them.
»
A Fire which cannot be extinguished Water.
Take five ounces of gun-powder nitre, three sul¬phur, two camphor, resin, and turpentine, one of each. Mix all together, and imbibe with rectified oil of resiny fir-tree. If you fill balls with- this composition, and throw them thirty feet deep in the water, they will burn still, even you cover them entirely with mould.
To
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To prevent the Oil of a Lamp from smoking.
Distil some onions, and put of the distilled liquor at the bottom of the lamp, and the oil over then you will see the oil will give no offensive smoke,
Another Receipt for the same Purpose.
Melt some May butter on the fire, without frying or boiling and throw common exsiccated salt it. That salt will go to the bottom, and carry along with the watery and earthen particles of the butter, so that this will turn into very fine, clear, and limpid oil, which, when burnt in the lamp, will render no smoke.
To make an incombustible Wick.
Take long piece of feathered alum, which cut of what size you like, and bore in its length several holes with large needle then put this wick in the lamp the oil will ascend through these holes, and you light you will see the effect of it.
A Stone which inflammable with Water.
Take quick-lime, refined nitre, Alexandrian tutty, and lapis calaminaris, in equal quantities, with sulphur and camphor, of each two parts. Put all into subtile powder, and sift through the finest sieve. Then put all into new piece of cloth, and tie very close and
tight. Put this knot into crucible, which cover with another crucible, and lute well with greasy clay. Let the lute and ail be set in the sun, or over baker's oven, to dry. After which time place these crucibles in
brick-kiln, and do not take them out before the bricks are
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THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
42S THE LABORATORY,
baked. Then you will find a stone, which the least drop
of water will inflame, so as to light a mutch if you put it
to it. To put it out, you only blow upon it.
tbi
tbi
fo
si:
SECRETS RELATIVE TO WINE.
To make Wine to have the Taste and Flavour of French
Muscat.
You have only to put in the cask a little bag of elder flowers when the wine is just done pressing ; and while it boiis still'. Then, a fortnight after, take out the bag.
To make the Vin-doux.
When ycu cask the wine, put in at the bottom of the
cask half a pound of mustard-seed, or a pound, if the
cask be doable the common size.
To make Vin-bourru, of an excellent Taste.
Take two quarts of wheat, which boil in two quarts of water till it is perfectly bursted. Stir it well, then strain it through a fine cloth, squeezing a little the whole to get the creamy part out. Put two quarts of this liquor in a hog¬shead of white wine, while it is still a boiling, or in fer¬mentation, with the addition of a little bag of dried elder¬flowers.
1
To imitate Malvoisie.
Take of the best galangal, cloves and ginger, each one dr if hm. Bruise them coarsely, and infuse for twenty-four
hours, with brandy, in a well closed vessel. Then take 5 these
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MISCELLANEOUS.
429
these drugs out, and having tied them in a linen bag, let them hang in the cask by the bung-hole. Three or four days after, your wine will taste as good and as strong as natural Malvoisie.
To change Red Wine into White, and White into Red.
If you want to make red your white-wine, throw into the cask a bag of black vine-wood ashes ; and to whiten the red wine, you must put a bag of white vine-wood ashes. Forty days after, take out the bag, shake the cask, and let it settle again ; then you will see the effect.
To prevent Wine from /listing, otherwise tasting of the
Cask, and to give it both a Taste and Flavour quite agreeable.
Stick a lemon with cloves as thick as it can hold ; hang it by the bung-hole in a bag over the wine in the cask for three or four days, and stop it very carefully, for fear of its turning dead, if it should get air.
To make a Vine produce sweet Wine.
One month before gathering the grapes, you must twist such branches as are loaded with them, so as to interrupt the circulation of the sap : then strip the leaves off entirely,
that the sun may act with all its power on the grains, and, by dissipating their superfluous moisture, procure a sweet¬ness to the liquor contained in them when they come to be pressed.
To make a sweet Wine of a very agreeable Flavour, and
besides very wholesome.
Gather the grapes, and expose them for three whole
days in the sun. On the fourth day, at noon, put them under the
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the press, and receive the first drops which run of themselves' before pressing. When these virgin-drops shall have boiled, or fermented, put to every fifty quarts of it one ounce
of Florentine-orrice in subtile powder. A few days after, take it out clear from its lye, and then bottle it.
pflt
the
To clarify ', in two Days, new Wine when muddy
y*
Take a discretionable quantity of fine and thin beech shavings, which put into a bag, and hang by the bung- hole, in the cask. Two days after, take out the bag j and if from red you want to make it white, you may do it by
putting in the cask a quart of very clear whey.
To make the Wine keep moid, or unfermented, for Twelve
Months.
Take the first, or virgin wine, which runs of itself from the grapes before pressing ; cask and stop it well, then smear the cask all over with tar, so that water could not penetrate through any part of the wood into the wine- Plunge these casks into a pond deep enough to cover them entirely with water, and leave them there for forty days. After which term you may take them out, and the wine contained in them will keep new for twelve months.
To make Wine turn Black.
Place in the vat, wherein the wine is a fermenting. two pewter pots, and it will turn black.
To clarify Wine which is turned.
Take clean rcch-alum in powder, half a pound: sugar of roses, as much ; honey whether skimmed or not eight pounds, and a quart of good wine. Mix all well, and
put
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MISCELLANEOUS. 4.31 pat it in a cask of wine, stirring all as you pour it in. Take the bung off till the next day, then put it on again. Two or three days aftef this it will be quite clear.
To correct a bad Flavour in JVinc.
Put in a bag a handful of garden parsley, and let it hang by the bung-hole in the cask, for one week at least.
Then take it out
To prevent Wine from spoiling and turning.
» ■ .
Mix in the cask a tenth part of brandy, or half an ounce of oil of sulphur.
To prevent Thunder and Lightning from hurting Wine.
Put on the bung a handful of steel filings and another fif salt, tied up in a bag.
To prevent Wine from corrupting.
Put to infuse in the cask a handful of gentian-root, tied in a bag.
To restore a Wine turned sour or sharp.
Fill a bag with leek-seed, or of leaves and twisters of vine, and put either of them to infuse in the cask.
To restore a Wine corrupted and glairy.
Put in the wine cow's milk a little saltish ; or else the rinds and shells of almonds, tied up in a bag : or again* pine kernels.
Jo
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432
THE lAEORATORY.
To prevent Wine from growing Sour, and turning into"
Vinegar.
Hang by the bung-hole, in the cask, a piece of bacon, of about one pound and a half, and replace the bung. Or else throw into the wine a little bagful of ashes of virgin vine.
To make a new Wine taste as an old Wine.
Take one ounce of melilot, and three of each of the following drugs,, viz. liquorish, and celtic-nard, with two
of hepatic aloes ; grind, and mix all well together, put it in a bag, and hang it in the wine.
To restore a Wine turned.
Draw a pailful of it ; or, take the same quantity of ano¬ther good sort, which you boil, and throw quite boiling hot over that which is spoiled and stinking ; then stop the cask quickly with its bung. A fortnight after taste and you will find as good as ever was, or can be.
To restore Wine fust ed, or tasting the Cask.
Draw that wine entirely out of its own lye, and put in another cask over good lye. Then, through the bung-hole, hangup bag with four ounces of laurel berries in powder, and sufficient quantity of steel filings, at the bottom of the bag, to prevent its swimming on the top of
the wine. And, in proportion as you draw certain quan¬tity of liquor, let down the bag.
To prevent Wine from pricking.
Put in the cask half pound of spirit of tartar. Or, else,
TE
MISCELLANEOUS. 433 else, when the wine is still new and mout, throw in two ounces of common alum for every hogshead.
To ynakc Wine keep.
Extract the salt from the best vine branches; and of this put three ounces in every hogshead at Martinmas when the casks are bunged up.
To clarify Wine easily.
Put in the cask two quarts of boiling milk after having well skimmed it.
To prevent Wine from turning.
Put in the cask one pound of hare's-shot.
To correct a musty Taste in Wine.
Knead a dough of the best wheat-flour, and make it the form of rolling pin, or short thick stick. Half bake in the oven, and stick all over with cloves. Re¬place in the oven to finish baking quite. Suspend
in the cask over the wine without touching and let re¬main there or else let plunge the wine for few days, and take quite out afterwards. will correct any bad flavour the wine might have acquired.
Another Method.
Take very ripe medlars, and open them in four quar¬ters, without parting them asunder. Then tye them with thread, and fix them to the bung, so that by putting
in again they may hang and soak in the wine. One month afterwards take them out, and they will carry off all the bad taste of the wine.
vol. i. f£ To
TE
434
THE LABORATORY.
To correct a sour* or bitter Taste in Wine.
Boil a quartern of barlev in four quarts of water to the reduction of two. Strain what remains through a cloth, and pour it in the cask, stirring all together with a stick without touching the lye.
To restore spoiled Wine.
Change the wine from its own lye, upon that of good wine. Pulverize three or four nutmegs, and as many dry orange peels, and throw them in. Stop well the bung, and let it ferment one fortnight. x\fter that term is over you will find it better than ever. This method has gone through many experiments.
To sweeten a tart Wine.
Put in a hogshead of such a wine, a quarter of a pint
of good wine vinegar saturated with litherage : and it will soon lose its tartness.
Another Way.
Boil a quantity of honey in order to get all the waxy part out of and strain through double cloth. Of
such honey thus prepared put two quarts to half hogshead of tart wine, and will render perfectly agree¬able. If in the summer, and there be any danger of its turning, throw in stone of quick lime.
To prevent Tartness in Wine.
Take, in the month of March, two basonfuls of river sand and, after having dried in the sun, or in the oven, throw in the cask.
To
- Digitized by
INTERNET ARCHIVE
MISCELLANEOUS.
433
7b heighten a Wine in Liquor, and give it an agreeable
Flavour.
Take two dozen or thereabouts of myrtle berries, very ripe. Bruise them coarsely, after having dried them per¬fectly, and put them in a bag, which suspend in the mid-dle of the cask. Then stop this well with its bung. A fortnight afterwards take off the bag, and you will have a very agreeable wine.
To give Wine a ynost agreeable Flavour.
Take a pailful of viout, which boil and evaporate to the consistence of honey. Then mix with it one ounce of Florentine orrice, cut in small bits, and one drachm of costus. Put all into a bag, and let it down in the cask by the bung-hole, after having previously drawn out a suffi¬cient quantity of wine to prevent the bag from coming at
it. This bag being thus suspended by a string which will hang out of the bung-hole, stop it well, and there will drop from the bag into the wine a liquor which will give it a most agreeable taste.
How to find out whether or not there be Water mixed in a
Cask of Wine.
Throw in the cask one wild pear, or apple. If either of these two fruits swim, it is a proof there is no water in the wine : for, if there be any, it will sink.
To separate the Water from Wine.
Put into the cask a wick of cotton, which should soak in the wine by one end, and come out of the cask at the bung-hole by the other : and every drop of water which
f f 2 may
450 THE LABORATORY.
may happen to be mixed with the wine, will still out by that wick or filter.
You may again put some of this wine into a cup made of ivy-wood : and, then the water will perspire through the pores of the cup, and the wine remain.
To ungrease Wine in less than iteenty-four Hours.
Take common salt, gum-arabic, and vine-brush ashes, of each half an ounce. Tie all in a bag, and fix it to a hazel-tree stick ; then by the bung-hole stir well the wine for one quarter of an hour, after which take it out, and
stop the cask : the next day the wine will be as sound as ever.
To restore a Wine.
Put in the cask one pound of Paris plaster. Then make a piece of steel red-hot in the fire ; and, by means of a wire fixed to one of its ends, introduce it by the bung-hole into the wine. Repeat this operation for five or six days running, as many times each day. Then, finally, throw into the wine a stick of brimstone tied in a bag, which you take off two days after ; and the wine will be perfectly well restored.
To correct a bad Taste and sourness in Wine.
Put in a bag a root of wild horse-radish cut in bits. Let it down in the wine, and leave it there two days : take this out, and put another, repeating the same till the wine is perfectly restored.
Another Way.
Fill a bag with wheat, and let it down in the- wine;
it will have the same effect.
5 Another
Digitized; by
INTERNET ARCHIVE
MISCELLANEOUS.
437
nother Way.
Put a-drying in the oven, as soon as it is heated, one
dozen of old walnuts ; and, having taken them out along
with the bread, thread them with a string, and hang them
in the wine, till it is restored to its good taste j then take
them out again.
To cure those wfyo are too much addicted to drink Wine.
Put, in a sufficient quantity of wine, three or four large
eels, which leave there till quite dead. Give that wine to
drink to the person you want to reform, and he or she will
be so much disgusted of wine, that though they formerly
made much use of they will now have an aversion to it.
Another Method, not less certain.
Cut, in the spring, branch of vine, in the time when the sap ascends most strongly and receive in cup the li¬quor which runs from that branch. If you mix some of
this liquor with wine, and give to man already drunk, he will never relish wine afterwards.
To prevent one from getting intoxicated "with drinking.
Take white cabbage's, and sour pomegranate's juices, two ounces of each, with one of vinegar. Boil all toge¬ther for some time to the consistence of syrup. Take one ounce of this before you are going to drink, and drink afterwards as much, and as long, as you please.
Another Way.
Eat five or six bitter almonds fasting this will have the same effect.
Another
Digitized by
INTERNET ARCHIVE
Original from
THE GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Another Way.
It is affirmed, that if you eat mutton or goat's lungs roasted ; cabbage, or any seed ; or worm-wood, it will ab¬solutely prevent the bad effects which result from the ex-
cess of drinking.
Another Way.
You may undoubtedly prevent the accidents resulting from hard drinking, if before dinner you eat, in sallad, four or five tops of raw cabbages.
Another Method.
Take some swallows' beaks, and burn them in a cru¬cible. When perfectly calcined, grind them on a stone,
and put some of that powder in a glass of wine, and drink it. Whatever wine you may drink to excess afterwards, it will have no effect upon you.
The whole body of the swallow, prepared in the same manner, will have the same effect.
Another Way.
Pound in a mortar the leaves of a peach-tree, and squeeze the juice of them in a bason. Then, fasting, drink a full glass of that liquor, and take whatever excess of wine you will on that day, you will not be intoxicated.
A Method of making People drunk, without endangering
their Health.
Infuse some aloe-wood, which comes from India, i-n a glass of wine, and give it to drink. The person who drinks it will soon give signs of his intoxication.
Another
Digitized by
INTERNET ARCHIVE
MISCELLANEOUS. 439
Another Way.
Boil in water some mandrake's bark, to a perfect redness of the water in which it is a boiling. Of that liquor, if you put in the wine, whoever diinks it will soon be drunk.
To recover a Person from Intoxication.
Make such a person drink a glass of vinegar, or some cabbage-juice, otherwise give him some honey. You may likewise meet with success by giving the patient a glass of wine quite warm to drink, or a dish of strong coffee, without milk or sugar, adding to it a large tea-spoonful of salt.
Toprevent the Breath from smelling of Wine.
Chew a root of to, and no one can discover, by your breath, whether you have been drinking wine or not.
To preserve Wine good to the last.
Take a pint of the best spirit of wine, and put in it the bulk of vour two lists of the second peel of the elder- tree, which is green. After it has infused three days, or thereabouts, strain the liquor through a cloth, and pour it into a hogshead of wine. That wine will keep good foi ten years, if you want it.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
Printed by C. Whittinjham, Dean Street, Fetter*ane, London.
Miscellanious\434
The laboratory.
To correct a sour or bitter Taste in Wine.
Boil a quartern of barlev in four quarts of water to the reduction of two. Strain what remains through a cloth, and pour it in the cask, stirring all together with a stick without touching the lye.
To restore spoiled Wine.
Change the wine from its own lye, upon that of good wine. Pulverize three or four nutmegs, and as many dry orange peels, and throw them in. Stop well the bung, and let it ferment one fortnight. x\fter that term is over you will find it better than ever. This method has gone through many experiments.
To sweeten a tart Wine.
Put in a hogshead of such a wine, a quarter of a pint
of good wine vinegar saturated with litherage : and it will soon lose its tartness.
Another Way.
Boil a quantity of honey in order to get all the waxy part out of and strain through double cloth. Of such honey thus prepared put two quarts to half hogshead of tart wine, and will render perfectly agree¬able. If in the summer, and there be any danger of its turning, throw in stone of quick lime.
To prevent Tartness in Wine.
Take, in the month of March, two basonfuls of river sand and, after having dried in the sun, or in the oven, throw in the cask.
To
[435]
heighten a Wine in Liquor, and give it an agreeable Flavour.
Take two dozen or thereabouts of myrtle berries, very ripe. Bruise them coarsely, after having dried them per¬fectly, and put them in a bag, which suspend in the mid¬dle of the cask. Then stop this well with its bung. A fortnight afterwards take off the bag, and you will have a very agreeable wine.
To give Wine a most agreeable Flavour.
Take a pailful of viout, which boil and evaporate to the consistence of honey. Then mix with it one ounce of Florentine orrice, cut in small bits, and one drachm of costus. Put all into a bag, and let it down in the cask by the bung-hole, after having previously drawn out a suffi¬cient quantity of wine to prevent the bag from coming at it. This bag being thus suspended by a string which will hang out of the bung-hole, stop it well, and there will drop from the bag into the wine a liquor which will give it a most agreeable taste.
How to find out whether or not there be Water mixed in a Cask of Wine.
Throw in the cask one wild pear, or apple. If either of these two fruits swim, it is a proof there is no water in the wine : for, if there be any, it will sink.
To separate the Water from Wine.
Put into the cask a wick of cotton, which should soak in the wine by one end, and come out of the cask at the bung-hole by the other : and every drop of water which
may
450 THE LABORATORY.
may happen to be mixed with the wine, will still out by that wick or filter.
You may again put some of this wine into a cup made of ivy-wood : and, then the water will perspire through the pores of the cup, and the wine remain.
To ungrease Wine in less than iteenty-four Hours.
Take common salt, gum-arabic, and vine-brush ashes, of each half an ounce. Tie all in a bag, and fix it to a hazel-tree stick ; then by the bung-hole stir well the wine for one quarter of an hour, after which take it out, and
stop the cask : the next day the wine will be as sound as ever.
To restore a Wine.
Put in the cask one pound of Paris plaster. Then make a piece of steel red-hot in the fire ; and, by means of a wire fixed to one of its ends, introduce it by the bung-hole into the wine. Repeat this operation for five or six days running, as many times each day. Then, finally, throw into the wine a stick of brimstone tied in a bag, which you take off two days after ; and the wine will be perfectly well restored.
To correct a bad Taste and sourness in Wine.
Put in a bag a root of wild horse-radish cut in bits. Let it down in the wine, and leave it there two days : take this out, and put another, repeating the same till the wine is perfectly restored.
Another Way.
Fill a bag with wheat, and let it down in the- wine;
it will have the same effect.
5 Another
MISCELLANEOUS.
437
nother Way.
Put a-drying in the oven, as soon as it is heated, one
dozen of old walnuts ; and, having taken them out along
with the bread, thread them with a string, and hang them
in the wine, till it is restored to its good taste j then take
them out again.
To cure those wfyo are too much addicted to drink Wine.
Put, in a sufficient quantity of wine, three or four large
eels, which leave there till quite dead. Give that wine to
drink to the person you want to reform, and he or she will
be so much disgusted of wine, that though they formerly
made much use of they will now have an aversion to it.
Another Method, not less certain.
Cut, in the spring, branch of vine, in the time when the sap ascends most strongly and receive in cup the li¬quor which runs from that branch. If you mix some of
this liquor with wine, and give to man already drunk, he will never relish wine afterwards.
To prevent one from getting intoxicated "with drinking.
Take white cabbage's, and sour pomegranate's juices, two ounces of each, with one of vinegar. Boil all toge¬ther for some time to the consistence of syrup. Take one ounce of this before you are going to drink, and drink afterwards as much, and as long, as you please.
Another Way.
Eat five or six bitter almonds fasting this will have the same effect.
Another Way.
It is affirmed, that if you eat mutton or goat's lungs roasted ; cabbage, or any seed ; or worm-wood, it will ab¬solutely prevent the bad effects which result from the ex-
cess of drinking.
Another Way.
You may undoubtedly prevent the accidents resulting from hard drinking, if before dinner you eat, in sallad, four or five tops of raw cabbages.
Another Method.
Take some swallows' beaks, and burn them in a cru¬cible. When perfectly calcined, grind them on a stone,
and put some of that powder in a glass of wine, and drink it. Whatever wine you may drink to excess afterwards, it will have no effect upon you.
The whole body of the swallow, prepared in the same manner, will have the same effect.
Another Way.
Pound in a mortar the leaves of a peach-tree, and squeeze the juice of them in a bason. Then, fasting, drink a full glass of that liquor, and take whatever excess of wine you will on that day, you will not be intoxicated.
A Method of making People drunk, without endangering
their Health.
Infuse some aloe-wood, which comes from India, i-n a glass of wine, and give it to drink. The person who drinks it will soon give signs of his intoxication.
Another
MISCELLANEOUS. 439
Another Way.
Boil in water some mandrake's bark, to a perfect redness of the water in which it is a boiling. Of that liquor, if you put in the wine, whoever diinks it will soon be drunk.
To recover a Person from Intoxication.
Make such a person drink a glass of vinegar, or some cabbage-juice, otherwise give him some honey. You may likewise meet with success by giving the patient a glass of wine quite warm to drink, or a dish of strong coffee, without milk or sugar, adding to it a large tea-spoonful of salt.
Toprevent the Breath from smelling of Wine.
Chew a root of to, and no one can discover, by your breath, whether you have been drinking wine or not.
To preserve Wine good to the last.
Take a pint of the best spirit of wine, and put in it the bulk of vour two lists of the second peel of the elder- tree, which is green. After it has infused three days, or thereabouts, strain the liquor through a cloth, and pour it into a hogshead of wine. That wine will keep good foi ten years, if you want it.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
Printed by C. Whittingham, Dean Street, Fetterlane, London.