The flowing bowl : a treatise on drinks of all kinds and of all periods, interspersed with sundry anecdotes and reminiscences / by Edward Spencer ("Nathaniel Gubbins").

  • Spencer, Edward, 1844-1910.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The flowing bowl : a treatise on drinks of all kinds and of all periods, interspersed with sundry anecdotes and reminiscences / by Edward Spencer ("Nathaniel Gubbins"). Source: Wellcome Collection.

    197/264 (page 179)
    which by the various preparations of the cook are become a part of our table entertainment almost throughout the year, and are esteem’d to be very temperate and nourishing. “ They relax the belly, which is a very good property in them ; but the sweet more than the sharp. They help concoction, eaten after meat, with a little bread : you may be confident that an apple eaten after supper ”—paste this in your hats, ye revellers — adepresseth all offensive vapours that otherwise would offend the head, and hinder sleep. Apples rosted, scalded, or otherwise prepared, according to the skill of the operatour, are good in many hot diseases, against Melancholy, and the Pleurisie. “ But Cider is much to be preferr’d, it being the more pure and active part separated from the impure and feculent; and without all, peradven- ture, is the most wholesome drink that is made in Europe for our ordinary use, as before is observed. For its specifick vertues, there is not any drink more effectual against the Scurvy. It is also prevalent against the Stone^ and by its mundifying qualities is good against the diseases of the Spleen, and is esteem’d excellent against Melancholy.” Possibly the course of time has made us merrier than our forbears ; at all events a melan- choly ” is a disease for which no remedy is prescribed in the modern editions of the Pharma- copoeia. What with musical farces, and Arthur Roberts, and the means to purchase a “ livener ” next morning, no citizen of London is justified in the possession of lowness of spirits.