A good brine is made for butter by dissolving a quart of fine salt, a pound of loaf sugar, and a teaspoonful of saltpetre in two quarts of water, and then strain it on to the butter. Packed butter is most perfectly preserved sweet by setting the firkin into a larger firkin, and filling in with good brine, and covering it. Butter will keep sweet a year thus.
Buttermilk kept in potter’s ware dissolves the glazing, and becomes poisonous.
Never scald strainers or milky vessels till thoroughly washed, as the milk or cream put in them will be injured by it. The best way to scald such vessels is to plunge them all over into scalding water, and then every spot is scalded.
Butter will sometimes not come because the air is too much excluded from the churn.
“In some maladies,” says Dr. Pereira, “as fevers and acute inflammatory diseases, an almost unlimited use of fluids is admitted, under the names of _slops_, _thin diet_, _fever diet_, _broth diet_, &c. They quench thirst, lessen the stimulating quality of the blood, increase its fluidity, and promote the actions of the secreting organs. They are sometimes useful, also, in lessening the irritating contents of the alimentary canal.”
“But in some maladies it is necessary to restrict the quantity of fluids taken, or, in other words, to employ a _dry diet_.”
As it is so customary for invalids to throng to watering places, the following remarks contain very important cautions.
“The Congress Water at Saratoga,” says Dr. Lee, “though it possesses active medical qualities, yet, except in diseases attended with inflammatory action, seldom occasions unpleasant consequences, unless drank in very large quantities, when it often causes serious, if not dangerous effects.” Dr. Steel, a physician who has devoted much attention to this subject, remarks, “About _three pints_ should be taken, an hour or two before breakfast, and be followed by exercise, to produce a cathartic effect. Where more is needed for this effect, add a teaspoonful or two of Epsom salts to the first tumbler. It should not be drank at all during the remainder of the day by those who wish to experience the full benefit of its use. It would be better for those whose complaints render them fit subjects for its administration, if the fountain should be locked up, and no one suffered to approach it after the hour of nine or ten in the morning.”