A small cupful of the tea, cold, taken in the morning, fasting, is often serviceable for indigestion. Chamomiles are also employed in fomentations, their greatest use being to retain the heat of the application.
462. _Linseed Tea._--Pour two quarts of boiling water upon one ounce of linseed, and two drachms of liquorice-root, sliced; let it stand six hours.
463. _Mint Tea._--Mint, to be used as tea, should be cut when just beginning to flower, and should be dried in the shade. The young leaves are eaten in salads, and some eat them as the leaves of sage, with bread and butter.
464. _Nitre_ is a cheap and valuable medicine, both cooling and purifying to the blood. In the feverishness that attends a cold, from seven to ten grains of purified nitre, in a glass of water, may be taken two or three times a day, with safety and advantage. For old wounds, such as are commonly called "a bad leg," great benefit will be derived from taking a solution of nitre, prepared thus:--In one pint of boiling water, dissolve two ounces of saltpetre; of which take a table-spoonful twice a day. If it should occasion pain, a little hot ginger-tea will soon give relief.
465. _To make Verjuice._--The acid of the juice of the crab or wilding is called by the country people, verjuice, and is much used in recent sprains, and in other cases, as an astringent or repellant.
466. _Medicines in Travelling._--In case of change of food disagreeing with the stomach, dissolve a tea-spoonful of Epsom salts in half a pint of water, as warm as it can be drunk, and repeat the dose every half-hour, until it operates.
For diarrhoea, or acidity of stomach, mix one drachm of compound powder of kino, with half an ounce of compound powder of chalk; divide into six powders, and take one or two a day, in three table-spoonfuls of water, and a tea-spoonful of brandy.
467. _To prevent Sea-sickness._--Pass a broad belt round the body, and place within it, on the region of the stomach, a pad stuffed with wool or horse-hair; this, when tightly braced, restrains the involuntary motion of the stomach, occasioned by the lurching of the vessel. During sickness, very weak cold brandy and water will be found the best means of allaying the heat and irritation.