Put them into a jar, with half an ounce of camphor that has been dissolved in a little alcohol, and pour in three quarts of strong clear vinegar. Keep the jar for two or three weeks in the hot sun, and at night plunge it into a box of heated sand. Afterwards strain and bottle the liquid, putting into each bottle a clove of garlic sliced. To have it very clear, after it has been bottled for a week, you should pour it off carefully from the sediment, and filter it through blotting paper. Then wash the bottles, and return the vinegar to them. It should be kept very tightly corked.
It is used for sprinkling about in sick-rooms; and also in close damp oppressive weather. Inhaling the odour from a small bottle will frequently prevent faintness in a crowd.
It is best to make it in June.
This vinegar is so called from an old tradition, that during the prevalence of the plague in London the composition was invented by four thieves, who found it a preservative from contagion; and were by that means enabled to remain in the city and exercise their profession to great advantage, after most of the inhabitants had fled.
OIL OF FLOWERS.
A French process for obtaining essential oils from flowers or herbs has been described as follows:--Take carded cotton, or split wadding and steep it in some pure Florence oil, such as is quite clear and has no smell. Then place a layer of this cotton in the bottom of a deep china dish, or in an earthen pipkin. Cover it with a thick layer of fresh rose leaves, or the leaves of sweet pink, jasmine, wall-flower, tuberose, magnolia blossoms, or any other odoriferous flower or plant from which you wish to obtain the perfume. Spread over the flower-leaves another layer of cotton that has been steeped in oil. Afterwards a second layer of flowers, and repeat them alternately till the vessel is quite full. Cover it closely, and let it stand in the sun for a week.
Then throw away the flower-leaves, carefully press out the oil from the cotton, and put it into a small bottle for use. The oil will be found to have imbibed the odour of the flowers.
Keep the scented cotton to perfume your clothes-presses.
BALM OF GILEAD OIL.
Put loosely into a bottle as many balm of Gilead flowers as will come up to a third part of its height; then nearly fill up the bottle with sweet oil, which should be of the best quality. Let it infuse (shaking it occasionally) for several days, and it will then be fit for use. It is considered a good remedy for bruises of the skin; also for cuts, burns, and scalds that are not very bad, and should be applied immediately,--by wetting a soft rag with it; renewing it frequently,
LIP SALVE.
Put into a wide-mouthed bottle four ounces of the best olive oil, with one ounce of the small parts of alkanet root. Stop up the bottle, and set it in the sun, (shaking it often,) till you find the liquid of a beautiful crimson. Then strain off the oil very clear from the alkanet root, put it into an earthen pipkin, and add to it an ounce of white wax, and an ounce and a half of the best mutton suet, which has been previously clarified, or boiled and skimmed. Set the mixture on the embers of coals, and melt it slowly: stirring it well. After it has simmered slowly far a little while, take it off; and while still hot, mix with it a few drops of oil of roses, or of oil of neroli, or tincture of musk.
COLD CREAM.
Cut very fine a drachm of white wax and a drachm of spermaceti.
Put it into a small sauce-pan with one ounce of oil of sweet almonds, and mix them well together. Set it on hot coals, and as soon as it has boiled take it off, and stir in an ounce of orange-flower or rose-water. Beat it very hard, and then put it into gallipots.
SOFT POMATUM.
Soak half a pound of fresh lard and a quarter of a pound of beef marrow in water for two or three days; squeezing and pressing it every day, and changing the water. Afterwards drain off the water, and put the lard and marrow into a sieve to dry. Then transfer it to a jar, and set the jar into a pot of boiling water. When the mixture is melted, put it into a basin, and beat it with two spoonfuls of brandy. Then drain off the brandy, perfume the pomatum by mixing with it any scented essence that you please, and tie it up in gallipots.
COSMETIC PASTE.
Take a quarter of a pound of Castile soap, and cut it into small pieces. Then, put it into a tin or porcelain sauce-pan, with just water enough to moisten it well, and set it on hot coals. Let it simmer till it is entirely dissolved; stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste, and thickening it with Indian meal, (which even in a raw state is excellent for the hands.) Then take it from the fire, and when cool scent it with rose-water, or with any fragrant essence you please. Beat and stir it hard with a silver spoon, and when it is thoroughly mixed put it into little pots with covers.
ACID SALT.
This is the composition commonly, but erroneously called salt of lemon, and is excellent for removing ink and other stains from the hands, and for taking ink spots out of white clothes. Pound together in a marble mortar an ounce of salt of sorrel, and an ounce of the best cream of tartar, mixing them thoroughly. Then, put it in little wooden boxes or covered gallipots, and rub it on your hands when they are stained, washing them in cold water, and using the acid salt instead of soap; a very small quant.i.ty will immediately remove the stain. In applying it to linen or muslin that is spotted with ink or fruit juice, hold the stained part tightly stretched over a cup or bowl of boiling water. Then with your finger rub on the acid salt till the stain disappears. It must always be done before the article is washed.
This mixture costs about twenty-five cents, and the above quant.i.ty (if kept dry) will be sufficient for a year or more.
Ink stains may frequently be taken out of white clothes by rubbing on (before they go to the wash) some bits of cold tallow picked from the bottom of a mould candle; Leave the tallow sticking on in a lump, and when the article comes from the wash, it will generally be found that the spot has disappeared. This experiment is so easy and so generally successful that it is always worth trying. When it fails, it is in consequence of some peculiarity in the composition of the ink.
SWEET JARS.
Take a china jar, and put into it three handfuls of fresh damask rose-leaves; three of sweet pinks, three of wall-flowers, and stock gilly-flowers, and equal proportions of any other fragrant flowers that you can procure. Place them in layers; strewing fine salt thickly between each layer, and mixing with them an ounce of sliced orris root.
You may fill another jar with equal quant.i.ties of lavender, knotted marjoram, rosemary, lemon thyme, balm of Gilead, lemon-peel, and smaller quant.i.ties of laurel leaves and mint; and some sliced orris root. You may mix with the herbs, (which must all be chopped,) cloves, cinnamon, and sliced nutmeg; strewing salt between the layers.
Flowers, herbs, and spice may all be mixed in the same jar; adding always some orris root. Every thing that is put in should be perfectly free from damp.
The jar should be kept closely covered, except when the cover is occasionally removed for the purpose of diffusing the scent through the room.
SCENTED BAGS.
Take a quarter of a pound of coriander seeds, a quarter of a pound of orris root, a quarter of a pound of aromatic calamus, a quarter of a pound of damask rose leaves, two ounces of lavender blossoms, half an ounce of mace, half an ounce of cinnamon, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, and two drachms of musk-powder. Beat them all separately in a mortar, and then mix them well together. Make small silk or satin bags; fill each with a portion of the mixture, and sew them closely all round. Lay them among your clothes in the drawers.
VIOLET PERFUME.
Drop twelve drops of genuine oil of rhodium on a lump of loaf-sugar.
Then pound the sugar in a marble mortar with two ounces of orris root powder. This will afford an excellent imitation of the scent of violets. If you add more oil of rhodium, it will produce a rose perfume. Sew up the powder in little silk bags, or keep it in a tight box.
DURABLE INK.
Take, when empty, one of the little bottles that has contained indelible ink, such as is sold in cases, and wash and rinse it clean. Put into it half an inch of lunar caustic; fill it up with good vinegar, and cork it tightly. This is the marking ink.
Prepare the larger bottle that has contained the liquid used for the first wash, by making it quite clean. Take a large tea-spoonful of salt of tartar, and a lump of gum arabic the size of a hickory nut. Put them into the wash bottle, and fill it up with clear rain water, Cork both bottles tightly, and set them for two days in the sun. The liquids will then be fit for use.
Linen cannot be marked well with durable ink unless the weather is clear and dry. Dip a camel"s hair pencil in the large bottle that contains the gum liquid, and wash over with it a small s.p.a.ce on a corner of the linen, about large enough to contain the name. Dry it in the sun, and let it alone till next day. Then take a very good pen, acid with the ink from the smallest bottle, write the name you intend, on the place that has been prepared by the first liquid. This also must be dried in the sun. See that the bottles are always well corked, and keep them in a covered box.
After the linen is dried, iron it before you write on it.
ANOTHER DURABLE INK.
For the marking liquid--rub together in a small mortar five scruples of lunar caustic with one drachm of gum arabic, one scruple of sap-green and one ounce of rain water.
For wetting the linen--mix together one ounce of salt of soda, two ounces of boiling water, and a table-spoonful of powdered gum arabic.
TO KEEP PEARL-ASH.
Take three ounces of pearl-ash, and put it into a clean black bottle with a pint and a half (not more) of soft water. The proportion is an ounce of pearl-ash to half a pint of water. Cork it very tightly, shake it, and it will be fit for use as soon as all the pearl-ash is dissolved. A table-spoonful of this liquid is equal to a small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash in the lump or powder.
Keeping it ready dissolved will be found very convenient.
ALMOND PASTE.
Blanch half a pound of sh.e.l.led sweet, almonds, and a quarter of a pound of bitter ones, and beat them in a mortar to a smooth paste --adding by degrees a jill of rose or orange-flower water. Then beat in, gradually, half a pound of clear strained honey. When the whole is well incorporated, put it into gallipots, pouring on the top of each some orange-flower or rose-water. Keep it closely covered. This is a celebrated cosmetic for the hands.