Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. xn. SEPT. 25, 1915.

nauseous, and strong (' Herbal Simples,' Fernie).

In making curative simples the onion (and garlic) should not be boiled, else the volatile essential oil, on which its virtues chiefly depend, will escape during the process. " They be naught," says Gerard, "" for them that be cholericke ; but good for such as are replete with raw and phlegmatick humors." Frank Buckland said :

" I am sure the essential oil of onions has rsoporific power. In my own case it never fails. If I am much pressed with work, and feel that I ,am not disposed to sleep, I eat two or three small onions, and the effect is magical."

The onion has a very sensitive organism, and absorbs all morbid matter that comes in its way. Therefore the danger must be remem- bered of eating an onion which shows signs of decay. The juice of a sliced raw onion is alkaline, and will quickly relieve the acid venom of a sting from a wasp or bee if applied immediately to the part. If a few raw parsley sprigs be eaten immediately after- wards, the strong smell which onions com- municate to the breath may be removed. Dean Swift said :

This is every cook's opinion, No savoury dish without an onion ; But lest your kissing should be spoiled, Your onions must be fully boiled. At the present day Egyptians take onions roasted, and each cut into four pieces, with small bits of baked meat and slices of acid apple, which the Turks call kebobs. With this sweet and savoury dish they are so delighted that they trust to enjoy it in paradise. The Israelites were willing to return to slavery and brickmaking for their love of the onion. The antelopes and giraffes in our Zoological Gardens dote on onions, with which they are liberally supplied.

TOM JONES.

I am glad MB. THOMAS RATCLIFFE has told that story about the post-mortem and the onion, for I have been racking my brain to recollect it, as, having a liking for hard-boiled eggs, I used to be anecdotically warned of their indigestibility, and impressed by the saving strength of onions. I cannot help thinking that in my version a knife-handle was made of the concretion discovered by the doctors, and that this haft subsequently dissolved when it happened to be brought into contact with an onion.

I once knew a doctor who would pull up an onion from a garden bed, eat it forthwith, and think he had done himself service.

ST. SWITHIN.

My original query concerning the virtues of onions has evoked so many interesting replies that I should like to record the report of some successful experiments which have been recently carried out by Dr. A. D. Serrell Cooke and Dr. V. Gabriel, at the Paddington Infirmary, with garlic juice as an antiseptic in cases of infected wounds.

It is claimed that the oil or juice of garlic penetrates to the root of the suppura- tion, and draws the pus from the wound with greater efficiency than the most modern disinfectant. The Daily Mail says that " only time and a searching test can decide whether garlic juice will revolutionize the technique of modern antiseptic surgery."

Readers of ' N. & Q.' interested in the discovery should consult the number of The Lancet for the 4th inst., where the results of six cases are reported in detail.

REGINALD JACOBS.

6, Templars' Avenue, Golder's Green, N.W.

KING OF POLAND (US. xi. 379 ; xii. 190). In a Hebrew letter preserved in the Stadt- bibliothek, Hamburg, addressed to the bibliophile Pastor Christian Theophil linger by Rabbi David Nieto, the Haham of the Bevis Marks Synagogue, he writes :

"|ta *\$hn bw inKDHp^o Tn ^nn: I^KH onaon rw

" Yesterday I gave into the hand of the secretary

of the "JX7 of the King of Poland (may his honour be exalted !) these books."

as an angel is a messenger of the Almighty. It seems improbable that the King of Poland should have sent a messenger accompanied by a secretary to London to obtain a few Spanish books on Jewish theology from Nieto. If Poland did not in 1719, when the letter was written, have a permanent accre- dited representative here, no doubt the ffc^O (messenger or envoy of Augustus II.) was here on a political mission, the occasion being seized by the learned Rabbi to present his works to the King of Poland.
 * ]tihft may be rendered messenger or angel,

ISBAEL SOLOMONS.

WANSTEAD PARK (II S. xii. 121, 164, 222). The full history of Wanstead Park was told by Mr. Oliver S. Dawson in a book of thirty -three pages, with many illustrations, published some thirty years ago at 1, Hoi- born Place, W.C., called ' The Story of Wan- stead Park.'

There is also an interesting account of old Wanstead House in The Local Review, circulating in Wanstead and neighbourhood,