Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 2, 1802).djvu/505

473&#93; RON purer thri'i i . co- cable sin il and a plea • • a article of food, wh< n im- modi rately used, honey is ] eious t.) weak stom ichs ; it ought, . to be avoi led by pi liable to ei I the skin, or in whom thece is a redundancy of bile. 1 1 i e . table ess< rjee con- tains an acid; similar to that of su- gar, but is more spirituous : hence it readily fermi is fla- tulency, and in some habits pro- duces gripes and loosehi •-. As a medicine; however, it is a very useful aperient and expecto- rant, especially when it has been previously boiled 5 in which st te it may be used with safety and ad- vantage by asthmatic patients ; for it tends to dissolve viscid humours, and to promote theexpeetcri; phlegm. — See also Chapped Hands. Notwithstanding these salubri- ous properties of honey, it is apt to prod.: 3 very detrimental to tho^e p ethoric, bilious, febrile, or cachectic patients, who trust to it as a remedy in coughs, arising from, or connected with, pulmo- nary ccmp:aints. The writer of this article has lately seen two mournful instances of young fe- males, each of whom, by a singu- lar infatuation, had swallow ed such quantities of a -quack medicine, called " the balsam pf honey/' as amounted to the sum <i tei gui- neas, in ofder to ejare a catarrhal cough, and to prevent it from at- tacking the longs-. Unfoltuna I ;, , however (and let it be recorded bcie ao a warning to ethers), they iion [4-3 oceeded too far in Blighting ! ii< affection, which pn on the functions of life ; and both, in th couri of six mouths, i J tn to a fatal delusion. ney is also convertible into an able liquor, termed iMi:.o, of which the reader will find an ac- count in its alphabetical order. Although Prof. Lowitz has sa- tisfactorily proved that honey may, by a chemical process, be consols* dat d into sugar ; yet, as such a change would not be profitable, where the former is sold at a much r price than the latter, we shall suggest a more advantageous mode oi employing this balsamic juice. If a pound of honey be dis? solved in three or four quarts of water, and exposed to a tempera- ture between the fQLh and SOth degrees of Fahrenheit's merino- meter, it will in a short time be- come a very agreeable acid liquor, w ich possesses an aromatic fla- vour, and strength, superior to that or the best vinegar ni;i e of white wine. A., the latter is frequently adulterated, and incomparably more expensive than the substitute we have proposed, this appears to de- serve every attention in domestic economy. HONEY-DEW, or Sufusio mellita,' a sweet substance found on the leaves of oak, hazl -nut, hops, and other plants; and which )een erroneously supposed to fall from th:. sky. . i 'cordit g to Dr. Darwin, the honey-dew is a saccharine juice that exudes from trees, in conse- quence of the retrograde motions oi the cutaneous lymphatic vessels cormecled with the umbilical, or with the common sap-esstls of plants; instead of bang carried forward to increase the growth of the