WEAK EYES. Dimness of sight, arising from weakness or inflammation, is best relieved by frequent washing of the eyes with cold water. If this do not succeed, the following solution may be applied. Dissolve four grains each of the sugar of lead and crude sal-ammoniac, in eight ounces of water, to which a few drops of laudanum may occasionally be added, and bathe the eyes with it night and morning. A tea-spoonful of brandy in a cup of water will also make good eye-water, or a little simple rose water may supply the place.
WEDDING CAKE. Take two pounds of butter, beat it to a cream with the hand, and put in two pounds of fine sugar sifted. Mix well together two pounds of fine dried flour, half a pound of almonds blanched and pounded with orange-flower water, and an ounce of beaten mace. Beat up sixteen eggs, leaving out three whites, and put to them half a glass of sack, and the same of brandy. Put a handful of the flour and almonds to the sugar and butter, then a spoonful of the eggs, and so on till they are all mixed together. Beat it an hour with the hand, add two pounds of currants, half a pound of citron, half a pound of orange peel, and two spoonfuls of orange-flower water. Butter the tin, and bake it three hours and a half. An iceing should be put over the cake after it is baked.
WEEDS. Weeds are in their most succulent state in the month of June, and there is scarcely a hedge border but might be rendered useful by mowing them at this season, but which afterwards would become a nuisance. After the weeds have lain a few hours to wither, hungry cattle will eat them with great freedom, and it would display the appearance of good management to embrace the transient opportunity.
WELCH ALE. To brew very fine Welch ale, pour forty-two gallons of hot but not boiling water, on eight bushels of malt; cover it up, and let it stand three hours. Mean while infuse four pounds of hops in a little hot water, and put the water and hops into a tub; run the wort upon them, and boil them together three hours. Strain off the hops, and reserve them for the small beer. Let the wort stand in a high tub till cool enough to receive the yeast, of which put in two quarts of the best quality: mix it thoroughly and often. When the wort has done working, the second or third day, the yeast will sink rather than rise in the middle: remove it then, and tun the ale as it works out. Pour in a quart at a time gently, to prevent the fermentation from continuing too long, which weakens the liquor. Put paper over the bung-hole two or three days before it is closed up.
WELCH BEEF. Rub three ounces of saltpetre into a good piece of the round or buttock. After four hours apply a handful of common salt, a quarter of an ounce of Jamaica pepper, and the same of black pepper, mixed together. Continue it in the pickle a fortnight, then stuff it with herbs, cover it with a thick paste, and bake it. Take off the paste, pour the liquor from it, and pour over it some melted beef suet.
WELCH PUDDING. Melt half a pound of fine butter gently, beat with it the yolks of eight and the whites of four eggs. Mix in six ounces of loaf sugar, and the rind of a lemon grated. Put a paste into a dish for turning out, pour in the batter, and bake it nicely.
WELCH RABBIT. Toast a slice of bread on both sides, and butter it. Toast a slice of Gloucester cheese on one side, and lay that on the bread; then toast the other side with a salamander, rub mustard over, and serve it up hot under a cover.
WENS. These are prevalent chiefly among the inhabitants of marshy countries, bordering on rivers and standing waters, especially among females, and persons of a delicate habit; but they very often arise from scrophula. Camphor mixed with sweet oil, or a solution of sal ammoniac, have often been applied to these tumours with success. In Derbyshire, where this disorder greatly prevails, they use the following preparation. Fifteen grains of burnt sponge are beaten up with a similar quantity of millipede, and from eight to ten grains of cinnabar antimony. The whole is to be mixed with honey, and taken every morning before breakfast.
WESTPHALIA HAM. Rub the ham with half a pound of coarse sugar, let it lie twelve hours, then rub it with an ounce of saltpetre pounded, and a pound of common salt. Let it lie three weeks, turning it every day. Dry it over a wood fire, and put a pint of oak sawdust into the water when it is boiled.—Another way. Take spring water that is not hard, add saltpetre and bay salt to it till it will bear an egg, the broad way, then add a pound and a half of coarse sugar; mix all together, and let the ham lay in this pickle a fortnight or three weeks; then lay it in the chimney to dry. When you boil it, put some hay into the copper with it. You may keep the pickle as long as you please by often boiling it up.
WET CLOTHES. When a person has the misfortune to get wet, care should be taken not to get too near the fire, or into a warm room, so as to occasion a sudden heat. The safest way is to keep in constant motion, until some dry clothes can be procured, and to exchange them as soon as possible.