The following domestic medicines and recipes may be relied upon. They are handed down from a very ancient period; and, "no cure, no pay:"
"A stick of brimstone wore in the pocket is good for them as has cramps.
"A loadstone put on the place where the pain is, is beautiful in the rheumatiz.
"A basin of water-gruel, with half a quart of old rum in it, or a quart, if partic'lar bad, with lots o' brown sugar, going to bed, is good for a cold in the 'ead.
"If you've got the hiccups, pinch one o' your wrists, and hold your breath while you count sixty, or—get somebody to scare you, and make you jump!
"The Ear-Ache: Put an inyun in your ear, after it is well roasted!"
How old Dr. Johnson did hate Scotland! His severity of sarcasm upon that country is unexampled by his comments upon any thing else, however annoying. On his return from the Hebrides, he was asked by a Scottish gentleman, at an evening party in London, how he liked Scotland. "Scotland, sir?" replied Johnson, with a lowering brow, and savage expression generally, "Scotland? Scotland, sir, is a miserable country—a contemptible country, sir!" "You can not do the Almighty the great wrong to say that, Dr. Johnson," answered the other, deeply nettled at so harsh a judgment: "God made Scotland, sir." "Yes, sir," was the cutting rejoinder: "God did make Scotland, but He made it for Scotchmen! God made hell also, sir!" On another occasion, when asked how he liked certain views of scenery in that country, he replied: "The finest and most satisfactory view in Scotland, sir, is the view looking from it, on the high-road to London!" The same spirit was manifested in his reply to a friend, who was consoling him for the loss of a favorite cane with which he had traveled in the north of Scotland. "You can easily replace it, Dr. Johnson," said his friend. "Replace it, sir! Consider, where I'm to find the timber for such a purpose in this barren country!" It strikes us that a lack of trees or shrubbery could not be more forcibly exemplified than by this sarcastic reply.