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tence, which the barons endeavoured to impose upon the bishops, because the criminal was an ecclesiastic, one of the bishops made this reply: "Non est hoc judicium ecclesiasticum sed seculare, non sedemus HIC episcopi sed BARONES; nos barones, et vos barones pares hic sumus.” (See the Life of Becket by Fitzstephen, as quoted by Selden, Tit. of Hon. p. 584.)

LVIII. A DOMESTIC MEDICINE-CHEST.

THE Bourgeois Gentilhomme of Molière manifests extreme surprise when he finds that he has been talking prose for forty years without knowing it: and we doubt. not that many will be equally astonished when they learn that they have had a medicine-chest in their house for forty years without knowing it—in the shape of a set of well-filled cruets. The salt, for example, is a decided cathartic in the dose of half an ounce or an ounce; it is also a vermifuge in large doses, and its power is great in preventing as well as killing worms. It has been repeatedly stated that those criminals in Holland who were formerly condemned to live without salt were dreadfully infested with worms, and there is recent evidence to the same effect. Dr. Dyer informs us, from his personal experience, that in the Mauritius the planters' slaves rarely obtain salt, and are extremely subject to worms; while the Government slaves and the convicts get salt in their rations, and seldom suffer from the disease. Some planters, regarding economy and the health of the slaves at the same time, give a tablespoonful of salt in half a pint of water to each slave regularly every Saturday after

work; and they find that this dose acts not only as a vermifuge, but as a tonic.

The vinegar, again, is refrigerant and diaphoretic ; and is moderately stimulant and astringent when applied externally. It formerly had great reputation in cases of poisoning by narcotics; but here, it must be confessed, that it is of doubtful efficacy. It is certainly useful, however, when soda, potash, or ammonia are taken in over-doses, as the acetic acid which it contains combines with and chemically neutralizes them.

The mustard comes next, but this requires no panegyric at our hands, for not many years have elapsed since it was the fashion to attribute every virtue under heaven to mustard-seeds. More lately, too, a mustard emetic was extolled as infallible in cholera, just as a salt-and-water emetic was during the last autumn: so that a disease numbered among the opprobria medicorum has found two specifics in the domestic medicine-chest. A mustard poultice is no mean rival of a blister. Olive-oil has great merits. The best dispensatory that we have tells us that it is "demulcent, relaxant, and laxative." It is a good antidote against acrid poisons, and seems to be obnoxious to worms; perhaps some of the undigested oil reaches these disagreeable animals, and stops their breathing-holes. Lastly, my Lord Bacon is of opinion that rubbing the skin with oil is very conducive to longevity.

Nor is our chest deficient in stimulants. First comes the common pepper, whether black or white matters not, save that the latter is the stronger. Among its more special virtues let us mention its power, when infused in water, of curing a relaxed sore-throat; and piperin, the

alkaloid extracted from it, has cured ague, in the hands of Dr. Meli and others. The Dublin Pharmacopoeia has an ointment of black pepper, which has been recommended against ringworm.

The Cayenne possesses similar virtues, but in a very exalted degree. It is the king of peppers, and whether in lending its fires to fish and wild fowl, or stimulating an ulcerated throat, it shows itself worthy of its high reputation, and is impressed on the memory and the palate in characters not to be effaced. We will not go through the spice-box, and the herbarium of the pantry, though they would afford materials for another lecture on the materia medica: but there are two articles which have such testimony in their favour, that it is impossible to refrain from mentioning them, we mean sage and cinnamon. Their merits have been pithily expressed in the following leonine verses. Of sage the poet says:

Salvia salvatrix, naturæ conciliatrix !

Cur moriatur homo, cui salvia crescit in horto?

And cinnamon prompts the same question :
Cur moriatur homo, qui sumit de cinnamomo?

LIX. LE PETIT PERE ANDRE,

AND OTHER ODD PREACHERS.

MR. D'ISRAELI has mentioned this droll monk, in his section on "Jocular Preachers;" but has given no specimens of his manner, which was quite as startling and curious as that of Menot or Maillard, of both of whom he speaks at some length.

A doctor of the Sorbonne, who went one day to hear little Andrew preach, was astonished to hear him compare the four great fathers of the Latin church to the four kings of the suits of our gaming-cards. We must give the passage in French; for though the designs and figures are the same, we call the cards by different names, and thus the sense would be lost in English.

"Saint Augustin (disoit il) est le roi de cœur, par sa grande charité; Saint Ambroise est le roi de tréfle, par les fleurs de son eloquence; Saint Jerôme est le roi de pique, par son style mordant; Saint Gregoire est le roi de carreau, par son peu d'élévation.”

On another occasion, when Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV, came into church after the sermon had begun, he turned round in the pulpit, and addressed her in these not very complimentary words: "Madam, you are welcome, but we shall not put an extra pot on the fire on your account."

This merry-Andrew, though a monk, could be witty at the expense of other monks. A thunderbolt fell on the convent of the Carmelites. "God has been very merciful to those good fathers," said he, "in only sacrificing their library, in which there was not a single monk. If the lightning had fallen upon their kitchen, they must all have been in danger of perishing!"

He was once engaged to preach in a parish church at Paris, and he availed himself of that opportunity to punish the curate, who had given him some cause of offence.

Little Andrew began by speaking of the duties of curates and ecclesiastics in general. He said, that ac

cording to the language of Scripture, they might be compared to dogs which guard the shepherds' flocks. He next divided them into dumb dogs that never bark, and dogs that bark with all their might whenever it is necessary. The first, he said, were of no use to their master, and not worth their keep; but the second drive the wolf from the fold, and are valuable animals. "It is in this second class, or species," he continued, "that I must place your curate, who by his constant vigilance, and his lively and pathetic discourses, defends his flock against the arch-enemy that is always seeking to devour it. And thus, my brethren, you may say that you have the best little dog of a curate to be found in the whole Catholic church."

Ménage relates the next anecdote, which, with several others, proves that the little monk had no fear of great men. He was preaching on Twelfth-day, or the Epiphany, at Nancy, where an oppressed and impoverished people had filled his ears with complaints of the rapacity of the Marshal de la Ferté, who commanded in that province. The Marshal, with his staff, was present at the sermon, and Andrew determined to hit him hard with a bit of Church Latin. He made his discourse turn on the thanksgivings and offerings men ought to make to God, the source of all their prosperity, "Afferte filios arietum, afferte aurum et argentum, afferte omnia quæcumque habetis:" and he so accentuated the verb "afferte" as to make it sound like à Ferté (the name of the Marshal), and to make the sense of his phrase, "Unto Ferté, the young of your rams; unto Ferté, your gold and your silver; unto Ferté, all that you possess." He repeated

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