A Cure for Distemper in Dogs

 

The following cure was found written on a front flyleaf in an 1811 3rd Ed. copy of The Sportsman’s Guide or Sportsman’s Companion: Containing Every Possible Instruction for the Juvenille Shooter,    Together with Information Necessary for the Experienced Sportsman by B. Thomas.

Transcript:

Vaccinate your dogs when young with the Cow pox by introducing the matter with a lancet on the fleshy part of the fore leg — taking care to have it effectually introduced and rubbed in, first clearing away the hair, sot that it may not obstruct the Lancet — mind that the pustule stands in duo time, and the disorder has taken effect.

Give a dose of Sulphur every other day for 3 days — immediately after the scab of the pustule is dead.

Mr. Windus has tried it, and has no doubt of it’s proven the distemper in dogs.

A History of Fowling – Ravens and Jays

From A History of Fowling, Being an Account of the Many Curios Devices by Which Wild Birds are, or Have Been, Capured in Different Part of the World  by Rev. H.A. MacPherson, M.A. 

THE RAVEN (Corvus corax) is generally accredited with a large endowment of mother wit. Its warning croak is usually uttered long before an expectant fowler has approached within several hundred yards of its nesting haunt. But even the bird of darkness is sometimes worsted by the craft of its human enemies. The modern Greenlander destroys the Raven with a shot-gun. Continue reading A History of Fowling – Ravens and Jays

The First Greek Book by John Williams White

Click here to read The First Greek Book by John Williams White

IN MEMORIAM

JOHN WILLIAMS WHITE

The death, on May 9, of John Williams White, professor of Greek in Harvard University, touches a large number of classical workers who have come into relations with him through his teaching or his writings, and concerns many a student, past or present, who may not have known his name, or a word of the language and literature which he professed. Continue reading The First Greek Book by John Williams White

The Crime of the Congo by Arthur Conan Doyle

Click here to read The Crime of the Congo by Arthur Conan Doyle

 

Thomas Jefferson Correspondence – On Seed Saving and Sharing

 

The following are transcripts of two letters written by the Founding Father Thomas Jefferson on the subject of seed saving.

“November 27, 1818. Monticello. Thomas Jefferson to Henry E. Watkins, transmitting succory seed and outlining the culture of succory.” [Transcript]
Thomas Jefferson Correspondence Collection
Collection 89

Dear Sir,

Your fav[ou]r of the 6th. did not get to hand till the 23d. and I now with pleasure send you as much of the succory seed as can well go under the volume of a letter. as I mentioned to our colleagues at the Gap, I had forgotten which of them expressed a willingness to try this plant, and therefore I have waited for their application having taken care to have a plenty of seed saved. Continue reading Thomas Jefferson Correspondence – On Seed Saving and Sharing

Muscadine Jelly


Muscadine Jelly
6 cups muscadine grape juice
6 cups sugar
1 box Kraft Sure Gel or Ball Fruit Jell Continue reading Muscadine Jelly

The Hardwood Handbook – An Illustrated Guide to Appalachian and Southern Lumber

This Handbook is Published by SLMA or the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturer’s Association

Click here to read the handbook or click on the link below for a faster download.

Shipmates

I once met a chap, hailed from Harvard
said where’d ye attend school, this here is starboard
On his diploma was a bit more yellow
Than that on the belly of his scholarly fellows
His hat was a good half inch taller
Than his lapels which were narrowly smaller
So I yanked him up by his collar
Whence he commenced to holler:
“Sir you must be quite daft
Release me that I may go aft”
You don’t know your port from your ale
Says I being a good man from Yale
But since you insist on this ride
How about a look at the tides
As I kicked his arse overboard
And reminded him to thank the Good Lord
That he’s peacefully floating at sea
And not here on deck, shipmates with me
For this shirt that hails me from Yale
Belongs to the barrister that posted my bail

The Perfect Salad Dressing

 

Green Goddess Salad Dressing

The following recipes are from a small booklet entitled 500 Delicious Salads that was published for the Culinary Arts Institute in 1940 by Consolidated Book Publishers, Inc. 153 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill.

If you have been looking for a way to lighten up your salads and be free of calorie filled store bought salad dressings, then the following just might do the trick.  Continue reading The Perfect Salad Dressing

The American Museum in Britain – From Florida to Bath

Hernando de Soto (c1496-1542) Spanish explorer and his men torturing natives of Florida in his determination to find gold. Hand-coloured engraving. John Judkyn Memorial Collection, Freshford Manor, Bath

The print above depicts Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his band of conquistadors torturing Florida natives in order to extract information on where one might find gold on the peninsula.  The print is one of many in a collection of prints that belonged to John Judkyn, a Briton who was a noted antiques dealer, collector, and conservator.   I discovered this print on the website for The American Museum in Bath, a British museum that Judkyn helped found and where his life-long collection is housed. Continue reading The American Museum in Britain – From Florida to Bath

Chinese 9 Course Dinner

The following recipes form the most popular items in a nine-course dinner program:

BIRD’S NEST SOUP

Soak one pound bird’s nest in cold water overnight.  Drain the cold water and cook in boiling water. Drain again.  Do this twice. Clean the bird’s nest. Be sure to take out all feathers and loose particles.

Continue reading Chinese 9 Course Dinner

The Effect of Magnetic Fields on Wound Healing

The Effect of Magnetic Fields on Wound Healing
Experimental Study and Review of the Literature

Steven L. Henry, MD, Matthew J. Concannon, MD, and Gloria J. Yee, MD
Division of Plastic Surgery, University of Missouri Hospital & Clinics, Columbia, MO
Published July 25, 2008

Objective: Magnets are purported to aid wound healing despite a paucity of scientific evidence. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of static magnetic fields on cutaneous wound healing in an animal model. The  literature was reviewed to explore the historical and scientific basis of magnet therapy and to define its current role in the evidence-based practice of plastic surgery. Continue reading The Effect of Magnetic Fields on Wound Healing

Ought King Leopold to be Hanged?

For the somewhat startling suggestion in the heading of this interview, the missionary interviewed is in no way responsible. The credit of it, or, if you like, the discredit, belongs entirely to the editor of the Review, who, without dogmatism, wishes to pose the question as a matter for serious discussion. Since Charles I’s head was cut off, opposite Whitehall, nearly two hundred and fifty years ago, the sanctity which doth hedge about a king has been held in slight and scant regard by the Puritans and their descendants. Hence there is nothing antecedently shocking or outrageous in the discussion of the question whether the acts of any Sovereign are such as to justify the calling in of the services of the public executioner. It is not, of course, for a journalist to pronounce judgment, but no function of the public writer is so imperative as that of calling attention to great wrongs, and no duty is more imperious than that of insisting that no rank or station should be allowed to shield from justice the real criminal when he is once discovered. Continue reading Ought King Leopold to be Hanged?

Storing Drinking Water in Copper Vessels for Microbial Purification

Are you considering purchasing a copper water pitcher for storing drinking water but have questions about the effects on your health?

The following study may help jump-start your research.

Storing Drinking-water in Copper pots Kills Contaminating Diarrhoeagenic Bacteria

ABSTRACT

Microbially-unsafe water is still a major concern in most developing countries. Although many water-purification methods exist, these are expensive and beyond the reach of many people, especially in rural areas. Ayurveda recommends the use of copper for storing drinking-water. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of copper pot on microbially-contaminated drinking-water. The antibacterial effect of copper pot against important diarrhoeagenic bacteria, including Vibrio cholerae O1, Shigella flexneri 2a, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, enteropathogenic E. coli, Salmonella enterica Typhi, and Salmonella Paratyphi is reported. When drinking-water (pH 7.83±0.4; source: ground) was contaminated with 500 CFU/mL of the above bacteria and stored in copper pots for 16 hours at room temperature, no bacteria could be recovered on the culture medium. Recovery failed even after resuscitation in enrichment broth, followed by plating on selective media, indicating loss of culturability. This is the first report on the effect of copper on S. flexneri 2a, enteropathogenic E. coli, and Salmonella Paratyphi. After 16 hours, there was a slight increase in the pH of water from 7.83 to 7.93 in the copper pots while the other physicochemical parameters remained unchanged. Copper content (177±16 ppb) in water stored in copper pots was well within the permissible limits of the World Health Organization. Copper holds promise as a point-of-use solution for microbial purification of drinking-water, especially in developing countries.

Click here to read the entire study.

The Red-Headed Macaw

I swapped a parakeet for a red-headed Macaw
That drank my rum and called me paw
I’d rock in my chair, she’d swing on her perch
When the preacher came around she’d pretend it was church

On Saturday mornings when we drove into town
She’d ride on the back of my blue-tick hound
Howling in unison while we made the rounds

She worked out a scheme with a barber named Ed
Alleviating customers of any spare change they had
by rolling over and playing dead

She stayed with me near fourteen years
Drinking rum, always near
Then one day she bolted towards the sun
So I filled her with buckshot from my trusty old shotgun

Paramilitary Operations in the Congo: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic and Other Psychological Phenomena

WITCHCRAFT, SORCERY, MAGIC AND OTHER PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS ON MILITARY AND PARAMILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE CONGO

This report has been prepared in response to a query posed by ODCS/OPS, Department of the Army, regarding the purported use of witchcraft, sorcery, and magic by insurgent elements in the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville). Magical practices are said to be effective in conditioning dissident elements and their followers to do battle with Government troops. Continue reading Paramilitary Operations in the Congo: Witchcraft, Sorcery, Magic and Other Psychological Phenomena

Coffee & Cigarettes

Aw, the good old days, meet in the coffee shop with a few friends, click open the Zippo, inhale a glorious nosegay of lighter fluid, fresh roasted coffee and a Chesterfield cigarette….

A Meta-analysis of Coffee Drinking, Cigarette Smoking, and the Risk of Parkinson’s Disease

We conducted a systematic review to summarize the epidemiological evidence on the association between cigarette smoking, coffee drinking, and the risk of Parkinson’s disease. Case–control and cohort studies that reported the relative risk of physician-confirmed Parkinson’s disease by cigarette smoking or coffee drinking status were included. Study-specific log relative risks were weighted by the inverse of their variances to obtain a pooled relative risk and its 95% confidence interval (CI). Results for smoking were based on 44 case–control and 4 cohort studies, and for coffee 8 case–control and 5 cohort studies. Compared with never smokers, the relative risk of Parkinson’s disease was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.54–0.63) for ever smokers, 0.80 (95% CI, 0.69–0.93) for past smokers, and 0.39 (95% CI, 0.32–0.47) for current smokers. The relative risk per 10 additional pack-years was 0.84 (95% CI, 0.81–0.88) in case–control studies and 0.78 (95% CI, 0.73–0.84) in cohort studies. Compared with non–coffee drinkers, relative risk of Parkinson’s disease was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.59–0.80) for coffee drinkers. The relative risk per three additional cups of coffee per day was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.64–0.86) in case–control studies and 0.68 (95% CI, 0.46–1.00) in cohort studies. This meta-analysis shows that there is strong epidemiological evidence that smokers and coffee drinkers have a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. Further research is required on the biological mechanisms underlying this potentially protective effect.

Click here to read the full study entitled: A Meta-analysis of Coffee Drinking, Cigarette Smoking, and the Risk of Parkinson’s Disease 

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

 

THE HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA

Translated into English by
PANCHAM SINH

Panini Office, Allahabad
[1914]

INTRODUCTION.

There exists at present a good deal of misconception with regard to the practices of the Haṭha Yoga. People easily believe in the stories told by those who themselves heard them second hand, and no attempt is made to find out the truth by a direct reference to any good treatise. It is generally believed that the six practices, in Haṭha Yoga are compulsory on the student and that besides being dirty, they are fraught with danger to the practiser. This is not true, for these practices are necessary only in the existence of impurities in the Nâdis, and not otherwise. Continue reading The Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Seeds for Rootstocks of Fruit and Nut Trees

THE PRINCIPAL fruit and nut trees grown commercially in the United States (except figs, tung, and filberts) are grown as varieties or clonal lines propagated on rootstocks.

Almost all the rootstocks are grown from seed. The resulting seedlings then are either budded or grafted with propagating wood of the desired variety. This practice has come about chiefly because the improved varieties of these fruits and nuts do not come true from seed and are not easily propagated on their own roots from cuttings. Continue reading Seeds for Rootstocks of Fruit and Nut Trees

Producing and Harvesting Tobacco Seed

Setting up Tobacco Plants in Carolina – USDA Photo

THE FIRST step in producing a satisfactory crop of tobacco is to use good seed that is true to type. The grower often can save his own seed to advantage, if he wants to.

Before topping is done, he should go over the tobacco field carefully to pick out desirable seed plants. When he has decided on the ideal type of plant, he should select the plants that conform to this type for producing seed.  One plant produces about one-half ounce of viable seed (about 150 thousand seeds), which is enough for 100 square yards in seedbed area and, if conditions are favorable, enough seedlings to plant 2 to 5 acres. Continue reading Producing and Harvesting Tobacco Seed

Wine Making

Wine Making 

Grapes are the world’s leading fruit crop and the eighth most important food crop in the world, exceeded only by the principal cereals and starchytubers. Though substantial quantities are used for fresh fruit, raisins, juice and preserves, most of the world’s annual production of about 60 million metric tons is used for dry (nonsweet) wine.

Wine is of great antiquity, as every Bible reader knows, and a traditional and important element in the daily fare of millions.  Used in moderation, it is wholesome and nourishing, and gives zest to the simplest diet.  It is a source of a broad range of essential minerals, some vitamins, and easily assimilated calories provided by its moderate alcoholic content. Continue reading Wine Making

Clover Wine

  1. Add 3 quarts clover blossoms* to 4 quarts of boiling water removed from heat at point of boil. Let stand for three days.
  2. At the end of the third day, drain the juice into another container leaving the blossoms.
  3. Add three quarts of fresh water and the peel of one lemon to the blossoms and boil for fifteen minutes.
  4. Drain again and add this to the first container of juice.
  5. Add a pound of sugar to each quart of juice.
  6. Ferment with one cup of yeast. Keep in warm room for three weeks and then bottle.

* Blossoms are the flowers, not the leaves. A variety of clovers can be used. A conversation with a local farmer could be rewarding here. 

 

On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases by Nathaniel Bagwell Ward

Nathanial Bagshaw Ward

What follows is a chapter from Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward’s 1852 treatise on terrarium gardening.

ON THE NATURAL CONDITIONS OF PLANTS.

To enter into any lengthened detail on the all-important subject of the Natural Conditions of Plants would occupy far too much space; yet to pass it by without special notice, in any work treating of their cultivation, would be impossible. Without a knowledge of the laws which regulate their growth, all out attempts must be empirical and more or less abortive. When we survey the vegetation on the surface of the earth, we are struck with the endless diversities of form which present themselves to our astonished gaze, from the magnificent palms of the Tropics and the bread-fruit of the Polynesian Islands to the reindeer moss of Lapland, or the red snow of the Arctic regions. Yet the growth of all is governed by immutable laws, and they owe their forms to varying climatal conditions. Continue reading On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases by Nathaniel Bagwell Ward

Something about Caius College, Cambridge

Gonville & Caius College, known as Caius and pronounced keys was founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, the Rector of Terrington St Clement in Norfolk.   The first name was thus Goville Hall and it was dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Caius College, along with Pembroke, Corpus Christi, and Trinity Hall were all founded within a decade of one another.   Many believe this proliferation of colleges came about due to the plague or the Black Death of 1348 which took the lives of many learned men, thus these colleges are often attributed “plague colleges”, established to cultivate a new generation of educated men.

Three parcels of land for the college was purchased by Gonville on March 5th 1347. In January 1348 King Edward III granted the right to establish and endow a Hall.  Edmund Gonville did not  have the resources necessary to properly endow the college and following his death in the summer of 1351, the Bishop of Norwich, William Batemen took control of the finances, and brought in further endowment.  The College remained under-endowed until 1557 when a former student named John Keys, who spelled his name Caius on legal documents, stepped in from his successful City of London medical practice.  He offered to re-found his alma mater as Gonville and Caius College.  In 1558 Dr. Caius was elected Master.

Dr. Caius substantially increased the endowment during his tenure as Master through additional land purchases by use of his own funds and donations.  Upon part of the land donated by Dr. Caius today sits Tree Court as shown in the photo below. Upon his death in 1573, he was buried in the College Chapel.

Tree Court

Today, March 31st, 2018, six porters from the college shall serve as pall bearers for the funeral of world-renowned scientist Dr. Stephen Hawking.  Hawking was educated at Caius and it served as his academic home for over 52 years.