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Apple - part two
In the United States of America an infusion of apple tree
bark is given with benefit during intermittent, remittent,
and bilious fevers. We likewise prescribe Apple water as a
grateful cooling drink for feverish patients.
Francatelli directs that it should be made thus: "Slice up thinly
three or four Apples without peeling them, and boil them in a very
clean saucepan, with a quart of water and a little sugar until the
slices of apple become soft; the apple water must then be strained
through a piece of muslin, or clean rag, into a jug, and drank when
cold." If desired, a small piece of the yellow rind of a lemon may
be added, just enough to give it a flavour.
About the year 1562 a certain rector of St. Ives, in Cornwall, the
Rev. Mr. Attwell, practised physic with milk and Apples so
successfully in many diseases, and so spread his reputation, that
numerous sufferers came to him from all the neighbouring
counties.
In Germany ripe Apples are applied to warts for removing
them, by reason of the earthy salts, particularly the
magnesia, of the fruit. It is a fact, though not generally known, that
magnesia, as occurring in ordinary Epsom salts, will cure obstinate
warts, and the disposition thereto. Just a few grains, from three to
six, not enough to produce any sensible medicinal effect, taken
once a day for three or four weeks, will surely dispel a crop of
warts.
Old cheese ameliorates Apples if eaten when crude, probably
by reason of the volatile alkali, or ammonia of the cheese
neutralizing the acids of the Apple. Many persons make a practice
of eating cheese with Apple pie. The "core" of an Apple is so
named from the French word, _coeur_, "heart."
The juice of the cultivated Apple made by fermentation into cider,
which means literally "strong drink," was pronounced by John
Evelyn, in his _Pomona_, 1729, to be "in a word the most
wholesome drink in Europe, as specially sovereign against the
scorbute, the stone, spleen, and what not."
This beverage contains alcohol (on the average a little over
five per cent.), gum, sugar, mineral matters, and
several acids, among which the malic predominates.
As an habitual drink, if sweet, it is apt to provoke
acid fermentation with a gouty subject, and to develop rheumatism.
Nevertheless, Dr. Nash, of Worcester, attributed to cider
great virtues in leading to longevity; and a Herefordshire
vicar bears witness to its superlative merits thus:--
"All the Gallic wines are not so boon
As hearty cider;--that strong son of wood
In fullest tides refines and purges blood;
Becomes a known Bethesda, whence arise
Full certain cures for spit tall maladies:
Death slowly can the citadel invade;
A draught of this bedulls his scythe, and spade."
Medical testimony goes to show that in countries where cider--not
of the sweet sort--is the common beverage, stone, or calculus,
is unknown; and a series of enquiries among the doctors of
Normandy, a great Apple country, where cider is the principal, if
not the sole drink, brought to light the fact that not a single case
had been met with there in forty years. Cider Apples were
introduced by the Normans; and the beverage began to be brewed
in 1284. The Hereford orchards were first planted "tempore"
Charles I.
A chance case of stone in the bladder if admitted into a
Devonshire or a Herefordshire Hospital, is regarded by the
surgeons there as a sort of professional curiosity, probably
imported from a distance. So that it may be fairly surmised that the
habitual use of natural unsweetened cider keeps held in solution
materials which are otherwise liable to be separated in a solid form
by the kidneys.
Pippins are apples which have been raised from pips; a
codling is an apple which requires to be "coddled," stewed, or
lightly boiled, being yet sour and unfit for eating whilst raw.
The John Apple, or Apple John, ripens on St. John's Day, December
27th. It keeps sound for two years, but becomes very shrunken. Sir
John Falstaff says (_Henry IV_., iii. 3) "Withered like an old
Apple John." The squab pie, famous in Cornwall, contains apples
and onions allied with mutton.
"Of wheaten walls erect your paste:
Let the round mass extend its breast;
Next slice your apples picked so fresh;
Let the fat sheep supply its flesh:
Then add an onion's pungent juice--
A sprinkling--be not too profuse!
Well mixt, these nice ingredients--sure!
May gratify an epicure."
In America, "Apple Slump" is a pie consisting of apples, molasses,
and bread crumbs baked in a tin pan. This is known to New
Englanders as "Pan Dowdy." An agreeable bread was at one time
made by an ingenious Frenchman which consisted of one third of
apples boiled, and two-thirds of wheaten flour.
It was through the falling of an apple in the garden of Mrs.
Conduitt at Woolthorpe, near Grantham, Sir Isaac Newton was led
to discover the great law of gravitation which regulates the whole
universe. Again, it was an apple the patriot William Tell shot from
the head of his own bright boy with one arrow, whilst reserving a
second for the heart of a tyrant. Dr. Prior says the word Apple took
its origin from the Sanskrit, _Ap_,--"water," and _Phal_,--"fruit,"
meaning "water fruit," or "juice fruit"; and with this the Latin
name _Pomum_--from _Poto_, "to drink"--precisely agrees; if
which be so, our apple must have come originally from the East
long ages back.
The term "Apple-pie order" is derived from the French
phrase, _à plis_, "in plaits," folded in regular plaits; or, perhaps,
from _cap à pied_, "armed from head to foot," in perfect order.
Likewise the "Apple-pie bed" is so called from the French _à
plis_, or it may be from the Apple turnover of Devon and
Cornwall, as made with the paste turned over on itself.
The botanical name of an apple tree is Pyrus Malus, of which
schoolboys are wont to make ingenious uses by playing on the
latter word.
Malo, I had rather be;
Malo, in an Apple tree;
Malo,than a wicked man;
Malo, in adversity.
Or, again, _Mea mater mala est sus_, which bears the
easy translation, "My mother is a wicked old sow"; but
the intentional reading of which signifies
"Run, mother! the sow is eating the apples."
The term "Adam's Apple," which is applied to the
most prominent part of a person's throat in front is
based on the superstition that a piece of the
forbidden fruit stuck in Adam's throat, and caused
this lump to remain.
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Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, by William Thomas Fernie
Philadelphia:
Boericke & Tafel.
1897
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