ma, impetigo, and ecthyma.

The unripe fruit is laxative, and of beneficial use in thrush, and in
ulcerative sore throat. The leaves are said to be anti-syphilitic:
likewise the green husk, and unripe shell. Obstinate ulcers may be
cured with sugar well moistened in a strong decoction of the leaves.

[599] Well kept, kiln-dried Walnuts, of some age, are better
digested than newer fruit; in contrast to old gherkins, about which
it has been humorously said, "avoid stale Q-cumbers: they will
W-up." In many parts of Germany the peasants literally subsist on
Walnuts for several months together; and a young farmer before he
marries has to own a certain number of flourishing Walnut trees.

The bark or yellow skin which clothes the inner nut is a notable
remedy for colic, being given when dried and powdered, in a dose
of thirty or forty grains mixed with some carminative water; and the
same powder will help to expel worms.

According to the Salernitan maxim, if the fruit of the Walnut be
eaten after fish, the digestion of the latter is promoted:--

Post pisces nux sit: post carnes case us esto.

Or,

"Take Welsh nuts after fish: take cheese after flesh meat."

But with some persons coughing is excited by eating Walnuts.

The roots, leaves, and rind yield a brown dye which is supposed to
contain iodine, and which gipsies employ for staining their skins. It
also serves to turn the hair black. A custom prevails (says a Latin
sentence) among certain country folk to thrash the nuts out of their
husks while still on the trees, so that they may grow more
abundantly the following year. In allusion to which practice the
lines run thus:--

"Nux, asinus, mulier, simili sunt lege ligata;
Haec trieo nil fructus faciunt si verbera cessant."

"A woman, a donkey, a walnut tree--
The more you beat them, the better they be."

[600] It is a fact, that by acting in this way, the barren ends of the
branches are knocked off, and fresh fruit-bearing twigs spring out at
each side in their stead.

Walnut cake, after expressing out the oil from the kernels, is a good
food for cattle, these kernels being the crumpled cotyledons or seed
leaves. They contain oil, mucilage, albumen, mineral matter,
cellulose, and water.

The rook has a most abiding affection for Walnuts. As soon as there
is any fruit on the trees worth eating, this bird finds it out, and
brings it to the ground, choosing only those nuts which are so