injucunda locutus:
'Assoe' dixit 'oves sunt tibi coena, senex.'"

"J'ai entendu parler d'un veillard de Tobag
Qui ne mangea longtemps que du ris et du sague;
Mais enfin le medecin lui dit ces mots:
'Allez vous en, mon ami, au gigot.'"

[156] DILL.

Cordial waters distilled from the fragrant herb called Dill are, as
every mother and monthly nurse well know, a sovereign remedy
for wind in the infant; whilst they serve equally well to correct
flatulence in the grown up "gourmet." This highly scented plant
(_Anethum graveolens_) is of Asiatic origin, growing wild also in
some parts of England, and commonly cultivated in our gardens
for kitchen or medicinal uses.

It "hath a little stalk of a cubit high, round, and joyned, whereupon
do grow leaves very finely cut, like to those of Fennel, but much
smaller." The herb is of the umbelliferous order, and its fruit
chemically furnishes "anethol," a volatile empyreumatic oil similar
to that contained in the Anise, and Caraway. Virgil speaks of the
Dill in his _Second Eclogue _as the _bene olens anethum_, "a
pleasant and fragrant plant." Its seeds were formerly directed to be
used by the _Pharmacopoeias_ of London and Edinburgh. Forestus
extols them for allaying sickness and hiccough. Gerard says:
"Dill stayeth the yeox, or hicquet, as Dioscorides has taught."

The name _Anethum _was a radical Greek term (_aitho_--to
burn), and the herb is still called Anet in some of our country
districts. The pungent essential oil which it yields consists of a
hydrocarbon, "carvene," together with an oxygenated oil; It is a
"gallant expeller of the wind, and provoker of the terms." "Limbs
that are swollen and cold if rubbed with the oil of Dill are much
eased; if not cured thereby."

A dose of the essential oil if given for flatulent indigestion should
be from two to four drops, on sugar, or with a tablespoonful of
milk. Of the distilled water sweetened, one or two teaspoonfuls
may be given to an infant.

[157] The name Dill is derived from the Saxon verb _dilla_, to
lull, because of its tranquillizing properties, and its causing
children to sleep. This word occurs in the vocabulary of Oelfric,
Archbishop of Canterbury, tenth century. Dioscorides gave the oil
got from the flowers for rheumatic pains, and sciatica; also a
carminative water distilled from the fruit, for increasing the milk
of wet nurses, and for appeasing the windy belly-aches of babies.
He teac