ost severely, but
sheep, pigs and deer were not affected by this acorn malady. Its
symptoms are progressive wasting, loss of appetite, diarrhoea, sore
places inside the mouth, discharge from [16] the eyes and nostrils,
excretion of much pale urine, and no fever, but a fall of
temperature below the normal standard. Having regard to which
train of symptoms it is fair to suppose the acorn will afford in the
human subject a useful specific medicine for the marasmus, or
wasting atrophy of young children who are scrofulous. The fruit
should be given in the form of a tincture, or vegetable extract, or
even admixed (when ground) sparingly with wheaten flour in
bread. The dose should fall short of producing any of the above
symptoms, and the remedy should be steadily pursued for many
weeks.

The tincture should be made of saturated strength with spirit of
wine on the bruised acorns, to stand for a fortnight before being
decanted. Then the dose will be from twenty to thirty drops with
water three or four times a day.

The Acorn contains chemically starch, a fixed oil, citric acid,
uncrystallizable sugar, and another special sugar called "quercit."

Acorns, when roasted and powdered, have been sometimes employed
as a fair substitute for coffee. By distillation they will
yield an ardent spirit.

Dr. Burnett strongly commends a "distilled spirit of acorns" as an
antidote to the effects of alcohol, where the spleen and kidneys
have already suffered, with induced dropsy. It acts on the principle
of similars, ten drops being given three times a day in water.

In certain parts of Europe it is customary to place acorns in the
hands of the newly dead; whilst in other districts an apple is put
into the palm of a child when lying in its little coffin.

The bark of an oak tree, and the galls, or apples, produced on its
leaves, or twigs, by an insect named [17] cynips, are very
astringent, by reason of the gallo-tannic acid which they furnish
abundantly. This acid, given as a drug, or the strong decoction of
oak bark which contains it, will serve to restrain bleedings if taken
internally; and finely powdered oak bark, when inhaled pretty
frequently, has proved very beneficial against consumption of the
lungs in its early stages. Working tanners are well known to be
particularly exempt from this disease, probably through their
constantly inhaling the peculiar aroma given off from the tan pits;
and a like effect may be produced by usin