The best ginger cuts pale, but bright, with a varied color, both outside and inside. Its consistency is ascertained by cutting, and varies from hard to soft or, as is termed in the trade, flinty, the soft being the best. The popular medicinal stimulant known as Jamaica ginger extract is an alcoholic extract of ginger root, and is often resorted to by old topers who can no longer be satisfied with whiskey. Salable essence of ginger is made by taking one pint of strong tincture of the finest Jamaica, to which add in small portions at a time finely powdered slacked lime, shaking vigorously after each addition, until the tincture ceases to lose color, then throw the whole upon a filter and pass through the residue proof spirit until the product will measure two pints. Next add, drop by drop, diluted sulphuric acid until the rich yellow of the tincture suddenly disappears. Let it stand twenty-four hours, dilute with water to four pints, and shake with a little powdered pumice or silica and filter at 0 degrees C., if possible. Ginger lozenges are used as a confectionery which frequently benefits dyspepsia and generally encourages flesh. Ginger-beer powders are made by mixing two ounces of white sugar with twenty-six grains of bicarbonate of soda, five grains of powdered ginger, and one drop of essence of lemon, put in white paper. In blue paper put half ounce of tartaric acid. In drinking use in the same way as seidlitz powder. The following is a good recipe for making ginger beer, and it has a high medical authority as yielding a very superior beverage, and one that will keep for several months: White sugar, twenty pounds; lemon juice, eighteen fluid ounces; honey, one pound; bruised ginger, twenty-two ounces; water, eighteen gallons. Boil the ginger in three gallons of water for half an hour, then add the sugar, the lemon juice, and the honey with the remainder of the water, and strain through a cloth; when cold, add the white of one egg and half an ounce of essence of lemon; after standing for four or five days, bottle. The bottles should be laid on their sides in a cellar, and the beer is ready for use in about three weeks. If a little yeast has been used the beer is ready in about two days, but in this case the beer does not keep well. [Illustration: MONTEGO] [Illustration: PORT ROYAL, JAMAICA] The principal consumption of ginger is not only as a useful aromatic spice, but when applied to the nostrils it acts as an irritant and produces sneezing. The native doctors prize it highly as a stimulant. It is especially valued for paralytic and rheumatic troubles, and also for intermittent fevers. Europeans often use infusions of ginger for delicate nerves in place of tea. The green root cut into strips and steeped is thought to be superior to the dried root.