Note, if there be no fitting arms, the hole thus obliquely perforated, and a faucet or pipe made of a swan’s or goose’s quill inserted, will lead the sap into the recipient; and this is a very neat way, and as effectual: I would also have it try’d, whether the very top twigs, grasped in the hand together, a little cropt with a knife, and put into the mouth of a bottle, would not instil, if not as much, yet a more refined liquor, as some pretend. 8. The liquor of the birch is esteemed to have all the virtues of the spirit of salt, without the danger of its acrimony; most powerful for the dissolving of the stone in the bladder, bloody water and strangury: Helmont shews how to make a beer of the water; but the wine is a most rich cordial, curing (as I am told) consumptions, and such interior diseases as accompany the stone in the bladder or reins{152:1}: The juice decocted with honey and wine, Dr. Needham affirms he has often cur’d the scorbut with. This wine, exquisitely made, is so strong, that the common sort of stone-bottles cannot preserve the spirits, so subtile they are and volatile; and yet it is gentle, and very harmless in operation within the body, and exceedingly sharpens the appetite, being drunk _ante pastum_: I will present you a receipt, as it was sent me by a fair lady, and have often, and still use it. {Illustration: (a. b.) The _Body_ of the _Tree_ (g.) boar’d at that part of the _Arm_ (f.) join’d to the _Stem_, with an Augre of an _Inch_ or more _diameter_, according to the bigness of the _Tree_. (c.) A part of the _Bark_, or if you will, a _Faucet_ of _Quill_ bent down into the Mouth of the _Bottle_ (e.) to conduct the _Liqour_ into it. (d.) The _String_ about the _Arm_ (f.) by which the _Bottle_ hangs.}