Walnuts, Indian Nuts, Leeks and the root of Ragwort, because of their form, are said when duly prepared to further generation and prevent sterility. Herbs and Seeds, in shape like the teeth, as Toothwort, Pine Kernel, etc., preserve the dental organization. Plants of knobbed form, like the knuckles or joints, as Galingale and the Knotty Odoriferous rush (Calamus,) are good for spinal complaints, renal diseases, foot gout, knee swellings, and all joint pains whatsoever. Oily vegetable products, as the Filbert, Walnut, Almond, etc., tend to fatness of body. Plants naturally38 lean emaciate those who take them; as Sarsaparilla or long-leaved Rosa Solie. Fleshy plants make flesh for the eaters; for instance the Onion, Leek and Colewort. Certain plants fortify and brace the nerves; for example, the Sensitive plant, Nettles, the roots of Mallorus, the herb Neuras, etc. The same are to be used as outward applications. Herbs milky in their substance propagate milk; as Lettuce and the fruit of the Almond and Fig trees. Plants of a serous nature purge the noxious humors between the flesh and the skin, as Spurge and Scamony. Herbs whose acidity turns milk to curd, are said to lead to procreation. Such are Gallium, and the seeds of Spurge. Those semples that obstruct the coagulation of milk, as Rue mixed with Cummin, will relieve a sore breast when the milk is knotted in it, if applied thereto. Plants that are hollow, as the stalks of Grain, Reeds, Leeks, Garlick, etc., are good to purge, open and soothe the hollow parts of the body. The following from “Hermeppus Redivivus,” a work now out of print, prescribes the method of preparing the famous Elixir of Life. This supposed specific for the renewal and perpetuation of youth and beauty, was sought for during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries with as much avidity as the philosopher’s stone, which the alchemists believed would, like the touch of Midas, change all meaner substances into the regal metal—Gold. THE FAMOUS ELIXIR OF LIFE. PREPARED FROM BALM. “In the proper season of the year, when the herb is at its full growth, and, consequently, its juices in their whole vigor, gather at the fittest time of the day a sufficient quantity of balm, wipe it clean, and pick it; then put it in a stone mortar, and, by laborious beating, reduce it into a thin pap. “Take this glutinous and odoriferous substance and put it into a bolt-head, which is to be hermetically sealed, and then place it in a dunghill, or some gentle heat equivalent thereto, where it must digest for forty days.