Barley Water
Having washed clean two ounces of pearl barley, put it into a sauce-pan with a quart of water, the grated rind and the juice of a lemon, and two ounces of seeded raisins. Boil it slowly till the liquid is reduced one half. Then strain it, and sweeten it, while warm, with loaf sugar.
Gum Arabic Water.—Take an ounce of the best and cleanest gum arabic. Put it into a pitcher, and pour on a pint of boiling water, and stir while dissolving. When cool, squeeze in (if permitted) the juice of a lemon, and add loaf sugar enough to make it pleasantly sweet. Gum arabic water, alone, is sometimes given to a patient, whom it is expedient to keep very low as a preventive to inflammation.
Tamarind Water.—This is a pleasant and cooling drink in fevers, allowing half a pint of cold water to as many tamarinds as you can take up with a table-spoon. Cover it, and let it stand for a few minutes.
Apple Water.—Take four fine large juicy apples, (pippins or bellflowers,) core and pare them, and bake them side by side in a tin pan. When well done and quite soft all through, put them into a pitcher and fill up with warm water. Simmer them over the fire, and when quite soft mash them; and, if necessary, add more water till they become a thick liquid that can be drank. Sweeten well with loaf sugar, and if permitted, add some lemon juice or rose-water. Drink it cool.
Egg Wine.—Break a nice fresh egg into a tumbler, and beat it till smooth and thick. Add a heaped tea-spoonful of powdered loaf sugar, and stir in a glass of the best port wine. This, when permitted, is very strengthening and cheering for an invalid, to take about the hour of noon or earlier. When wine is not allowed, you may beat the egg into a glass of new unskimmed milk.