Status Updates From A Cordiall Water: A Garland...

'Dr. Nintle's [...] Broth for Asthma and Swell'd Legs:

'Take half a pound of Lean Veal Cut in Slices, The Tails of Twelve live Crawfish with the Shell on them, Bruised in a Marble Mortar. Put all this into a glazed Pipkin, with one Quart of Spring Water, & Let it boyl slowly over ye Coals intil it be reduced to one half. Put in half a handful of Watercress Chopt, and strain after one quarter hour and serve forth.'

'One of my Swiss friends earned money in the summers, when he was a boy, by supplying a big mountain hotel with long, skinned frogs' legs[.] He said that, forever, when he was unwell or fatigued, he was haunted by the way the frogs would cross their delicate hands in prayer over their white bosoms, like dead girls in their coffins, as he held them tightly by the legs across the chopping block.'