"Astringent" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... of the subject as to the apparatus and methods employed in early times. It seems fairly certain, however, that up to the 18th century these were of the most primitive kind. With regard to materials, we know that prior to the general introduction of the hop (see ALE) as a preservative and astringent, a number of other bitter and aromatic plants had been employed with this end in view. Thus J.L. Baker (The Brewing Industry) points out that the Cimbri used the Tamarix germanica, the Scandinavians the fruit of the sweet gale (Myrica gale), the Cauchi the fruit and the twigs of the chaste ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various
... brought no medicine he determined to try an experiment with the small twigs of the chokecherry, which being stripped of their leaves and cut into pieces about two inches long were boiled in pure water, till they produced a strong black decoction of an astringent bitter taste; a pint of this he took at sunset, and repeated the dose an hour afterwards. By ten o'clock he was perfectly relieved from pain, a gentle perspiration ensued, his fever abated and in the morning he was quite recovered. One of the men caught several dozen fish of ...
— History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Vol. I. • Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
... damaged feed, overloading of the stomach, or sudden changes of diet may cause this disease. Want of exercise predisposes to it, or feed which is coarse and indigestible may after a time produce it. Feed which possesses astringent properties and tends to check secretion may also act as an exciting cause. Feed in excessive quantity may lead to disorder of digestion and to this disease. It is very likely to appear toward the end of protracted seasons of drought; therefore a deficiency ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture
... him with an astringent "How d'you do, Mr. Babbitt. Tanis tells me you're a very prominent man, and I'm honored by being allowed to drive with you. Of course I'm not accustomed to associating with society people like you, so I don't know how to act in such ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis
... will be more minute. You will allow that the rendering skins insoluble in water by combining with them the astringent principle of certain vegetables is a chemical invention, and that without leather, our shoes, our carriages, our equipages would be very ill made; you will permit me to say, that the bleaching and dying ...
— Consolations in Travel - or, the Last Days of a Philosopher • Humphrey Davy
... country in the exercise of their calling. They tan and dress leather with very great expedition, by steeping the hide first in a mixture of wood-ashes and water, until it parts with the hair; and afterwards by using the pounded leaves of a tree called goo, as an astringent. They are at great pains to render the hide as soft and pliant as possible, by rubbing it frequently between their hands, and beating it upon a stone. The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly into sandals, and therefore require less ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park
... Essay on Fevers, has the following very judicious Remark on the Use of Wine: "In this View, and in those above-mentioned, I cannot but recommend a generous red Wine as a most noble, natural sub-astringent Cordial, and perhaps Art can scarce supply a better. Of this I am confident, that sometimes at the State, and more frequently in the Decline of putrid Malignant Fevers, it is of the highest Service, especially when acidulated with Juice of Seville Orange or Lemon. It may be also impregnated with ...
— An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany • Donald Monro
... been dressed with astringent herbs, and his broken leg put into splints in accordance with the rude but not ineffective surgery of the time, he was placed on a rough litter of interlaced branches and carried back by the reluctant ...
— In the Morning of Time • Charles G. D. Roberts
... it became dusk, but as we did not encourage their advances they left us after a short visit. The native who had killed the talpero, skinned it the moment he arrived in the camp, and, having first moistened them, stuffed the skin with the leaves of a plant of very astringent properties. All these natives were very poor, particularly the men, nor do I think that at this season of the year they can have much animal food of any kind to subsist on. Their principal food appeared to be seeds of various kinds, as of the box-tree, and grass seeds, which they pound into cakes ...
— Expedition into Central Australia • Charles Sturt
... long small boughs, with a white smooth bark, and leaves like our hazel. The fruit resembles a pear, with a thin rind, and has many hard seeds. It may be safely eaten while green, which is not the case with most other fruits in the East or West Indies. Before being ripe it is astringent, but is afterwards loosening. When ripe it is soft, yellow, and well tasted, and may either be baked like pears, or coddled like apples. There are several sorts, distinguished by their shape, taste, and ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr
... the sole of the left shoe of a person of the same age, but opposite sex, to the patient, reduced to ashes is a cure for St. Anthony's fire. I have seen it applied with success, but suppose its efficacy is due to some astringent principle in ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 • Various
... which by their bitter or astringent stimulus increase the action of the stomach, as camomile and white vitriol, if their quantity is increased above a certain ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. I - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin
... themselves. This jam, as well as the raw fruit, is considered good for sore throats, and for inflammation of the gums and tonsils. We are also told, that the young green shoots, eaten as salad, will fix teeth which are loose; probably (if it be so) it is from the astringent qualities in the juice strengthening and hardening the gums. The leaves pounded, are said to be a cure for the ringworm; and they are also made into tea by some of the cottagers, which is very useful in some ailments; and the roots boiled in honey, are said to be serviceable in dropsy. The green ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 462 - Volume 18, New Series, November 6, 1852 • Various
... intention is no more than to wash the skin, I am convinced that simple element is more effectual than any water impregnated with salt and iron; which, being astringent, will certainly contract the pores, and leave a kind of crust upon the surface of the body. But I am now as much afraid of drinking, as of bathing; for, after a long conversation with the Doctor, about ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... (Bursa pastoris) he describes as cold 1^o, and dry in 2^o, binding and astringent. Good against spitting of blood or haemorrhage of the nose, and other fluxes of the bowels. The leaves, of which [dr.]j. in powder may be given. The juice inspissate, drunk with wine, helps ague. A cataplasm applied in inflammations, Anthony's ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 193, July 9, 1853 • Various
... as it does, largely through forests and past vegetable banks, takes up a large quantity of albuminous matter, which is so great in quantity that the atmosphere, or the oxygen in the air, cannot purify it by the time it reaches us, so that if any astringent matter like oak, or birch, or beech, or even alum, is put in the water it will cause the albumen to precipitate. In the district of La Gironde, France, the waters of the Landes are naturally very impure ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: Exploring the Island • Roger Thompson Finlay
... and young, pressed into the theatre of the Institution to cover him with applause. His greatest labors were his discovery of the decomposition of the fixed alkalies, and the re-establishment of the simple nature of chlorine; his other researches were the investigation of astringent vegetables in connection with the art of tanning; the analysis of rocks and minerals in connection with geology; the comprehensive subject of agricultural chemistry; and galvanism and electro-chemical science. He was also an early, but unsuccessful, ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various
... we find no trace of sentimentalism. Their masculine mood both of body and mind left no room for it, and hence the bracing quality of their literature compared with that of recent times, its tonic property, that seems almost too astringent to palates relaxed by a daintier diet. The first great example of the degenerate modern tendency was Petrarch, who may be said to have given it impulse and direction. A more perfect specimen of the type has not since appeared. An intellectual voluptuary, a moral dilettante, the ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell
... he lived in a mist, and opium thickened the mist to a dense yellow fog. Opium might have helped to make Southey a poet; it left Coleridge the prisoner of a cobweb-net of dreams. What he wanted was some astringent force in things, to tighten, not to loosen, the always expanding and uncontrollable limits of his mind. Opium did but confirm what the natural habits of his constitution had bred in him: an overwhelming indolence, out of which ...
— Poems of Coleridge • Coleridge, ed Arthur Symons
... has he not lifted up his voice? He, the book clerk, that lives among countless volumes of confessions! Whose daily task is to wrestle hour by hour with a living Comedie Humaine! Has the constant spectacle of so many books been astringent in its effect upon any latent creative impulse? Or has he been dumb in the colloquial sense, forsooth; a figure like Mr. Whistler's guard in the British Museum? Sundry "lettered booksellers" of England have, indeed, given us some reminiscences of bookselling ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday
... than they otherwise would. The appearance of the other plant, Camptosorus rhizophyllus, has evidently determined its Cherokee name and the use to which it is applied. Dispensatory: "Liverwort is a very mild demulcent tonic and astringent, supposed by some to possess diuretic and deobstruent virtues. It was formerly used in Europe in various complaints, especially chronic hepatic affections, but has fallen into entire neglect. In this country, some years since, it acquired considerable reputation, which, however, it has not ...
— The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees • James Mooney |
