A Modester Proposal?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Tue Feb 2 20:51:18 UTC 2010


On the use of a colonial American nostrum, called "snail water", a
mixture of ground snails and worms:  "Dissolved in water, children
suffering any sort of maladies were expected to get well after
gulping down great volumes of this swill."  Unless they were
swallowed themselves.  But surely more humane than roasting.

 From _Hustlers and Con Men_, by Jay Robert Nash (1976), p. 59.

Joel

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list