Oats

As an article of diet, when ground into meal, it is excellent. A notion prevails that it is diet fit only for the inferior animals, but it is a very erroneous one. Since oatmeal fell into desuetude, people have degenerated in muscular strength and form. The scottish highlanders and the lowland peasantry live almost entirely on oatmeal, proving its nutrition by their well-knit, muscular and bony frames, and their clear and vigorous intellects.

Oats fried with bay-salt, and applied to the sides, removes pains, stitches, and wind. A poultice made of oatmeal and oil of bays, cures the itch and leprosy, fistula, and dissolves hard imposthumes. Oatmeal poultices are more stimulating, and draw more rapidly than those made of linseed meal.