1863 The manufacture of liquors, wines, and cordials

MACE OR NUTMEGS.

77

ports. more or less shrivelled, about as large as a pea, covered with a glaucous bloom, beneath which they are of a shining, blackish purple color, and containing a brownish yellow pulp and three angular seeds. The berries impart their substance to water and alcohol arid are used in the preparation of gin. They are globular,

MACE OB NUTMEGS.

The small and round nutmegs are preferred to those which are large and oval. They should be

when very light,

with a feeble taste and

rejected

or marked with black

smell, worm-eaten,

musty,

veins, or feel light, deficient in weight. An artificial oil of mace is sometimes substituted for the genuine. It is made by mixing together various fatty matters, such as suet, castor oil, sper- maceti, wax, tallow, &c., adding some coloring sub- stance, and flavoring the mass with the volatile oil of nutmeg. The various formulas throughout thia work, will show the great utility nutmegs are to the manufacturer. Orange Peel. A tincture is prepared from this

with clean spirit,

that possesses all the substance

peel,

of the oil. For convenience a small bag, containing the peel, is suspended in those liquors where thia