Recipe for a Homeopathic Soup

Take a Robin's leg (mind, the drumstick only)

Put it in a pail, filled with water nearly

Set it out of doors, in a place that's shady

Let it stand a week (ten days if for a lady)

Drop a spoonful of it in a fire-pail kettle

Which may be made of tin or any baser metal

Fill the vessel up, set it on a' boiling

Skim the liquor well to prevent its oiling

Add one atom of salt, for thickener one rice kernel

And use to light the fire 'The Homeopathic Journal'

Let the liquor boil, half an hour (no longer)

If it is for a man, of course you'll make it stronger

Shall you now desire, that the soup be flavoury

Stir it once around with a stalk of savoury

When the broth is made, none can excel it

Then three times a day let the patient smell it

If he chance to die, say 'twas nature did it

If he chance to live, why - give the soup the credit

 

From an unknown lady's note-book in the Baring-Gould papers