commonplace book

What did future Smithsonian benefactor James Smithson have at the ready? The receipts (or recipes, as it turns out). Acquired by the Smithsonian in 1914, Smithson's "Receipt Book" contains recipes for everything from incense and ink dyes, to cordials and mulgatawny [sic], to tooth powder and bug poison. This nineteenth-century resource will lift your spirits, calm your ague, and polish your furniture. Hopefully, the ingredients are still available.