Loss of Voice
Take equal parts of pure olive oil, honey and Jamaica rum; mix well together. For an adult, one tablespoon three times a day; for a child three months old, from ten to fifteen drops — increase the dose according to age of child. If the cough is very severe, take the preparation when inclined to cough, always shaking well before using.
Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book
Flax-Seed Tea
Upon an ounce of unbruised flax-seed and a little pulverized liquorice-root pour a pint of boiling (soft or rain) water, and place the vessel containing these ingredients near, but not on, the fire for four hours. Strain through a linen cloth. Make it fresh every day. An excellent drink in fever accompanied by a cough.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
To Destroy and Prevent Bed Bugs
Take two ounces of lard, and one ounce of quicksilver, mix well, and apply with a soft brush or feather where the pests frequent. Apply once a year.
Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book
Thoroughwort Bitters
Make a strong tea of the thoroughwort–strain it, and when cool, put to a couple of quarts of it half a pint of French brandy, the peel of two or three fresh oranges, cut into small bits, and half a dozen bunches of fennel, or smallage seed. The seed and orange peel should be crowded into a bottle, then the tea and brandy turned in. The bottle should be corked tight. The bitters will keep good almost any length of time, and is an excellent remedy for bilious complaints, and can often be taken when the thoroughwort tea will not sit on the stomach. A wine glass of these bitters to a tumbler of water is about the right proportion. It should have a little sugar added to it before drinking it.
Source: The American Housewife
Diarrhoea
A moderately strong tea of blackberry-root. Make it palatable with sugar and cream, and let the child use it as ordinary drink. Or, let the child eat all pure loaf sugar as it will.
Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book
To Keep the Hands from Perspiring
To keep the hands from perspiring, make a lotion consisting of a quarter of an ounce of powdered alum and one teaspoonful of spirits of ammonia in a pint of boiling water. When cool, bottle it, and use on the hands freely.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts