Tooth Powder

Sal ammoniac, gum mastic, red coral, and myrrh, of each an equal quantity finely powdered.

Another: 3 oz. camphor, 1 oz. powdered cinchona bark, 1 oz. prepared charcoal, and sufficient spirits of wine to dissolve the camphor. Mix thoroughly, and pass through a fine sieve.

The mixture of chalk and camphor is very good for preserving as well as cleansing teeth.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For a Sprain

Cut several mullein stalks into small pieces and boil in one quart of cider vinegar. Apply to the sprain while warm.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Excellent Cough Mixture

Take a handful of hoarhound, boil in a quart of water; add one pint of Orleans molasses, and one pound of brown sugar. Boil to a thin sirup. Put all in a bottle, and add one tablespoonful of tar. Shake while warm, until the tar is cut into small beads. Dose: Take one tablespoonful whenever the cough is troublesome.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Lip Salve, Very Good

Two oz. white wax, 2 oz. of unsalted lard, 1/2 oz. spermaceti, 1 oz. oil sweet almonds, 2 drachms balsam of Peru, a lump of sugar, and 2 drachms of alkali root; simmer together, then strain through muslin.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For Heartburn

10 grains carbonate of magnesia
5 grains flour of ginger
5 grains carbonate of soda
15 grains powdered liquorice

To be taken as a powder 2 or 3 times a day.

Source: The Northampton Cookery Book, M.A. Jeffery

Bleeding at the Nose

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon into one-half cup of water, pour a small quantity of this at a time into the hollow of the hand and draw up, by sniffs into the nostrils.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Pomatum (Elder-Flower)

Melt together over a slow fire two ounces of marrow, and the same amount of refined lard, then add four ounces of elder-flower oil and stir till it is nearly cold.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Burns

Anything which excludes air without tainting the wound or irritating it further helps a bad burn. Carron oil — a creamy mixture of lime water and sweet oil — applied with a feather, then covered with cotton, either batting or absorbent, gives a measure of relief and is also healing. Soft old linen coated with fresh egg-white laid on and allowed to dry soothes pain. Even a covering with dry flour, if nothing else is handy, is better than leaving the burn bare. But if at all serious, or even is shallow and wide spread, call a doctor instantly, meantime keeping up heart action with stimulants in small doses often repeated.

Source: Harper’s Household Handbook: A guide to easy ways of doing woman’s work, Martha McCulloch-Williams

For the Hooping Cough

Dissolve 1 scruple of salt of tartar in 1 1/4 pint of cold water: add 10 grains of pounded cochineal, and sweeten with lump sugar. The dose increased in proportion to the age of the patient; for a child five years old, a table-spoonful is sufficient; for adults 2 table-spoonsful 3 times a day. Abstain from all acids.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Mixture for a Cold

The juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 small teaspoonful sweet spirits of nitre
1 teaspoonful glycerine
A little honey

Put these ingredients into a tumbler and then fill 3 parts full of boiling water. Drink last thing at night.

Source: The Northampton Cookery Book, M.A. Jeffery