Horse-Chestnut Soap

It is not generally known that the horse-chestnut contains a soapy juice, not only useful in bleaching, but in washing linens and stuffs. The nuts must be peeled and ground, and the meal of twenty of them will be sufficient to mix with ten quarts of hot water, with which the clothes may be washed without soap; the clothes should then be rinsed in spring-water. The same meal being steeped in hot water, and mixed with an equal quantity of bran, will make a nutritious food for poultry.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Delicate Rusks for Convalescents

Half a pint of new milk, and one cup of hop yeast; add flour to make a batter, and set the sponge at night. In the morning add half a pint of milk, one cup of sugar, one of butter, one egg, one nutmeg, and flour to make it sufficiently stiff. Let it rise, then roll it, and cut it out; let it rise again, and then bake.

Source: La Cuisine Creole

Panacea for Hoarseness

If little ones are hoarse or seem croupy at bedtime, use this mixture: Heat together lard and small portions of camphor, kerosene and turpentine. If cold is tight, saturate a light woolen cloth wath this and apply to throat and chest, bringing down close under arms. Over this put a thin cotton cloth to protect the clothing. It is also well to rub the back with the application. This loosens the croup membrane and in a few minutes the breathing grows easier and the child will sleep.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Relieve Pain

Take five cents’ worth of beeswax and equal parts of mutton tallow, melted together in a pie pan; then take a coarse piece of new domestic cotton, lay cloth in pan of melted wax and tallow until the cloth is thoroughly saturated; apply as hot as possible to the afflicted part. Same cloth can be used a number of times by reheating the cloth in oven or on top of radiator.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Soda Cure

This simple rule has cured rheumatic troubles of long standing. Be careful to follow directions:

Dissolve one-half teaspoonful of cooking soda (the best) in one-half cupful of water; nearly hot is better. Take three times a day, one-half hour before eating, for three consecutive days; then skip three days, then take it three days, and so on for six weeks or more, according to the severity of the case. The soda is for excess of acid in the system, the cause of many of our ailments.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Stewed Prunes for Sickness

Wash the prunes, put them in a stew pan, cover them with water, and to each pound of prunes put a cupful of clear brown sugar. Cover the stew-pan and let them boil slowly, until the syrup is thick and rich.

Source: La Cuisine Creole

For Sleeplessness

If you are troubled with insomnia, bathe feet for about ten minutes in water as hot as possible just before retiring. This will draw the blood from the tired brain. Dread and apprehensions vanish, and you will enjoy a good night’s rest.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

To make Water Gruel of Corn Meal or Oat Meal

Put a quart of water on to boil in a stew-pan. Take a tablespoonful of sweet corn meal, or oatmeal, make it into a batter with milk and salt, stir it in the boiling water and let it boil gently for half an hour. When served it may be sweetened and nutmeg grated over it. If wanted for a strengthening nourishment, a bit of butter and a glass of wine or brandy may be added. This is generally given after a dose of castor oil, or an emetic. Use very little salt.

Source: La Cuisine Creole

Egg Treatment

The whites of six eggs, six tablespoonfuls of vinegar, six tablespoonfuls of spirits of turpentine. Mix and shake thoroughly. Rub thoroughly and then saturate flannel with medicine and wrap around the place affected. Apply often. Keep bottle well corked. An excellent remedy for both rheumatism and sprains.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

For Nausea

Inhalations of vinegar will stop bad cases of nausea and vomiting. Wet a sponge with vinegar and hold it to the nose of the patient.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames