Pile Ointment

Take say a teacupful of hog’s lard, put in a flat or pewter dish, and take two bars of lead, flattened a little, and rub the lard with the flat ends and between them till it becomes black or of a dark lead color. Then burn equal parts of cavendish tobacco and old shoeleather in an iron vessel till charred. Powder these and mix into the lard till it becomes a thick ointment. Use once or twice a day as an ointment for the piles. An infallible cure.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information

Intermitting Fever

Drink warm Lemonade in the beginning of every fit; it cures in a few days. Tried.

Or take a tea-spoonful of Oil of Sulphur in a cup of Balm-Tea, once or twice a day.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

To Cause the Hair to Grow very Thick

One of the most powerful stimulants for the growth of the hair is the following: Take a quarter of an ounce of the chippings of alkanet root, tie in a scrap of coarse muslin, and suspend it in a jar containing eight ounces of sweet oil for a week, covering it from the dust. Add to this sixty drops tincture of cantharides, ten drops oil of rose, sixty drops of neroli, and sixty drops oil of lemon. Let this stand twenty days, closely corked, and you will have one of the greatest hair-invigorators and hair-growers that this world has ever produced.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Anti-Dyspeptic Pills

Take Socotrine aloes, two drams; colocynth, gamboge, rhubarb, and castile soap, each one dram; cayenne, thirty grains; oil cloves, thirty drops. Make into one hundred and twenty pills with extract of gentian or dandelion. Dose: For dyspepsia, inactive liver or costiveness, one or two pills once a day; as a cathartic, three to five pills at a dose. This is a splendid pill. It cleanses the stomach, gives tone and energy to the digestive organs, restores the appetite, excites the liver and other secretory organs, without causing any debility.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Nosebleed, Alum as a cure for

“Apply cold water to face and back of neck; snuff powdered alum.” The powdered alum contracts the blood vessels, thereby shutting off the supply of blood. The cold water applied to the back of the neck affects the nervous system in such a manner that the blood vessels are contracted and so the blood supply is diminished.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Worm Elixir

Take gum myrrh and aloes, of each one ounce; saffron, sage leaves, and tansy leaves, of each half an ounce. Tincture in a pint of brandy for two weeks, and give to children a teaspoonful once a week to once a month as a preventive. They will never be troubled with worms as long as you do this.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information

Painful Menstruation, a Home Remedy for

“Let the patient take an active cathartic; then when put to bed let a half cup of hop tea be given; and a douche of one quart of hot water into which ten drops of laudanum have been dropped, be injected.” A cathartic is not necessary in all cases. If the bowels have been moving freely do not take one. The douche will give great relief providing the woman can take one while menstruating. Some women can and some cannot.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Extreme Fat

Use a total Vegetable Diet. I know one who was entirely cured of this, by living a year thus:- she breakfasted and supped on milk and water (with bread,) and dined on turnips, carrots or other roots, drinking water.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

Bunions

These painful enlargements are due to a too short shoe, or one that does not fit well. Better discard such footwear; it will be cheaper in the end. Paint the sore joint with a mixture of equal parts of glycerin, tincture of iodine and carbolic acid; using a camel’s hairbrush. Stockings that are too short may produce the same affliction.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Remedy for Chapped Hands

The simplest remedy is the camphor ball, to be obtained of all chemists. Powdered hemlock bark put into a piece of muslin and sprinkled on the chaps is highly recommended. Or, wash with oatmeal, and afterwards rub the hands over with dry oatmeal, so as to remove all dampness. It is a good thing to rub the hands and lips with glycerine before going to bed at night. A good oil is made by simmering: Sweet oil, one pint; Venice turpentine, three ounces; lard, half a pound; beeswax, three ounces. Simmer till the wax is melted. Rub on, or apply with a rag.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information