Hives

Epsom salts will check bold hives. Dose, two tablespoonfuls. Continue taking one teaspoonful a day until no more hives appear.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Lotions for Ringworm

Sulphate of zinc, two scruples; sugar of lead, fifteen grains; water, six ounces. Wash the parts two or three times a day.

Or: paint the rings with black writing ink.

Tincture of iodine, applied with a feather, is considered to be a speedy cure.

Another good remedy is two drams of muriated tincture of steel (steel drops) mixed with four tablespoonfuls of soft water. Bathe with it night and morning, and let a little of the lotion dry on.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Piles, Ointment For The

Hog’s lard, four ounces; powdered galls, one ounce; laudanum, half an ounce; and spirits of camphor, two drams. Mix, and apply at bed-time.

Source: Recipes for the Million

An Ointment for Burns

Take a Pound of Bores-Grease, two Pints of White-Wine, the Leaves of the greater Sage, Ground- and Wall-Ivy, Sweet Marjoram, or the Greater House-Leek, of each two handfuls.

Let the whole Mass be boil’d over a gentle Fire, and having afterward strain’d and squeez’d it, let the Ointment so made be kept for use.

Source: The Compleat Surgeon, Charles Gabriel Le Clerc

Flaxseed Lemonade

Pour one quart of boilmg water over four tablespoonfuls of whole flaxseed, and steep three hours. Strain and sweeten to taste, and add the juice of two lemons. Add a little more water if the liquid seems too thick. This is soothing in colds.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Remedy for Consumption

One tablespoonful of tar and the yolks of 3 hen’s eggs beaten well together. Dose, 1 tablespoonful morning, noon and night.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Delightful Cough Candy

Break up a cupful of slippery-elm bark, and let it soak for an hour in water poured over it in the measuring-cup. Half fill a cup with flaxseed, and fill up to the brim with water, leaving it to soak the same time as the slippery-elm. When you are ready to make the candy, put one pound and a half of brown sugar in a stew-pan over the fire; pour the water from the slippery-elm and flaxseed over it, straining the last, and stir constantly until it boils and begins to turn back to sugar; then turn it out, and it will break up into crumbly, small pieces. For preachers or teachers who use their voices too much, it will be found an admirable and agreeable medicine, the taste being peculiarly pleasant. It is highly recommended to any one subject to throat affections. The best flavor for it is a little lemon-juice.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

To Strengthen A Weak Voice

To eight ounces of water add one dram of tincture of cayenne. Gargle the throat frequently, especially before speaking or singing.

The following is also good: — Beeswax, two drams; copaiba balsam, three drams; powdered liquorice root, four drams. Melt the balsam with the wax in an earthen pipkin, remove it from the fire and mix in the powder. Make pills of three grains each. Two of the pills to be taken occasionally, three or four times a day.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Lozenges for Offensive Breath

Gum kino, half an ounce; catechu, one ounce; white sugar, three ounces; orris powder, three-quarters of an ounce. Make into a paste with mucilage, and add a drop of neroli.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Influenza, To Remove

Place the feet in hot water, with a blanket spread over the knees, for twenty minutes, then, without stopping to dry them, dab off the majority of the water; place the feet in a warm blanket at the moment of getting into bed, and drink a glassful of hot lemonade.

Or, mix a quarter of a pound of ginger, an ounce and a half of cayenne pepper, and a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Dissolve a teaspoonful in a cupful of water, sweeten to taste, and take at bed-time.

Source: Recipes for the Million