Almond Ball

Put into an earthen saucepan, set in a pan of boiling water, one ounce of white wax, one ounce of pure spermaceti, and one gill of oil of almonds well stirred in ; add to this, when it begins to grow cool, half a drachm of essential oil of almonds; half a drachm of expressed oil of mace, and half a drachm of balsam of Peru; stir until smooth and perfectly amalgamated; then pour into egg-cups; turn out when hard. These balls passed over the clean and dry skin at bedtime greatly improve the softness of the complexion.

Source: The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper’s Guide, Mrs Washington

Infusion of Catechu, commonly called Japonic Infusion

Take of

• Extract of catechu, two drachms and a half;
• Cinnamon, half a drachm;
• Boiling water, seven ounces;
• Simple syrup, one ounce.

Macerate the extract and cinnamon in the hot water, in a covered vessel, for two hours, then strain it, and add the syrup.

Extract of catechu is almost pure tan[n]in. This infusion is therefore a powerfully astringent solution. The cinnamon and syrup render it a very agreeable medicine, which will be found serviceable in fluxes proceeding from a laxity of the intestines. Its dose is a spoonful or two every other hour. As this preparation will not keep above a day or two, it must always be made extemporaneously. The two hours maceration, therefore, becomes very often extremely inconvenient; but it may be prepared in a few minutes by boiling, without in the least impairing the virtues of the medicine.

Source: The Edinburgh New Dispensatory, Andrew Duncan

Scurvy

Scurvy is a disease accompanied by a depraved state of the blood, attributed to improper diet, assisted by bad air and mental depression. It is generally cured by a good mixed and fresh diet. Sound potatoes, and other vegetables containing salts of potash, are said to prevent it; but as a substitute for these, lemon juice, when much salt food is used, has been found very efficacious, and it is therefore always provided for the use of the Royal Navy, which, though once dreadfully afflicted with this disease, is now nearly exempt from it ; a result mainly attributable to a great and general improvement in discipline, ventilation, and diet.

This disease was very prevalent and destructive in England before the general cultivation of the potato, and it became again a common disease among the poor in several parts of the country, when the extensive potato-blight occurred in 1846. At that time Dr. Baly remarked, that the military prisoners at Millbank, dieted like the other prisoners, except that they had no potatoes, were alone attacked by scurvy on that occasion, and when potatoes were supplied to them the disease ceased. It is probable that the citric and tartaric acids existing in the potato are combined with the nutriment in such a manner as to be peculiarly adapted to the blood, since the potato is found even more advantageous in many cases of scurvy than lemons and oranges. I dwell on this point because it proves that small variations in diet are capable of producing vast effects on health, and that but for a fair and full distribution of the fruits of the earth, disease would be far more destructive than at present; and by neglect of small points in the diet of the poor, maladies from depraved blood would be now as rife and terrible as in the darker ages. The method by which potatoes are dried, so as to be fit to form part of ship-store, is an important invention, and highly valuable to sailors, since they may thus obtain in any climate a dish of mash-potatoes with the help of a little warm water.

Observing the benefit resulting from the use of phosphate of soda in certain depraved conditions of the blood, I think it probable that this salt would be of great service in scurvy. The proper dose would be from ten to thirty grains a day. As scurvy arises from salted meat in the absence of fresh meat and vegetables, the theory of its cause and cure almost resolves itself into a chemical problem. All animals need salt, since it furnishes ingredients for the blood, and is essential to digestion and secretion. How, then, is salted meat injurious? Simply from the circumstance that, in salting meat, the common salt takes the place of the soluble phosphates of the flesh, while these phosphates, so requisite for the production of healthy blood and sound flesh, are almost entirely removed from the flesh into the brine. It becomes then important to discover some better plan of preserving meat. By the exclusion of air, as by filling tin cases with meat, and then soldering them, meat may be preserved for years. The best plan is to make a real concentration of the animal juices, as in portable soup. What is generally sold under this name, is but a gelatinous mass of very little value as nourishment. The following is the method of preparing this soup, or extract of meat, abridged from Liebig:— Chop very fine one pound of lean beef; mix it well with an equal weight of cold water; slowly heat the mixture to boiling; after boiling briskly a minute or two, strain through coarse linen. Salt and flavour according to taste, and tinge it with roasted onion or burnt sugar. This, when concentrated by slow evaporation, is a dark soft mass, half an ounce of which in a pint of water, makes a strong well-flavoured soup.

Source: Health, Disease and Remedy, George Moore

Burns

Make a thick paste of molasses and flour, or castile soap and flour, covering the parts so as to entirely exclude the air. For a deep burn, dress daily with lime water and linseed oil, equal parts.

Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book

A Syrup for Colds and Coughs

Take 18 ounces of perfectly sound onions, and after removing rind make several incisions, but not too deep. Boil together with 13 1/2 ounces of moist sugar and 2 3/4 ounces of honey in 35 ounces of water, for three-quarters of an hour; strain, and fill into bottles for use. Give one tablespoonful of this mixture (slightly warmed) immediately on attack, and then, according to requirement, five to eight half tablespoonfuls daily.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Receipt for Chronic Diarrhea

Cinnamon seed one-half ounce, cardamon seed one-quarter of an ounce, carroway seed one-quarter of an ounce, orange peel two ounces, English gentian one ounce, camomile flowers one-half ounce. Put on to the above one quart of old rye whisky. (They must all be ground up first).

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

Rice Jelly

(excellent for children with weak bowels.) Half a cupful of whole rice, well washed, and soaked two hours in a little warm water ; then add to the rice and water in the kettle three pints of cold water ; one small pinch of salt put in the cold water ; sweeten to taste with rock candy when strained ; strain through double tarlatan.

Source: The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper’s Guide, Mrs Washington

For Constipation

One or two figs eaten fasting is sufficient for some, and they are especially good in the case of children, as there is no trouble in getting them to take them. A spoonful of wheaten bran in a glass of water is a simple remedy, and quite effective, taken half an hour before breakfast; fruit eaten raw; partake largely of laxative food; exercise in the open air; drink freely of cold water during the day, etc. It is impossible to give many of the numerous treatments in so short a space, suffice it to say that the general character of our diet and experience is such as to assure us that at least one-quarter of the food that we swallow is intended by nature to be evacuated from the system; and if it is not, it is again absorbed into the system, poisoning the blood and producing much suffering and permanent disease. The evacuation of the bowels daily, and above all, regularity, is therefore all important to aid this form of disorder.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Blackberry Syrup

Half a pound of blackberry root, and one-half pound of white oak bark, cut into small pieces or pulverized, and boiled in one gallon of water until it is reduced to two quarts, then strain, and boil up with cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and enough sugar to make a thick syrup. Add one gill best French brandy to each quart. Bottle and seal with wax, when it will keep for years. This was used most successfully during the late war, in cases of dysentery.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

Sore Throat

Everybody has a cure for this trouble, but simple remedies appear to be most effectual. Salt and water is used by many as a gargle, but a little alum and honey dissolved in sage tea is better. An application of cloths wrung out of hot water and applied to the neck, changing as often as they begin to cool, has the most potency for removing inflammation of anything we ever tried. It should be kept up for a number of hours; during the evening is usually the most convenient time for applying this remedy.

Cut slices of salt pork or fat bacon, simmer a few minutes in hot vinegar, and apply to throat as hot as possible. When this is taken off as the throat is relieved, put around a bandage of soft flannel. A gargle of equal parts of borax and alum, dissolved in water, is also excellent. To be used frequently.

Camphorated oil is an excellent lotion for sore throat, sore chest, aching limbs, etc. For a gargle for sore throat, put a pinch of chlorate of potash in a glass of water. Gargle the throat with it
twice a day, or oftener, if necessary

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette