To destroy Cockroaches, Ants, and other household Vermin

Hellebore, rubbed over with molasses, and put round the places that cockroaches frequent, is a very effectual poison for them. Arsenic, spread on bread and butter, and placed round rat or mouse holes, will soon put a stop to their ravages. Quicksilver and the white of an egg, beat together, and laid with a feather round the crevices of the bedsteads and the sacking, is very effectual in destroying bugs in them. To kill flies, when so numerous as to be troublesome, keep cobalt, wet with spirit, in a large shallow plate. The spirit will attract the flies, and the cobalt will kill them very soon. Black pepper is said to be good to destroy them — it should be mixed, so as to be very strong, with a little cream and sugar. Great care is necessary in using the above poisons, where there are any children, as they are so apt to eat any thing that comes in their way, and these poisons will prove as fatal to them as to vermin, (excepting the pepper.) The flour of sulphur is said to be good to drive ants away, if sprinkled round the places that they frequent. Sage is also good. Weak brine will kill worms in gravel walks, if kept moist with it a week in the spring, and three or four days in the fall.

Source: The American Housewife

Powders for Children

A very excellent carminative powder for flatulent infants may be kept in the house, and employed with advantage whenever the child is in pain or griped, dropping five grains of oil of anise-seed and two of peppermint on half an ounce of lump sugar, and rubbing it in a mortar, with a drachm of magnesia, into a fine powder. A small quantity of this may be given in a little water at any time, and always with benefit.

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

Cough Mixture

Take a whole lemon, cut it in four parts; add to them half a pound of white sugar; put them in half a pint of boiling water, and let boil for ten minutes. When warm, add six cents worth of paregoric to it. Dose : Take half a wineglassful when the cough is troublesome.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

For Children Teething

Tie a quarter of a pound of wheat flour in a thick cloth and boil it in one quart of water for three hours; then remove the cloth and expose the flour to the air or heat until it is hard and dry; grate from it, when wanted, one tablespoonful, which put into half a pint of new milk, and stir over the fire until it comes to a boil, when add a pinch of salt and a tablespoonful of cold water and serve. This gruel is excellent for children afflicted with summer complaint.

Or brown a tablespoonful of flour in the oven or on top of the stove on a baking tin; feed a few pinches at a time to a child and it will often check a diarrhoea. The tincture of “kino” — of which from ten to thirty drops, mixed with a little sugar and water in a spoon, and given every two or three hours, is very efficacious and harmless — can be procured at almost any druggist’s. Tablespoon doses of pure cider vinegar and a pinch of salt, has cured when all else failed.

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

To Alleviate A Cough

Coughs may be much alleviated, and dry throats cured, by glycerine and lime-juice taken at night. The glycerine should be diluted.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

For Asthma

For asthma soak blotting paper in strong saltpeter water; dry, and burn at night.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Apples and Insomnia

A medical writer declares that the best thing just before going to bed, is to eat an apple. The apple excites the action of the liver, promotes sound and healthy sleep, and thoroughly disinfects the mouth. This is not all; the apple prevents indigestion and throat diseases.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Remedy for Earache

Olive oil, one ounce; chloroform, one drachm. Mix, and shake well together. Pour twenty-five or thirty drops into the ear, and close it up with a piece of raw cotton to exclude the air and retain the moisture.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

An Excellent Remedy for Cough

An excellent remedy for cough is made as follows: Take a cup of mutton tallow and two great spoonfuls of spirits of turpentine; put into the turpentine all the camphor gum that it will dissolve, then add to the cup of tallow, melted, mix thoroughly, and keep where you can have it ready to apply to the throat or chest on a cloth when needed, covering warmly. This gives almost instant relief. It is a remedy of one of our best and oldest physicians, who has saved many lives by its use. It is good for any lung trouble, croup, or colds.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Cure for Lockjaw

Twenty minutes in the smoke of wool or woolen cloth will take the pain out of the worst case of inflammation arising from any wound. All danger from lock-jaw will be removed if this remedy is resorted to.

Source: Mrs Owens’ Cook Book and Useful Household Hints, Frances Owens