For Freckles

For freckles, grate horseradish fine. Let stand a few hours in buttermilk, then strain and use the wash night and morning. Most of the advertised remedies for freckles are poisonous, and cannot be used with safety. Freckles consist of deposits of carbonaceous or fatty matter beneath the skin.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Corns – To Cure

Two drachms potash and 1 drachm salt of sorrel. Mix into a fine powder. Put on enough to cover the corn for four successive nights, binding it on with a cloth.

Corns can often be cured by paring them down and rubbing on a little strong vinegar or acetic acid every night. Each morning, rub them over with lard or olive oil.

The latest cure for soft corns is this: Wash and dry the foot thoroughly, and put on a sprinkling of dry sulphur night and morning for several weeks, and a cure is assured.

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

Definition: Felon

A felon is an infection within the flesh of the finger. It may be caused by bacteria having entered through a puncture wound.

Hair Dressing

A favorite hair dressing is made of three ounces of olive oil, three-quarters of a drachm of oil of almonds, two drachms of palm oil, half an ounce of white wax, a quarter of a pound of lard, and three-quarters of a drachm of essence of bergamot. This strengthens the hair and prevents baldness.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Definition: Pipkin

A pipkin is an earthenware cooking pot for use over a fire. It has a handle, along with three feet spaced equally around the base of the pot.

For Ingrowing Toenail

Take one drachm of muriatic acid, one drachm of nitric acid, and one ounce of chloride of zinc. Apply one drop of this mixture to the affected part once a day. This gives instant relief to the pain caused by ingrowing toenail.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Pills for Asthma

Take powdered elecampane root, powdered liquorice root, powdered anise seed, and sulphur, of each one dram. Make into ordinary sized pills with a sufficient quantity of tar, and take three or four pills at night on going to bed. This is an admirable remedy for asthma and shortness of breath.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Milk of Roses

This is a cosmetic. Pound an ounce of almonds in a mortar very finely; then put in shavings of honey soap in a small quantity. Add enough rose-water to enable you to work the composition with the pestle into a fine cream; and in order that it may keep, add to the whole an ounce of spirits of wine, by slow degrees. Scent with otto of roses. Strain through muslin. Apply to the face with a sponge or a piece of lint.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Warts

If they give you no special inconvenience, let them alone. But if it is of essential importance to get rid of them, purchase half an ounce of muriatic acid, put it in a broad-bottomed vial, so that it will not easily turn over; take a stick as large as the end of a knitting-needle, dip it into the acid, and touch the top of the wart with whatever of the acid adheres to the stick; then, with the end of the stick, rub the acid into the top of the wart, without allowing the acid to touch the well skin. Do this night and morning, and a safe, painless, and effectual cure is the result; or, apply castor oil to a wart several times a day for a week or two, and it will disappear and not return; or, apply washing soda, just wet, a few times; let it remain on, and they will soon disappear altogether; or, scrape a carrot fine and apply as a poultice for six nights; or, rub sal-ammoniac on the wart twice a day until it disappears.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Ingredient: Castor Oil

This oil is a valuable aperient; for whilst, in doses of from half an ounce to an ounce, it thoroughly evacuates the bowels, it does so with little irritation; hence it is especially useful in inflammatory cases, or where there is spasm, or where all increased action of the system is particularly to be avoided. From its quick and mild operation, it is particularly adapted for children, and females during pregnancy. It is also the best purgative that can be employed in that affection of the bowels knowm by the names of colica pictonum, or painter’s colic, the Devonshire colic, and the dry bellyache; and it is the more useful in that disease, as it may be joined with opium and other narcotics without having its purgative properties lessened. For the same reason castor oil is advantageously given in calculous affections. It has also been regarded by some continental physicians as peculiarly well suited for expelling the tape-worm. It is likewise considered the best purgative, when properly administered, for combating habitual costiveness. For this purpose a large dose must first be given in the morning, and the use of the oil continued for some weeks, gradually diminishing the dose daily, until half a tea-spoonful only is taken; on the discontinuance of which, the bowels continue to be relieved without further assistance. One disadvantage attending the use of this oil is its tendency to excite vomiting, but this is counteracted by combining it with some aromatic. The best modes of exhibiting it in general have been much canvassed; it is given floating on water with a small quantity of brandy poured over it, and when this can be swallowed at once, there is no better mode; but as this cannot always be done, it may be given with success in coffee or mutton-broth, or suspended in water by the intervention of mucilage or yolk of egg, according to the taste of the patient. Upon the whole, castor oil is a purgative of great value, and one whose operation, as it is in daily use, should be well understood.

Source: A Companion To The Medicine Chest, John Savory.