To Whiten The Skin and Remove Freckles and Tan

Bathe three times a day in a preparation of three quarts water, one quart alcohol, two ounces of cologne and one of borax, in proportion of two teaspoons mixture to two tablespoons soft water.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information

To Purify The Breath

There is nothing more disagreeable to people with whom we associate than for them to be able to detect a bad odor from our breath when in their company. Yet a great many are afflicted in this way. The following will purify and sweeten the breath: Chlorate of lime, seven drams; vanilla sugar, three drams; gumeratic, five drams. Mix well with warm water to a stiff paste, and cut into lozenges. Take a lozenge occasionally.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Chronical Headache

Keep your feet in warm water a quarter of an hour before you go to bed, for two or three weeks. Tried.

Or wear tender Hemlock-Leaves under the feet, changing them daily.

Or order a tea-kettle of cold water to be poured on your head, every morning in a slender stream.

Or take a large tea-cupful of Carduus Tea, without sugar, fasting for six or seven mornings. Tried.

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

Ingredient: Assafoetida

This substance is used as a stimulant and anti-spasmodic in hysterical and nervous diseases, and spasmodic cough; as an expectorant in asthma; and as a carminative in flatulent colic. The usual dose is from five grains to half a drachm, combined, if necessary, with expectorants in cough, and with chalybeates and aloetics in hysterical complaints. The following formula will sometimes allay obstinate attacks of spasmodic cough, and has been found useful even in [w]hooping-cough : —

Take of Assafoetida, half a drachm;
Mindererus’s Spirit, two ounces;
Penny-royal Water, two ounces.

Mix, and take one or two table spoonsful for a dose.

For the relief of colic in the bowels, the following glyster may be administered :—

Assafoetida, two drachms;
Thin Gruel, ten ounces.

(Assafoetida was used by the ancients as a condiment, under the names of Silphion and Laserpitium. In Persia, it is still esteemed as a condiment, and mixed with almost all their dishes. Gastronomers, as the French term those who delight in the pleasures of the palate, among the moderns, employ it for the same purpose; having the hot plates on which they eat beef steaks rubbed with it.)

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

To destroy Fleas and Bugs

Cover the floor of the room with leaves of Alder, gathered while the dews hangs upon them; adhering to these, they are killed thereby.

Or powder stavesacre, and sprinkle it on the body, or on the bed.

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

A Cosmetic Bath

Take two pounds of barley or bean flour, eight pounds of bran, and a few handfuls of Borage leaves. Boil these ingredients in a sufficient quantity of spring water. This both cleanses and softens the skin in a superior manner.

Source: The Ladies’ Book Of Useful Information

Magic Kidney and Liver Restorer

Two ounces of alcohol;
One and a half ounces of glycerine;
One ounce of liverwort;
Three hundred and twenty grains of saltpetre;
Forty drops of wintergreen.

Steep the liverwort in a quart of water down to half the quantity, then throw in the other ingredients while hot. Dose: One tablespoonful about four times a day.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information.

Ingredient: Caraway Seed

Caraway seeds sharpen the vision, promote the secretion of milk, and are good against hysterical affections. They are also useful in cases of colic. When used to flavour cakes the seeds should be pounded in a mortar, especially if children are to partake thereof.

When used medicinally 20 grains of the powdered seeds may be taken in a wineglassful of hot water. But for children half an ounce of the bruised seeds are to be infused in cold water for six hours, and from 1 to 3 teaspoonfuls of this water given.

A poultice of crushed caraway seeds moistened with hot water is good for sprains.

Caraway seeds are narcotic, and should therefore be used with caution.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

Scrofulous Syrup

Take yellow dock root, two pounds; stillingia root and bark of bittersweet root, of each one pound. Boil slowly in three or four gallons of water down to three quarts; strain, and add six pounds of white sugar. Dose: Half a wineglass three times a day. A valuable remedy for scrofula, and all scrofulous skin diseases, as tetter, herpes, leprosy, and the like; also a valuable alterative in all constitutional diseases.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information

News: 1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA

The BBC report that a medieval eye remedy has been found to almost completely eradicate MRSA – equal parts of onion and another allium (garlic or leek), chopped and crushed in a mortar, then mixed with a small amount of English wine and some bovine salts.