Broom Tops

There is no remedy so healthful to those who suffer from heaviness of the limbs and tendency to dropsy as a decoction of fresh broom tops. Half an ounce of the tops should be boiled in a pint of water down to a gill. A wine-glassful every three hours.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Constipation

Chop fine one-half pound of the best prunes and one-half pound of figs. Add one-half ounce of pure senna and enough molasses to make a thick paste. Simmer on the stove about twenty minutes. Take a piece of this paste about the size of a hickory nut. Repeat in four hours if necessary.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Mutton Suet, The Value Of

One drop of warm mutton suet applied to any sore at night, just before retiring, will soon cause it to disappear; the same for chapped hands or parched lips. If people only knew the value of the healing properties of so simple a thing no housekeeper would be without it. For cuts or bruises it is almost indispensable. Keep the wound clean, and put a little suet, melted, on a rag, and you will be astonished to see how soon the sore will heal.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Hay Fever, To Cure

This unpleasant complaint may be cured by aconite and white wine whey taken at bed-time. Boil half a pint of milk, add a little aconite and a glass of sherry, strain through muslin, and sweeten the whey with white sugar.

To twelve parts of absolute phenol, eight parts of carbonate of ammonia, twenty-two parts of strong solution of ammonia, half a part of oil of lavender, and one and a half parts of camphor, add a little sifted pine sawdust. Inhale five or six times a day, or when the sneezing comes on.

Relief has often been found by wearing tinted side spectacles to soften the light and lessen the glare of the sun.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Bad Legs

A bad leg should be frequently washed in warm milk, and afterwards dusted with camphor dust, and a cure is the result; or, four ounces of mutton fat, taken from next the kidneys, melted and strained, and when cool mixed with one pennyworth of red precipitate, is one of the best remedies to use as an ointment for bad legs.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Itch, Lotions For

Hydriodate of potash, two drams; distilled water, eight ounces. Apply frequently.

Equal parts of lime-water and linseed oil will also allay the irritation.

Or, after washing the body in warm water, apply the following : — Lime, two ounces ; sulphur-vivum, two ounces. Mix. Pour off the clear liquid for use.

Source: Recipes for the Million

To Thicken The Hair

Simmer 1/2 lb. of the best lard in a tea-cupful of olive oil half an hour, scumming all the time: add 9 drops of any scent. Rub it in three times a week.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Burdock

The value of this plant cannot be too much known for its direct action on the blood, whether for scurvy, skin eruptions, leprosy, scrofula, venereal, ulcers, kidney disease, convulsions, fits, &c. It is invaluable. Two ounces to be used to three pints of water. This simmer down to two pints; take a gill three times a day.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Bunions, Ointment For

To half an ounce of spermaceti ointment or lard add twelve grains of iodine. Rub the mixture on two or three times a day.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Nightmare, To Prevent

Carbonate of soda, ten grains; compound tincture of cardamoms, three drams; sugar, one dram; peppermint water, one ounce. Mix, and repeat the dose several nights in succession.

Source: Recipes for the Million