Boiled Flour
Take of fine flour one pound, tie it up in a linen cloth as tight as possible, and after frequently dipping it into cold water, dredge the outside with flour till a crust is formed round it, which will prevent the water soaking into it while boiling. Boil for a long time, and permit to cool, when it will become a hard, dry mass. This is to be grated, and prepared like arrow root. A good diet for children in diarrhea.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Rosemary for the Hair
Rosemary is considered an excellent remedy to increase the growth of the hair. Get a small quantity of the leaves and boil them over a quick fire for a few minutes, strain, add a little cocoanut oil and a few drops of verbena.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
For a Severe Sprain
For a severe sprain take the white of an egg and a teaspoonful each of vinegar and spirits of turpentine. Put all in a bottle, shake it thoroughly, then bathe the sprain often, beginning as soon as
possible after the accident.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
To make Syrrop of Ale, good for weak People to take inwardly, or to heal old Sores, applied thereto
Take two Gallons of Ale Wort, the strongest you can get, so soon as it is run from the Grounds, set it on the fire in a Pipkin, and let it boil gently and that you do perceive it to be as though it were full of Rags; run it through a strainer, and set it on the fire again, and let it boil until it be thick, and scum it clean, and when it is much wasted, put it into a lesser Pan to boil, or else it will burn; when it is thick enough, take it off, and when it is cold, put it into Gallipots, take as much as a Walnut fasting; and as much when you go to bed.
Source: The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Hannah Wolley
Walt Whitman’s Health Tips
It has recently come to light that the US poet Walt Whitman also published a series of tips for health in 1858. Written under a pseudonym, the tips for “Manly Health and Training” contain much that would be familiar to those seeking health advice today – though few of the “patent” remedies that might otherwise have been suggested in that era; Whitman’s emphasis was on exercise and a very plain diet.
Bran
Get nice clean coarse bran from the mill, and after your breakfast put about five teaspoonfuls into a tumbler, and fill it up with cream, (milk will do if you have no cream,) put a little salt in if you prefer. Most excellent for dyspepsia, or constipation, and will prolong ones life indefinitely, and you may possibly live to see your great-great-grand-children.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Remedy for Rheumatism
One-half pint of turpentine, one-half pint of alcohol, one ounce of camphor, one ounce saltpetre, one ounce ammonia, one-eighth of an ounce of cayenne pepper. Shake well before applying.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
A Shiny Nose
Add a little alcohol to the water in which you wash your face. Keep on hand a bottle containing: Boracic acid, one dram; rosewater, four ounces; mix. Apply the lotion as often as necessary.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
In Cases of Serious Hemorrhage after Tooth-Extraction
The plugging of the cavity with wool soaked in turpentine is at once rapid and effectual.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Cholera Mixture
Laudanum, tincture of Rhubarb, and spirits of camphor, equal parts. Begin with thirty drops, taken clear and unmixed, with a little sugar placed in the mouth afterwards. Repeat the dose (after every evacuation) increasing it if the case becomes urgent to sixty drops, (a teaspoonful), or ninety if necessary. No household should be without this remedy, particularly in the summer.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook