Ingredient: Nutmeg
The medicinal qualities of nutmegs are worthy of considerable attention, on account of their value in the treatment of diarrhea, many cases quickly yielding to the administration of half a drachm
in milk. Sleeplessness may be effectually relieved by them when opium fails and chloral is not advisable. They are also a sedative in delirium tremens, and can be given with safety and marked benefit.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Remedy for Toothache
First wash the mouth well with warm water, then use the following tincture: Tannin, 10 grains; gum mastic, 1/2 drachm; 10 drops of carbolic acid; dissolve in 1/2 ounce of sulphuric ether. Paint the decayed hollow of the aching tooth over with this tincture twice or thrice, using a camel’s hair brush. The tincture will remain in good condition for a month or more, provided care is taken to keep it in a vial with a glass stopper.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Ointment to Soften the Hands
One and a half pound of mutton tallow, one ounce of camphor gum, one ounce of glycerine, melted; when thoroughly mixed put away to cool. Rub on at night.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Cure for a Cough
A patient, who, for nearly two months, could not pass a night in quiet without large doses of laudanum, has been cured of a most harassing cough by suet boiled in milk.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
A Syrup for Colds and Coughs
Take 18 ounces of perfectly sound onions, and after removing rind make several incisions, but not too deep. Boil together with 13 1/2 ounces of moist sugar and 2 3/4 ounces of honey in 35 ounces of water, for three-quarters of an hour; strain, and fill into bottles for use. Give one tablespoonful of this mixture (slightly warmed) immediately on attack, and then, according to requirement, five to eight half tablespoonfuls daily.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Draught to Promote the Appetite
Compound tincture of gentian, half an ounce; sal volatile, half a tcaspoonful; cinnamon water, one ounce; compound tincture of cardamoms, one tcaspoonful. Mix. The draught to be taken an hour before a meal.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
How to Take Castor Oil
Take a half-glass of frothy, sparkling beer, mix the dose of oil with it, and whip it up so as to make it froth strongly. The oil thus becomes intimately mixed with the froth, and if only the latter is drunk, neither the taste of the oil nor that of the beer is perceived.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
A Recipe for the Removal of Pimples or Blotches
Fifty grains of distilled water of cherry laurel, seventy-five grains of extract of lead, seven of tincture of benzoin, and thirty of alcohol; shake the benzoin and alcohol together, and then the whole very thoroughly.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Wash to Perfume the Breath
Cloves, bruised in a mortar, three teaspoonfuls; boiling water, one pint. Infuse for an hour in a covered vessel — exactly as in making tea — when cold, decant, or filter through coarse muslin. Wash the mouth with it as often as may seem necessary.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Chilblains
We give a few household remedies for the cure of these disagreeable companions. 1. Take half an ounce of white wax, one ounce of ox-marrow, two ounces of lard; melt slowly over a fire in a pipkin, and mix them well together; then strain through a linen cloth. 2. Before going to bed spread the ointment on the parts affected, feet or hands, taking care to wrap them up well. 3. Lemon juice rubbed on the inflamed parts is said to stop the itching. 4. A sliced onion dipped in salt has the same effect, but is apt to make the feet tender. 5. When the chilblains are broken, a little warm vinegar, or tincture of myrrh, is an excellent thing to bathe the wound and keep it clean. 6. Another useful remedy is a bread poultice, at bedtime, and in the morning apply a little resin ointment spread on a piece of lint or old linen.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts