Soda Cure

This simple rule has cured rheumatic troubles of long standing. Be careful to follow directions:

Dissolve one-half teaspoonful of cooking soda (the best) in one-half cupful of water; nearly hot is better. Take three times a day, one-half hour before eating, for three consecutive days; then skip three days, then take it three days, and so on for six weeks or more, according to the severity of the case. The soda is for excess of acid in the system, the cause of many of our ailments.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Cure for Sciatica

Two ounces tartaric acid, four ounces Epsom salts, two ounces citrate of magnesia, two ounces baking soda, two ounces cream tartar, six ounces icing sugar; One teaspoonful to a glass of water.

Source: The New Galt Cook Book, M. Taylor & F. McNaught

To Destroy a Wart

Wet frequently with strong soda (baking) water. Touched two or three times a day with castor oil will hurry the process.

Source: Book of Recipes, Daughters of the American Revolution, Genesee Chapter

Indigestion

Hot water. Soda mints. Aromatic spirit of ammonia. Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). Hot applications to the stomach.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

To Remove the Odor of Onions

Fill with cold water kettles and sauce pans in which they have been cooked adding a tablespoonful of bread soda and the same of ammonia. Let stand on the stove until it boils. Then wash in hot suds and rinse well. A pudding or bean pot, treated in this way, will wash easily. Wood ashes in the water will have the same effect.

Source: Things Mother Used To Make, L.M. Gurney

To Cure a Sting of a Bee or Wasp

Bind on common baking soda, dampened with water. Or mix common earth with water to about the consistency of mud.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

For Headache

For headache, drink a cup of strong black tea, in which has been squeezed the juice of a lemon. Half a teaspoon of common baking soda dissolved in hot water is also good.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Burns and Scalds

A piece of cotton wadding, spread with butter or sweet oil, and bound on the burn instantly, will draw out the pain without leaving a scar; also a handful of flour, bound on instantly, will prevent blistering. The object is to entirely exclude the air from the part affected. Some use common baking-soda, dry or wet, often giving instant relief, withdrawing the heat and pain. Another valuable remedy is to beat the yellow of an egg into linseed oil, and apply it with a feather on the injured part frequently. It will afford ready relief and heals with great rapidity. Some recommend the white part of the egg, which is very cooling and soothing, and soon allays the smarting pain. It is the exposure of the part coming in contact with the air that gives the extreme discomfort experienced from ordinary afflictions of this kind, and anything which excludes air and prevents inflammation is the thing to be at once applied.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Stings, an Old, Tried Canadian Remedy for

“For the bee sting I put soda on and dampen it with honey.” An old-time remedy and seems to do the work. Soda is an antiseptic and cleansing remedy. If no honey at hand, dampen soda with water.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Heartburn, Soda a Popular Remedy for

“One-half teaspoonful soda in glass of water. Everybody uses this in the neighborhood.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter