Another Receipt for Purifying the Blood and Strengthening the Stomach

Take mace, flour of sulphur, cloves, cinnamon, half an ounce of each, eleven penny bits worth of saffron and about half an ounce small snake root, put it altogether into a bottle and add one quart good wine, let it stand 24 hours and it will be fit for use. A teaspoonful may be taken in the morning before breakfast, or it may be taken three times a day.

Source: Recipes: Information for Everybody, J.F. Landis

A Cure for the Stomach and Purification of the Blood

Take gentian root, ginseng root, elder bark, elder root, the rind of sassafras root, hoarhound, burdock, half an ounce of each and rosin of pine, as much as the size of a hickory nut, put the whole together into a bottle and add a quart good rye whisky. After this has stood for 24 hours you may use it.

A grown person of a strong constitution may take a teaspoonful of it at a time, and it can easily be ascertained whether more or less will do. It is to be taken in the morning before breakfast, at noon and in the evening.

Source: Recipes: Information for Everybody, J.F. Landis

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

Bleeding, To Stop

Take some agaric (that is, the fungus known as touchwood), beat it into a pulp and apply to the wound. The fungus will be found growing on the branches of the oak and other trees, and is best gathered in the autumn, when the weather is fine, and after periods of great heat.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Hives

Take a teaspoonful of flour in a glass of water. This is one dose. Repeat several times a day until relief is obtained. Hives are caused by too much acid in the blood and the flour counteracts this.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Boils

Bring these tumours to a head by hot poultices of camomile flowers or white lily root, fermenting with hot water, or by a plaster of shoemakers’ wax. When ripe prick the centre with a needle or slit it with a lancet, and apply bread poultices till the discharge is cleared away. Purify the blood with a course of medicine.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Remedy For Boils

An excellent remedy for boils is water of a temperature agreeable to the feelings of the patient. Apply wet linen to the part affected, and frequently renew or moisten it. It is said to be the most effectual remedy known. Take inwardly some good blood purifier.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Bruises

The only treatment that does any good is to bathe the bruised part with cold water — the colder the better — to check the diffusion of blood through the tissues. The part should be kept as still as possible and not be rubbed. Applying a piece of raw meat to a black eye may not do any harm, but it certainly has no useful effect.

Source: The Complete Household Adviser

To Stop The Flow Of Blood

Bind the cut with cobwebs and brown sugar, pressed on like lint. Or, if you cannot procure these, with the fine dust of tea. When the blood ceases to flow, apply laudanum.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Boils

If on a part exposed to friction of the clothes — the neck for instance — a boil should be protected by a piece of boracic lint strapped on with plaster. The gathering and discharge of a boil is hastened and the pain relieved by frequent bathing with water as hot as can be borne with comfort, containing a little boracic powder, lysol, or other disinfectant. Apply with a pad of cottonwool, which should be thrown away after use. In some cases a poultice of linseed — not bread — may be helpful; but there is a danger of poultices spreading infection and causing a crop of subsidiary boils. Very large boils, among which may be included carbuncles, may require lancing by a doctor at an early stage to give an outlet for the pus. As a rule a boil of the ordinary kind should be allowed to “ripen” fully before it is pricked, as by that time a core will have formed, the removal of which will allow the wound to heal quickly. After discharge dress the place with boracic ointment or powder to prevent reinfection, and keep it clean. Since boils are the result of a bad state of the blood, a person troubled by a succession of them should endeavour to improve the blood by means of purgatives, if he be constipated, and by exercise; or by taking cod-liver oil, iron, and nutritious food if “run down.”

The following treatment is said to be very effective: smear a little vaseline upon a piece of lint, pour a little chloroform on it, apply quickly to the boil and bind in place. Change the dressing every hour or so.

Source: The Complete Household Adviser