Pills for Dysentery

Take rhubarb, ipecac, and castile soap, each thirty grains; pulverized opium, fifteen grains. Make into thirty pills with mucilage, gum arabic, or any other suitable substance. Dose: One pill every three to six hours for diarrhoea and dysentery. After three or four are taken they should not be taken oftener than once in six hours.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information.

Ingredient: Assafoetida

This substance is used as a stimulant and anti-spasmodic in hysterical and nervous diseases, and spasmodic cough; as an expectorant in asthma; and as a carminative in flatulent colic. The usual dose is from five grains to half a drachm, combined, if necessary, with expectorants in cough, and with chalybeates and aloetics in hysterical complaints. The following formula will sometimes allay obstinate attacks of spasmodic cough, and has been found useful even in [w]hooping-cough : —

Take of Assafoetida, half a drachm;
Mindererus’s Spirit, two ounces;
Penny-royal Water, two ounces.

Mix, and take one or two table spoonsful for a dose.

For the relief of colic in the bowels, the following glyster may be administered :—

Assafoetida, two drachms;
Thin Gruel, ten ounces.

(Assafoetida was used by the ancients as a condiment, under the names of Silphion and Laserpitium. In Persia, it is still esteemed as a condiment, and mixed with almost all their dishes. Gastronomers, as the French term those who delight in the pleasures of the palate, among the moderns, employ it for the same purpose; having the hot plates on which they eat beef steaks rubbed with it.)

Source: A Companion To The Medicine Chest, John Savory.

Ingredient: Periwinkle

There are two British Periwinkles growing wild; the one Vinca major, or greater, a doubtful native, and found only in the neighbourhood of dwelling-houses; the other Vinca minor lesser, abounding in English woods, particularly in the Western counties, and often entirely covering the ground with its prostrate evergreen leaves. The common name of each is derived from vincio, to bind, as it were by its stems resembling cord; or because bound in olden times into festive garlands and funeral chaplets. Their title used also to be Pervinca, and Pervinkle, Pervenkle, and Pucellage (or virgin flower).

This generic name has been derived either from pervincire, to bind closely, or from pervincere, to overcome. Lord Bacon observes that it was common in his time for persons to wear bands of green Periwinkle about the calf of the leg to prevent cramp. Now-a-days we use for the same purpose a garter of small new corks strung on worsted. In Germany this plant is the emblem of immortality. It bears the name “Pennywinkles” in Hampshire, probably by an inland confusion with the shell fish “winkles.”

Each of the two kinds possesses acrid astringent properties, but the lesser Periwinkle, Vinca minor or Winter-green, is the Herbal Simple best known of the pair, for its medicinal virtues in domestic use. The Periwinkle order is called Apocynaceoe, from the Greek apo, against, and kunos, a dog; or dog’s bane.

The flowers of the greater Periwinkle are gently purgative, but lose their effect by drying. If gathered in the Spring, and made into a syrup, they will impart all their virtues, and this is excellent to keep the bowels of children gently open, as well as to overcome habitual constipation in grown persons. But the leaves are astringent, contracting and strengthening the genitals if applied thereto either as a decoction, or as the bruised leaves themselves. An infusion of the greater Periwinkle, one part of the fresh plant to ten of water, may be used for staying female fluxes, by giving a wine-glassful thereof when cool, frequently; or of the liquid extract, half a teaspoonful for a dose in water. On account of its striking colour, and its use for magical purposes, the plant, when in bloom, has been named the Sorcerer’s Violet, and in some parts of Devon the flowers are known as Cut Finger or Blue Buttons. The Italians use it in making garlands for their dead infants, and so call it Death’s flower.

Simon Fraser, whose father was a faithful adherent of Sir William Wallace, when on his way to be executed (in 1306) was crowned in mockery with the Periwinkle, as he passed through the City of London, with his legs tied under the horse’s belly. In Gloucestershire, the flowers of the greater Periwinkle are called Cockles.

The lesser Periwinkle is perennial, and is sometimes cultivated in gardens, where it has acquired variegated leaves. It has no odour, but gives a bitterish taste which lasts in the mouth. Its leaves are strongly astringent, and therefore very useful to be applied for staying bleedings. If bruised and put into the nostrils, they will arrest fluxes from the nose, and a decoction made from them is of service for the diarrhoea of a weak subject, as well as for chronic looseness of the bowels; likewise for bleeding piles, by being applied externally, and by being taken internally. Again, the decoction makes a capital gargle for relaxed sore throat, and for sponginess of the mouth, of the tonsils, and the gums.

This plant was also a noted Simple for increasing the milk of wet nurses, and was advised for such purpose by physicians of repute. Culpeper gravely says: “The leaves of the lesser Periwinkle, if eaten by man and wife together, will cause love between them.”

A tincture is made (H.) from the said plant, the Vinca minor, with spirit of wine. It is given medicinally for the milk-crust of infants, as well as for internal haemorrhages, the dose being from two to ten drops three or four times in the day, with a spoonful of water.

Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, William Thomas Fernies.

Definition: Glyster

(also: Clyster). An enema; see also injection.

Flux

Receive the smoke of Turpentine cast on burning coals. This cures also the Bloody Flux and the Falling of the Fundament.

Or put a large brown Toast into three quarts of water, with a drachm of cochineal powdered, and a drachm of salt of wormwood. Drink it all in as short time as you conveniently can. This rarely fails to cure all Fluxes, Cholera Morbus, yea, and inflammations of the bowels. Tried.

Or take a spoonful of Plantane-seed bruised, morning and evening till it stops.

Or ten grains of Ipecacuanha, three mornings successively. It is likewise excellent as a sudorific.

Or boil four ounces of rasped Logwood, or fresh Logwood chips, in three quarts of water to two; strain it, and drink a quarter of a pint, sweetened with loaf-sugar warm, twice a day. It both binds and heals. Or take a small tea-cupful of it every hour.

Or boil the fat of a breast of mutton in a quart of water for an hour. Drink the broth as soon as you can conveniently. This will cure the most inveterate flux. Tried.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

Bronchitis, General Relief for

“Dose of castor oil every night; one teaspoonful for child. Grease well with camphorated oil or any good oil.” The castor oil is very good for carrying off the phlegm from the stomach and bowels that children always swallow instead of coughing up like an older person. It is well in addition to the above remedy to give a little licorice or onion syrup to relieve the bronchial cough.

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

Cordial for Diarrhoea

The best rhubarb root, pulverized, 1 oz; peppermint leaf 1 oz; capsicum 1/8 oz; cover with boiling water and steep thoroughly, strain, and add bi-carbonate of potash and essence of cinnamon, of each 1/2 oz; with brandy (or good whisky) equal in amount to the whole, and loaf sugar 4 oz.

Dose: For an adult, 1 to 2 tablespoons; for a child 1 to 2 teaspoons, from 3 to 6 times per day, until relief is obtained.

Source: Dr Chase’s Recipes, or Information for Everybody, A.W. Chase

Bleeding from the Lungs. Herb Tea for

“Two ounces each of bistory root, tormentil root, oak bark, and comfrey root, boil in three quarts of water down to one pint, strain and add one tablespoonful of ground ginger. Give a wine glass full every half hour until relieved. Place the feet in hot mustard water, keep the bowels open with a little senna and ginger tea and if necessary give a vapor bath”

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

Inflammation of the Bowels, Marshmallow Leaves, a Canadian Remedy for

“Green marshmallow leaves (dry will do). Wet flannel and apply hot.” Make a strong tea of the marshmallow leaves and while hot dip flannels and apply to abdomen.

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

Diarrhoea Drops

Tincture of rhubarb, and compound spirits of lavender, of each 4 ozs; laudanum 2 oz; cinnamon oil 2 drops. Mix.

Dose: One teaspoon every 3 or 4 hours, according to the severity of the case.

Source: Dr Chase’s Recipes, or Information for Everybody, A.W. Chase