The Best Cough Syrup

One ounce of hoarhound leaves and blossoms, one ounce each of spikenard root, camfrey root, sunflower seed and elecampane. Put all in water, and boil one hour in water enough to have a quart remaining after it has boiled, and has been strained. To this add one pound of loaf sugar, boll it again for a little while and add a little brandy, and bottle it. Dose: a tablespoonful three times a day. Has been thoroughly tested.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Gout Cordial

Rhubarb 1 oz., senna, coriander seeds, sweet fennel seeds, cochineal, saffron, and liquorice root, of each, a 1/4 oz., and of jar raisins 4 oz. Let the raisins be stoned, and all the ingredients be bruised. Put them into a quart of French brandy. Shake well every day for a fortnight. Take 1 table-spoonful, with peppermint, or plain water.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Cure for Coughs

Three newly-laid eggs, unbroken, over which pour the juice of six lemons, and allow to stand for forty-eight hours. Then pick out any bits of eggshell which are not dissolved; add one-half pound of rock candy, and one pint of Jamaica brandy ; mix well and bottle. Dose : 1 tablespoonful three or four times a day.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Garlic Syrup, for Hooping, or any other Cough

Put 3 roots of garlic, sliced thinly and transversely, with 4 oz. honey, and 4 oz. vinegar, into a 1/2 pint bason, and set that into a large wash-hand bason; let it infuse half an hour, then strain it. Take the first in the morning, and the last at night, a tea-spoonful of the syrup, in an equal quantity of brandy and water; put the water in the glass first.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For a Sore Throat

At the beginning of a sore throat, get fresh ivy leaves, tack them together, warm them, and put the shady side to the throat.– Or: wet bread-crumbs with brandy, and tie them round the throat. Make a gargle of 2 carrots, sliced and boiled, and use it often.– Or: dissolve 4 oz. camphor in a pint of rectified spirits of wine. Dip a piece of new Welsh flannel into this, and apply it to the throat. Be careful to wet frequently.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

An Excellent Recipe for Hoarseness

At night before going to bed, have ready a pint bowl, into which you have squeezed the juice of half a lemon, add to this one teaspoonful of glycerine, and one or two tablespoons of good whisky or best brandy, pour over boiling water, sweeten well with loaf sugar and drink very hot.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Blackberry Cordial for Diarrhoea

Boil together four pounds of white sugar and one gallon of blackberry juice ; remove the scum, then add one ounce of cloves, one ounce of cinnamon, and four or five grated nutmegs. When boiled sufficiently, let it settle ; strain, and add one pint of brandy. Dose for a child, one tablespoonful ; for an adult, one wineglassful.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Arrowroot Wine Jelly

1 cup boiling water.
2 heaping teaspoonfuls arrowroot.
2 heaping white sugar.
1 tablespoonful brandy or 3 tablespoonfuls of wine.

An excellent corrective to weak bowels.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Herb Teas

Herb teas are made by infusing the dried or green leaves and stalks in boiling water, and letting them stand until cold. Sweeten to taste.

Sage tea, sweetened with honey, is good for a sore throat, used as a gargle, with a small bit of alum dissolved in it.

Catnip tea is the best panacea for infant ills, in the way of cold and colic, known to nurses.

Pennyroyal tea will often avert the unpleasant consequences of a sudden check of perspiration, or the evils induced by ladies’ thin shoes.

Chamomile and gentian teas are excellent tonics taken either cold or hot.

The tea made from blackberry-root is said to be good for summer disorders. That from green strawberry leaves is an admirable and soothing wash for a cankered mouth.

Tea of parsley-root scraped and steeped in boiling water, taken warm, will often cure strangury and kindred affections, as will that made from dried pumpkin-seed.

Tansy and rue teas are useful in cases of colic, as are fennel seeds steeped in brandy.

A tea of damask-rose leaves, dry or fresh, will usually subdue any simple case of summer complaint in infants.

Mint tea, made from the green leaves, crushed in cold or hot water and sweetened, is palatable and healing to the stomach and bowels.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Scalds and Burns

The following facts cannot be too firmly impressed on the mind of the reader, that in either of these accidents the first, best and often the only remedies required, are sheets of wadding, fine wool, or carded cotton, and in the default of these, violet powder, flour, magnesia or chalk. The object for which these several articles are employed is the same in each instance; namely, to exclude the air from injured part; for if the air can be effectually shut out from the raw surface, and care is taken not to expose the tender part till the new cuticle is formed, the cure may be safely left to nature. The moment a person is called to a case of scald or burn, he should cover the part with a sheet, or a portion of a sheet, of wadding, taking care not to break any blister that may have formed, or stay to remove any burnt clothes that may adhere to the surface, but as quickly as possible envelope every part of the injury from all access of the air, laying one or two more pieces of wadding on the first, so as to effectually guard the burn or scald from the irritation of the atmosphere; and if the article used is wool or cotton, the same precaution, of adding more material where the surface is thinly covered, must be adopted; a light bandage finally securing all in their places. Any of the popular remedies recommended below may be employed when neither wool, cotton nor wadding are to be procured, it being always remembered that that article which will best exclude the air from a burn or scald is the best, quickest, and least painful mode of treatment. And in this respect nothing has surpassed cotton loose or attached to paper as in wadding.

If the Skin is Much Injured in burns, spread some linen pretty thickly with chalk ointment, and lay over the part, and give the patient some brandy and water if much exhausted; then send for a medical man. If not much injured, and very painful, use the same ointment, or apply carded cotton dipped in lime water and linseed oil. If you please, you may lay cloths dipped in ether over the parts, or cold lotions. Treat scalds in same manner, or cover with scraped raw potato; but the chalk ointment is the best. In the absence of all these, cover the injured part with treacle, and dust over it plenty of flour.

Source: One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed, C. A. Bogardus