Elliman’s Embrocation

One new-laid egg well beaten, add to it by degrees one gill turpentine, one gill vinegar, put in alternately one-half ounce spirits of camphor.

Directions for use. — For rheumatism, lumbago, for sore throat, cold in chest, etc., rub in well with hand, night and morning. A flannel may also be soaked in embrocation and put on, covered with a cloth or flannel. Can be used also as a substitute for mustard plaster, as above.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Hair Wash

One penny worth of borax, half a pint of olive oil, one pint of boiling water. Pour the boiling water over the borax and oil; let it cool; then put the mixture into a bottle. Shake it before using, and apply it with a flannel. Camphor and borax, dissolved in boiling water and left to cool, make a very good wash for the hair; as also does rosemary water mixed with a little borax. After using any of these washes, when the hair becomes thoroughly dry, a little pomatum or oil should be rubbed in to make it smooth and glossy — that is, if one prefers oil on the hair.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

Preventive Against Chilblains

Rub the toes, or other parts of the feet likely to become affected, every morning and night with a mixture of one part camphorated spirit and three parts vinegar.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Syrup for a Cough

Boil 1 oz. balsam of tolu, very gently, two hours, in a quart of water; add 1 lb. white sugar candy, finely beaten, and boil it half an hour longer. Strain through a flannel bag twice; when cold, bottle it. You may add 2 oz. syrup of red poppies, and the same of raspberry vinegar. A spoonful when the cough is troublesome.

Or: 2 oz. honey, 4 table-spoonsful vinegar, 2 oz. syrup white poppies, and 2 oz. gum arabic: boil gently to the consistency of treacle; a tea-spoonful when the cough is troublesome.

Or: 1 table-spoonful treacle, 1 of honey, 1 of vinegar, 15 drops laudanum, and 15 drops peppermint. Simmer together a quarter of an hour. A dessert-spoonful to be taken at going to bed.

Or: mix together in a phial, 2 drachms of compound tincture of benjamin, 6 drachms ethereal spirits of nitre, 3 drachms of compound tincture of camphor, and 5 drachms of oxymel; a tea-spoonful in a wine-glass of warm water, when the cough is troublesome.

Or: mix 1 oz. gum arabic, 1 oz. sugar candy, and the juice of a lemon; pour on it a pint of boiling water; a little when the cough is troublesome.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

An Embrocation for Rheumatism

Dissolve 1 oz. of gum camphor in 6 oz. of rectified spirits of wine; add by degrees, shaking the phial frequently, 2 oz. spirits of sal ammoniac and 2 drachms oil of lavender. This has been used with success.

Another: (known to mitigate the tic douloureux), is the caja peeta oil*, but it must be genuine. It is also good for strains, bruises, and chilblains.

Or: a mixture of 6 drachms French soap, 6 drachms ether, and 1 oz. spirits of wine.

[* Editor’s note: no, I have not the slightest idea what this is, and neither — it would seem — does anyone else online… the only occurrences of the phrase seem to be in the text of the book from which this came.]

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Golden Ointment

One pound lard and eight ounces beeswax melted. Have one ounce camphor gum put to five ounces of alcohol, one ounce organum, one ounce laudanum. Let all dissolve while you are melting the first two, then stir together till cold. Do not put these together too hot, or the camphor will go off in steam, and you will lose the good of it.

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

Cholera and Diarrhoea

For this recipe the New York Sun newspaper paid one thousand dollars for the benefit of subscribers. It is most effectual but is not adopted for young children. Equal parts of tincture of rhubarb, cayenne, opium, ginger, spirits of camphor and essence of peppermint. Dose, half a teaspoonful every three hours.

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

Cholera Medicine

Tincture of opium, spirits of camphor, tincture capsicum, each one fluid ounce; purified chloroform three fluid drachms, and sufficient stronger alcohol to make five fluid ounces. Each fluid drachm or teaspoonful contains about one hundred drops, being about twenty of each ingredient. Dose for adults, one teaspoonful.

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

Excellent Liniment for Sprains or Bruises

Two ounces gum camphor, eight ounces alcohol, one ounce organum, one ounce amber, one-half ounce oil spikenard, three ounces laudanum, four ounces sweet oil, eight ounces hartshorn, one ounce spirits turpentine.

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

For a Cold in the Head

Mix together in a large bottle four ounces of ammonia and four of camphor. A cologne bottle with a glass stopper is the best for this preparation. When there are symptoms of a cold in the head inhale this mixture frequently.

Source: Miss Parloa’s Young Housekeeper, Maria Parloa