Extract of Malt, for a Cough

Over 1/2 a bushel of pale ground malt, pour hot (not boiling) water to cover it, let it stand eight and forty hours; drain off the liquor, without squeezing the grains, into a stew-pan large enough to boil quickly, without boiling over. When it begins to thicken, stir, till it is as thick as treacle. A dessert-spoonful three times a day.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Wash for the Skin

An infusion of horse-radish in milk, or the fresh juice of house leek, are both good.

Honey water, very thick, is good in frosty weather.

Also, a wash made of 4 oz. potash, 4 oz. rose water, and 2 oz. lemon juice, mixed with 2 quarts of water; pour 2 table-spoonsful in a bason of water.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

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

Hallett’s Gout and Bilious Cordial

Infuse in a gallon of distilled aniseed water, 3 oz. Turkey rhubarb, 4 oz. senna leaves, 4 oz. guaiacum shavings, 3 oz. elecampagne root, 1 oz. fennel seed, 14 oz. saffron, 14 oz. cochineal, 1 lb. sun raisins, 1 oz. aniseed; shake it every day for a fortnight; strain and bottle it. A table-spoonful (or two) an hour after dinner.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

A Mild Aperient (To Take In The Spring)

Put 1 oz. of senna into a jar, and pour 1 quart of boiling water over it; fill up the vessel, with prunes and figs; cover with paper, and set it in the oven, with household bread. Take every morning, one or two prunes, and a wine-glass of the liquor.– Or: dissolve 3 oz. of Spanish liquorice in one pint boiling water, add 1 oz. socotrine aloes in powder, and 1 pint brandy. Take 1 tea-spoonful in a wine-glassful of water, either in the morning, at night, or both.– Or: a large tea-spoonful of magnesia, a lump of sugar, a dessert-spoonful of lemon juice, in 1/2 pint of spring water.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For Nervous Affections

Take a small wine-glassful of the following mixture: a tea-spoonful of sal volatile, of tincture of hops, and an equal portion of infusion of orange peel and of gentian.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Bark Gargle

Boil 1 oz. powdered bark and 1 drachm myrrh, in 1 1/2 pint of water, over a slow fire, till one third is wasted; strain, then add a table-spoonful of honey, and a tea-spoonful of spirits of lavender.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For Bilious Complaints and Indigestion

Pour over twenty grains each of rhubarb and ginger, and a handful of camomile flowers, a pint of boiling water. A wine-glassful the first in the morning, and an hour before dinner.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

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