Healing Salve

One lb. Lard, 1/2 lb. Resin, 1/2 lb. Sweet Elder bark. Simmer over a slow fire 4 hours, or until it forms a hard, brown salve. This is for the cure of cuts, bruises, boils, old sores and all like ailments. Spread on a cotton cloth and apply to the parts affected.

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

Tea and Coffee Stains

Only a few people know that butter will remove tea, coffee or fruit stains. It should be rubbed on the linen or cotton and then the material should be soaked in hot water and a mild soap. In fact, any stains, except ink or wine stains, sprinkle salt over the spots and pour boiling water through it until the spot has gone.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Nails (Ingrowing)

Scrape surface — a piece of glass is good for this purpose. Cut in V-shape. Pack absorbent cotton under affected side. Paint with iodine.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

Nosebleed

Head in upright position. Raise arm on bleeding side. Loosen collar. Apply ice in a cloth to bridge of nose and back of neck. A roll of paper under upper lip. Snuff cold tea up nose, or salt water, 1 tsp. to cup water, or the same of powdered alum.

If bleeding continues, tie a small wad of cotton with thread; dip it into peroxide of hydrogen, and plug nostril by pushing the cotton gently with a pencil. The thread is used to withdraw cotton.

If these means fail, send for doctor.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

Potatoes Used to Cleanse

Small pieces of raw potato in a little water shaken vigorously inside bottles and lamp chimneys will clean them admirably. To clean a burned porcelain kettle boil peeled potatoes in it. Cold boiled potatoes not over-boiled, used as soap will clean the hands and keep them soft and healthy. To cleanse and stiffen silk, woolen and cotton fabrics use the following recipe:–Grate two good sized potatoes into a pint of clear, clean, soft water. Strain through a coarse sieve into a gallon of water and let the liquid settle. Pour the starchy fluid from the sediment, rub the articles gently in the liquid, rinse them thoroughly in clear water and then dry and press. Water in which potatoes are boiled is said to be very effective in keeping silver bright.

Source: Vaughan’s Vegetable Cook Book

Earache

Caused sometimes by bad teeth, but generally by cold or hardened ear wax.

Hold ear over cloth wrung out of hot water, on which are several drops of alcohol. Syringe ear with warm bicarbonate of soda water — 1 tsp. to a cup; or peroxide of hydrogen water — 1 tbsp. to a cup of water.

One drop laudanum, or one drop arnica to three drops very warm olive oil, dropped into ear with a medicine dropper, often relieves pain; or cotton may be saturated with the warm olive oil and placed in the ear and covered with dry cotton. To prevent hardening of wax: keep ear anointed with ordinary red vaseline (unbleached vaseline). For watery discharge of ear, dust with dry boric acid.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

Tooth Ache

Take equal parts of alum and salt pulverized together; put on a small piece of cotton and insert in the tooth.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

Scouring Soap for Cotton and Silk Goods

Mix one pound of common soap, half a pound of beef-gall and one ounce and a half of Venetian turpentine.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

To Stop Blood

For a prick with a pin, or a slight cut, nothing will more effectually stop the bleeding than old cobwebs compressed into a lump and applied to the wound, or bound on it with a rag. A scrap of cotton wadding is also good for stopping blood.

Source: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie

A Cure for Toothache

Roll a small bit of cotton wadding into a ball the size of a pea, dip this in a very few drops of camphorated chloroform, and with it fill the hollow part of the decayed tooth.

Source: A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes, C.E. Francatelli