When A Nail Is Run Into The Foot

When a nail is run into the foot apply grated beet; keep the foot still, and elevated. Or, bathe in a strong tea of wormwood and then bind slices of fat bacon upon the wound.

Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book

Chilblains

Place red-hot coals in a vessel and throw upon them a handful of corn meal. Hold the feet in the dense smoke, renewing the coals and meal till the pain is relieved. This has been known to make very marked cures, when all other remedies have failed.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

Sunstroke

Wrap a wet cloth bandage over the head; wet another cloth, folded small, square, cover it thickly with salt, and bind it on the back of the neck; apply dry salt behind the ears. Put mustard plasters to the calves of the legs and soles of the feet. This is an effectual remedy.

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

Chilblains

We give a few household remedies for the cure of these disagreeable companions. 1. Take half an ounce of white wax, one ounce of ox-marrow, two ounces of lard; melt slowly over a fire in a pipkin, and mix them well together; then strain through a linen cloth. 2. Before going to bed spread the ointment on the parts affected, feet or hands, taking care to wrap them up well. 3. Lemon juice rubbed on the inflamed parts is said to stop the itching. 4. A sliced onion dipped in salt has the same effect, but is apt to make the feet tender. 5. When the chilblains are broken, a little warm vinegar, or tincture of myrrh, is an excellent thing to bathe the wound and keep it clean. 6. Another useful remedy is a bread poultice, at bedtime, and in the morning apply a little resin ointment spread on a piece of lint or old linen.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Sunstroke

Bind the head with wet cloths; wet another cloth, fold into a small square, cover thickly with salt, and apply to the back of the neck; apply dry salt behind the ears, and mustard plasters to the calves of the legs and soles of the feet. The salt is an Arabian remedy, and is very effective.

Source: The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper’s Guide, Mrs Washington

To Prevent Horses’ Feet from Scalding or Cracking

Coat the hoofs once a week with an ointment consisting of equal parts of soap fat, yellow wax, linseed oil, Venice turpentine, and Norway tar; melt the wax separately before mixing.

Source: The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper’s Guide, Mrs Washington

To Get Rid Of Corns

Dress them every night with turpentine. After a fortnight or three weeks of this treatment, the corns, with their roots, will “tumble out.”

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Draughts for the Feet

Take a large leaf from the horse-radish plant, and cut out the hard fibres that run through the leaf; place it on a hot shovel for a moment to soften it, fold it, and fasten it closely in the hollow of the foot by a cloth bandage.

Burdock leaves, cabbage leaves, and mullein leaves, are used in the same manner, to alleviate pain and promote perspiration.

Garlics are also made for draughts by pounding them, placing them on a hot tin plate for a moment to sweat them, and binding them closely to the hollow of the foot by a cloth bandage.

Draughts of onions, for infants, are made by roasting onions in hot ashes, and, when they are quite soft, peeling off the outside, mashing them, and applying them on a cloth as usual.

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

For Corns

Bind on thick slices of lemon.

Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book

Corns – To Cure

Two drachms potash and 1 drachm salt of sorrel. Mix into a fine powder. Put on enough to cover the corn for four successive nights, binding it on with a cloth.

Corns can often be cured by paring them down and rubbing on a little strong vinegar or acetic acid every night. Each morning, rub them over with lard or olive oil.

The latest cure for soft corns is this: Wash and dry the foot thoroughly, and put on a sprinkling of dry sulphur night and morning for several weeks, and a cure is assured.

Source: Mrs Owens’ Cook Book and Useful Household Hints, Frances Owens