A Remedy for Moth or Hepatic Spots
They are a sign of deep seated disease of the liver. Taraxacum, the extract of dandelion root, is the standing remedy for this, and the usual prescription is a large pill four nights in a week, some times for months. To this may be added the free use of tomatoes, figs, mustard-seed, and all seedy fruits and vegetables, with light boiled meats, and no bread but that of coarse flour. Pastry, puddings of most sorts, and fried food of all kinds must be dispensed with by persons having a tendency to this disease. It may take six weeks or even months to make any visible impression on either the health or the moth patches, but success will come at last. One-third of a teaspoonful of chlorate of soda in a wine-glass of water, taken in three doses before meals, will aid the recovery by neutralizing morbid matters in the stomach. There is no sure cosmetic that will reach the moth patches. Such treatment as described, such exercise as is tempting in itself, and gay society, will restore one to conditions of health in which the extinction of these blotches is certain.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
For Constipation
One or two figs eaten fasting is sufficient for some, and they are especially good in the case of children, as there is no trouble in getting them to take them. A spoonful of wheaten bran in a glass of water is a simple remedy, and quite effective, taken half an hour before breakfast; fruit eaten raw; partake largely of laxative food; exercise in the open air; drink freely of cold water during the day, etc. It is impossible to give many of the numerous treatments in so short a space, suffice it to say that the general character of our diet and experience is such as to assure us that at least one-quarter of the food that we swallow is intended by nature to be evacuated from the system; and if it is not, it is again absorbed into the system, poisoning the blood and producing much suffering and permanent disease. The evacuation of the bowels daily, and above all, regularity, is therefore all important to aid this form of disorder.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Figs for Carbuncles or Boils
A poultice of ripe figs is one of the best things known for carbuncles or boils. Must be well washed and peeled.
Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts
Constipation, Substitute for Castor Oil
“Take good clean figs, and stew them very slowly in olive oil until plump and tender, then add a little honey and a little lemon juice, and allow the syrup to boil thick.
Remarks.–Keep this in a covered glass jar and when a dose of castor oil seems necessary, a single fig will answer every purpose. Not unpleasant to take.”
Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter
To make Syrup of Hysop for Colds
Take a handful of Hysop, of Figs, Raisins, Dates, of each an ounce, of Collipint half a handful, French Barley one ounce; boil therein three pints of fair water to a quart, strain it and clarifie it with two whites of Eggs, then put in two pound of fine Sugar, and boil it to a syrup.
Source: A Queen’s Delight: Or, The Art of Preserving, Conserving and Candying, Nathaniel Brooke