To Relieve Neuralgia

When one is suffering from neuralgia in the head, put him in a warm bed. Make a brick very hot and cover it with several thicknesses of flannel. Fold a coarse, thick cloth and place it on the pillow. Lay the brick on this and wet thoroughly with rum. Rest the most painful part of the head or face on the brick, and throw a blanket over the patient, covering the head. Keep covered in this way until the pain ceases. When the blanket is removed, wipe the moisture from the head, face, and neck; then bathe in alcohol or rum, to prevent taking cold.

Another remedy is to make salt very hot by stirring it over the fire in a frying-pan; then pour it into a bag, which should be securely tied. Have the patient lie down, and cover him well. Place the bag of hot salt on that part of the head or face where the pain is located. The salt will retain the heat a long time. This method is much easier than the first, but it will not relieve one so quickly nor so thoroughly.

Source: Miss Parloa’s Young Housekeeper, Maria Parloa

Turpentine Applications

Refined turpentine is often very valuable in the sick-room. In cases of inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, or bladder, and of congestion of the lungs, a turpentine application often will relieve the most intense pain. Indeed, this remedy is good and safe for almost any pain that can be reached by external applications.

There are two ways of using the applications. When the turpentine is to remain on the patient for a long time, mix it with lard, and spread the mixture on flannel. Lay this on the seat of pain. It may be kept on for several hours. Use a tablespoonful of spirits of turpentine to half a pint of lard. If the pain be intense, two or three tablespoonfuls of turpentine may be used.

Another method is to wring flannel out of hot water, sprinkle the turpentine on this, and lay the flannel on the seat of pain. Cover with a dry flannel, and upon this lay a soft towel. Use a teaspoonful of turpentine for a surface about a foot square. In case of great pain even more turpentine may be required. Few patients can endure this hot application more than twenty minutes or half an hour. When the flannel is removed cover the inflamed part with a piece of soft linen.

If the pain come from gas in the stomach or bowels, put eight or ten drops of spirits of turpentine on a lump of sugar and let the patient eat this. Turpentine is very good to give in this way whenever there is bloating of the bowels from an accumulation of gas.

Source: Miss Parloa’s Young Housekeeper, Maria Parloa

For a Sore Throat

At the beginning of a sore throat, get fresh ivy leaves, tack them together, warm them, and put the shady side to the throat.– Or: wet bread-crumbs with brandy, and tie them round the throat. Make a gargle of 2 carrots, sliced and boiled, and use it often.– Or: dissolve 4 oz. camphor in a pint of rectified spirits of wine. Dip a piece of new Welsh flannel into this, and apply it to the throat. Be careful to wet frequently.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For Sore Throats

Cut slices of salt pork and simmer a few moments in hot vinegar, and apply to the throat as hot as possible. When this is taken off, as the throat is better, put a bandage of flannel around. A gargle of borax and alum dissolved in soft water is excellent to be used frequently.

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

Camphor and Borax Hair Wash

1/2 oz camphor
1 oz borax powder

Cut the camphor into small pieces, add the borax, put into a jug and pour over a quart of boiling water. When cold bottle. When required, strain a little through a muslin into a saucer and rub on the head with a sponge or a piece of flannel.

Source: Still Room Cookery, C.S. Peel

For Colds on the Chest

Rub with embrocation, or camphorated oil, on the throat and chest, afterwards covering them with flannel or Thermogen. Give a cough mixture to relieve the cough. A linseed poultice will become necessary for a case of bronchitis, croup, pneumonia or pleurisy.

Source: Household Management, E. Stoddard Eckford & M.S. Fitzgerald

Growing Pains Cured

Following in our mother’s footsteps, we have been routed night after night from our warm quarters, in the dead of winter, to kindle fires and fill frosty kettles from water-pails thickly crusted with ice, that we might get the writhing pedal extremities of our little heir into a tub of water as quickly as possible. But lately we have learned that all this work and exposure is needless. We simply wring a towel from salted water–a bowl of it standing in our sleeping room, ready for such an emergency–wrap the limb in it from the ankle to knee, without taking the child from his bed, and then swathe with dry flannels, thick and warm, tucking the blankets about him a little closer, and relief is sure.

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

Hints In Regard To Health (Part I)

It is plainly seen by an inquiring mind that, aside from the selection and preparation of food, there are many little things constantly arising in the experience of everyday life which, in their combined effect, are powerful agents in the formation (or prevention) of perfect health. A careful observance of these little occurrences, an inquiry into the philosophy attending them, lies within the province, and indeed should be considered among the highest duties, of every housekeeper.

• That one should be cautious about entering a sick room in a state of perspiration, as the moment you become cool your pores absorb. Do not approach contagious diseases with an empty stomach, nor sit between the sick and the fire, because the heat attracts the vapor.
• That the flavor of cod-liver oil may be changed to the delightful one of fresh oyster, if the patient will drink a large glass of water poured from a vessel in which nails have been allowed to rust.
• That a bag of hot sand relieves neuralgia.
• That warm borax water will remove dandruff.
• That salt should be eaten with nuts to aid digestion.
• That it rests you, in sewing, to change your position frequently.
• That a little soda water will relieve sick headache caused by indigestion.
• That a cupful of strong coffee will remove the odor of onions from the breath.
• That well-ventilated bedrooms will prevent morning headaches and lassitude.
• A cupful of hot water drank before meals will relieve nausea and dyspepsia.
• That a fever patient can be made cool and comfortable by frequent sponging off with soda water.
• That consumptive night-sweats may be arrested by sponging the body nightly in salt water.
• That one in a faint should be laid flat on his back, then loosen his clothes and let him alone.
• The best time to bathe is just before going to bed, as any danger of taking cold is thus avoided; and the complexion is improved by keeping warm for several hours after leaving the bath.
• To beat the whites of eggs quickly add a pinch of salt. Salt cools, and cold eggs froth rapidly.
• Hot, dry flannels, applied as hot as possible, for neuralgia.

(Continued in this post.)

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

Hair Wash

One penny’s 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 White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Another Remedy for Scarlet Fever

Undress the child and put it to bed at the very first sign of sickness. Give it, if it has already fever, sourish warm lemonade, with some gum arabic in it. Then cover the abdomen with some dry flannel. Take a well-folded bed-sheet and put it in boiling hot water ; wring it out by means of dry towels, and put this over the whole and wait. The hot cloth will perhaps require repeated heating, according to the severity of the case and its stage of progress. Perspiration will commence in the child in from ten minutes to two hours. The child then is saved ; it soon falls to sleep. Soon after the child awakes it shows slight symptoms of returning inclination for food ; if necessary give injections of oil, or soap and water, and its recovery will be as steady as the growth of a green-house plant if well treated. If the above treatment is applied in due time under the eyes and direction of a competent physician, it is said that not one in a hundred children will ever die of scarlet fever.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook