A Sure Cure for Piles

Confection of Senna, two ozs., Cream of Tartar one oz., Sulphur one oz., Syrup of Ginger, enough to make a stiff paste; mix. A piece as large as a nut is to be taken as often as necessary to keep the bowels open. One of the best remedies known.

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

Hints In Regard To Health (Part II)

(Continued from this post.)

• Sprains and bruises call for an application of the tincture of arnica.
• If an artery is severed, tie a small cord or handkerchief above it.
• For bilious colic, soda and ginger in hot water. It may be taken freely.
• Tickling in the throat is best relieved by a gargling of salt and water.
• Pains in the side are most promptly relieved by the application of mustard.
• For cold in the head nothing is better than powdered borax, sniffed up the nostrils.
• A drink of hot, strong lemonade before going to bed will often break up a cold and cure a sore throat.
• Nervous spasms are usually relieved by a little salt taken into the mouth and allowed to dissolve.
• Whooping cough paroxysms are relieved by breathing the fumes of turpentine and carbolic acid.
• Broken limbs should be placed in natural positions, and the patient kept quiet until the surgeon arrives.
• Hemorrhages of the lungs or stomach are promptly checked by small doses of salt. The patient should be kept as quiet as possible.
• Sleeplessness, caused by too much blood in the head may be overcome by applying a cloth wet with cold water to the back of the neck.
• Wind colic is promptly relieved by peppermint essence taken in a little warm water. For small children it may be sweetened. Paregoric is also good.
• For stomach cramps, ginger ale or a teaspoonful of the tincture of ginger in a half glass of water in which a half teaspoonful of soda has been dissolved.
• Sickness of the stomach is most promptly relieved by drinking a teacupful of hot soda and water. If it brings the offending matter up, all the better.
• A teaspoonful of ground mustard in a cupful of warm water is a prompt and reliable emetic, and should be resorted to in cases of poisoning or cramps in the stomach from over-eating.
• Avoid purgatives or strong physic, as they not only do no good, but are positively hurtful. Pills may relieve for the time, but they seldom cure.
• Powdered resin is the best thing to stop bleeding from cuts. After the powder is sprinkled on, wrap the wound with soft cotton cloth. As soon as the wound begins to feel feverish, keep the cloth wet with cold water.
• Hot water is better than cold for bruises. It relieves pain quickly, and by preventing congestion often keeps off the ugly black and blue mark. “Children cry for it,” when they experience the relief it affords their bumps and bruises.
• For a sprained ankle, the whites of eggs and powdered alum made into a plaster is almost a specific.

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

Colds

At the first sign of “taking a cold” — use some simple remedy, such as inhaling camphor from time to time for several hours. Dampen the center of a handkerchief in water, and drop on it some spirit of camphor. Eat a sliced onion.

Take two drops of spirit of camphor on a tsp. sugar.

Or, drop five drops camphor in ½ tumbler of water. Take a tsp. every half hour.

Ginger tea is a much valued old-fashioned remedy. Pour boiling water over a tbsp. bruised ginger root. Let stand two hours. The dose is 1 tbsp. every hour or two.

If the “cold” continues, take a laxative, such as castor oil or rhubarb, and follow the dose with a hot foot bath at night and hot lemonade after getting into bed, to induce perspiration. Keep well covered.

If a cough comes with the cold, lemon juice and sugar syrup make a pleasant cough remedy; or molasses-and-vinegar syrup is liked by children. Mix in the proportion of 1 tbsp. vinegar to 2 tbsp. molasses.

Flaxseed tea will sometimes relieve a “tickling” cough. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over 1 tbsp. whole flaxseeds. Stir; let simmer gently one-half hour. Add juice of half a lemon, and sugar if desired. Take a tbsp. as often as wished.

If the chest is sore, rub it with camphorated oil, or ammonia liniment, which is made by shaking together in a bottle 4 tbsp. olive (sweet) oil and 1 tbsp. household ammonia. This hardens upon standing a few days — so it is best made as needed.

All these are simple home remedies, but if a cold is severe, see a doctor. A neglected cold is dangerous.

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

Molasses Possets

Put into a sauce-pan a pint of the best West India molasses; a tea-spoonful of powdered white ginger; and a quarter of a pound of fresh butter. Set it on hot coals, and simmer it slowly for half an hour; stirring it frequently. Do not let it come to a boil. Then stir in the juice of two lemons, or two table-spoonfuls of vinegar; cover the pan, and let it stand by the fire five minutes longer. This is good for a cold. Some of it may be taken warm at once, and the remainder kept at hand for occasional use.

It is the preparation absurdly called by the common people a stewed quaker.

Half a pint of strained honey mixed cold with the juice of a lemon, and a table-spoonful of sweet oil, is another remedy for a cold; a tea-spoonful or two to be taken whenever the cough is troublesome.

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

Grandmother’s Cough Syrup

Take half a pound of dry hoarhound herbs, one pod of red pepper, four tablespoonfuls of ginger, boil all in three quarts of water, then strain, and add one teaspoonful of good, fresh tar and a pound of sugar. Boil slowly and stir often, until it is reduced to one quart of syrup. When cool, bottle for use. Take one or two teaspoonfuls four or six times a day.

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

Camomile Tea

Put about thirty flowers into a jug, pour a pint of boiling water upon them, cover up the tea, and when it has stood about ten minutes, pour it off from the flowers into another jug; sweeten with sugar or honey; drink a tea-cupful of it fasting in the morning to strengthen the digestive organs, and restore the liver to healthier action. A tea-cupful of camomile tea, in which is stirred a large dessert-spoonful of moist sugar, and a little grated ginger, is an excellent thing to administer to aged people a couple of hours before their dinner.

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

Specific for a Cough

Take equal quantities of camomile flowers, elecampane, life-everlasting, mullen, a few races of ginger, and as much fat lightwood splinters as camomile. Boil to a strong tea; strain it, and add enough honey and sugar mixed in equal quantities; boil down to a syrup; add enough good apple vinegar to give a pleasant acid taste. Pills made of fresh tar, brown sugar, and the yolk of an egg,
are good for a cough. Pills of fresh rosin taken from the pine tree are also good.

Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book

Tonic

One drachm of pulverized colombo, one drachm of rasp. d. quartia, two drachms of peruvian bark, one drachm of orange peel, one drachm of ginger, two ounces of loaf sugar and a half pint of liquor. Let it stand twenty-four hours and then add a half pint of water.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

Diarrhoea

Take tincture of Jamaica ginger one ounce, tincture of rhubarb one ounce, tincture of opium half ounce, tincture of cardamom one and one-half ounces, tincture of kino one ounce. Mix. Dose for an adult, half to one teaspoonful, repeated every two to four hours; and for children one year old, five drops; two years old, five to ten drops; three years old, ten to twelve drops, and older children in proportion to age.

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

Another Mixture for Cholera

Laudanum two ounces, spirits of camphor two ounces, essence of peppermint two ounces, Hoffman’s anodyne two ounces, tincture of cayenne pepper two drachms, tincture of ginger one ounce. This is also invaluable. A teaspoonful in a little water, or a half a teaspoonful repeated in an hour afterward in a tablespoonful of brandy. This preparation will check diarrhea in ten minutes, and abate other premonitory symptoms of cholera immediately.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook