Ingredient: Lavender

It is very much to be regretted that the nerve-soothing vegetable perfumes of our grandmothers have been superseded, for the most part, by the cheap mineral products of the laboratory. Scents really prepared from the flowers that give them their names are expensive to make, and consequently high-priced. The cheap scents are all mineral concoctions, and their use is more or less injurious. A penny-worth of dried lavender flowers in a muslin bag is even cheaper to buy, inoffensive to smell — which is more than can be said of cheap manufactured scents — and possesses medicinal properties.

Lavender flowers were formerly used for their curative virtues in all disorders of the head and nerves.

An oil, prepared by infusing the crushed lavender flowers in olive oil, is recommended for anointing palsied limbs, and at one time a spirit was prepared from lavender flowers which was known as “palsy drops.”

A tea made with hot water and lavender tops will relieve the headache that comes from fatigue.

Dr. Fernie advises 1 dessertspoonful per day of pure lavender water for eczema.

The scent of lavender will keep away flies, fleas, and moths.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

Onion Juice

The following prescription is excellent for sufferers from bronchitis or coughs: Slice a Spanish onion; lay the slices in a basin and sprinkle well with pure cane sugar. Cover the basin tightly and leave for twelve hours. After this time the basin should contain a quantity of juice. Give a teaspoonful every now and then until relief is afforded. If too much be taken it may induce headache and vomiting.

Source: Food Remedies: Facts About Foods And Their Medicinal Uses, Florence Daniel

For Bilious Diarrhoea, attended with Wind and Headache

Take Mountain Flax, 1 ounce.

Turkey Rhubarb, 1/4 ounce.

Ginger Root, 1 ounce.

Calumba Root, 1 ounce.

Bruise all the roots, and boil together with the Mountain Flax in one quart of water until reduced to a pint and a half, let stand till cold, and strain off.

Dose– Half a wineglassful two or three times a day according to its aperient effect, two hours after a meal.

Source: Baldwin’s Herbal Guide To Health, G. Baldwin

Remedy for Sick Head-ache

A table-spoonful of table salt; dissolved in a pint of water, as warm as you can drink it; take at two doses, and drink freely of luke-warm water, until it causes vomiting; put a hot brick to the feet, and avoid the air, which will check the perspiration.

Source: Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers, Elizabeth E. Lea

Essence for the Headache

Spirits of wine, two pounds; roche alum, in fine powder, two ounces; camphor, four ounces; essence of lemon, half an ounce; strong water of ammonia, four ounces. Stop the bottle close, and shake it daily, for three or four days.

Source: Our Knowledge Box, ed. G. Blackie

Excitement

The common meadow plant, Ladies’ Slipper, used as tea, is good for spasms, hysteria, cramps, nervous headache, fits, neuralgia, hypochondria, fevers, colic, debility, &c., and, wherever it is required to quiet the nervous system, is safer than opium and will act where opium fails. One ounce to a pint of boiling water.

Source: Fray’s Golden Recipes for the use of all ages, E. Fray

Sick Headache

Put one tablespoonful of ground mustard in a teacup, fill the cup with hot water and drink. This either settles the stomach or causes vomiting, either of which gives relief.

Source: The Inglenook Cook Book

Remedial Qualities of Common Fruits

A table giving the remedial qualities of the common fruits and vegetables is herewith appended: —

Celery for any form of rheumatism and nervous dyspepsia.

Lettuce for insomnia.

Water-cress for scurvy.

Onions are almost the best nervine known. Use for insomnia, for coughs and colds, and as a complexion curer. Eaten every other day, they soon have a clearing and whitening effect on the complexion.

Spinach for gravel.

Asparagus to induce perspiration.

Carrots for suffering from asthma.

Turnips for nervous disorders and for scurvy.

Raw beef proves of great benefit to persons of frail constitution, and to those suffering from consumption. It is chopped fine, seasoned with salt, and heated by placing it in a dish in hot water. It assimilates rapidly and affords the best nourishment.

Eggs contain a large amount of nutriment in a compact quickly available form. Beaten up raw with sugar they are used to clear and strengthen the voice. With sugar and lemon juice the beaten white of egg is used to relieve hoarseness.

Cranberries for erysipelas are used externally as well as internally.

Cranberries eaten raw are one of the finest tonics and appetizers known.

In cases of yellow or typhoid fever, cranberries are almost indispensable as a tonic and to assist in clearing the system of the harmful bacteria.

For some forms of dyspepsia there is no more simple and effective remedy than raw cranberries. Carry a supply in the pocket and eat them frequently during the day. They will cure headache as well.

People who are subject to biliousness will find that with cranberries a part of each day’s food they will be free from such attacks.

Honey is wholesome, strengthening, cleansing, healing and nourishing.

Fresh ripe fruits are excellent for purifying the blood and toning up the system.

Sour oranges are highly recommended for rheumatism.

Watermelon for epilepsy and for yellow fever.

Lemons for feverish thirst in sickness, biliousness, low fevers, rheumatism, colds, coughs, liver complaints, etc.

Blackberries for diarrhoea.

Tomatoes are a powerful aperient for the liver, a sovereign remedy for dyspepsia and for indigestion.

Tomatoes are invaluable in all conditions in which the use of calomel is indicated.

Figs are aperient and wholesome. They are said to be valuable as a food for those suffering from cancer. They are used externally as well as internally.

Bananas are useful as a food for those suffering from chronic diarrhoea.

Pie-plant is wholesome and aperient; is excellent for rheumatic sufferers and useful for purifying the blood.

Peanuts for indigestion. They are especially recommended for corpulent diabetes. Peanuts are made into a wholesome and nutritious soup, are browned and used as a coffee, are eaten as a relish simply baked, or are prepared and served as salted almonds.

Apples are useful in nervous dyspepsia; they are nutritious, medicinal and vitalizing; they aid digestion, clear the voice, correct the acidity of the stomach, are valuable in rheumatism, insomnia, and liver trouble. An apple contains as much nutriment as a potato, in a pleasanter, more wholesome form.

Grapes dissolve and dislodge gravel and calculi, and bring the stomach and bowels to a healthy condition.

Ripe pineapples have been put upon the list of foods especially healthful for persons troubled with indigestion, the juice being especially valuable in such cases. Shred with a silver fork, and reject all the indigestible core. The juice of a ripe pineapple is an almost invaluable remedy for diphtheria, the acid seeming to dissolve the strangling growth in the throat.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

For Headache

For sick headache induced by bilious derangement, steep five cents’ worth of senna and camomile flowers in a little water, to make a strong decoction and take. It has been tried successfully in various cases. A strong solution of carbonate of soda is also good for headache induced by biliousness; drink little at a time and often.

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

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