For Sore Throat

Make a gargle of cayenne pepper, honey and spirits, or sage tea, with alum and honey, or figs boiled, mashed and strained, and use it once in two hours. If it is very bad, steam the mouth with a funnel held over hot vinegar, and put on a hot poultice of hops, boiled in weak ley and thickened with corn-meal; there should be a little lard spread over; renew it every time it gets cold. Another very good poultice, is hot mush strewed with powdered camphor; put it on as hot as can be borne, and change it when cold. A purgative should be given, either of senna and salts, castor oil; or rhubarb and soap pills. An emetic is of great importance, and has caused the throat to break when persons have been very ill.

Sore throats have been cured when quinsy was apprehended, by using powdered camphor and lard on flannel. It is a good way, when persons are subject to it, to keep an ounce of camphor mixed with lard, in a wide-mouthed bottle, or jar; and corked tight. The cayenne pepper and honey gargle should also be kept ready mixed, and used when the first symptoms appear; or in a violent attack, a plaster of snuff and lard may be applied with benefit, keeping it on only a few minutes at a time. Sometimes a bag of hot ashes sprinkled with vinegar, and applied hot as can be borne, has cured a sore throat in one night. Persons that have been afflicted for years with repeated attacks of sore throat and quinsy, have been cured by bathing the throat, neck and ears with cold water every morning. The constant use of the shower bath is very important. Keep the feet warm.

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

Sleeplessness, To Avert

Various methods have been devised to accomplish this much desired end, but perhaps the following will be found the most effectual, the first especially when the evil results from over-excitement of the brain : — Wet half a towel, and apply it to the back of the neck, pressing it upwards towards the base of the brain, and fastening the dry half of the towel over so as to prevent too rapid exhalation. Warm water may be used, but cold is to be preferred. The effect is rapid, cooling to the brain, and inducing sweeter, calmer repose than any narcotic.

Another method, which the writer has never known to fail, is to lie with the eyes turned up into the head, as though looking into the brain, which is their natural position during sleep.

A pillow stuffed with hops is said to act as a narcotic.

Source: Recipes for the Million

For Nervous Affections

Take a small wine-glassful of the following mixture: a tea-spoonful of sal volatile, of tincture of hops, and an equal portion of infusion of orange peel and of gentian.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

For Weakness of Stomach

1 drachm of prepared Columba root, and 1/2 drachm of rhubarb root, infused in 1/2 pint of boiling water, one day: add 1 oz. tincture of Columba, and a little sugar. 2 table-spoonsful, twice a day.– Or: put about 25 camomile flowers into 1/2 a pint boiling water, with 3 cloves, and 2 hops, cover close and let it stand all night: a tea-cupful first in the morning, and again an hour before dinner. If giddiness ensues, the camomile does not agree with the patient, and must not be continued. Where it does agree, this will be found to restore the appetite.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Cough Syrup

One quart of water, one handful of hops; boil these together, and strain; put in this fluid a cup of sugar, and boil to a syrup; cut a lemon into it, and bottle for use.

Source: Recipes Tried and True

Cough Syrup

One cup of hops, one cup of wild cherry bark, one cup of hoarhound, one and a half gills of tar, one gill of brandy and a half pound of loaf sugar. Soak the cherry bark in one pint of water twenty-eight hours; put the hops and hoarhound in two quarts of water and keep at a temperature below (but near) boiling for two hours; boil tar with one pint of water one hour; strain the hops and hoarhound; pour off the tar into the same vessel; add sugar and one pint of water; boil until you have> a rich syrup; then add the cherry and brandy, and make up for the water that has been lost. Caution.—Do not boil the cherry.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

For Felons

Take a portion of the bark of sweet elder, or hops will do; then put it with some sweet cream into a cup, and boil a short time;then put in a lump of saltpetre twice as large as a pear; let it slowly dry away to the consistency of a salve, which apply to the felon. The salt petre is the cure, but the elder bark and sweet cream aid in easing the pain. By putting in enough saltpetre, any felon can be cured in 48 hours, and the pain will cease almost immediately.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

Cough Syrup

One quart of water, one handful of hops; boil these together, and
strain; put in this fluid a cup of sugar, and boil to a syrup; cut a
lemon into it, and bottle for use.

Source: Recipes Tried and True, Ladies’ Aid Society of the First Presbyterian Church of Marion, Ohio

Inflammation of the Bowels, Hop Poultice for

“Take hops, strain them and put in a sack. Lay across the stomach and bowels.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Kitridge’s Salve

Bitter-sweet and sweet elder roots, of each 1 1/2 lbs; hop vines and leaves, and garden plantain, top and root, of each 1/2 lb; tobacco 1 three-cent plug. Boil all in rain water to get out the strength, then put the herbs in a thick cloth and press out the juice and boil down carefully to 1/2 pt; then add unsalted butter 1 lb; bees-wax and rosin, of each 1 oz, and simmer over a slow fire until the water is all out.

Source: Dr Chase’s Recipes, or Information for Everybody, A.W. Chase