Remedy for Corns

When corns are troublesome make a shield of buckskin leather an inch or two across, with a hole cut in the center the size of the corn; touch the exposed spot with pyroligneous acid which will eat it away in a few applications. Besides this a strong mixture of carbolic acid, and glycerine is good, say one-half as much acid as glycerine. Turpentine may also be used for corns and bunions. A weaker solution of carbolic acid will heal soft corns between the toes. A French medical journal reports the cure of the most refactory corns by the morning and evening application with a brush of a drop of a solution of the perchloride of iron. It states, that after a fortnight’s continued application, without pain, a patient who had suffered martyrdom for nearly forty years was entirely relieved.”

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

To Kill Cockroaches

Mix equal parts of red lead, Indian meal and molasses to a paste, put it on iron plates and set it where they congregate.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

To Wash Greasy Tin and Iron

Pour a few drops of ammonia into every greasy roasting-pan, first half-filling with warm water. A bottle of ammonia should always stand near the sink for such uses. Never allow dirty pots or pans to stand and dry; for it doubles the labor of washing. Pour in water, and use ammonia, and the work is half done.

Source: The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking, H. Campbell

English Cure for Drunken[n]ess

This recipe comes into notoriety through the efforts of John Vine Hall, who had fallen into such habitual drunkeness that his most earnest efforts to reclaim himself proved unavailing. He sought the advice of an eminent physician who gave him a prescription which he followed for several months, and at the end of that time had lost all desire for liquor.

The recipe is as follows: Five grains of sulphate of iron, ten grains of magnesia, eleven drachms of peppermint water and one drachm of spirits of nutmeg; to be taken twice a day. This preparation acts as a stimulant and tonic and partially supplies the place of the accustomed liquor, and prevents that absolute physical and moral prostration that follows a sudden breaking off from the use of stimulating drinks.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

Ingredient: Barley

Barley is excellent food for the anæmic and nervous on account of its richness in iron and phosphoric acid. It is also useful in fevers and all inflammatory diseases, on account of its soothing properties. From the earliest times barley water has been the recognised drink of the sick.

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

Rye Tooth Powder

Rye contains carbonate of lime, carbonate of magnesia, oxide of iron, manganese, and silica, all suitable for application to the teeth. Therefore, a fine tooth powder is made by burning rye, or rye bread, to ashes, and grinding it to powder by passing the rolling-pin over it. Pass the powder through a sieve, and use.

Source: The Ladies’ Book of Useful Information

Hair Tonic II

A preparation which is tonic in its properties and is also said to darken gray hair, and which certainly contains nothing injurious, calls for one ounce of sage and a pint of boiling water, allowed to stand twenty-four hours in an iron pot, and then filtered through filtering papers.

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

Gray Hair

“The only thing to do with gray hair is to admire it.” This is true. Nothing so sets off an aged face like the crown of silver. To color it is a great mistake. There is absolutely no cure for it; the one thing we can do is to make it a beauty. Gray hair is due to the exhaustion of the pigment or coloring cells of the hair, supposed to be occasioned by the lack of a regular supply of blood.

For the progressive whitening of the hair due to the advance of age, curative agents are rarely of any avail, especially if the trouble is hereditary. Not that gray hair and baldness are handed down from father to son, but that the peculiarities of constitution which produce them are inherent in both. Nervousness, neuralgia, a low physical condition, aid the falling and blanching of the hair, and the victim should build up the general system. Preparations of iron and sulphur, taken internally, are supposed to supply certain elements of growth and pigment-forming power to the hair.

A solution of iron for external application to the hair, calls for two drams each of citrate of iron and tincture of nux vomica, and one and one-half ounces each of cocoanut oil and bay rum. It may be mentioned here, that faithfulness in treatment means even more than the tonic applied. To gain any real benefit, one must be persistent in application.

Hair often turns gray “in streaks” to the chagrin of the victim. Or it whitens above the forehead and temples and remains dark at the back. Nothing can be done for this.

Gray hair should be kept scrupulously clean, and requires more frequent washing than hair that holds its color. A very little blueing in the rinsing water gives a purer, clearer white. For this use indigo, not the usual washing fluid which is made of Prussian blue. Five cents worth of indigo will last a lifetime.

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

Chilblains, To Cure

Mutton tallow and lard of each 3/4 lb; melt in an iron vessel and add hydrated oxide of iron 2 oz; stirring continually with an iron spoon, until the mass is of a uniform black colour; then let it cool and add Venice-turpentine 2 oz; and Armenian bole 1 oz; oil of bergamot 1 dram; rub up the bole with a little olive oil before putting it in.

Apply several times daily by putting it on lint or linen — heals the worst cases in a few days.

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

The Bite Of A Wood-Hound

The biting of a wood hound is deadly and venomous. And such venom is perilous. For it is long hidden and unknown, and increaseth and multiplieth itself, and is sometimes unknown to the year’s end, and then the same day and hour of the biting, it cometh to the head, and breedeth frenzy. They that are bitten of a wood hound have in their sleep dreadful sights, and are fearful, astonied, and wroth without cause. And they dread to be seen of other men, and bark as hounds, and they dread water most of all things, and are afeared thereof full sore, and squeamous also. Against the biting of a wood hound wise men and ready used to make the wounds bleed with fire or with iron, that the venom may come out with blood, that cometh out of the wound.

Source: Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus, Robert Steele