Syrup for a Cough

Boil 1 oz. balsam of tolu, very gently, two hours, in a quart of water; add 1 lb. white sugar candy, finely beaten, and boil it half an hour longer. Strain through a flannel bag twice; when cold, bottle it. You may add 2 oz. syrup of red poppies, and the same of raspberry vinegar. A spoonful when the cough is troublesome.

Or: 2 oz. honey, 4 table-spoonsful vinegar, 2 oz. syrup white poppies, and 2 oz. gum arabic: boil gently to the consistency of treacle; a tea-spoonful when the cough is troublesome.

Or: 1 table-spoonful treacle, 1 of honey, 1 of vinegar, 15 drops laudanum, and 15 drops peppermint. Simmer together a quarter of an hour. A dessert-spoonful to be taken at going to bed.

Or: mix together in a phial, 2 drachms of compound tincture of benjamin, 6 drachms ethereal spirits of nitre, 3 drachms of compound tincture of camphor, and 5 drachms of oxymel; a tea-spoonful in a wine-glass of warm water, when the cough is troublesome.

Or: mix 1 oz. gum arabic, 1 oz. sugar candy, and the juice of a lemon; pour on it a pint of boiling water; a little when the cough is troublesome.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Golden Ointment

One pound lard and eight ounces beeswax melted. Have one ounce camphor gum put to five ounces of alcohol, one ounce organum, one ounce laudanum. Let all dissolve while you are melting the first two, then stir together till cold. Do not put these together too hot, or the camphor will go off in steam, and you will lose the good of it.

Source: The New Galt Cook Book, M. Taylor & F. McNaught

Excellent Liniment for Sprains or Bruises

Two ounces gum camphor, eight ounces alcohol, one ounce organum, one ounce amber, one-half ounce oil spikenard, three ounces laudanum, four ounces sweet oil, eight ounces hartshorn, one ounce spirits turpentine.

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

Cough Mixture

1/2 lb. treacle
1d. paregoric
1d. peppermint
1/2 pint boiling water
1d. aniseed
1d. laudanum

Put in a pint bottle and mix well together. Dose, wine-glassful.

Source: The Northampton Cookery Book, M.A. Jeffery

Cough Mixture

1 oz syrup of squills, 1d paragoric, 1d laudanum, 1d oil of peppermint, 1d white wine vinegar; dissolve 1lb treacle in one gill hot water, when cold mix all together. Dose: for children 1 teaspoonful three times a day; for adults, one tablespoonful three times a day.

Source: Recipes, Bradford Lifeboat Bazaar

To Stop The Flow Of Blood

Bind the cut with cobwebs and brown sugar, pressed on like lint. Or, if you cannot procure these, with the fine dust of tea. When the blood ceases to flow, apply laudanum.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Magnetic Toothache Drops

Take equal parts of Camphor, Sulphuric Ether, Ammonia, Laudanum, Tincture of Cayenne, and one-eighth part of Oil of Cloves. Mix well together. Saturate with the liquid a small piece of cotton, and apply to the cavity of the diseased tooth, and the pain will cease immediately. Put up in long drachm bottles. Retail at 25 cents. This is a very salable preparation, and affords a large profit to the manufacturer.

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

Cure for Diarrhea

The following is said to be an excellent cure for the above distressing complaint: 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. Mix all together. Dose, teaspoonful in a little water, or a half teaspoonful repeated in an hour afterward in a tablespoonful of brandy. This preparation, it is said, will check diarrhea in ten minutes, and abate other premonitory symptoms of cholera immediately. In cases of cholera, it has been used with great success to restore reaction by outward application.

Source: Our Knowledge Box, ed. G. Blackie

Gonorrhea

Balsam of Copabia one oz., Oil of Cubebs two drms., Laudanum one dram, Mucilage of Gum Arabic two ozs., Sweet Spirits Nitre half oz., Compound Spirits Lavender three drms., Camphor Water four ozs., White Sugar two drms., Oil of Partridge Berry five drops. Mix. Dose, a tablespoonful 3 or 4 times a day.

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

Antidote for Laudanum

When so large a quantity of laudanum has been swallowed as to produce dangerous effects, the fatal drowsiness has been prevented when all other remedies have failed, by administering a cup of the strongest possible coffee. The patient has revived and recovered, and no ill effects have followed.

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