The Oil of Butter, A Remedy for Dysentery, &c.

Put half a pound of fresh butter in a quart of boiling water, to extract the salt; let it melt and boil up. If there should be any curds on the top, take them off, then skim off the clear butter, and keep it covered by the fire; give from one to two table-spoonsful at a time, three or four times a day.

This is useful in cases of dysentery, and is also soothing to the stomach, after violent vomiting for a long time. Sometimes a plaster of mustard put on the stomach stops vomiting.

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

A Wash for Sore Ears

Make a tea of the black or candle-alder, wet a soft rag with it, and lay it on; it should be applied three times a day, and occasionally wash it with castile soap and water. The patient should take a mild purgative. If the ears are very much inflamed, there should be a bread and milk poultice put on occasionally. Elder ointment is also beneficial.

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

For Cramp in the Stomach

Dissolve a tea-spoonful of table salt, in a tea-cup of warm water; if this does not stop the vomiting and cramp, repeat the dose; this is very useful in stopping the operation of an emetic, when it has continued too long. Flannel cloths dipped in hot spirits, and sprinkled with cayenne pepper, and applied to the stomach, sometimes relieves the pain; a mustard plaster is also of use.

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

Hoarhound Candy

Put two pounds of sugar in a pint of hoarhound tea, as strong as can be made, which may be done by drawing two sets of hoarhound in the same water, till the strength is out of each; when it is cold, mix in the sugar and the white of an egg; when it begins to boil, take off the scum as it rises, boil it slowly till it becomes thick, so that when you drop it on a plate, it will be hard and crisp, and pour it out in plates that have been greased with a little sweet butter; when cold, you can break it up for use, and tie it up in a jar. This is quite as useful as the candy you buy, and is much cheaper; it is very convenient for persons that have a cough, to have a little box of this about them to take when there is a tickling in the throat.

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

For the Croup

Put the child in warm water, and keep up the temperature by putting in more hot water; keep it in fifteen or twenty minutes, then wipe it dry and put it in a warm bed, or wrap a blanket round it and hold it on the lap; give it an emetic, and put powdered garlic and lard to the throat and soles of the feet; keep up the perspiration, by giving a few drops of antimonial wine every half hour. The next morning give it a dose of rhubarb tea or castor oil, and keep it from the air for several days. This treatment has been very beneficial when a physician was not at hand; and nothing had been done till his arrival, perhaps the child would have been too far gone to recover. In cases of croup, to wet a piece of flannel with alcohol, and apply it to the throat as hot as it can be borne, has often a salutary effect, applied frequently. It is also good to use for a bad cold, &c.

Molasses stewed with a lump of butter, and a table-spoonful of vinegar, taken just before you go to bed, and to grease the nose, forehead and breast with mutton tallow, will sometimes cure a child without anything else. To pound garlic in a rag and squeeze out the juice, mix it with molasses, and give a tea-spoonful at a time, has given relief when a child was very ill. Sliced onions, or garlic stewed with sugar and water, or molasses, is very good to take for a cold. Where children are subject to the croup, you should always have a pot of water over the
fire, and light-wood near, to heat it as quick as possible. Children that are subject to these attacks should have their feet kept warm and dry, and always wear flannel next to the skin.

It is the duty of parents to make use of the most simple remedies, which may always be in readiness, and, if applied in time, may prevent the necessity of giving strong medicines, which injure the constitutions of young children. The least symptom of the disease should be attended to. Lobelia is a certain remedy for croup. If the case is light, a few drops of the tincture, increasing the dose according to the age of the child, given at short intervals, will cause it to vomit and prevent danger; but if the attack is a severe one, you should give the “third preparation of lobelia;” for a child of ten years, ten drops, and so on in proportion; mix it with sugar and water. Every mother should keep lobelia at hand, as it has been known to give certain relief in many cases.

A child of twelve months, may take of the tincture ten drops every fifteen or twenty minutes, till it acts as an emetic, or relieves by perspiration; one of two or three years may take twenty or thirty drops. The third preparation is of much greater strength than the tincture.

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

Mixture of Lemon Juice and Honey

Take half a pint of honey and squeeze the juice of four lemons on it; mix well together, and add a small portion of sugar; take a tea-spoonful every time the cough is troublesome.

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

Remarks upon a Deeply Seated Cough

It is very important to begin in time with a cold. Consumption is sometimes prevented by very simple remedies. To put Burgundy pitch plasters on the breast and back of the neck, often has a good
effect; they should be re-spread frequently, and when one part is irritated, change them to another place. Put one on your side if you have a pain there.

Flannel should be put on next the skin by all means, which, with the above simple remedies, will cure a cold, if begun with in time.

I have frequently known new flannel put on those that usually wore it, greatly to benefit a delicate person. The increased irritation of the new flannel acts on the pores of the skin and promotes circulation. Hair soles worn in the shoe, or socks made of flannel, or soft buckskin worn under the stockings, are very good to keep the feet warm and dry. Persons predisposed to consumption should have nourishing food, and not eat too much at a time; they should avoid strong tea or coffee, and drink milk. Eggs, oysters, fresh fish and fowls, are very good for them. Fruit of all kinds is useful.

They should take exercise in the air, particularly riding on horse-back, or take a short walk, but not so as to be fatigued; to work moderately in a garden, when the ground is not too damp, is good exercise for a delicate person; the smell of fresh earth, and of flowers, is beneficial to both body and mind. After taking exercise, a glass of lemonade is very refreshing, and promotes appetite.

If there should be perspiration at night, change the sheets and pillow-cases frequently, and the under garments; air the chamber and bed-clothes every day; if the weather is too damp to raise the windows, shake up the bed, and leave it unmade half of the day, and put it out in the sun occasionally.

By all means avoid strong medicine, or any thing that has a tendency to weaken the body.

Sometimes blisters are used with very good effect; also, rubbing the breast and back with camphor or spirits, or with a piece of dry flannel.

Taking anodyne drops, particularly laudanum, should be avoided, if possible; they may still the cough during the night, but it will come on with increased violence in the morning; they weaken the stomach, increase the fever, and sometimes cause delirium.

Everything that tends to excite or irritate the mind, should be kept from them. It is very important to talk cheerfully to sick persons, particularly if confined to their chamber, which can be done without lightness or trifling.

If they see gloomy faces around them, it has a very disheartening effect; and, if the mind sinks, such is its intimate connection with the body, that it is hard to raise it.

I have known persons by judicious management to live for many years, after it was thought they were in a deep decline, by avoiding weakening medicines, taking exercise on horse-back and on foot, and never indulging in a full meal.

Sometimes such persons have very good appetites, and it is a satisfaction to their friends to see them eat heartily; but they should eat something frequently, rather than over-load the stomach too much. When they come in hungry from a ride, to beat up an egg with a tea-spoonful of wine, and a little sugar and nutmeg put in a tumbler with some milk, and taken with a cracker or biscuit, or a piece of thin toast broken up in it, has a very strengthening effect.

Persons are seldom benefitted by a strict diet, but it is sometimes enforced till they lose their appetite and cannot eat.

If the weather is so that exercise cannot be taken out of doors, some method should be devised for taking it in the house. Rubbing furniture and playing battle-door, are good exercise for a female, but should not be taken too much at a time.

Men that are confined to the house are sometimes very much at a loss what to do; if such would purchase a few tools, and appropriate a spare room as a workshop, it would promote their health. I have known men that were but little acquainted with the use of tools, do many useful and ornamental pieces of work, that were greatly valued by their friends; and the exertion kept their spirits from sinking, when the weather was too inclement to take exercise in the open air.

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

Erysipelas

The decoction of sarsaparilla has proved useful in cases of erysipelas. Take two ounces of sarsaparilla, one of sassafras, one of burdock root, and one of liquorice; boil them slowly in three pints of water, keeping it covered close, until reduced to one-half. Take two table-spoonsful four times a day.

While taking medicine for the erysipelas, meat and all strong food should be avoided, and every thing that has a tendency to inflame the blood. Dusting the parts affected, with rye or buckwheat flour, sometimes has a cooling effect, and bathing with camphor or spirits will allay the irritation.

Nettle rash is very much like erysipelas, and the same treatment is good for both. Slippery-elm bark, chipped, and let to stand in cold water till it becomes thick, is a very cooling drink. It may be filled up the second time. Barley water is also a suitable drink.

Erysipelas is frequently brought on by violent exercise, and the perspiration being checked too suddenly. Persons that have once had it, should avoid extremes of heat and cold, and pay strict attention to diet–not eating any thing that disagrees with them. All acids, particularly pickles, are improper.

The stomach should be cleansed by emetics. Small and frequent doses of senna and salts, if taken just at going to bed, will not occasion much sickness, and tend greatly to relieve the system of this unpleasant disease. Where the case is slight, the rhubarb pills sometimes give relief. The pores of those that are subject to it are generally open, and flannel should be worn all the year, to prevent too sudden a check of perspiration.

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

For Whooping Cough

Dissolve a scruple of salts of tartar in a gill of water, put in half a scruple of pulverized cochineal, sweeten it with loaf sugar, give an infant a tea-spoonful of this mixture four times a day, and a child four years old or upwards, a table-spoonful. In some cases the relief is instantaneous.

Another Remedy

Half a pint of honey, half a pint of vinegar, two table-spoonsful of sweet oil stewed together a few minutes; when cold put it in a bottle, and put in a tea-spoonful of laudanum; shake it well, and give a table-spoonful when the cough is troublesome, and a dose just before going to bed. For an infant of six months, a small tea-spoonful is a dose, and for a child of four years, two tea-spoonsful. Where there is not much fever, a little port or claret wine, mixed with sugar and water, and taken with toast broken in it, is beneficial. Children should be taken out riding if possible, and should be well wrapped up.

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

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