Measles, Lemon Remedy from a Canadian Mother

“Give child all cold lemonade it can drink and keep in warm room. This acts just as well as if the drinks are hot. We tried both on our children and cured both ways.” Don’t give so much of the cold as to chill. The cold drink makes child sweat, just as hot does. Also helps to carry off impurities by flushing bowels, just as clear water would.

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

Kidney Trouble, Flaxseed and Lemons for

“Make a tea by placing the flaxseed in a muslin or linen bag, and suspend it in a dish of water, in the proportion of about four teaspoonfuls for each quart of water. After allowing the seeds to soak for several hours remove the same and tea will be ready for use. The addition of a little lemon juice will improve the flavor. Give in quantities as may be found necessary.”

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

Treacle Posset (I)

2 tablespoons treacle
1 lemon
1 pint milk

Heat the milk until near boiling point, then add the treacle and lemon juice. Boil slowly until the curds separate, strain and serve hot as a remedy for a cold.

Source: Home Made Wines, Syrups and Cordials, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes

Cider Toddy for a Cold

1 glass dry cider
1/4 oz root ginger
1 dessertspoon honey
lemon peel

Heat the cider, bruised ginger and a twist of lemon peel in an aluminium, stainless steel or enamelled saucepan until bubbles just begin to rise in the liquid. Quickly remove from the heat, stir in the honey and strain into a warmed glass. This is excellent for drinking just before bedtime. Drinking it in bed and taking two aspirins is said to prevent a cold. Even if this is a false hope it certainly induces sleep.

Source: Home Made Wines, Syrups and Cordials, The National Federation of Women’s Institutes

Hoarseness, Egg and Lemon for

“Beaten white of one egg, juice of one lemon, with sugar enough to thicken, then add one teaspoonful olive oil.” Take one teaspoonful every hour until relieved.

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

Freckles

To disperse them, take one ounce of lemon juice, a quarter of a teaspoonful of powdered borax, and half a teaspoonful of sugar; mix, and let them stand a few days in a glass bottle till the liquor is fit for use, then rub it on the hands and face occasionally.

Source: Enquire Within Upon Everything.

Ingredients: Balm

The herb Balm, or Melissa, which is cultivated quite commonly in our cottage gardens, has its origin in the wild, or bastard Balm, growing in our woods, especially in the South of England, and bearing the name of “Mellitis.” Each is a labiate plant, and “Bawme,” say the Arabians, “makes the heart merry and joyful.” The title, “Balm,” is an abbreviation of Balsam, which signifies “the chief of sweet-smelling oils;” Hebrew, Bal smin, “chief of oils”; and the botanical suffix, Melissa, bears reference to the large quantity of honey (mel) contained in the flowers of this herb.

When cultivated, it yields from its leaves and tops an essential oil which includes a chemical principle, or “stearopten.” “The juice of Balm,” as Gerard tells us, “glueth together greene wounds,” and the leaves, say both Pliny and Dioscorides, “being applied, do close up woundes without any perill of inflammation.” It is now known as a scientific fact that the balsamic oils of aromatic plants make most excellent surgical dressings. They give off ozone, and thus exercise anti-putrescent effects. Moreover, as chemical “hydrocarbons,” they contain so little oxygen, that in wounds dressed with the fixed balsamic herbal oils, the atomic germs of disease are starved out. Furthermore, the resinous parts of these balsamic oils, as they dry upon the sore or wound, seal it up, and effectually exclude all noxious air. So the essential oils of balm, peppermint, lavender, and the like, with pine oil, resin of turpentine, and the balsam of benzoin (Friars’ Balsam) should serve admirably for ready application on lint or fine rag to cuts and superficial sores. In domestic surgery, the lamentation of Jeremiah falls to the ground: “Is there no balm in Gilead: is there no physician there?” Concerning which “balm of Gilead,” it may be here told that it was formerly of great esteem in the East as a medicine, and as a fragrant unguent. It was the true balsam of Judea, which at one time grew nowhere else in the whole world but at Jericho. But when the Turks took the Holy Land, they transplanted this balsam to Grand Cairo, and guarded its shrubs most jealously by Janissaries during the time the balsam was flowing.

In the “Treacle Bible,” 1584, Jeremiah viii., v. 22, this passage is rendered: “Is there not treacle at Gylead?” Venice treacle, or triacle, was a famous antidote in the middle ages to all animal poisons. It was named Theriaca (the Latin word for our present treacle) from the Greek word Therion, a small animal, in allusion to the vipers which were added to the triacle by Andromachus, physician to the emperor Nero.

Tea made of our garden balm, by virtue of the volatile oil, will prove restorative, and will promote perspiration if taken hot on the access of a cold or of influenza; also, if used in like manner, it will help effectively to bring on the delayed monthly flow with women. But an infusion of the plant made with cold water, acts better as a remedy for hysterical headache, and as a general nervine stimulant because the volatile aromatic virtues are not dispelled by heat. Formerly, a spirit of balm, combined with lemon peel, nutmeg, and angelica-root, enjoyed a great reputation as a restorative cordial under the name of Carmelite water. Paracelsus thought so highly of balm that he believed it would completely revivify a man, as primum ens melissoe. The London Dispensatory of 1696 said: “The essence of balm given in Canary wine every morning will renew youth, strengthen the brain, relieve languishing nature, and prevent baldness.” “Balm,” adds John Evelyn, “is sovereign for the brain, strengthening the memory, and powerfully chasing away melancholy.” In France, women bruise the young shoots of balm, and make them into cakes, with eggs, sugar, and rose water, which they give to mothers in childbed as a strengthener.

It is fabled that the Jew Ahasuerus (who refused a cup of water to our Saviour on His way to Golgotha, and was therefore doomed to wander athirst until Christ should come again) on a Whitsuntide evening, asked for a draught of small beer at the door of a Staffordshire cottager who was far advanced in consumption. He got the drink, and out of gratitude advised the sick man to gather in the garden three leaves of Balm, and to put them into a cup of beer. This was to be repeated every fourth day for twelve days, the refilling of the cup to be continued as often as might be wished; then “the disease shall be cured and thy body altered.” So saying, the Jew departed and was never seen there again. But the cottager obeyed the injunction, and at the end of the twelve days had become a sound man.

Source: Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, William Thomas Fernie

Colds, Honey for

“Eat honey. I have tried this many times and it is very good.” The honey is very soothing, but if a little hoarhound or lemon is added it would make it much more effective. This is a good remedy for children, as they most all like honey.

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

News: Culinary curatives for chills, sniffles

“Feeling achy and feverish? Have a bowl of Mom’s tom yum soup. Or maybe some warm milk with melted lamb fat.

Chicken soup may be the all-American cold and flu panacea, but around the world people turn to all manner of culinary curatives for the chills and sniffles.”

Full story: London Free Press (Canada), 23rd January 2008

Colds, Lemons and Mustard for

“A hot lemonade taken on going to bed and put the feet in a hot mustard bath; taken in time will break up a cold.” The idea of the foot bath is to equalize the circulation, as so many of our colds begin in the head and by drawing the blood from the head the congested parts of the head are relieved.

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