Earache

There are various ways of treating earache: the most old fashioned are the appliance of a roasted onion, or a hot bag of salt to the ear, and putting in the ear a small piece of cotton wet with camphorated oil, or simple olive-oil with a drop of chloroform; better still, to puff tobacco smoke into the ear. This remedy is very soothing and effective.

Or, take a small wax taper, pare one end quite small, envelop it in a dry linen rag, insert it into the ear; then light the taper. Odd as this remedy may seem, it is wonderfully rapid and effective; it is practised by all Italian sailors and fishermen.

In Kentucky, a cockroach is drowned in whiskey, then wrapped in hot cotton, and applied to the ear.

Source: The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper’s Guide, Mrs Washington

A Remedy For Boils

An excellent remedy for boils is water of a temperature agreeable to the feelings of the patient. Apply wet linen to the part affected and frequently renew or moisten it. It is said to be the most effectual remedy known. Take inwardly some good blood purifier.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Flax-Seed Tea

Upon an ounce of unbruised flax-seed and a little pulverized liquorice-root pour a pint of boiling (soft or rain) water, and place the vessel containing these ingredients near, but not on, the fire for four hours. Strain through a linen cloth. Make it fresh every day. An excellent drink in fever accompanied by a cough.

Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette

Bloody Flux

Apply a suppository of linen dipt in Aqua Vitae.

Or, drink cold water, as largely as possible, taking nothing else till the flux stops.

Or, take a large apple, and at the top pick out all the core, and fill up the place with a piece of honey comb; (the honey being strained out,) roast the apple in embers, and eat it, and this will stop the flux immediately.

Or grated rhubarb, as much as lies on a shilling, with half as much of grated nutmeg, in a glass of white wine, at lying down, every other night. Tried.

Or take four drops of Laudanum, and apply to the belly a poultice of wormwood and red roses boiled in milk.

In a Dysentery, the worst of all fluxes, feed on rice, saloup, sago, and sometimes beef-tea; but no flesh.

To stop it, take a spoonful of suet melted over a slow fire. Do not let blood.

A person was cured in one day, by feeding on rice milk, and sitting a quarter of an hour in a shallow tub, having in it warm water three inches deep.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

An Ointment for Burns

A fine ointment for burns is made by frying white clover blossoms in lard. Make it rich with the clover blossoms; then strain it and put it away in covered glasses. If a bad blister forms almost immediately, beat an egg into a teaspoonful of olive oil, spread it on a bit of linen, and cover the blister with it.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

A Very Useful Liniment

One ounce oil of origanum, two ounces spirits of turpentine, shake up well and apply on soft linen; to some persons this liniment has an unpleasant odor, but it is very efficacious; there is no better for burns, sprains, cuts, etc., in cases where the skin is not broken; pour a little into the hand, and rub well on the parts affected two or three times a day.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

A deep Burn or Scald

Apply black Varnish with a feather, ’till it is well.

Or inner rind of Elder well mixt with fresh butter. When this is bound on with a rag, plunge the part into cold water. This will suspend the pain, till the medicine heals.

Or mix Lime-Water and Sweet Oil, to the thickness of cream, apply it with a feather several times a day. — This is the most effectual application I ever met with.

Or put twenty-five drops of Goullard’s Extract of Lead, to half a pint of Rain Water; dip linen rags in it, and apply them to the part affected. This is particularly serviceable, if the burn is near the eyes.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

For an Ague

Go into the cold bath, just before the cold fit. Nothing tends to prolong an Ague, than indulging a lazy indolent disposition. The patient ought, therefore, between the fits, to take as much exercise as he can bear; and to use a light diet; and for common drink, Lemonade is the most proper.

When all other means fail, give Blue Vitriol, from one grain to two grains, in the absence of the fit; and repeat it three or four times in twenty-four hours.

Or take a handful of Groundsell, shred it small, put it into a paper-bag, four inches square, pricing that side which is to be next the skin, full of holes. Cover this with a thin linen, and wear it on the pit of the stomach, renewing it two hours before the fit. Tried.

Or apply to the stomach, a large Onion slit.

Or, melt two penny worth of Frankincense, spread it on linen, grate a Nutmeg upon it, cover it with linen, and hang this bag upon the pit of the stomach. I have never yet known it fail.

Or boil Yarrow in new milk, till it is tender enough to spread as a plaster. An hour before the cold fit, apply this to the wrists, and let it be on till the hot fit is over. If another fit comes, use a fresh plaster. This often cures a Quartan.

Or drink a quart of cold water, just before the cold fit. Then go to bed and sweat.

Or make six middling pills of Cobwebs. Take one a little before the cold fit, two a little before the next fit, (suppose the next day,), the other three, if need be, a little before the third fit. This seldom fails. Or put a tea-spoonful of Salt of Tartar into a large glass of spring water, and drink it by little and little. Repeat the same dost the next two days, before the time of the fit.

Or two small tea-spoonfuls of Sal Prunellae an hour before the fit. It commonly cures in thrice taking.

Or a large spoonful of powdered Camomile Flowers.

Or a tea-spoonful of Spirits of Hartshorn, in a glass of water.

Or eat a small Lemon, rind and all.

In the hot fit, if violent, take eight or ten drops of Laudanum; if costive, in Hiera picra.

Dr Lind says, an Ague is certainly cured, by taking from ten to twenty drops of Laudanum, with two drachms of Syrup of Poppies, in any warm liquid, half an hour after the heat begins.

It is proper to take a gentle vomit, and sometimes a purge, before you use any of these medicines. If a vomit is taken two hours before the fit is expected, it generally prevents that fit, and sometimes cures an Ague, especially in children. It is also proper to repeat the medicine (whatever it be,) about a week after, in order to prevent a relapse. Do not take any purge soon after. The daily use of the flesh brush, and frequent cold bathing, are of great use to prevent relapses.

Children have been cured by wearing a waistcoat, in which Bark was quilted.

Source: Primitive Physic: or an easy and natural method of curing most diseases, John Wesley.

Judkins’ Ointment

Linseed-oil 1 pt; sweet oil 1 oz; and boil them in a kettle on coals for nearly 4 hours, as warm as you can; then have pulverized and mixed, borax 1/2 oz; red lead 4 ozs, and sugar of lead 1 1/2 ozs; remove the kettle from the fire and thicken in the powder; continue the stirrying until cooled to blood heat, then stir in 1 oz of spirits of turpentine; and now take out a little, letting it get cold, and if not then sufficiently thick to spread upon thin, soft linen as a salve, you will boil again until this point is reached.

[…] it is good for all kinds of wounds, bruises, sores, burns, white swellings, rheumatisms, ulcers, sore breasts, and even where there are wounds on the inside, it has been used with advantage, by applying a plaster over the part.

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

Salve for Burns, Frost-Bites, Cracked Nipples &c.

Equal parts of turpentine, sweet oil and beeswax; melt the oil and wax together, and when a little cool, add the turpentine, and stir until cold, which keeps them evenly mixed.

Apply by spreading upon thin cloth — linen is the best.

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