Cosmetic Soaps for Washing the Hands
Take a pound of castile soap, or any other nice old soap; scrape it fine; put it on the fire with a little water, stir it to a smooth paste; turn it into a bowl; add any kind of essence; beat it with a silver spoon till well mixed; thicken it with Indian meal, and keep it in small pots, closely covered; exposure to the air will harden it.
Source: Our Knowledge Box, ed. G. Blackie
A Carrot Poultice
Boil washed carrots, and pound them to a pulp with a wooden pestle; add an equal quantity of wheaten meal, and 2 table-spoonsful yeast, and wet it with beer or porter. Let it stand before the fire to ferment. The soft part to be made into a poultice with lard.
Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett
To Keep out Mosquitoes and Bats
If a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal is left uncorked in a room at night, not a mosquito, nor any other blood-sucker, will be found there in the morning. Mix potash with powdered meal, and throw it into the rat-holes of a cellar, and the rats will depart. If a rat or a mouse get into your pantry, stuff into its hole a rag saturated with a solution of cayenne pepper, and no rat or mouse will touch the rag for the purpose of opening communication with a depot of supplies.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
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
A Hop Poultice
Boil one handful of dried hops in half a pint of water, until the half pint is reduced to a gill, then stir into it enough Indian meal to thicken it.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Sore Breasts, a Poultice of Peach Leaves for
“Take enough peach tree leaves to mix well with meal and water to the consistency of a poultice.” This poultice should be applied hot, but should only be used in cases where the breast has matter or pus in it.
Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter