Seidlitz Powders
Two drachms of Rochelle salts, and two scruples of bicarbonate of soda, in a white paper; thirty-five grains of tartaric acid in a blue one.
Dissolve that in the white paper in nearly half a tumbler of water, then add the other powder, dissolved in another half tumbler of water.
Syrup mixed with the water makes it more agreeable. It is a gentle laxative.
Source: Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book, Catherine Beecher
Filed under Remedy | Tags: beecher, bicarbonate of soda, bowels, laxative, powder, powders, rochelle, rochelle salts, seidlitz, tartaric acid | Comment (0)Toilet or Face Powder
Take a quarter of a pound of wheat starch pounded fine; sift it through a fine sieve, or a piece of lace; add to it eight drops of oil of rose, oil of lemon thirty drops, oil of bergamot fifteen drops. Rub thoroughly together.
The French throw this powder into alcohol, shaking it, letting it settle, then pouring off the alcohol and drying the powder. In that case, the perfume is added lastly.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Filed under Remedy | Tags: alcohol, bergamot, face, face powder, lace, lemon, oil of bergamot, oil of lemon, oil of rose, powder, rose, skin, starch, wheat, whitehouse | Comment (0)Burnet’s Celebrated Powder for the Face
Five cents’ worth of bay rum, five cents’ worth of magnesia snowflake, five cents’ worth of bergamot, five cents’ worth of oil of lemon; mix in a pint bottle and fill up with rain-water. Shake well, and apply with a soft sponge or cloth.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Uses for Cigar Ashes
Cigar ashes are splendid when used as a tooth powder; when sprinkled plentifully into furs before storing; when placed about the roots of potted plants to kill the insects.
Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames
Pearl Tooth Powder
Prepared chalk half a pound, powdered myrrh two ounces; camphor two drachms, orris root, powdered, two ounces; moisten the camphor with alcohol and mix well together.
Source: The White House Cookbook, F.L. Gillette
Powder for the Skin
If young ladies will use powder, the most harmless is refined chalk, powder is often a protection and comfort on long journeys, or in the city dust. If the pores of the skin must be filled one would prefer clean dust to begin with. A layer of powder will prevent freckles and sun-burn when properly applied. In all these cases it is worth while to know how to use it well. The skin should be as clean and cool as possible to begin. A pellet of chalk, without any poisonous bismuth in it, should be wrapped in coarse linen, and crushed in water, grinding it well between the fingers. Then wash the face quickly with the linen, and the wet powder oozes in its finest state through the cloth, leaving a pure white deposit when dry. Press the face lightly with a damp handkerchief to remove superfluous powder, wiping the brows and nostrils free. This mode of using chalk is less easily detected than when it is dusted on dry.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Cure for Chills and Fever
Quinine is the only remedy, and taken in the following manner, will cure successfully : Have twenty grains of quinine put up in five grains powders ; after you have had the chill, and the fever has passed off, take one powder (five grains), then in four or five hours take the same quantity again, and so on until you have taken the twenty grains. You will then escape your chill the third day. Before the seventh day comes around (they come on periodically every seventh day) take the same quantity as before just as if you had had a chill. Keep this treatment up for six or eight weeks, and you will be entirely restored. I think will never have a return of ague.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook
Chapped Hands
Take common starch and grind it with a knife until it is reduced to the smoothest powder. Take a tin box and fill it with starch thus prepared, so as to have it continually at hand for use. Then every time the hands are taken from the suds, or dish-water, rinse them thoroughly in clean water, wipe them, and while they are yet damp, rub a pinch of the starch thoroughly over them, covering the whole surface. We know many persons formerly afflicted with hands that would chap until the blood oozed from many minute crevices, completely freed from the trouble by the use of this simple remedy.
To rub the hands thoroughly, when damp, with wheat bran will have the same effect as the starch. It is also an excellent remedy for tetter on the hands — will stop the itching at once and effect a speedy cure.
Source: 76: A Cook Book
Filed under Remedy | Tags: 76, bran, chapped, chapping, hand, hands, powder, skin, soap suds, starch, suds, tetter, tin, wash, water, wheat, wheat bran | Comment (0)Powder for Removing Superfluous Hair
Powdered quicklime, two parts ; sulphuret of arsenic, one part ; starch, one part. Mix in fine powder, and keep in a close vessel.
Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott
An Indispensable Powder
A trouble scarcely to be named among refined persons is profuse perspiration, which ruins clothing and comfort alike. For this it is recommended to bathe frequently, putting into the water a cold infusion of rosemary, sage or thyme, and afterward dust the under-garments with a mixture of two and a half drachms of camphor, four ounces of orris-root, and sixteen ounces of starch, the whole reduced to impalpable powder. Tie it in a coarse muslin bag, (or one made of flannel is better if you wish to use it on the flesh,) and shake it over the clothes. This makes a very fine bathing powder.
Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook