Magnetic Ointment

February 25th, 2022

One lb. Elder Bark, one lb. Spikenard Root, one lb. Yellow Dock Root. Boil in two gallons of water down to one, then press the strength out of the bark and roots and boil the liquid down to one-half gallon. Add 8 lbs. of best Resin, one lb. Beeswax, and Tallow enough to soften. Apply to the sores, etc., by spreading on linen cloth.

Source: One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed, C. A. Bogardus

Deshler’s Salve for Gatherings or Sores

February 23rd, 2022

Take half a pound of sheep’s suet, the same of resin and beeswax, a quarter of a pound of thick turpentine, and half a pint of linseed oil; pound the resin, and cut the beeswax and suet; put them over the fire with the other ingredients, and keep stirring till they are mixed, but do not let them boil; put it in a jar, and tie it up. It is good for burns, biles, gathered breasts, &c.

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

Healing Salve

January 6th, 2019

One lb. Lard, 1/2 lb. Resin, 1/2 lb. Sweet Elder bark. Simmer over a slow fire 4 hours, or until it forms a hard, brown salve. This is for the cure of cuts, bruises, boils, old sores and all like ailments. Spread on a cotton cloth and apply to the parts affected.

Source: One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed, C. A. Bogardus

Hints In Regard To Health (Part II)

September 3rd, 2018

(Continued from this post.)

  • Sprains and bruises call for an application of the tincture of arnica.
  • If an artery is severed, tie a small cord or handkerchief above it.
  • For bilious colic, soda and ginger in hot water. It may be taken freely.
  • Tickling in the throat is best relieved by a gargling of salt and water.
  • Pains in the side are most promptly relieved by the application of mustard.
  • For cold in the head nothing is better than powdered borax, sniffed up the nostrils.
  • A drink of hot, strong lemonade before going to bed will often break up a cold and cure a sore throat.
  • Nervous spasms are usually relieved by a little salt taken into the mouth and allowed to dissolve.
  • Whooping cough paroxysms are relieved by breathing the fumes of turpentine and carbolic acid.
  • Broken limbs should be placed in natural positions, and the patient kept quiet until the surgeon arrives.
  • Hemorrhages of the lungs or stomach are promptly checked by small doses of salt. The patient should be kept as quiet as possible.
  • Sleeplessness, caused by too much blood in the head may be overcome by applying a cloth wet with cold water to the back of the neck.
  • Wind colic is promptly relieved by peppermint essence taken in a little warm water. For small children it may be sweetened. Paregoric is also good.
  • For stomach cramps, ginger ale or a teaspoonful of the tincture of ginger in a half glass of water in which a half teaspoonful of soda has been dissolved.
  • Sickness of the stomach is most promptly relieved by drinking a teacupful of hot soda and water. If it brings the offending matter up, all the better.
  • A teaspoonful of ground mustard in a cupful of warm water is a prompt and reliable emetic, and should be resorted to in cases of poisoning or cramps in the stomach from over-eating.
  • Avoid purgatives or strong physic, as they not only do no good, but are positively hurtful. Pills may relieve for the time, but they seldom cure.
  • Powdered resin is the best thing to stop bleeding from cuts. After the powder is sprinkled on, wrap the wound with soft cotton cloth. As soon as the wound begins to feel feverish, keep the cloth wet with cold water.
  • Hot water is better than cold for bruises. It relieves pain quickly, and by preventing congestion often keeps off the ugly black and blue mark. “Children cry for it,” when they experience the relief it affords their bumps and bruises.
  • For a sprained ankle, the whites of eggs and powdered alum made into a plaster is almost a specific.

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

Specific for a Cough

January 25th, 2017

Take equal quantities of camomile flowers, elecampane, life-everlasting, mullen, a few races of ginger, and as much fat lightwood splinters as camomile. Boil to a strong tea; strain it, and add enough honey and sugar mixed in equal quantities; boil down to a syrup; add enough good apple vinegar to give a pleasant acid taste. Pills made of fresh tar, brown sugar, and the yolk of an egg,
are good for a cough. Pills of fresh rosin taken from the pine tree are also good.

Source: Mrs Hill’s New Cook-Book

Grandmother’s Salve for Everything

August 2nd, 2016

Two pounds of rosin, a half teacup of mutton tallow after it is hard, half as much bees-wax and a half ounce of camphor gum. Put all together into an old kettle and let it dissolve and just come to a boil, stirring with a stick; then take a half pail of warm water (just the chill off), pour it in and stir carefully until you can get your hands around it. Two persons must each take half and
pull like candy until quite white and brittle; put a little grease on your hands to prevent sticking and keep them wet all the time; wet the table, roll out the salve and cut it with a knife. Keep in a cool place.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

For Sprains or Bruises

July 7th, 2016

Take one pint of lard-oil; half a pound of stone-pitch; half a pound of resin; half a pound of beeswax, and half a pound of beef-tallow. Boil together for half an hour, skim off the scum, pour the liquid into cups. When needed, it must be spread upon coarse cotton cloth, or kid (the latter is best), and applied to the sprain or bruise. It will give quick relief, as it entirely excludes the air. One or two plasters of it will cure the worst case. It acts like splints on a sprained ankle or wrist. It is also good for cattle, horses, or dogs in all cases of injury.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

A Plaster for Sprains or Attacks of Rheumatism in Joints

June 9th, 2016

Take equal parts of resin and Burgundy pitch, melt in a tin dipper, and when liquid put in a piece of camphor gum as large as an English walnut, and half that, in size, of opium. Stir till all is dissolved, as it will soon be if kept hot, and when none of the gum is visible spread on thin leather or thick drilling. Apply while warm and it will relieve the pain. These are all excellent, tried remedies.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Chilblains

December 30th, 2015

We give a few household remedies for the cure of these disagreeable companions. 1. Take half an ounce of white wax, one ounce of ox-marrow, two ounces of lard; melt slowly over a fire in a pipkin, and mix them well together; then strain through a linen cloth. 2. Before going to bed spread the ointment on the parts affected, feet or hands, taking care to wrap them up well. 3. Lemon juice rubbed on the inflamed parts is said to stop the itching. 4. A sliced onion dipped in salt has the same effect, but is apt to make the feet tender. 5. When the chilblains are broken, a little warm vinegar, or tincture of myrrh, is an excellent thing to bathe the wound and keep it clean. 6. Another useful remedy is a bread poultice, at bedtime, and in the morning apply a little resin ointment spread on a piece of lint or old linen.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

Ingredient: Pellitory

March 20th, 2015

A plant belonging to the order of Nettles, the Pellitory of the Wall, or Paritory–Parietaria, from the Latin parietes, walls–is a favourite Herbal Simple in many rural districts. It grows commonly on dry walls, and is in flower all the summer. The leaves are narrow, hairy, and reddish; the stems are brittle, and the small blossoms hairy, in clusters. Their filaments are so elastic that if touched before the flower has expanded, they suddenly spring from their in curved position, and scatter the pollen broadcast.

An infusion of the plant is a popular medicine to stimulate the kidneys, and promote a large flow of watery urine. The juice of the herb acts in the same way when made into a thin syrup with sugar, and given in doses of two tablespoonfuls three times in the day. Dropsical effusions caused by an obstructed liver, or by a weak dilated heart, may be thus carried off with marked relief. The decoction of Parietaria, says Gerard, “helpeth such as are troubled with an old cough.” All parts of the plant contain nitre abundantly. The leaves may be usefully applied as poultices.

But another Pellitory, which is more widely used because of its pungent efficacy in relieving toothache, and in provoking a free flow of saliva, is a distinct plant, the Pyrethrum, or Spanish Chamomile of the shops, and not a native of Great Britain, though sometimes cultivated in our gardens. The title “Purethron” is from pur, fire, because of its burning ardent taste. Its root is scentless, but when chewed causes a pricking sensation (with heat, and some numbness) in the mouth and tongue. Then an abundant flow of saliva, and of mucus within the cheeks quickly ensues. These effects are due to “pyrethrin” contained in the plant, which is an acid fixed resin; also there are present a second resin, and a yellow, acrid oil, whilst the root contains inulin, tannin, and other substances. When sliced and applied to the skin it induces heat, tingling, and redness. A patient seeking relief from rheumatic or neuralgic affections of the head and face, or for palsy of the tongue, should chew the root of this Pyrethrum for several minutes.

The “Pelleter of Spain” (Pyrethrum Anacyclus), was so styled, not because of being brought from Spain; but because it is grown there.

A gargle of Pyrethrum infusion is prescribed for relaxed uvula, and for a partial paralysis of the tongue and lips. The tincture made from the dried root may be most helpfully applied on cotton wool to the interior of a decayed tooth which is aching, or the milder tincture of the wall Pellitory may be employed for the same purpose. To make a gargle, two or three teaspoonfuls of the tincture of Pyrethrum, which can be had from any druggist, should be mixed with a pint of cold water, and sweetened with honey, if desired. The powdered root forms a good snuff to cure chronic catarrh of the head and nostrils, and to clear the brain by exciting a free flow of nasal mucus and tears–Purgatur cerebrum mansâ radice Pyrethri.

Incidentally, as a quaint but effective remedy for carious toothache, may be mentioned the common lady bird insect, Coccinella, which when captured secretes from its legs a yellow acrid fluid having a disagreeable odour. This fluid will serve to ease the most violent toothache, if the creature be placed alive in the cavity of the hollow tooth.

Gerard says this Pyrethrurn (Pellitory of Spain, or Pelletor) “is most singular for the surgeons of the hospitals to put into their unctions contra Neapolitanum morbum, and such other diseases that are cousin germanes thereunto.” The Parietaria, or Pellitory of the wall, is named Lichwort, from growing on stones.

Sir William Roberts, of Manchester, has advised jujubes, made of gum arabic and pyrethrum, to be slowly masticated by persons who suffer from acid fermentation in the stomach, a copious flow of alkaline saliva being stimulated thereby in the mouth, which is repeatedly swallowed during the sucking of one or more of the jujubes, and which serves to neutralise the acid generated within the stomach. Distressing heartburn is thus effectively relieved without taking injurious alkalies, such as potash and soda.

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

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    NOTE: these remedies are listed only for information and/or amusement. They are not to be construed as medical advice of any type, nor are they recommended for use. Consult your doctor or other medical professional for any medical advice you require.