Shaving Compound

Half a pound of plain, white soap, dissolved in a small quantity of alcohol, as little as can be used; add a tablespoonful of pulverized borax. Shave the soap and put it in a small tin basin or cup; place it on the fire in a dish of boiling water; when melted, add the alcohol, and remove from the fire; stir in oil of bergamot sufficient to perfume it.

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

Camphor Ice

Melt together over a water bath white wax and spermaceti each one ounce, camphor two ounces, sweet almond oil, one pound, then triturate until the mixture has become homogeneous, and allow one pound of rose-water to flow in slowly during the operation. Excellent for chapped lips or hands.

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

Cuts and Scratches

Apply peroxide to cuts, scratches and all bruises where the skin is broken. This remedy often serves as a preventative to blood poisoning.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Balm of Gilead Oil

Put loosely into a bottle as many balm of Gilead flowers as will come up to a third part of its height; then nearly fill up the bottle with sweet oil, which should be of the best quality. Let it infuse (shaking it occasionally) for several days, and it will then be fit for use. It is considered a good remedy for bruises of the skin; also for cuts, burns, and scalds that are not very bad, and should be applied immediately,–by wetting a soft rag with it; renewing it frequently,

Source: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie

To Reduce Swellings

Tincture of arnica or witch hazel applied to a bump on the head or a bruise where the skin is not broken brings relief from pain and often prevents inflammation and bad swellings.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Burns

Grated raw peeled potatoes spread on bandages and bound on a badly burned arm, shoulder and hand brought immediate relief to one of my children once when I was on a farm and could not get a doctor. I kept the bandages moist by binding fresh new, wet ones over the old ones until pain ceased but did not remove the dressing at all until wound was healed. It healed perfectly without leaving any scar. Do not know the merits of this remedy from a physician’s standpoint but it was used successfully in a bad hotel fire in a village where no physicians resided and the patients all recovered from severe burns and there were no scars left on their bodies.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Orange Flower Lotion for the Complexion

Dissolve a slightly heaping tablespoonful of Epsom salts in a pint of imported orange flower water (Chiris de Grasse), and add to it one tablespoonful of witch hazel. Apply with a soft linen cloth. Very refreshing in warm weather and an excellent remedy for oiliness of the skin.

Source: The Golden Age Cook Book, H. L. Dwight

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

For Cutaneous Eruptions

Those who have the misfortune to contract cutaneous disorders, or from scorbutic affections or the fumes of certain medicines, each and any of which are liable to produce roughness and inflammation of the skin, will be glad of a speedy and certain cure for their affliction. It is a wash of sulphurous acid (not sulphuric) diluted in the proportion of three parts soft water to one of the acid, and used three or four times a day until relieved. Sub-rosa all parasites on furniture, human beings or pets are quickly destroyed by this application.”

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

A Remedy for Moth or Hepatic Spots

They are a sign of deep seated disease of the liver. Taraxacum, the extract of dandelion root, is the standing remedy for this, and the usual prescription is a large pill four nights in a week, some times for months. To this may be added the free use of tomatoes, figs, mustard-seed, and all seedy fruits and vegetables, with light boiled meats, and no bread but that of coarse flour. Pastry, puddings of most sorts, and fried food of all kinds must be dispensed with by persons having a tendency to this disease. It may take six weeks or even months to make any visible impression on either the health or the moth patches, but success will come at last. One-third of a teaspoonful of chlorate of soda in a wine-glass of water, taken in three doses before meals, will aid the recovery by neutralizing morbid matters in the stomach. There is no sure cosmetic that will reach the moth patches. Such treatment as described, such exercise as is tempting in itself, and gay society, will restore one to conditions of health in which the extinction of these blotches is certain.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook