Indigestion

Hot water. Soda mints. Aromatic spirit of ammonia. Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). Hot applications to the stomach.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

Hiccough

Generally caused by indigestion.

Nine to fifteen swallows of water without taking a breath, or one or two soda-mint tablets, will generally give relief. If persistent, cause vomiting by tickling throat with fingers, or by swallowing a cup of warm water in which 1/2 tsp. mustard is dissolved.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

Earache

Caused sometimes by bad teeth, but generally by cold or hardened ear wax.

Hold ear over cloth wrung out of hot water, on which are several drops of alcohol. Syringe ear with warm bicarbonate of soda water — 1 tsp. to a cup; or peroxide of hydrogen water — 1 tbsp. to a cup of water.

One drop laudanum, or one drop arnica to three drops very warm olive oil, dropped into ear with a medicine dropper, often relieves pain; or cotton may be saturated with the warm olive oil and placed in the ear and covered with dry cotton. To prevent hardening of wax: keep ear anointed with ordinary red vaseline (unbleached vaseline). For watery discharge of ear, dust with dry boric acid.

Source: The Mary Frances First Aid Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

How to Keep Brushes Clean

The best way in which to clean hair-brushes is with spirits of ammonia, as its effect is immediate. No rubbing is required, and cold water can be used just as successfully as warm. Take a tablespoonful of ammonia to a quart of water, dip the hair part of the brush without wetting the ivory, and in a moment the grease is removed; then rinse in cold water, shake well, and dry in the air, but not in the sun. Soda and soap soften the bristles and invariably turn the ivory yellow.

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

Tooth Powder

Precipitated chalk, seven ounces; Florentine orris, four ounces; bicarbonate of soda, three ounces; powdered white Castile soap, two ounces; thirty drops each of oil of wintergreen and sassafras. Sift all together and keep in a glass jar or tin box. A very valuable recipe for hardening the teeth.

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

Warts

Prick with a needle (sterilized by boiling in clear water for ten minutes) until the wart bleeds then apply soda.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Toilet Soap

One pound of washing soda, one pound of lard or clear tallow, half a pound of unslaked lime, one tablespoonful of salt, three quarts of water. Put the soda and lime in a large dish, and pour over the water, boiling hot; stir until dissolved; let it stand until clear, then pour off the clear liquid, add the grease and salt; boil four hours, then pour into pans to cool. If it should be inclined to curdle or separate, indicating the lime to be too strong, pour in a little more water, and boil again. Perfume as you please, and pour into molds or a shallow dish, and, when cold, cut into bars to dry.

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

To Remove the Odor of Onions

Fill with cold water kettles and sauce pans in which they have been cooked adding a tablespoonful of bread soda and the same of ammonia. Let stand on the stove until it boils. Then wash in hot suds and rinse well. A pudding or bean pot, treated in this way, will wash easily. Wood ashes in the water will have the same effect.

Source: Things Mother Used To Make, L.M. Gurney

To Clean a Vinegar Cruet on the Inside

Put into it shot, pebblestones, or beans. Fill it with a strong soap suds, and one teaspoonful of bread soda or ammonia. Let stand an hour, shake well and often. Rinse with clean water.

Source: Things Mother Used To Make, L.M. Gurney

To Make Hard Water Soft

Dissolve in one gallon of boiling water a pound and a quarter of washing soda, and a quarter of a pound of borax. In washing clothes allow quarter of a cup of this to every gallon of water.

Source: The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking, H. Campbell