Elder Tea

Make a strong tea of elder-flowers, either fresh or dried. Sweeten with honey. This tea is to be drunk as hot as possible ,after the person is warm in bed; it produces a strong perspiration, and a slight cold or cough yields to it immediately; but the more stubborn requires two or three repetitions. Used in Russia. This is an excellent remedy for colds attended with feverish symptoms and sore throat.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

Gargles

For sore and inflamed throat, dissolve 1 dram of alum in 12 oz of water. For ulcerated throat: 1 oz, by measure, of Condy’s fluid in 12 oz of water.

Source: The Complete Household Adviser

For A Sore Throat or Mouth

Make a sage tea by boiling some sage leaves; when strong, add honey and some alum or borax. Gargle the throat with this often through the day.

Source: The Philadelphia Housewife, Mary Hodgson

Herb Teas

Herb teas are made by infusing the dried or green leaves and stalks in boiling water, and letting them stand until cold. Sweeten to taste.

Sage tea, sweetened with honey, is good for a sore throat, used as a gargle, with a small bit of alum dissolved in it.

Catnip tea is the best panacea for infant ills, in the way of cold and colic, known to nurses.

Pennyroyal tea will often avert the unpleasant consequences of a sudden check of perspiration, or the evils induced by ladies’ thin shoes.

Chamomile and gentian teas are excellent tonics taken either cold or hot.

The tea made from blackberry-root is said to be good for summer disorders. That from green strawberry leaves is an admirable and soothing wash for a cankered mouth.

Tea of parsley-root scraped and steeped in boiling water, taken warm, will often cure strangury and kindred affections, as will that made from dried pumpkin-seed.

Tansy and rue teas are useful in cases of colic, as are fennel seeds steeped in brandy.

A tea of damask-rose leaves, dry or fresh, will usually subdue any simple case of summer complaint in infants.

Mint tea, made from the green leaves, crushed in cold or hot water and sweetened, is palatable and healing to the stomach and bowels.

Source: Common Sense in the Household, Marion Harland

Cure for Sore Throat in All Its Different Forms

Two ozs. Cayenne Pepper, one oz. common Salt, one-half pint of Vinegar. Warm over a slow fire and gargle the throat and mouth every hour. Garlic and Onion poultice applied to the outside. Castor Oil, one spoonful to keep the bowels open.

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

Hints In Regard To Health (Part II)

(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

For a Sore Throat

Take tops of rosemary fennell sage marygolds with the black middles sinkfoins of each a like quantity a good handfull altogether. a little cammomile boyle it in a quart of ale till tis very strong of the herbs then strain it and sweeten with honey or Sugar, you may boyle a piece of gold or a gold Ring if you please in it.

Source: A Book of Simples, H.W. Lewer

Virtues of Turpentine

After a housekeeper fully realizes the worth of turpentine in the household, she is never willing to be without a supply of it.

1 — It gives quick relief to burns.

2 — It is an excellent application for corns.

3 — It is good for rheumatism and for sore-throats.

4 — It is the quickest remedy for convulsions or fits by applying to the back of the neck.

5 — It is a sure preventive against moths; by just dropping a trifle in the bottom of drawers, chests and wardrobes, it will render the garments secure from injury during the summer.

6 — It will keep ants and bugs from closets and storerooms by putting a few drops in the corners and shelves. It is sure destruction to bed-bugs and will effectually drive them away from their haunts, if thoroughly applied to all the joints of the bedstead in the spring cleaning time, and injures neither furniture nor clothing.

7 — A little in suds washing day lightens laundry labor.

Source: 1001 Household Hints, Ottilie V. Ames

Sore Throat

At night wrap a cloth wet in alcohol around outside of throat. Gargle with salt and water (1 tsp. to a glass), or borax and water in same proportion, or hot tea, or with the following—

Gargle:

2 tbsp. vinegar,
1 tbsp. salt,
Water to fill a tumbler.

If persistent, see doctor.

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

Camphorated Oil

Best oil of Lucca, gum camphor. Pound some gum camphor and fill a wide-necked pint bottle one-third full; fill up with olive oil and set away until the camphor is absorbed. Excellent lotion for sore chest, sore throat, aching limbs, etc.

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