Ingredients: Oat

The Oat is a native of Britain in its wild and uncultivated form, and is distinguished by the spikelets of its ears hanging on slender pedicels. This is the Avena fatua, found in our cornfields, but not indigenous in Scotland. When cultivated it is named Avena sativa. As it needs less sunshine and solar warmth to ripen the grain than wheat, it furnishes the principal grain food of cold Northern Europe. With the addition of some fat this grain is capable of supporting life for an indefinite period. Physicians formerly recommended highly a diet-drink made from Oats, about which Hoffman wrote a treatise at the end of the seventeenth century; and Johannis de St. Catherine, who introduced the drink, lived by its use to a hundred years free from any disease. Nevertheless the Oat did not enjoy a good reputation among the old Romans; and Pliny said “Primum omnis frumenti vitium avena est.”

American doctors have taken of late to extol the Oat (Avena sativa) when made into a strong medicinal tincture with spirit of wine, as a remarkable nervine stimulant and restorative: this being “especially valuable in all cases where there is a deficiency of nervous power, for instance, among over-worked lawyers, public speakers, and writers.”

The tincture is ordered to be given in a dose of from ten to twenty drops, once or twice during the day, in hot water to act speedily; and a somewhat increased dose in cold water at bedtime so as to produce its beneficial effects more slowly then. It proves an admirable remedy for sleeplessness from nervous exhaustion, and as prepared in New York may be procured from any good druggist in England. Oatmeal contains two per cent. of protein compounds, the largest portion of which is avenin. A yeast poultice made by stirring Oatmeal into the grounds of strong beer is a capital cleansing and healing application to languid sloughing sores.

Oatmeal supplies very little saccharine matter ready formed. It cannot be made into light bread, and is therefore prepared when baked in cakes; or, its more popular form for eating is that of porridge, where the ground meal becomes thoroughly soft by boiling, and is improved in taste by the addition of milk and salt. “The halesome parritch, chief of Scotia’s food,” said Burns, with fervid eloquence. Scotch people actually revel in their parritch and bannocks. “We defy your wheaten bread,” says one of their favourite writers, “your home-made bread, your bakers’ bread, your baps, rolls, scones, muffins, crumpets, and cookies, your bath buns, and your sally luns, your tea cakes, and slim cakes, your saffron cakes, and girdle cakes, your shortbread, and singing hinnies: we swear by the Oat cake, and the parritch, the bannock, and the brose.” Scotch beef brose is made by boiling Oatmeal in meat liquor, and kail brose by cooking Oatmeal in cabbage-water. Crushed Oatmeal, from which the husk has been removed, is known as “groats,” and is employed for making gruel. At the latter end of the seventeenth century this was a drink asked-for eagerly by the public at London taverns. “Grantham gruel,” says quaint old Fuller, in his History of the Worthies of England, “consists of nine grits and a gallon of water.” When “thus made, it is wash rather, which one will have little heart to eat, and yet as little heart by eating.” But the better gruel concocted elsewhere was “a wholesome Spoon meat, though homely; physic for the sick, and food for persons in health; grits the form thereof: and giving the being thereunto.” In the border forays of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all the provision carried by the Scotch was simply a bag of Oatmeal. But as a food it is apt to undergo some fermentation in the stomach, and to provoke sour eructations. Furthermore, it is somewhat laxative, because containing a certain proportion of bran which mechanically stimulates the intestinal membranes: and this insoluble bran is rather apt to accumulate. Oatmeal gruel may be made by boiling from one to two ounces of the meal with three pints of water down to two pints, then straining the decoction, and pouring off the supernatant liquid when cool. Its flavour may be improved by adding raisins towards the end of boiling, or by means of sugar and nutmeg. Because animals of speed use up, by the lungs, much heat-forming material, Oats (which abound in carbonaceous constituents) are specially suitable as food for the horse.

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

Liniment for Old Sores

Alcohol 1 qt; aqua ammonia 4 oz; oil of origanum 2 oz; camphor gum 2 oz; opium 2 oz; gum myrrh 20 oz; common salt 2 table-spoons. Mix, and shake occasionally for a week.

Source: Dr Chase’s Recipes, or Information for Everybody, A.W. Chase

Sores and Chapped Hands, Sour Cream Salve for

“Tie thick sour cream in a cloth and bury in the ground over night. In the morning it will be a nice salve. Excellent for chapped hands or anything that requires a soft
salve.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Old Sores and Wounds, Healing Ointment for

“Honey 4 ounces
Spirits of Turpentine 1/2 ounce
Beeswax 4 ounces
Oil of Wintergreen 1/2 ounce
Tincture of Opium 1 ounce
Fluid Extract Lobelia 1/4 ounce
Lard 3/4 pound

Mix by the aid of gentle heat, stirring well at the same time. This is a
very useful ointment for healing wounds and old sores.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Ulcers and Sores, Carrots will heal

“Boil carrots until soft and mash them to a pulp, add lard or sweet oil sufficient to keep it from getting hard. Spread and apply; excellent for offensive sores. Onion poultice made the same way is good for slow boils and indolent sores.” This makes a very soothing poultice and has great healing properties.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Sores and Ulcers, Excellent Salve for

“One tablespoon of melted mutton or even beef tallow while warm; add some spirits of turpentine and one teaspoonful of laudanum, stir well.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Sores and Ulcers, Chickweed Ointment for

“Chop chickweed and boil in lard, strain and bottle for use.” This makes a fine green cooling ointment. It is surprising to see the relief obtained by this simple ointment.

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Gangrene, Remedy from New York that cured a Gangrenous Case

“A man aged 74 years had a sore below the knee for fifteen years; at last gangrene appeared in his foot and three physicians pronounced his case hopeless on account of his age. I was called as a neighbor and found the foot swollen to twice its natural size, and the man in pain from head to foot. I ordered cabbage leaves steamed until wilted, then put them over the limb from knee to foot and covered with a cloth. In about fifteen minutes they were black, so we removed them and put on fresh ones, repeating the change until the leaves did not turn black. Then the sore was thoroughly cleansed with a weak solution of saleratus and while wet was thickly covered with common black pepper and wrapped up. The saleratus water and pepper was changed night and morning until the sore was entirely healed. After the third day this man had no pain, and in four weeks was entirely healed. A year later he said he had never had any trouble with it or with rheumatism which he had had for years before.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter

Sores and Ulcers, the Potato Lotion for

“Take the water you boil potatoes in and in one quart of it boil one ounce of foxglove leaves for ten minutes, then add one ounce tincture of myrrh to the lotion, bathe the affected parts with the lotion warm, then keep a cloth wet with it on the sore, if possible, until cured.”

Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter