For Weakness of Stomach

1 drachm of prepared Columba root, and 1/2 drachm of rhubarb root, infused in 1/2 pint of boiling water, one day: add 1 oz. tincture of Columba, and a little sugar. 2 table-spoonsful, twice a day.– Or: put about 25 camomile flowers into 1/2 a pint boiling water, with 3 cloves, and 2 hops, cover close and let it stand all night: a tea-cupful first in the morning, and again an hour before dinner. If giddiness ensues, the camomile does not agree with the patient, and must not be continued. Where it does agree, this will be found to restore the appetite.

Source: The English Housekeeper, Anne Cobbett

Tomato Syrup

Express the juice of ripe tomatoes, and put a pound of sugar to each quart of the juice, put it in bottles, and set it aside. In a few weeks it will have the appearance and flavor of pure wine of the best kind, and mixed with water is a delightful beverage for the sick. No alcohol is needed to preserve it.

The medical properties of the tomato are in high repute, and it is supposed that this syrup retains all that is contained in the fruit.

Source: Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt Book, Catherine Beecher

Flax-Seed Lemonade

To a large tablespoonful of flax-seed, allow a tumbler and a half of cold water. Boil them together till the liquid becomes very sticky. Then strain it hot over a quarter of a pound of pulverized sugar, and an ounce of pulverized gum arabic. Stir it till quite dissolved, and squeeze into it the juice of a lemon. This mixture has frequently been found an efficacious remedy for a cold, taking a wine-glass of it as often as the cough is troublesome.

Source: The Canadian Family Cookbook, Grace E. Denison

An Excellent Recipe for Hoarseness

At night before going to bed, have ready a pint bowl, into which you have squeezed the juice of half a lemon, add to this one teaspoonful of glycerine, and one or two tablespoons of good whisky or best brandy, pour over boiling water, sweeten well with loaf sugar and drink very hot.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Cough Remedy

Pour half a pint of water on one quarter of a pound of gum arabic; when dissolved add one-quarter of a pound of sugar and half a gill of lemon juice; let it simmer for five or ten minutes then bottle and cork. When taken water may be added. This is a most soothing syrup for a throat irritated by a hacking cough.

Source: Tried and True Recipes, F.D.P. Jermain

Blackberry Cordial for Diarrhoea

Boil together four pounds of white sugar and one gallon of blackberry juice ; remove the scum, then add one ounce of cloves, one ounce of cinnamon, and four or five grated nutmegs. When boiled sufficiently, let it settle ; strain, and add one pint of brandy. Dose for a child, one tablespoonful ; for an adult, one wineglassful.

Source: Recipes for the Million

Cough Mixture

Pour 1 pint vinegar over 1 dozen egg shells, let it stand 24 hours, 1 pound brown sugar, 1/2 pound rock candy, 1 pound honey, pour 2 gills rum over candy, sugar and honey, 1 tablespoon glycerine. Beat whites of 1 dozen eggs and mix all together and strain. Bottle and take 1 dessert spoon three or four times a day.

Source: Two Hundred and Fifty Recipes, Grace Church Sewing Circle

Slippery-Elm Tea

Pour one cup of boiling water upon one teaspoonful of slippery-elm powder or a piece of the bark. When cool, strain, and flavor with lemon-juice and sugar. This is soothing in any inflammation of the mucous membrane.

Source: The Universal Cookery Book, Gertrude Strohm

To Stop Hiccoughs

A few drops of glycerine in cold water, or a spoonful of brown sugar taken dry.

Source: Household Gas Cookery Book, Helen Edden

Elecampane and Hoarhound Syrup

Put a pint of hoarhound in a quart of water, and let it draw by the fire; put a tea-cupful of dried elecampane root in a pint of water, cover it close, and let it boil till all the strength is out; strain it and the hoarhound together, and put them to boil with a pound of sugar; when it is a rich syrup, pour it in a pitcher to cool, and bottle it. Take a table-spoonful at a time when the cough is troublesome. Sometimes flaxseed is a useful addition to this syrup.

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