Blood Purifier, Another Effective Herb Remedy

“Pour boiling hot water on four ounces of gentian root with two ounces of dried orange peel, a sufficient amount of water should be used to exhaust the strength in the root and orange peel; then boil in a porcelain pot until there is left one-half pint of the concentrated infusion to every ounce of gentian root used. Then to every one-half pint add one half ounce alcohol. The effect of the alcohol is to coagulate it from a quantity of jelly looking substance which must be separated by straining. This is one of the best strengtheners of the human system. Dose: — One teaspoonful in an ounce of water.”

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

Ingredients: Feverfew

The Feverfew is one of the wild Chamomiles (Pyrethrum Parthenium), or Matricaria, so called because especially useful for motherhood. Its botanical names come from the Latin febrifugus, putting fever to flight, and parthenos, a virgin. The herb is a Composite plant, and grows in every hedgerow, with numerous small heads of yellow flowers, having outermost white rays, but with an upright stem; whereas that of the true garden Chamomile is procumbent. The whole plant has a pungent odour, and is particularly disliked by bees. A double variety is cultivated in gardens for ornamental purposes.

The herb Feverfew is strengthening to the stomach, preventing hysteria and promoting the monthly functions of women. It is much used by country mediciners, though insufficiently esteemed by the doctors of to-day.

In Devonshire the plant is known as “Bachelor’s buttons,” and at Torquay as “Flirtwort,” being also sometimes spoken of as “Feathyfew,” or “Featherfull.”

Gerard says it may be used both in drinks, and bound on the wrists, as of singular virtue against the ague.

As “Feverfue,” it was ordered, by the Magi of old, “to be pulled from the ground with the left hand, and the fevered patient’s name must be spoken forth, and the herbarist must not look behind him.” Country persons have long been accustomed to make curative uses of this herb very commonly, which grows abundantly throughout England. Its leaves are feathery and of a delicate green colour, being conspicuous even in mid-winter. Chemically, the Feverfew furnishes a blue volatile oil; containing a camphoraceous stearopten, and a liquid hydrocarbon, together with some tannin, and a bitter mucilage.

The essential oil is medicinally useful for correcting female irregularities, as well as for obviating cold indigestion. The herb is also known as “Maydeweed,” because useful against hysterical distempers, to which young women are subject. Taken generally it is a positive tonic to the digestive and nervous systems. Our chemists make a medicinal tincture of Feverfew, the dose of which is from ten to twenty drops, with a spoonful of water, three times a day. This tincture, if dabbed oil the parts with a small sponge, will immediately relieve the pain and swelling caused by bites of insects or vermin. In the official guide to Switzerland directions are given
to take “a little powder of the plant called Pyrethrum roseum and make it into a paste with a few drops of spirit, then apply this to the hands and face, or any exposed part of the body, and let it dry: no mosquito or fly will then touch you.” Or if two teaspoonfuls of the tincture are mixed with half a pint of cold water, and if all parts of the body likely to be exposed to the bites of insects are freely sponged therewith they will remain unassailed. Feverfew is manifestly the progenitor of the true Chamomilla (Anthemis nobilis), from which the highly useful Camomile “blows,” so commonly employed in domestic medicine, are obtained, and its flowers, when dried, may be applied to the same purposes. An infusion of them made with boiling water and allowed to become cold, will allay any distressing sensitiveness to pain in a highly nervous subject, and will afford relief to the faceache or earache of a dyspeptic or rheumatic person. This Feverfew (Chrysanthemum parthenium), is best calculated to pacify those who are liable to sudden, spiteful, rude irascibility, of which they are conscious, but say they cannot help it, and to soothe fretful children. “Better is a dinner or such herbs, where love is; than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith.”

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

Painful Menstruation, a Good Tonic for

“This may be relieved by sitting over the steam of a strong decoction of tansy, wormwood, and yarrow, and fomenting the abdomen with the same. Then take the following in wineglassful doses:– One ounce each of ground pine, southern wood, tansy, catnip and germander, simmering in two quarts of water down to three pints and pour boiling hot on one ounce of pennyroyal herb, strain when cold and take as per dose above.”

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

Liver Complaint. Mandrake Root for

“Dry and powder the mandrake root (often called may-apple) and take about one teaspoonful.” This dose may be repeated two or three times a day, according to the requirements of the case. This is a stimulant, a tonic and a laxative, and is especially good when the liver is in a torpid and inactive condition.

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

Frequent Blinking

Frequent blinking, or twitching of the eyelids, is a nervous condition which must be treated through the general health, but a cantharides blister applied on an imaginary line drawn between the corner of the eye and the ear, and repeated at intervals of a few days, is of great service. Tonics, sea air, and cold bathing are advisable.

Source: Home Notes, 1895.

Blood Purifier, Sassafras Tea, Known all over as

“Sassafras tea made from the root and boiled to extract the strength.” Drink freely of this for a few days in the spring. It thins the blood, and is a good tonic.

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

Tonic Drink

Time, twenty-four hours.

A quarter of an ounce of camomile flowers; a quarter of an ounce of sliced gentian root; a quarter of an ounce of bruised columba; a quarter of an ounce of dried orange peel; fifty cloves bruised; a pint and a quarter of cold spring water.

Put these ingredients into a jug, and pour upon them rather more than a pint of cold spring water; let it stand twenty-four hours, then pour off the clear liquor. Take three tablespoonfuls for a dose, fasting every morning.

Source: Warne’s Model Cookery and Housekeeping Book, Mary Jewry

A Tonic

Mix one teaspoonful of powdered rhubarb with the same quantity of dried bicarbonate of soda, then add two teaspoonfuls of powdered calumba root. Dose, from ten to twenty grains as a tonic, after fevers, in all cases of debility and dyspepsia attended with acidity.

Source: Enquire Within Upon Everything

A Tonic and Stimulant

Dissolve one teaspoonful of extract of bark, and half a teaspoonful of gum arabic, in six ounces of water, and then add one ounce of syrup of marsh-mallow, and the same quantity of syrup of tolu. Dose, one tablespoonful every three hours. Use after fevers and catarrhs.

Source: Enquire Within Upon Everything