Another Remedy for Neuralgia

Bathe the parts affected every fifteen or twenty minutes with acetic acid No. 8.

Source: The Housekeeper’s Friend: A Practical Cookbook

Hives (Nettle Rash)

For itching, rub into them common table salt, or bathe with equal parts vinegar and water.

Hives indicate stomach trouble. Give citrate of magnesia.

If hives persist, give 1/2 tsp. table salt in water or 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar in 1/4 glass of water three times a day for three days.

If hives still persist, consult doctor.

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

Remedy for Lockjaw

If any person is threatened or taken with lockjaw from injuries of the arms, legs or feet, do not wait for a doctor, but put the part injured in the following preparation: Put hot wood-ashes into water as warm as can be borne; if the injured part cannot be put into water, then wet thick folded cloths in the water and apply them to the part as soon as possible, at the same time bathe the backbone from the neck down with some laxative stimulant–say cayenne pepper and water, or mustard and water (good vinegar is better than water); it should be as hot as the patient can bear it. Don’t hesitate; go to work and do it, and don’t stop until the jaws will come open. No person need die of lockjaw if these directions are followed.

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

Nail Care

To give a fine color to the nails, the hands and fingers must be well lathered and washed with fine soap; then the nails must be rubbed with equal parts of cinnebar and emery, followed by oil of bitter almonds. To take white spots from the nails, melt equal parts of pitch and turpentine in a small cup; add to it vinegar and powdered sulphur. Rub this on the nails and the spots will soon disappear.

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

Bruises or Contusions

“Black and blue” spots from blow or fall or pinching, causing blood vessels to rupture under skin.

Apply at first:

• Ice, or ice water; or
• Alcohol and water, half and half; or
• Witch hazel, or arnica; or
• Vinegar diluted with water.

Afterward use hot applications. Gentle rubbing or massaging helps dispel the discoloration.

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

Colds

At the first sign of “taking a cold” — use some simple remedy, such as inhaling camphor from time to time for several hours. Dampen the center of a handkerchief in water, and drop on it some spirit of camphor. Eat a sliced onion.

Take two drops of spirit of camphor on a tsp. sugar.

Or, drop five drops camphor in ½ tumbler of water. Take a tsp. every half hour.

Ginger tea is a much valued old-fashioned remedy. Pour boiling water over a tbsp. bruised ginger root. Let stand two hours. The dose is 1 tbsp. every hour or two.

If the “cold” continues, take a laxative, such as castor oil or rhubarb, and follow the dose with a hot foot bath at night and hot lemonade after getting into bed, to induce perspiration. Keep well covered.

If a cough comes with the cold, lemon juice and sugar syrup make a pleasant cough remedy; or molasses-and-vinegar syrup is liked by children. Mix in the proportion of 1 tbsp. vinegar to 2 tbsp. molasses.

Flaxseed tea will sometimes relieve a “tickling” cough. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over 1 tbsp. whole flaxseeds. Stir; let simmer gently one-half hour. Add juice of half a lemon, and sugar if desired. Take a tbsp. as often as wished.

If the chest is sore, rub it with camphorated oil, or ammonia liniment, which is made by shaking together in a bottle 4 tbsp. olive (sweet) oil and 1 tbsp. household ammonia. This hardens upon standing a few days — so it is best made as needed.

All these are simple home remedies, but if a cold is severe, see a doctor. A neglected cold is dangerous.

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

Cure for Hiccoughs

Lump of sugar saturated with vinegar will usually cure hiccoughs in a child. Drink of water often brings immediate relief. In prolonged cases of hiccoughing, weak, hot coffee with cream and sugar given at frequent intervals has cured the patient.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Corns

Bind bread soaked in vinegar on the corns day and night and they will come out by the roots.

Source: Civic League Cook Book

Musquito Bites

Salt wetted into a sort of paste, with a little vinegar, and plastered on the bite, will immediately allay the pain; and if not rubbed, no mark will be seen next day. It is well to keep salt and vinegar always in a chamber that is infested with musquitoes[sic]. It is also good for the sting of a wasp or bee; and for the bite of any venomous animal, if applied immediately. It should be left on till it becomes dry, and then renewed.

Source: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie

Thieves’ Vinegar

Take a large handful of lavender blossoms, and the same quantity of sage, mint, rue, wormwood and rosemary. Chop and mix them well. Put them into a jar, with half an ounce of camphor that has been dissolved in a little alcohol, and pour in three quarts of strong clear vinegar. Keep the jar for two or three weeks in the hot sun, and at night plunge it into a box of heated sand. Afterwards strain and bottle the liquid, putting into each bottle a clove of garlic sliced. To have it very clear, after it has been bottled for a week, you should pour it off carefully from the sediment, and filter it through blotting paper. Then wash the bottles, and return the vinegar to them. It should be kept very tightly corked. It is used for sprinkling about in sick-rooms; and also in close damp oppressive weather. Inhaling the odour from a small bottle will frequently prevent faintness in a crowd.

It is best to make it in June.

This vinegar is so called from an old tradition, that during the prevalence of the plague in London the composition was invented by four thieves, who found it a preservative from contagion; and were by that means enabled to remain in the city and exercise their profession to great advantage, after most of the inhabitants had fled.

Source: Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie