Toilet Soap

June 28th, 2017

One pound of washing soda, one pound of lard or clear tallow, half a pound of unslaked lime, one tablespoonful of salt, three quarts of water. Put the soda and lime in a large dish, and pour over the water, boiling hot; stir until dissolved; let it stand until clear, then pour off the clear liquid, add the grease and salt; boil four hours, then pour into pans to cool. If it should be inclined to curdle or separate, indicating the lime to be too strong, pour in a little more water, and boil again. Perfume as you please, and pour into molds or a shallow dish, and, when cold, cut into bars to dry.

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

To Make Hard Water Soft

March 24th, 2017

Dissolve in one gallon of boiling water a pound and a quarter of washing soda, and a quarter of a pound of borax. In washing clothes allow quarter of a cup of this to every gallon of water.

Source: The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking, H. Campbell

To Remove Warts

October 7th, 2016

Wash with water saturated with common washing-soda, and let it dry without wiping; repeat frequently until they disappear. Or pass a pin through the wart and hold one end of it over the flame of a candle or lamp until the wart fires by the heat, and it will disappear.

Another treatment of warts is to pare the hard and dry skin from their tops, and then touch them with the smallest drop of strong acetic acid, taking care that the acid does not run off the wart upon the neighboring skin; for if it does it will occasion inflammation and much pain. If this is continued once or twice daily, with regularity, paring the surface of the wart occasionally when it gets hard and dry, the wart will soon be effectually cured.

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

Warts

May 20th, 2015

If they give you no special inconvenience, let them alone. But if it is of essential importance to get rid of them, purchase half an ounce of muriatic acid, put it in a broad-bottomed vial, so that it will not easily turn over; take a stick as large as the end of a knitting-needle, dip it into the acid, and touch the top of the wart with whatever of the acid adheres to the stick; then, with the end of the stick, rub the acid into the top of the wart, without allowing the acid to touch the well skin. Do this night and morning, and a safe, painless, and effectual cure is the result; or, apply castor oil to a wart several times a day for a week or two, and it will disappear and not return; or, apply washing soda, just wet, a few times; let it remain on, and they will soon disappear altogether; or, scrape a carrot fine and apply as a poultice for six nights; or, rub sal-ammoniac on the wart twice a day until it disappears.

Source: Audel’s Household Helps, Hints and Receipts

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    NOTE: these remedies are listed only for information and/or amusement. They are not to be construed as medical advice of any type, nor are they recommended for use. Consult your doctor or other medical professional for any medical advice you require.