Sick Headache

One teaspoon of finely powdered charcoal in a a half tumbler of water.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

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

To Destroy Insects and Vermin

Dissolve two pounds of alum in three or four quarts of water. Let it remain over night till all the alum is dissolved. Then with a brush, apply boiling hot to every joint or crevice in the closet or shelves where croton bugs, ants, cockroaches, etc., intrude; also to the joints and crevices of bedsteads, as bed bugs dislike it as much as croton bugs, roaches, or ants. Brush all the cracks in the floor and mop-boards. Keep it boiling hot while using.

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

Chapped Hands

Take common starch and grind it with a knife until it is reduced to the smoothest powder. Take a tin box and fill it with starch thus prepared, so as to have it continually at hand for use. Then every time the hands are taken from the suds, or dish-water, rinse them thoroughly in clean water, wipe them, and while they are yet damp, rub a pinch of the starch thoroughly over them, covering the whole surface. We know many persons formerly afflicted with hands that would chap until the blood oozed from many minute crevices, completely freed from the trouble by the use of this simple remedy.

To rub the hands thoroughly, when damp, with wheat bran will have the same effect as the starch. It is also an excellent remedy for tetter on the hands — will stop the itching at once and effect a speedy cure.

Source: 76: A Cook Book

To Take Out Fruit-Stains

Stretch the stained part tightly over a bowl, and pour on boiling water till it is free from spot.

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

To Cleanse Silks, Woolens, and Cottons

Grate raw potatoes to a fine pulp in clean water, and pass the liquid matter through a coarse sieve into another vessel of water ; let the mixture stand still till the fine white particles of the potatoes settle to the bottom; then pour off the liquor from the sediment, and preserve it for use. The article to be cleaned should be laid upon a cloth on a table ; dip a clean sponge into the liquor, and apply it to the article to be cleaned, till the dirt is perfectly separated, then rinse it in clean water several times. Two middle size potatoes will be sufficient for a pint of water. Should there be any grease spots on the articles, they should be previously extracted.

Source: Valuable Receipts, J.M. Prescott

Rose-Water

Preferable to the distilled for a perfume, or for culinary purposes. Attar of rose, twelve drops; rub it up with half an ounce of white sugar and two drachms carbonate magnesia; then add gradually one quart of water and two ounces of proof spirit, and filter through paper.

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

A Remedy For Boils

An excellent remedy for boils is water of a temperature agreeable to the feelings of the patient. Apply wet linen to the part affected and frequently renew or moisten it. It is said to be the most effectual remedy known. Take inwardly some good blood purifier.

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

To Remove Stains from the Hands

Rub with chloride of lime, slightly moistening with water.

Source: The Kansas Home Cook-Book

The Plague Water

Take Rosemary, Red Balm, Burrage, Angelica, Carduus, Celandine, Dragon, Featherfew, Wormwood, Penyroyal, Elecampane roots, Mugwort, Bural, Tormentil, Egrimony, Sage, Sorrel, of each of these one handful, weighed weight for weight; put all these in an earthen Pot, with four quarts of white Wine, cover them close, and let them stand eight or nine days in a cool Cellar, then distil it in a Glass Still.

Source: The Queen-like Closet or Rich Cabinet, Hannah Wolley