[N] These remedies are all very simple; but the author _knows_ them to
have been efficacious whenever tried.
FOR CHILBLAINS.--Dip the feet every night and morning in cold water,
withdrawing them in a minute or two, and drying them by rubbing them
very hard with a coarse towel. To put them immediately into a pail of
brine brought from a pickle tub is another excellent remedy when feet
are found to be frosted.
FOR CORNS.--Mix together a little Indian meal and cold water, till it
is about the consistence of thick mush. Then bind it on the corn by
wrapping a small slip of thin rag round the toe. It will not prevent
you from wearing your shoe and stocking. In two or three hours take it
off, and you will find the corn much softened. Cut off as much of it
as is soft with a penknife or scissors. Then put on a fresh poultice,
and repeat it till the corn is entirely levelled, as it will be after a
few regular applications of the remedy; which will be found successful
whenever the corn returns. There is no permanent cure for them.
WARTS.--To remove the hard callous horny warts which sometimes appear
on the hands of children, touch the wart carefully with a new pen
dipped slightly in aqua-fortis. It will give no pain; and after
repeating it a few times, the wart will be found so loose as to come
off by rubbing it with the finger.
RING-WORMS.--Rub mercurial ointment on the ring-worm previous to going
to bed, and do not wash it off till morning. It will effect a cure if
persevered in; sometimes in less than a week.
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.
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.
ANTIDOTE FOR LAUDANUM.--When so large a quantity of laudanum has been
swallowed as to produce dangerous effects, the fatal drowsiness has
been prevented when all other remedies have failed, by administering
a cup of the strongest possible coffee. The patient has revived and
recovered, and no ill effects have followed.
GREEN OINTMENT.--Take two or three large handfuls of the fresh-gathered
leaves of the Jamestown weed, (called Apple Peru in New England,) and
pound it in a mortar till you have extracted the juice. Then put the
juice into a tin sauce-pan, mixed with sufficient lard to make a thick
salve. Stew them together half an hour, and then put the mixture into
gallipots and cover it closely. It is excellent to rub on chilblains,
and other inflammatory external swellings, applying it several times a
day.
TO STOP BLOOD.--For a prick with a pin, or a slight cut, nothing will
more effectually stop the bleeding than old cobwebs compressed into a
lump and applied to the wound, or bound on it with a rag. A scrap of
cotton wadding is also good for stopping blood. Or wet the place with
laudanum. After the blood is stopped, cover the cut with a bit of white
or pink court-plaster. The copperas dye in _black_ court-plaster will
sometimes produce inflammation.