stalks divided at the top into branches with numerous long green
leaves; flowers small and yellow. It grows in woods and meadows, and
along the fences; its leaves are gently astringent; the flowers are
beneficial in removing obstructions in the urinary organs, and in
gravelly complaints of the bladder; also, good in cachexies, and in the
first stage of dropsy.
PARSLEY.
Every person is acquainted with this plant, as it is found in all
gardens; it will produce a free discharge of urine; its medical
properties are cooling.
GOLDEN SEAL.
Is tonic, cathartic and nervine; excellent to wash sore eyes.
ICE PLANT.
This root is an excellent remedy for fits in children, and in old times
was called “fits root.”
STONE ROOT.
Grows on the side of hills; the root is knotty and nearly as hard as
a stone; this root is warming, diuretic, aromatic, and good in all
dropsical diseases.
BUCKTHORN.
Is a prickly bush, or low tree, grows in hedges throughout the States.
The bark and berries are cathartic, and if you are in want of a brisk
cathartic take the bark or berries. It would be a good plan to put the
berries into whiskey, and take occasionally one or two tablespoonsful.
WORMWOOD.
This perennial herb grows by the road side, in gardens, and around
old ruins and walls. Its active constituents are a bitter extract and
essential oil; is used in stomach complaints, and is of great service
in hypochondria and melancholy, lowness of spirits, and loss of
appetite; in intermittent fevers, cachectic, and dropsical complaints,
and in jaundice; destroys worms. The essence, taken for a considerable
time, prevents the formation of stone in the kidneys and bladder,--the
patient omitting the use of wine and acids. The gout has been conquered
by the continual use of the decoction of this herb. A teacupfull of the
infusion taken twice a day, by nurses, will make their milk good.
WATER TREFOIL.
This plant is perennial, and grows in marshes, swamps, and wet meadows,
in New Jersey. It flowers in July; the leaves are excessively bitter,
which is extracted by infusion; one ounce of the leaves, dried, are
equal to half a pound of hops, in brewing. A drachm of the powdered
leaves is a purge and a vomit. It has been found beneficial in curing
scorbutic complaints, as well as tertian and quartan fevers, and is
excellent in curing rheumatic affections.
POND LILY.
The white and yellow both have the same properties, and are healing
and cooling. I have found them to relieve all fluxes, inflammations,
outwardly and inwardly. I use the seeds and roots in cases of
consumption. The blows make a good poultice for burns, bruises, or any
kind of sores, as it is very healing.
MADDER.
This is opening and strengthening, and is a sure cure for yellow
jaundice: Take as much madder as you can hold in a tablespoon, twice as
much hoarhound, and snakehead, and half an ounce of mandrake; put this
into three pints of boiling water, keep it warm ten hours, then strain,
and add three tablespoonsful of white ash bark; put all into a bottle
and shake it well; drink half a wine glass full in half a tumbler full
of water.
PRICKLY ASH TEA.
Make this tea by steeping prickly ash bark in hot water; take it three
times a day before eating.
GOOSEBERRY.
The leaves and berry are good in all cases of inflammation, being of a
cooling nature; they were much used in the olden time, for coughs, and
in salves.
TAMARACK.
I use the bark in all my syrups, as it is cleansing and quickens the
circulative action.
HEMLOCK.
This bark is excellent in all colds, to be used as a steam bath.
It will break up a fever, and by taking a teaspoonful of powdered
mandrake root, internally, it will remove the fever, and probably save
fifty dollars doctor’s bill. It is good, internally and externally.
The tincture is very warming, and good to bathe the back and loins,
when weak or painful. Always take few drops on sugar, internally,
before bathing. Remember, never bathe with any tincture without taking
something internally, it may injure you for life.
CHICKWEED.
This will be found good in all poultices for sores.
SPIKENARD.
Every one is well acquainted with this root; it is balsamic and
healing; I generally use it for coughs and general debility.
MALE FERN.
This root is a great vermifuge; I have used it with success for
exterminating the tape worm; and is in no wise dangerous, which cannot
be said of some vermifuges. Always administer a brisk cathartic after
drinking a decoction of this root, once a day for three days; then give
the vermifuge for three days, then a cathartic, and so on for nine
days, and all worms will be expelled, both from the stomach and bowels.
To be taken before eating.
SWEET FERN.
How little is known of this shrub, yet all know it by its beautiful
smell. For any derangement of the womb, there is nothing better: Take
five roots of this shrub and boil in two quarts of water, down to one,
and when cool strain; then add one gill of Holland gin. Take half a
wine glass full in the morning, and a wine glass full at bed time. This
is a good remedy in all weaknesses, especially for children having weak
bones, or are troubled with scrofula, or any tumors; also, for those
who cannot hold their water, or have weak bowels.
BITTER SWEET.
This plant rises eight or ten feet in hight, and entwines around
trees the same as a vine; flowers in loose clusters, always turning
against the sun; the carolla is composed of one petal, wheel shaped,
and divided at the bottom or border into five pointed segments, which
are bent back; purple prominences, like dots, surround the rim of
the carolla, from the nectary; the yellow anther making a beautiful
contrast; the flowers become bright red; berries something similar
to currants, and are of a bitter, sweet taste. This climbing shrub
grows common in low grounds and marshes. The dulcamara is a powerful
and useful medicine; it increases all the secretions and excretions,
excites the heart and arteries, and is also beneficial in all cutaneous
effections, rheumatism, scirrhus swellings, ill-conditioned ulcers,
scrofula, whites, jaundice, and obstructed menses. Cancers of the
breast have been cured by the application of the juice to the cancer,
and the green leaves applied to the breast.
PREPARATION.--Boil half a pound of the bark of the bitter sweet in
eight quarts of spring water to the consumption of one gallon; a gill
to be taken three times a day; it is also good in fevers. The patient
ought to take a dose of sal glauber once a week, while using the
medicine.
COMFREY.
This well known, useful plant, rises about two feet in hight; leaves
very large, similar to water dock; roots long, thick as a man’s thumb,
very mucilaginous, and are black externally and white within; flowers
of a pale blue color. It grows in moist meadows, near springs, and
is planted in gardens for family use. The roots are inspissant and
demulcent, having the same virtues as marsh mallow; they correct salt
sharp serum, heal erasions of the intestines in diarrhœa and dysentery,
and prevent the spitting of blood; bruised and applied to ruptures,
externally, they have proved beneficial.
PREPARATION.--Take four ounces of the fresh roots, or three of dry,
four ounces of burdock root, two of red rose willow bark, one of
parsley, and two of yarrow tops; boil these ingredients in four quarts
of water and one of new milk, to the consumption of two quarts; strain
and sweeten it with loaf sugar. A gill of this decoction, taken
three times a day, will cure the recent clap in a few days, using
the tormentil injection, elsewhere directed. It is also beneficial
in curing the fluor albus, or whites, in weakly females. The roots,
boiled in milk, are good for fluxes, dysentery, and ardor of urine.
Take two ounces of dry comfrey root, bruised, and one ounce of
tormentil root, boil them in three quarts of water down to two; strain
it and add a pint of brandy, with four ounces of powdered loaf sugar
dissolved in it. A gill may be taken by adults, and a tablespoonful by
children, four times a day, in cases of dysentery, diarrhœa, or flux.
FOX GLOVE.
The stalk is erect, tapering, and is four feet in hight; leaves large,
oval, shady, wrinkled and veined, growing on short winged foot-stalks,
downy underneath; the lacteas attendant on the flower stalks are small,
spear shaped and sessile; the flowers, always on one side, are purple,
bell shaped, marked internally with little dark colored spots, placed
in whitish rings, and long hairs defend the entrance of the tube, hence
no insects ever approach this flower. The flower stalks vary in length;
at first they depend like the flowers, afterwards becoming erect, when
they elevate a two-celled capsule, containing many blackish seeds.
This most elegant plant is raised in gardens, and is an exotic plant;
flowers in July, and seeds in September. It would take a small volume
to describe all the virtues which different authors have ascribed
to its various qualities; however, as it is a dangerous medicine in
the hands of the unskilful, I will give a few descriptions of its
qualities, with directions how it may be used with safety in families.
PREPARATION.--Take of the dried bruised leaves of fox glove four
ounces, powder of masterwort root one ounce, leaves of rue and
wormwood, each, two ounces, elecampane and comfrey root bruised, each,
two ounces, lungwort and wild cherry tree bark, each, one ounce; put
all the ingredients into a new gallon earthen pot, and pour one gallon
of boiling rain water on them; cover the pot and set it near the fire,
on hot ashes, for twelve hours; after which strain the liquor through
a linen cloth and add four quarts of honey, and let it stand near the
fire twelve hours longer; then strain the liquor and put it in bottles
for use. In all consumptive and asthmatic complaints, the patient may
take a tablespoonful of this balsam three or four times a day, in a
tea cupful of the following tea: put one ounce of skunk cabbage root
and half an ounce of wild cherry tree bark in a tea pot, and pour
boiling water on it, and use it daily; the dose may be increased from a
tablespoonful to a wine glass full three times a day.
SENNA.
This plant rises from two to four feet in hight, resembling a shrub,
and sending out hollow, woody stems; leaves in alternate order,
compound, composed of several pairs, oval, pointed and nerved pinnæ, of
a yellowish green color; flowers yellow, forming a spike consisting of
five petals; the pod is curved and short. It grows in Canada, along the
Ottawa river, in great quantities. It has been customary to reject the
pedicles of the leaves of senna, but this is mere prejudice, for both
leaves and pedicles act in the same way. The American senna operates
milder than the senna that is imported, but it must be given in a
larger dose.
Pour a pint of boiling water on eight drachms of American senna, and
put a teaspoonful of ginger, or the powder of masterwort root, to
it; let it stand in the pot for fifteen minutes for use; sweetened,
with milk in it, it will prove a mild purge without griping. Children
may take one or two teacupsful twice a day. Adults may take a
desert-spoonful of the powder, with a teaspoonful of ginger, night
and morning. As a safe and gentle purge, the following electuary is
an excellent laxative for loosening the bowels of persons of costive
habits: Take of senna leaves, powdered, six ounces, masterwort or
ginger, one ounce, pulp of French prunes one pound, pulp of tamarinds
two ounces, molasses one pint and a half, essential oil of caraway two
drachms; boil the pulps in the molasses to the consistence of honey,
then add the powders, and when the mixture cools put in the oil, and
mix the whole intimately. Dose, a teaspoonful twice a day.
AVENS.
This plant rises a foot in hight; root fibrous, very pleasant and
aromatic; leaves large and lyre shape; stalks upright and hirsute;
flowers yellow and terminal. It is a perennial plant, and grows wild
in the uncultivated fields of New Jersey and the New England states.
Flowers from June to July; the roots are fibrous, of a dark red color
externally, and white internally; has the flavor of cloves, with a
bitterish, astringent taste. The large roots are preferable to the
fibrous ones, which must be dug up in April, cut into thin slices and
dried in the air as quick as possible. After being pulverized, sift the
powder through a hair sieve and put it in bottles, well corked, for
use. It is a good febrifuge, and is really an excellent substitute for
the Jesuit bark in the cure of intermittent fevers, dysentery, chronic
diarrhœa, wind colic, effections of the stomach, asthmatic symptoms,
and cases of debility.
PREPARATION.--After the patient has taken a puke of the American
ipecacuanha, and the fever is off, a teaspoonful of the powder may be
administered every hour until the fever is broke, then use my stomach
bitters, mentioned in this work, in order to prevent a relapse. Take
of aven root two ounces, arum root half an ounce, (in powder,) skunk
cabbage balls, in powder, half an ounce, gentian and masterwort, each
half an ounce, sugar candy one ounce; mix one tablespoonful of these
powders and boil them in one quart of rain water and one pint of
new milk, for an hour. In all debilitating complaints, or beginning
consumptions, the patient may take two teacupsful of this chocolate
morning and evening, sweetened with loaf sugar, and ride out every day
two hours before dinner.
GARDEN PÆONIE.
This plant rises two feet in hight; leaves cut into lobes which are
oblong, or if pinnated, terminate by an odd pinnæ; capsules, two;
oblong hirsute, and crowned with a stigma. It grows plentifully in
the gardens throughout the United States. The seed is imported from
Switzerland; it is noted for its virtues in the cure of epilepsy, and
fits in children. The root must be dug in March, dried and pulverized,
and kept in bottles, close corked, for use. Adults, subject to
epilepsy, may take a desert-spoonful of the powder four times a day,
in a teacupful of bitter sweet tea, made as follows: Pour a quart of
boiling water on an ounce of the bruised dry bark of bitter sweet,
taken from off the roots, and sweeten the tea with sugar; give to
children, two years old, ten grains of the powder four times a day, in
molasses, and wash it down with the bitter sweet tea. Apply the bruised
roots to the soles of the feet when going to bed.
RECIPES.
FOR SORE THROAT, STOMACH, OR BOWELS.--Take of the inside bark of
slippery elm, dried and powdered fine, one teaspoonful, and same
quantity of brown sugar; pour in a little cold water and stir till
mixed; then add a little warm water. Take a teaspoonful once an hour.
For a poultice, it may be mixed with powdered crackers, or ginger,
equal quantities of each, which is excellent for burns, scalds, &c. It
will also remove inflammation, or pain in the eyes.
BUTTERNUT FOR BLISTERS.--Take the green shell of the nut, or the bark
of the root, powdered; keep it moist while applying it. It is much
better than Spanish flies.
FOR PHTHISIC.--Steep the leaves of white cedar; drink a gill three
times a day.
FOR LOCKJAW.--Soak the part affected in ley.
FOR WORMS.--Steep sweet flag and wild turnip together. Take wild aloe
leaves, (Indian hemp,) powder them and sweeten with molasses; tea good
for children.
Make a syrup of equal quantities of the twigs and buds of balm of
gilead, the same of white ash, and molasses; boil them together, and
add a little spirits; it may also be made into pills.
A GOOD SALVE.--Steep princes pine till the strength is out; add fresh
butter or mutton tallow; simmer till the water evaporates.
COMPOSITION.--Take 1 lb. bayberry root, ½ lb. inner bark of hemlock,
½ lb. ginger, 2 oz. cayenne pepper, 2 oz. cloves; mix, pound fine and
sift.
AN EMETIC.--Take butternut bark, from the body and roots: boil till
the strength is out; then strain and boil down sufficient to make into
pills. They operate as an emetic, or cathartic.
Nervine is also good for a puke; with, or without boneset, it is an
excellent remedy for a fever, in the first stages.
NERVE OINTMENT.--Take of bitter sweet bark two parts, of wormwood and
camomile equal parts; moisten with warm water, and add some animal oil;
simmer over a slow fire ten hours; then strain and add 1 oz. spirits
turpentine to each pound of ointment; to be used for bruises, sprains,
callouses, corns or swellings.
GOOD SALVE.--Take 1 lb. beeswax, 1 lb. salt butter, 12 oz. balsam fir;
simmer together and strain; this is excellent for burns and scalds,
after the inflammation is out.
INJECTION.--Burdock seeds soaked in water.
DYSENTERY.--Take rhubarb and nutmeg, on going to bed.
Strawberry leaves and roots are good in cases of dysentery, inward
inflammation, or for derangement in monthly courses. A syrup made of
the berries, is good for jaundice; a decoction from the leaves and
roots, will cure sores, inflamed eyes, and humors in the skin.
EYE WASH.--Take one pint of ripe strawberries and put them into a quart
bottle with half a pint of good rum, fill it up with rain water; then
place it in a bed of horse-dung for one week. This will make a good
wash for inflamed eyes.
MALLOWS.--An excellent remedy for phthisic, and for effections of the
chest. Also good as a syrup, when ladies expect to be confined; if
costive, they will be much benefited by a frequent use of the tea. The
juice, mixed with boiled oil, is good for all tumors, scurf, dandruff,
sores on the head, scalds, burns, St. Anthony’s fire, and all feverish
and painful swellings. The blows, boiled in water, adding a little alum
and honey, will cleanse and heal sore mouth or throat. A tea, made of
this, is good for hoarseness, coughs, shortness of breath, gravel and
dysentery.
CONSUMPTIVE COUGH MIXTURE.--Take one tablespoonful of good tar, three
ditto of honey, three yolks of eggs, half a pint of good wine; beat
the tar, eggs, and honey well together, then add the wine; dose,
a teaspoonful three times a day. Make a tea of barley, and drink
frequently.
GRAVEL.--Heart’s Ease is good.
WORMS.--A decoction made from witch hazel, or spotted alder bark,
scraped off downward, is a good remedy.
Take sage, pounded fine, put in milk, sweetened with molasses, to which
add a little alum, is good to turn worms.
RHEUMATISM.--Princes pine, horse-radish, elecampane, wild cherry,
mustard seed, a small handful of each; one gill of tar, one pint
of brandy; let it stand three days, shaking it often. Dose, two
tablespoonsful three times a day.
HECTIC COUGH.--Take one pint of barley, one pound of turnips, four
ounces of elecampane, three quarts of water; boil to one pint, and then
add one pound of honey or loaf sugar, and half a pint of brandy; dose,
one tablespoonful three times a day.
CANADA THISTLE--Blows or roots, are good for dysentery and piles.
SICK OR NERVOUS HEADACHE.--Take half a pint of white pine bark, half a
pint of hemlock bark, one gill of sassafras bark, taken from the root,
one gill black cherry bark; dry these and pulverize them to a powder;
put them into two quarts of good brandy, and take a tablespoonful three
times a day, thirty minutes before eating.
MOTHERWORT--Is good in all female complaints, trembling at the heart; a
few of the leaves, powdered, and a small tablespoonful taken in wine,
helps women in travail, and prevents suffocation; it is also good for
cramps when females have taken cold.
THOROUGHWORT.--The leaves of this plant, steeped in rum, is a good
remedy for all kinds of bruises; the expressed juice of the leaves,
with butternut oil, makes a useful pill; the blows, steeped with leaves
of the nervine, make a good vomit.
NETTLES--Made into syrup, is good when sweetened with honey, to free
the passages of the lungs, which is the cause of phthisic, and is also
good for swelling of the almond of the throat; cleanses and helps the
palate, heals inflammation, soreness of the mouth and throat; steeped
in wine, it will assist those about to be confined, and help prevent
all diseases arising therefrom. In severe colds, grind the tops and
roots together, and mix with gum mastic, to be applied outwardly. The
seed is good for worms; a strong tea made of it, and taken frequently,
is good for the gravel; as a wash it is excellent for wounds, bruises,
burns, and will relieve the skin from leprosy. The seeds and leaves,
pulverized, and rubbed into the nose, will cure the polypus. An
ointment made of the juice, neatsfoot oil, or hen’s oil, and beeswax,
is good to rub cold and benumbed limbs. Take a handful of the leaves,
and the same of walnut leaves, pound to a pulp, and apply as a poultice
in rheumatic effections. The mashed leaves are good to stop flooding.
GROUND MOSS--Is a first rate cure for gravel, as it dissolves and
carries it away with the urine. It grows in shady places, at the bottom
of hollows. Boiled in water, it is good in inflammations, and cures the
gout and rheumatism.
Tree mosses are cooling and binding, partaking of a mollifying quality.
Each moss partakes of the nature of the tree on which it grows: that
which grows on the oak is the most binding, and is good for fluxes,
puking, and bleeding; powder them, and, taken in wine, good in profuse
flowing. As a tea, good for dropsy; steeped in vinegar, good for
headache caused by heat; used in ointment, good for shrunk sinews.
Moss, taken from the maple tree, is good, sweetened with honey, for a
bad cough, and for consumptive persons.
FOR A RELAX.--Take equal parts of beeswax and mutton tallow, mix and
simmer in molasses; give a tablespoonful warm to a grown person,
reducing the dose for children.
RHEUMATIC OINTMENT.--Stramonium leaves, or juice, and poke root; add
hogs’ fat and tallow.
A POULTICE FOR RHEUMATISM.--Elecampane roots and burdock roots and
leaves, put on hot, will cure rheumatic affections in a few days.
Inwardly, use a tea made of smartweed, adding a very little black
cohosh. Great care must be taken in using black cohosh, as an overdose
is very dangerous. Those unacquainted with its properties should use
the smartweed alone.
Poke root and spikenard make a good poultice; must be put on hot and
often.
BALSAM OF LIFE.--Gum benzoin, 4 oz.; gum storax, 3 oz.; socatrine aloes
and gum myrrh, each, 1½ oz.; angelica root and johnwort tops, each, 2
oz.; pound all together; put them into three pints of rectified spirits
of wine, and let it stand four weeks; keep warm, shaking it every day,
strain and it is fit for use; thirteen or fourteen drops to be taken
in a spoonful of wine. This balsam is good for all in consumptive
complaints, weakness, whooping cough, pain in the side; to be taken
morning and evening.
SALT RHEUM.--One pint yellow dock root, boil till the strength is out,
strain and add one pint spirits turpentine, one pound fresh butter,
four ounces burgundy pitch, two ounces mutton tallow, two ounces
beeswax, for summer use, (for winter, use only half the quantity of
mutton tallow and beeswax.) Simmer together three hours, stirring it
all the time; do not let it burn.
RHEUMATIC PLASTER.--White beech bark and hemlock bark, each, one
bushel, tamarack bark half a bushel; cut these fine and boil till
the strength is out, then strain; to this add one gill white pine
turpentine, and boil down till thick enough for a plaster, and apply.
SPRAINS AND BRUISES.--Use beefs’ brine and roman wormwood; boil half an
hour; when cool bathe the parts affected.
TOOTHACHE DROPS.--One ounce sweet spirits nitre, one ounce alum,
together; wet with lint or cotton and put into the tooth.
SUPPRESSION OF MENSES.--Gum myrrh, sulphur, steel filings, loaf sugar,
each, four ounces; pulverize and simmer in a quart of wine, and when
dry make into pills, or take half a teaspoonful of the powder three
times a day.
DROPSY.--Take Canada thistle root, stone root, dwarf alder, mountain
lettuce, tops and roots queen of the meadow, trumpet weed, equal parts
of each; boil in two quarts of water down to one; after it is strained
add half a pint of juniper berries, and one pint of Holland gin.
DIABETES.--Take of beth root, black cohosh, cranesbill, equal parts,
and pulverize; to a tablespoonful of the powder add a pint of the
boiling water, and drink in the course of the day.
Take spikenard and Solomon’s seal, equal parts, bruised; to an ounce
add one quart of wine; a wine glass full to be taken three times a day,
and eight grains of diaphoretic powder at bed time.