one pint of milk, one gill of olive oil, half a pint of molasses,
one drachm of saleratus, half an ounce of laudanum; administer this
injection blood warm, to foment the parts. Take drinks made from
tanzy, hoarhound, wormwood or hops; they are cooling and demulcent, or
slippery elm, flax seed, and barley water tea, or clear whey.
INCONTINENCE OF URINE.--Hemlock, wild cherry tree bark, bayberry bark,
pulverize, add water sufficient to make a strong tea. Take twenty drops
of balsam copaiva in a tumbler of beth root tea.
Peach leaves are good for bloody urine.
TO STOP VOMITING.--Bicarbonate of potash one drachm, mint water eight
ounces; give a teaspoonful as occasion may require.
INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER.—_Symptoms_: A dull pain in the right side
and top of the shoulder. Tincture of lobelia may be given two or three
times per week.
INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.--To produce perspiration take the
following: One ounce spirits nitre, half an ounce balsam copaiva, one
ounce spirits turpentine, half a drachm each of oil of sweet almonds
and gum camphor; give a teaspoonful three or four times a day.
VOMITING OF BLOOD.--Sugar, alum whey; drink a tea made from beth root,
and black cohosh, and use anti-dyspeptic pills to keep the bowels in
order. Also, the restoration cordial; apply strengthening plaster to
the pit of the stomach.
DROPSY OF THE CHEST.--First, take two drachms of digitalis plant,
divide into twelve powders of ten grains each; after this, add fourteen
tablespoonsful of boiling water; take one tablespoonful every hour, or
two every two hours.
2d. 3 grains mandrake, night and morning.
3d. Bathe the stomach and abdomen night and morning with precipitate
ointment.
4th. Drink an infusion of parsley tea.
Let the diet be light and nutritious.
BLEEDING AT THE NOSE.--Dried beef, pulverized, and snuff up the nose.
CRAMP IN THE STOMACH.--Ten drops oil of hemlock; camphor, peppermint,
laudanum, and apply hops to the stomach.
DROPSY.--Take common whortleberries, dried and bruised, four ounces,
and add a small quantity of boiling water. Likewise, mandrake, cream
tartar, peppermint plant, equal parts; of this powder give a large
teaspoonful every few hours until it operates; drink freely of a
decoction made from spearmint, parsley, elder flowers, dandelion roots
and tops; give capsicum pills.
TO RELIEVE SPASM.--Steep angelica seed; for an injection take of this
infusion one pint, to which add one teaspoonful of salt, one gill of
olive oil, one gill of molasses, and one pint of milk.
ANTI-BILIOUS PILLS.--Equal parts of butternut and white ash extract;
to one pound of this extract add three ounces of aloes, two ounces of
gamboge, two ounces canker violet, three ounces of American ipecac, two
ounces nerve powder, two or three ounces of poplar bark and cloves;
make into pills of ordinary size; dose, from two to five, to be
increased or diminished as the condition of the patient may require.
COMPOUND MANDRAKE POWDERS.--Mandrake, spearmint, and cream tartar,
equal parts; mix them well; dose, a teaspoonful, in tea or syrup.
Useful in diseases of the liver, dyspepsia, obstructed menses, dropsy,
and every taint of the system. Take the above every other morning; gum
pills to be taken at night.
SOUR STOMACH.--Three parts of pulverized beth root and one of pearlash,
mixed and ground well together; take half a teaspoonful in liquor or
cider--cider is the best. Or, steep bitter root and add princes pine,
pulverized.
ACID COUGH DROPS.--One pound sumach berries, four ounces elecampane,
one ounce skunk cabbage, half an ounce blood root, one ounce cayenne,
boil in one gallon of vinegar, and when the strength is out add three
pounds of honey. Use this syrup as the judgment of the patient, or the
occasion, may require. To be taken in asthma, quinsy, whooping cough,
common colds, sore throat, canker in the throat and stomach, catarrh,
and any other difficulty in the head or throat caused by colds.
_Directions._--Take from one teaspoonful to a tablespoonful several
times a day; children, or grown persons, troubled with any kind of a
cough should take it whenever the cough is severe, by day or night.
Children may take half the quantity given to adults. This has cured
when all other remedies have failed.
MEASURES.--Tea-cupful, four fluid ounces, or a gill.
Wine glass, two fluid ounces.
Tablespoonful, half a fluid ounce.
Teaspoonful, one fluid drachm.
VEGETABLE OINTMENT.--To one gallon neatsfoot oil add one pound of
bitter sweet root, (dried and pounded fine,) half a pound of camomile
flowers, pounded fine, half a pound of wormwood, pounded, one ounce of
cayenne pepper, one quart brandy; add two ounces spirits turpentine to
each pound. To be used outwardly for callouses, swellings, bruises,
tightness of the sinews, stiffness of joints, &c.
VEGETABLE COUGH POWDERS.--Hoarhound, pulverized, four ounces; lobelia,
one ounce; fire herb, one ounce; cayenne, two ounces; elecampane, two
ounces; skunk cabbage and ladies’ slipper, one ounce; thoroughwort,
pulverized, one ounce; mix in molasses. Take a teaspoonful morning,
noon and at bed time, or at any time the cough is troublesome.
INFLAMMATIONS, FELLONS AND FEVER SORES.--Take of catnip, hearts of
mullens, wormwood, mayweed and double tanzy, each two double-handsful;
boil them in six quarts of water with one pint of soft soap, till the
strength is out, then steam the parts affected, and cover close with
a blanket for fifteen or twenty minutes. Immediately afterwards bathe
the parts with the following: half a gill of spirits, half an ounce of
gum camphor, a tablespoonful of laudanum, the marrow of three hogs’
jaws, simmer together; rub the swelling downward, and apply a poultice,
for which take of dandelion roots, hearts of mullens, catnip, each
one handful, boil in milk and thicken with flour; after the swelling
breaks, apply a salve made of one handful English clover, a lump of
rosin as big as a walnut, half a pound sheeps’ tallow, one handful
bitter sweet berries, stewed over a slow fire; apply the salve two
days. To cleanse the sore of proud flesh, use a salve made of equal
parts of charcoal, loaf sugar, and red precipitate, pulverized.
EXTREME CASES OF RELAX.--Beeswax, mutton tallow and molasses, equal
parts of each; melt these together, and while warm give a child a
teaspoonful three times a day, a grown person a tablespoonful.
GOUT.--One quart beefs’ gall, one gallon gin, one gallon molasses; take
a wine glass full in the morning, half an hour before eating, and the
same at bed time.
ANTI-EMETIC DROPS.--Take a cup of cider vinegar and add a teaspoonful
each of fine salt and cayenne pepper, put them into a bottle and shake
well. Take from a half to a whole teaspoonful of the mixture and put it
into a cup full of cold water; take a tablespoonful until the vomiting
ceases. This has cured in all cases. I have known this to stop vomiting
when four of the most skilful physicians had failed. This should be
kept in every body’s house; it is a good wash for poison, the bite of
bees, and is good to bathe all pains.
FAMILY VEGETABLE PILLS.--One pound fine poplar bark, one pound sweet
bugle, one pound thoroughwort, eight ounces wormwood, boil them as
thick as molasses, and add two ounces cayenne pepper, two ounces golden
seal, two ounces bitter root, two ounces extract butternut, one ounce
lobelia, two ounces aloes; you may have all these made into a fine
powder and mix with molasses. Take three to seven every night on going
to bed. They are good to remove costiveness, headache, pains in the
stomach and bowels, to help the digestion, and to remove wind from the
stomach and bowels. Children may take half the quantity.
SCIATICA, OR HIP JOINT GOUT.--Take one pint linseed oil, half pound
red lead, four ounces white lead, put these into an earthen vessel,
and simmer over a slow fire, stirring it constantly. Apply this to the
joints, and in case of toothache apply a little in the joints of the
jaw and under the ear.
FAMILY PHYSIC.--Take mandrake root and butternut bark, each half a
pound, boil them in half gallon water to one pint, to which add one
pint old Jamaica rum, and one pint molasses; one tablespoonful to a
grown person, and a teaspoonful for a child.
MOTHER’S RELIEF.--Take two pounds of partridge berry vine, half pound
high cranberry or cramp bark, half an ounce unicorn root, quarter of
a pound of blue cohosh or pappoose root, one pound each of flax seed
and red raspberry leaves; let as many as possible of these articles be
green, and all well pulverized; boil them in three gallons of water two
hours, and then strain off and continue to simmer till reduced to a
gallon and a half, then add four pounds of loaf sugar and half a gallon
of good Holland gin.
_Directions._--Take half a wine glass of this three times a day, for
several weeks before confinement. It will invigorate the constitution,
the mother will pass the time with little danger, and will be less
liable to take cold _after_ confinement. This medicine should be taken
by every mother. Use, also, occasionally, a drink made from a handfull
of slippery elm, boiled in a quart of water.
COUGH POWDER.--Take elecampane, licorice root and seneca, half ounce
of each; powder them fine and mix them with a pound of honey; Dose, a
teaspoonful three times a day. Life root tea, or crosswort, princes
pine, or life-everlasting, to be continued, is best. Life root, if
given too freely, will debilitate so rapidly as to lay dormant all the
functions of life; use it with caution where the patient is feeble.
Nourish your patients with whatever they require or fancy; oat meal is
healing and salutary.
MEDICAL COFFEE--Is good in cancerous or scrofulous habits, or where
mercury has been improperly used. Take avens root, sweet cicely, and
spikenard, four teaspoonsful twice a day, boiled in coffee water, or
wine, with milk and sugar to suit the palate.
DROPSY ON THE BRAIN.--Take physic, first, of vegetable pills, and then
apply deadly nightshade, pounded fine or soft, to the top of the head;
this removes the pain and soreness. Take life root tea, express the
juice of Irish daisy, (cultivated in flower pots in most gardens,)
let the patient lay with his head very low, and pour a spoonful of
this juice in the nostril every morning. Bayberry bark snuff, taken at
night, operates ten or twelve hours after. I have known the juice of
dwarf alder answer the same purpose.
INSANITY, OR MELANCHOLY.--Deadly nightshade, as above.
SALT RHEUM AND SCALD HEAD.--Take two tablespoonsful of powdered culver
root, one tablespoonful of sulphur, and the same of ginger; mix them
well together. To an infant, one year old, give a teaspoonful in
molasses, or in any other suitable way, four days successively, then
omit giving the medicine for two days; continue thus until all is
taken. Make an ointment of rosin and hogs’ lard. After the physic has
been administered four days, apply the ointment, washing the parts with
castile soap suds daily. Make a syrup of hyssop and let the patient
take freely while using the above.
_Remarks._--In all cases of putrefaction, or danger of the same, give
strong spikenard tea sweetened with honey, add a little brandy and
apply the same externally; sarsaparilla with it, is cooling. Wash the
body with hot vinegar and water; make a decoction of black snake root
and sage, and give a teaspoonful once in ten minutes until the effect
is answered. To promote perspiration in fevers, epidemics, &c., bathe
the feet in weak lye.
ANTI-BILIOUS PHYSIC.--Bitter sweet, tied around the neck.
DROPSY.--Take eight ounces dwarf alder bark, boil it in a gallon of
water to two quarts, add half a pint of gin and sweeten with honey or
molasses. Dose, a gill three times a day.
Another, take three handsfull of water cresses, four of white onions,
boil them in three pints of water; then strain and add honey and gin.
Dose, a wine glass full three times a day.
DIGESTIVE MEDICINE.--Take tartar emetic, blood root and lobelia, six
grains each, salt petre, fifty grains. It is highly diuretic, and
adapted to all cases of gravel, &c. In back and liver complaints, give
a mild cathartic, or salts, twice a week.
ANTI-SCORBUTIC BITTERS--To purify the blood, which strengthens the
nervous system, creates an appetite, and guards the stomach against
infectious diseases.
_Preparation_: Take one ounce of the bark of the roots of white wood,
one ounce of butterfly root (white root), two ounces of black Indian
hemp, two ounces of angelica root or seeds, four ounces black snake
root, four ounces tamarack bark; add prickley ash bark in cold cases.
Powder them and mix well.
_Directions._--Infuse one tablespoonful in pint of spirits three days,
then strain it, and take from one to three teaspoonsful in a glass of
wine half an hour before dinner.
FOR THE ASTHMA.--Use the lobelia as above directed three days; then
boil goose grease and honey equal parts, one pint; add a tablespoonful
of the lobelia and white root powder, and a tablespoonful of wild
turnip powder; strain after being sufficiently boiled. Dose, a
teaspoonful three times a day, or offener, for three days. Dip a piece
of flannel in hot goose grease and apply it to the lungs or throat,
where the greatest stricture is, for two nights, or more if necessary;
after using the honey and grease two days, take a teaspoonful of the
digestive medicine in two tablespoonsful of water, half at a time, to
loosen the mucous. Next morning take a portion of anti-bilious physic;
continue the other medicines, and take a portion of primhedge once a
week till cured. Tobacco is accounted hurtful for asthmatic people; the
smoking of juniper berries, or stramonium seeds, is recommended, and
taking bay berry root, or catarrh snuff.
Digestive medicine is prepared thus: Take as much tartar emetic as will
lay on the handle of a teaspoon, twice that of blood root, the same
of lobelia, and one teaspoonful of saltpeter, to one pint of water;
this corrects the stomach in every case of oppression, and promotes
expectoration and respiration; promotes rest and breaks up fevers.
Dose--a teaspoonful in a wine glass of water; take a tablespoonful
every three hours until relieved.
_Remarks._--For putrid or common sore throat, and quinsy. Make a gargle
thus: take sumach berries when sour, black snake root, and sage, equal
parts; boil strong to a pint; add two teaspoonsful of saltpeter, and
sweeten with honey or molasses; gargle often, and swallow a spoonful
at a time. If the throat or tongue swells, boil nanny bark in a
little water, and bind it hot around the throat once an hour, chewing
the same. Bittersweet ointment will allay all heat and swelling.
Anti-bilious physic--first in all fevers; primhedge, to restore
strength to the patient and regulate the bowels.
OINTMENT FOR SORES, BOILS, &c.--Use the parsley ointment.
WEAK EYES.--One stalk and three buds lobelia, in spring water; use
twice a day.
SWELLED RED EYES.--Sweet cicely and red rose leaves; simmer slowly, and
laid on the eyes, will restore the sight, and remove all swelling and
inflammation, if by poisonous bite of spiders, &c.
FOR WITLOWS, FELONS, BOILS, SWELLED HANDS, &c.--Make a thin Indian meal
poultice, bind in it equal parts of catnip and mullen leaves; boil
soft, and apply it warm.
ANTI-BILIOUS PHYSIC.--A sovereign remedy for all bilious, autumnal,
putrid, spotted, and yellow fevers, agues, and diseases in children,
sore throat, and consumptive cases. It acts in bilious cases as a
vomit, then as a cathartic; promotes prespiration and rest. One dose is
sufficient in any case. For gravel and dysentery it is invaluable.
_Preparation._--Take eight ounces of powdered jalap, two ounces
coriander seed, two ounces of blood root, one ounce of cassia, three
ounces mandrake root, three ounces culver root, and one grated nutmeg;
infuse the whole in one gallon of old brandy for twelve days, shaking
it every day, and filter for use.
_Directions._--Dose--for an adult, one ounce, or a common wine glass
full, upon an empty stomach; if it does not operate as a vomit in ten
minutes, take half a glass full more of the physic; if a vomit is
necessary, drink plenty of warm tea and thin water gruel every hour, to
aid the operation. For an infant two months old, two teaspoonsful; give
it the breast, or warm tea. In any inflammable complaint, a glass of
lemon or lime punch, will check the operation, if too long continued.
Guard against taking cold. If pains in the head accompany the disease,
bathe the feet in warm water, and wash the body in warm vinegar and
water, in all cases of putrid and yellow fevers.
TO PRESERVE FRUIT.--All kinds of fruit which you wish to keep
fresh--such as grapes, peaches, pears, quinces, &c., should be gathered
carefully, and the stems broke off at full length; then have a vessel
of sealing wax, and dip the end of the stem which you broke off from
the tree or vine into it, and lay them carefully in a cool, dry place,
and they will keep for months, and not wither.
TO MAKE ESSENCES.--All kinds of essences in general use, can be made by
putting one ounce of the essential oil in one pint of alcohol; half an
ounce of the oil of cinnamon, cloves and tanzy, is sufficient, to three
half pints of alcohol; you can reduce the others after the oil is cut
or dissolved, by putting in whiskey, which is preferable to alcohol.
POLYPUS, OR FUNGUS OF THE GUM.--This disease is essentially hypertrophy
of the gum, arising from mechanical irritation. If a tooth decay on one
side, below the level of the gum, leaving a sharp margin in contact
with the gum, a tumor frequently forms from it, spreads into, and
partially fills up the hole of the tooth, or the vacancy between the
two decaying teeth; the tumor is usually composed of dense fibrous
tissue, covered with epithelium, and is almost insensible unless
ulcerated, when it becomes very painful. If the tumor be removed, it
will grow again and again, unless the tooth be extracted, when it will
suddenly disappear. The tumors show, on dissection, an undulating
surface of fibro-cellular tissue, covered by a thick layer of
epithelium.
The best application for this troublesome state of the gum is sulphate
of copper, applied every day or two.
SORE, OR RED EYES.--Soft maple bark.
ANTI-BILLIOUS FEMALE PILLS.--Take two ounces mandrake root, two ounces
gamboge, two ounces blood root, two ounces lobelia, pulverized fine;
mix and moisten with molasses, and make into pills of common size;
take from two to three pills every night. They are good for a relax,
dysentery, rheumatism, jaundice, or female obstruction.
RHEUMATIC POWDER.--One ounce Virginia snake root, two ounces white pine
bark, two ounces prickly ash, pulverized together, put into two quarts
of water, and boil to three pints. Dose, one gill three times a day.
FOR DYSENTERY.--A strong tea made of black cherry bark and rhubarb,
sweeten with loaf sugar, and add a little brandy. A grown person
should take a tablespoonful every fifteen minutes; younger persons in
proportion to age.
HEALING SALVE.--Take one pound each of rosin and beeswax, two ounces
mutton tallow, one ounce gum camphor, one ounce tincture myrrh;
melt the rosin, beeswax and tallow together, then add the camphor,
previously finely pulverized; strain, return it clear into the kettle,
and when it is again well mixed add the tincture of myrrh, and stir
them well together; then turn it into cold water, and work it like wax.
This is likewise a good strengthening plaster, and one of the best
healing salves in use.
RELAX IN CHILDREN.--Take wine vinegar and hens’ eggs, equal parts, and
beat them well together; mix in wheat flour stiff as common dough; bake
this moderately. Give one teaspoonful of the powder three times a day.
Mix with the above powder a little powder of hens’ gizzards, the skin
of the gizzard only.
TAR WATER.--One gallon of water, one quart of good tar; shake well
for ten minutes, and let it stand four days, then bottle it up; for
pleurisy, palsy, scrofula and salt rheum, drink warm every three hours.
In fact, it is good for consumptive and debilitated females.
CLEANSING AND STRENGTHENING SYRUP.--Take equal parts of spikenard,
spruce, sage, sarsaparilla, tamarac, garden rhubarb, elder roots, the
bark of burdock roots, aven roots, wintergreen (such as bears the
small red berry and grows low), water cresses, white Solomon’s seed,
Johnwort, sweet egrimony, princes feather, swamp brake or plenty root,
one pound of raisins, two ounces saffron; put all into an earthen
pot, adding four quarts of water, and cover close; let them stand six
hours to soak, then add three quarts of water; boil all together, and
keep hot nine hours, then strain and add one pound of loaf sugar; boil
six minutes, let it cool and then add half a pint of the best brandy.
Take a wine glass full morning, noon and at bed time; take it one hour
before eating. At the same time drink a tea made from white maple bark,
(some call it whistle-wood); drink freely.
INDIAN BEER.--Take five quarts of spring water, one quart of wheat
bran, half pint of good tar, half pint of honey; simmer these three
hours over a slow fire, in an earthen pot, and when cool add half pint
of emptyings; when worked, drink a wine glass full three times a day,
or less, as the patient can bear.
EYE WATER.--Take three pints of rain water, to this add one
tablespoonful of fine salt; boil lightly three minutes, and put it into
bottles without straining; let it stand, and put into the eyes night
and morning.
FOR THE DROPSY.--Make a tea of poke root, sliced fine, one ounce and a
half; put this into one pint of white wine, add two tablespoonsful of
ground mustard seed, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Drink a wine
glass full every morning.
Another: Take half an ounce of Indian hemp, and add one quart of
boiling water; simmer down to one pint, and add two ounces of cream
tartar, half an ounce of ginger, one tablespoonful of brown sugar. Give
the patient one tablespoonful every three hours, and increase if the
patient can bear it. Use it moderately as it is powerful.
COMPOSITION.--Take two pounds bayberry bark, one pound ginger, one
pound pulverized hemlock bark, one ounce cayenne pepper, one ounce
cloves, all pulverized; mix thoroughly and sift. It is particularly
useful as a convenient family medicine in sudden colds, febrile
attacks, hoarseness, sore throat, coughs, influenza, toothache, pain
in the stomach, bowels, or other parts of the body, rheumatism, cold
hands and feet, diarrhœa, dysentery, colic, croup, giddiness, hysteria,
mumps, jaundice, worms, nervous disorders, and the various affections
of the skin.
_Directions._--For a grown persen half a teaspoonful of the powder
and add a little loaf sugar, rub them together and add half a pint of
boiling water; drink the tea as hot as you can bear it. There is no
occasion for swallowing the grounds, as is a common practice, for the
strength of the medicine will be extracted by the boiling water, and
the sediment can have no other effect than to clog and irritate the
stomach. When the tea is taken the patient should be in bed with a warm
brick at their feet, or sitting by a fire wrapped in a blanket, to
create perspiration.
FOR A SCALD HEAD.--Take of hops and wood soot, four ounces each, and
three pints of water; boil down to half a pint, then strain and add
four ounces fresh butter; let it simmer till the water is out; use
every day. Or, beef’s gall, dried to the consistence of a salve, spread
on linen, and let it remain for five days; then make use of the soot
ointment.
FOR DEAFNESS.--Take a turnip, wrapped in brown paper, and put it in a
bed of hot ashes; when cooked take it out and squeeze out the juice,
and put it in bottles. Use by putting three drops on a piece of cotton
every other day.
CURE FOR SORE NIPPLES.--Take a large flat turnip, scrape out the heart
of it and put into the hollow half an ounce of beeswax, a gill of train
oil, and a gill of honey; set it on hot ashes for an hour, when you
must pound the turnip and contents until the juice is out. Apply this
to the nipples four times a day, which will surely cure.