Cotton wool, wet with sweet oil and paregoric, relieves the ear-ache
very soon.
A good quantity of old cheese is the best thing to eat, when
distressed by eating too much fruit, or oppressed with any kind of
food. Physicians have given it in cases of extreme danger.
Honey and milk is very good for worms; so is strong salt water;
likewise powdered sage and molasses taken freely.
For a sudden attack of quincy or croup, bathe the neck with bear's
grease, and pour it down the throat. A linen rag soaked in sweet oil,
butter, or lard, and sprinkled with yellow Scotch snuff, is said to
have performed wonderful cures in cases of croup: it should be placed
where the distress is greatest. Goose-grease, or any kind of oily
grease, is as good as bear's oil.
Equal parts of camphor, spirits of wine, and hartshorn, well mixed,
and rubbed upon the throat, is said to be good for the croup.
Cotton wool and oil are the best things for a burn. A poultice
of wheat bran, or rye bran, and vinegar, very soon takes down the
inflammation occasioned by a sprain. Brown paper, wet, is healing to a
bruise. Dipped in molasses, it is said to take down inflammation.
In case of any scratch, or wound, from which the lockjaw is
apprehended, bathe the injured part freely with lye or pearl-ash and
water.
A rind of pork bound upon a wound occasioned by a needle, pin, or
nail, prevents the lock-jaw. It should be always applied. Spirits of
turpentine is good to prevent the lock-jaw. Strong soft-soap, mixed
with pulverized chalk, about as thick as batter, put, in a thin cloth
or bag, upon the wound, is said to be a preventive to this dangerous
disorder. The chalk should be kept moist, till the wound begins to
discharge itself; when the patient will find relief.
If you happen to cut yourself slightly while cooking, bind on some
fine salt: molasses is likewise good.
Flour boiled thoroughly in milk, so as to make quite a thick porridge,
is good in cases of dysentery. A tablespoonful of W.I. rum, a
table-spoonful of sugar-baker's molasses, and the same quantity of
sweet oil, well simmered together, is likewise good for this disorder;
the oil softens the harshness of the other ingredients.
Black or green tea, steeped in boiling milk, seasoned with nutmeg,
and best of loaf sugar, is excellent for the dysentery. Cork burnt
to charcoal, about as big as a hazel-nut, macerated, and put in a
tea-spoonful of brandy, with a little loaf sugar and nutmeg, is very
efficacious in cases of dysentery and cholera-morbus. If nutmeg
be wanting, peppermint-water may be used. Flannel wet with brandy,
powdered with Cayenne pepper, and laid upon the bowels, affords great
relief in cases of extreme distress.
Dissolve as much table-salt in keen vinegar, as will ferment and work
clear. When the foam is discharged, cork it up in a bottle, and put it
away for use. A large spoonful of this, in a gill of boiling water, is
very efficacious in cases of dysentery and colic.[3]
[Footnote 3: Among the numerous medicines for this disease, perhaps
none, after all, is better, particularly where the bowels are
inflamed, than the old-fashioned one of English-mallows steeped
in milk, and drank freely. Everybody knows, of course, that
English-mallows and marsh-mallows are different herbs.]
Whortleberries, commonly called huckleberries, dried, are a useful
medicine for children. Made into tea, and sweetened with molasses,
they are very beneficial, when the system is in a restricted state,
and the digestive powers out of order.
Blackberries are extremely useful in cases of dysentery. To eat
the berries is very healthy; tea made of the roots and leaves
is beneficial; and a syrup made of the berries is still better.
Blackberries have sometimes effected a cure when physicians despaired.
Loaf sugar and brandy relieves a sore throat; when very bad, it is
good to inhale the steam of scalding hot vinegar through the tube of
a tunnel. This should be tried carefully at first, lest the throat be
scalded. For children, it should be allowed to cool a little.
A stocking bound on warm from the foot, at night, is good for the sore
throat.
An ointment made from the common ground-worms, which boys dig to bait
fishes, rubbed on with the hand, is said to be excellent, when the
sinews are drawn up by any disease or accident.
A gentleman in Missouri advertises that he had an inveterate cancer
upon his nose cured by a strong potash made of the lye of the ashes of
red oak bark, boiled down to the consistence of molasses. The cancer
was covered with this, and, about an hour after, covered with a
plaster of tar. This must be removed in a few days, and, if any
protuberances remain in the wound, apply more potash to them, and the
plaster again, until they entirely disappear: after which heal the
wound with any common soothing salve. I never knew this to be tried.
If a wound bleeds very fast, and there is no physician at hand, cover
it with the scrapings of sole-leather, scraped like coarse lint. This
stops blood very soon. Always have vinegar, camphor, hartshorn, or
something of that kind, in readiness, as the sudden stoppage of blood
almost always makes a person faint.
Balm-of-Gilead buds bottled up in N.E. rum, make the best cure in the
world for fresh cuts and wounds. Every family should have a bottle of
it. The buds should be gathered in a peculiar state; just when they
are well swelled, ready to burst into leaves, and well covered with
gum. They last but two or three days in this state.
Plantain and house-leek, boiled in cream, and strained before it is
put away to cool, makes a very cooling, soothing ointment. Plantain
leaves laid upon a wound are cooling and healing.
Half a spoonful of _citric acid_, (which may always be bought of the
apothecaries,) stirred in half a tumbler of water, is excellent for
the head-ache.
People in general think they must go abroad for vapor-baths; but a
very simple one can be made at home. Place _strong_ sticks across
a tub of water, at the boiling point, and sit upon them, entirely
enveloped in a blanket, feet and all. The steam from the water will
be a vapor-bath. Some people put herbs into the water. Steam-baths are
excellent for severe colds, and for some disorders in the bowels. They
should not be taken without the advice of an experienced nurse, or
physician. Great care should be taken not to renew the cold after; it
would be doubly dangerous.
Boiled potatoes are said to cleanse the hands as well as common soap;
they prevent _chops_ in the winter season, and keep the skin soft and
healthy.
Water-gruel, with three or four onions simmered in it, prepared with
a lump of butter, pepper, and salt, eaten just before one goes to
bed, is said to be a cure for a hoarse cold. A syrup made of
horseradish-root and sugar is excellent for a cold.
Very strong salt and water, when frequently applied, has been known to
cure wens.
The following poultice for the throat distemper, has been much
approved in England:--The pulp of a roasted apple, mixed with an ounce
of tobacco, the whole wet with spirits of wine, or any other high
spirits, spread on a linen rag, and bound upon the throat at any
period of the disorder.
Nothing is so good to take down swellings, as a soft poultice of
stewed white beans, put on in a thin muslin bag, and renewed every
hour or two.
The thin white skin, which comes from suet, is excellent to bind upon
the feet for chilblains. Rubbing with Castile soap, and afterwards
with honey, is likewise highly recommended. But, to cure the
chilblains effectually, they must be attended to often, and for a long
time.
Always apply diluted laudanum to fresh wounds.
A poultice of elder-blow tea and biscuit is good as a preventive to
mortification. The approach of mortification is generally shown by
the formation of blisters filled with _blood_; water blisters are not
alarming.
Burnt alum held in the mouth is good for the canker.
The common dark-blue violet makes a slimy tea, which is excellent for
the canker. Leaves and blossoms are both good. Those who have families
should take some pains to dry these flowers.
When people have a sore mouth, from taking calomel, or any other
cause, tea made of low-blackberry leaves is extremely beneficial.
Tea made of slippery elm is good for the piles, and for humors in the
blood; to be drank plentifully. Winter evergreen[4] is considered good
for all humors, particularly scrofula. Some call it rheumatism-weed;
because a tea made from it is supposed to check that painful disorder.
[Footnote 4: This plant resembles the poisonous kill-lamb, both in the
shape and the glossiness of the leaves: great care should be used to
distinguish them.]
An ointment of lard, sulphur, and cream-of-tartar, simmered together,
is good for the piles.
Elixir proprietatis is a useful family medicine for all cases when the
digestive powers are out of order. One ounce of saffron, one ounce of
myrrh, and one ounce of aloes. Pulverize them; let the myrrh steep
in half a pint of brandy, or N.E. rum, for four days; then add the
saffron and aloes; let it stand in the sunshine, or in some warm
place, for a fortnight; taking care to shake it well twice a day. At
the end of the fortnight, fill up the bottle (a common sized one) with
brandy, or N.E. rum, and let it stand a month. It costs six times as
much to buy it in small quantities, as it does to make it.
The constant use of malt beer, or malt in any way, is said to be a
preservative against fevers.
Black cherry-tree bark, barberry bark, mustard-seed, petty
morrel-root, and horseradish, well steeped in cider, are excellent for
the jaundice.
Cotton wool and oil are the best things for a burn. When children are
burned, it is difficult to make them endure the application of cotton
wool. I have known the inflammation of a very bad burn extracted in
one night, by the constant application of brandy, vinegar, and water,
mixed together. This feels cool and pleasant, and a few drops of
paregoric will soon put the little sufferer to sleep. The bathing
should be continued till the pain is gone.
A few drops of the oil of Cajput on cotton wool is said to be a great
relief to the tooth-ache. It occasions a smart pain for a few seconds,
when laid upon the defective tooth. Any apothecary will furnish it
ready dropped on cotton wool, for a few cents.
A poultice made of ginger or of common chickweed, that grows about
one's door in the country, has given great relief to the tooth-ache,
when applied frequently to the cheek.
A spoonful of ashes stirred in cider is good to prevent sickness
at the stomach. Physicians frequently order it in cases of
cholera-morbus.
When a blister occasioned by a burn breaks, it is said to be a good
plan to put wheat flour upon the naked flesh.
The buds of the elder bush, gathered in early spring, and simmered
with new butter, or sweet lard, make a very healing and cooling
ointment.
Night sweats have been cured, when more powerful remedies had failed,
by fasting morning and night, and drinking cold sage tea constantly
and freely.
Lard, melted and cooled five or six times in succession, by being
poured each time into a fresh pail-full of water, then simmered with
sliced onions, and cooled, is said, by old nurses, to make a salve,
which is almost infallible in curing inflammations produced by taking
cold in wounds.
Vinegar curds, made by pouring vinegar into warm milk, put on warm,
and changed pretty frequently, are likewise excellent to subdue
inflammation.
Chalk wet with hartshorn is a remedy for the sting of bees; so is
likewise table-salt kept moist with water.
Boil castor-oil with an equal quantity of milk, sweeten it with a
little sugar, stir it well, and, when cold, give it to children for
drink. They will never suspect it is medicine; and will even love the
taste of it.
As molasses is often given to children as a gentle physic, it will be
useful to know that West India molasses is a gentle cathartic, while
sugar-baker's molasses is slightly astringent.
If a fellon or run-round appears to be coming on the finger, you can
do nothing better than to soak the finger thoroughly in hot lye. It
will be painful, but it will cure a disorder much more painful.
Whiskey, which has had Spanish-flies in soak, is said to be good for
ring-worms; but I never knew an instance of its being tried. Unless
too strong, or used in great quantities, it cannot, at least, do
any harm. Washing the hands frequently in warm vinegar, is good for
ring-worms.
When the toe nails have a tendency to turn in, so as to be painful,
the nail should always be kept scraped _very thin_, and as near the
flesh as possible. As soon as the corner of the nail can be raised up
out of the flesh, it should be kept from again entering, by putting a
tuft of fine lint under it.
As this book may fall into the hands of those who cannot speedily
obtain a physician, it is worth while to mention what is best to be
done for the bite of a rattlesnake:--Cut the flesh out, around the
bite, _instantly_; that the poison may not have time to circulate
in the blood. If caustic is at hand, put it upon the raw flesh; if
not, the next best thing is to fill the wound with salt--renewing it
occasionally. Take a dose of sweet oil and spirits of turpentine,
to defend the stomach. If the whole limb swell, bathe it in salt and
vinegar freely. It is well to physic the system thoroughly, before
returning to usual diet.