I run across a lot of these sort of lists for remedies but there are many on this particular list I had actually never run across before. It was quite an interesting list to read. It’s taken from the The Lady’s Annual Register and Housewife’s Memorandum Book of 1838.
- Mustard mixed in the usual way, and taken into the stomach, is the speediest emetic; and is of singular use in ejecting poisonous substances from the stomach, if resorted to immediately. So simple a remedy ought to be known by every one.
- Cotton wet with sweet oil and paragoric, relieves the earache very soon. The negroes, at the south, consider a cockroach, cut in two and applied to the ear, the most certain cure for the earache.
- 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.
- Cotton 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.
- A rind of pork bound upon a wound occasioned by a needle, pin, or nail, prevents the lock-jaw. It should be always applied.
- If you happen to cut yourself slightly while cooking, bind on some fine salt. Molasses is likewise good.
- Black or green tea, steeped in boiling milk, is excellent for the dysentery.
- Cork, burnt to charcoal, about as big as a hazle-nut, macerated, and put in a teaspoonful of brandy, with a little loaf-sugar and nutmeg, is very efficacious in cases of dysentery and cholera-morbus. If nutmeg be wanting, peppermint may be used.
- Flannel, wet with brandy, powdered with cayenne pepper, and laid upon the bowels, affords great relief in cases of extreme distress.
- 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.
- In case of any scratch or wound, from which the lockjaw is apprehended, bathe the injured part freely with lye, or pearlash and water.
- Loaf-sugar and brandy relieve a sore throat; when very bad, it is good to inhale the steam of scalding hot vinegar through the tube of a tunnel.
- 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.