The American Frugal Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about The American Frugal Housewife.

The American Frugal Housewife eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 162 pages of information about The American Frugal Housewife.

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SIMPLE REMEDIES.

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]

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The American Frugal Housewife from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.