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This was posted recently on Miss Mary's Gazette, and for those who don't get it, I thought I would pass this on. It is from a book that is called: Inquire Within
Receipts & Remedies
Properties and Uses of Vegetables from Inquire Within, 1858. Note: Neeless to say, these remedies are quite old and may not be safe. They are provided here for their historic value only.
Catnip is a warm herb, of a diaphoric or sweating nature.
Pennyroyal is much the same, only more powerful. It retains a very powerful pungent oil.
Spearmint is pungent and hot but of an astringent nature.
Calamint is much the same but not so strong.
Hoarhound is very strenthening to the lungs, and is somewhat of a pectoral. It is excellent in a cough, or stoppage in the stomach.
Everlasting, or Indian Posy, is a very balsamic herb--healing and cooling, and excellent in salves or ointments.
Johnswort is much the same.
Pea Balm is a cooling and sweating herb, and is good in fevers and inflammations.
Chamomile is a great restorative to the lungs, and promotes perspiration. It is goodin salves and ointments to take away sweelings.
Mayweed is of a pectoral nature, and is good for a pain in the side.
Garden Coltsfoot is a great restorative to the lungs, and is good in syrups for coughs.
Melilot is good in salves and ointments for swellings and inflammations. It is mollifying and cooling.
Sage is the greatest restorative to human nature of any herb that grows. Parsley is very cooling and softening.
Bloodroot is a very powerful emetic or purge; steeped in spirits, it will serve for an emetic; and boiled in fair water, it serves as a purge.
Mandrake root is an excellent physic, dried and pounded.
Cumfrey and Spikenard are so well known that they need no description. Wild Jenton is a strong purge, boiled.
Elecampane is good in coughts, yet it is an astringent.
Cranesbill is an astringent, and excellent in cankers.
Whiteroot is of a physical nature, and is good to remove wind pent in the stomach, or part of the bowels.
Sassafras root is good for the blood -- likewise Sarsparilla, Horse Radish, Burdock roots, Elder roots, Hop roots, and Wild Coltsfoot, are good as pectorals.
White and Yellow Pond Lily roots, the same.
Winter's Bark. This is the product of one of the largest trees on Terra del Fuego. It is good in dropsy and scurvy.
From my newest book: Inquire Within ( oh this book is chalked full of stuff, and when you read it you just about die laughing at what they thought worked, and also scratch your head and think, did it really?)
From page 33, index #: 28 Prevention of Fires- The following simple suggestions are worthy of observation: Add one ounce of alum to the last water used to rinse children's dresses, and they will be rendered uninflammable, or so slightly combustible that they would take fire very slowly, if at all, and would not flame. This is a simple precaution which may be adopted in families of children. Bed curtains, and linen in general, may also be treated in the same way.
#454. To Avoid Catching Cold- Accustom yourself to the use of sponging with cold water every morning on first getting out of bed. It should be followed with a good deal of rubbing with a wet towel. It has considerable effect in giving tone to the skin and maintaining a proper action in it, and thus proves a safegurard to the injurious influennce of cold and sudden changes in temperatur. Sir Astely Cooper said: "Thie methods by which I have preserved my own health are - temperance, early rising, and sponging the body every morning with cold water, immediately after getting out of bed;a practice which I have adopted for thirty years without ever catching a cold"
#3771. For Diarrhea When Accompanied with Pain- Take 2 drachms coc. sulphuric ether, 2 drachms spirit lavender, comp. 1/2 drachm wine opium, 3 drops oil cloves. One teaspoonful for an adult, on a lump of sugar, is the dose. To be eaten quickly, and repeated every quarter hour, as the case requires.
I think I'll take the pain! Opium!? No wonder so many of them got addicted to the stuff. They used it to cure everything!!!
#1233 Hysterics- The fit may be prevented by the administration of thrity drops of laudanum, and as many of aether. When it has taken place, open the windows, loosen the tight parts of the dress, sprinkle cold water on the face. A glass of wine or cold water when the patient can swallow. Avoid exceitment and tight lacing.
#1229 Frost-bite and Frozen limbs- No heating or stimulating liquors must be given. Rub the parts affected with ice, cold or snow water and lay the patient on a cold bed.
Gee, did they ever think that maybe lacing their corsets so tight could have really caused this problem??
#1228 Faintness- Effusion of cold water on the face, stimulants to the nostrils, pure air, and the recumbent position, afterwards avoidance of the exceiting cause. Avoid excitement.
#1280 Wash for a blotched face- Rose water, three ounces; sulphate of zinc, one dram. Mix. Wet the face with it, gently dry it, and then touch with it ouver with cold cream, which also dry gently off.
#1281 Oil of Rose- for the Hair- Olive oil, two pints; otto of roses, one dram; oil of rosemary, one fram. Mix. It may be colored red by steeping a little alkanet root in the oit (with heat) before scenting it.
#1282 Cure for chapped hands- instead of washing the hands with soap employ oatmeal, and after each washing take a little dry oatmeal and rub over the hands, as as to absorb any moisture.
So is that why spas still use oatmeal for massage treatments and facials?
#1296 Dr. Scott's wash to whiten the nails- Diluted sulphuric acid, two drams; tinctur of myrrh, one dram; spring water, four ounces. Mix. First cleanse with white soap, and then dip the fingers into the wash.
#1297 Cure for corns- Take two ounces of gun-ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax and six drachms of verdigris, melt them together and spred the compostion on soft leather. Cut away as much of the corn as you can, then apply the plaster, and renew it every fortnight till the corn is away.
Just a word in defence of opiates... they're still the best analgesic available. It's still what you'll get if you hurt yourself badly, or have surgery, or go to the ER with a migraine. And remember, until aspirin came out in 1896, opium was the ONLY analgesic.
One of the MANY reasons that Zou is much happier to live in the 21st century rather than the 19th.
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