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I get an online newsletter, and some of the things are so interesting. I realize that this article is from 1890, but I believe that it would have been remedies and cleaning from our Civil War ladies as well. Enjoy, and lets see if we can keep adding to this one.
Hygiene and Household Recipes & Hints for the Toilet
Source: The Ladies' New Medical Guide, 1890
To Wash Greasy Tin and Iron: Pour a few drops of ammonia into every greasy roasting-pan, after half filling the pan with warm water. A bottle of ammonia should always be kept on hand near the sink for such uses; never allow the pans to stand and dry, for it doubles the labor of washing, but pour in water and use the ammonia, and the work is half done.
To Clean Picture Frames: Black walnut frames will become dull and rusty looking. They may be renewed by first brushing thoroughly with a stiff brush to remove dust, and then apply pure linseed oil with a proper brush, or with a piece of new bleached muslin.
To Clean Gilt Frames: When the gilt frames of pictures or looking-glasses, or the gilt mouldings of rooms have specks of dirt upon them, from flies or other causes, they can be cleaned with the white of an egg gently rubbed on with a camel-hair pencil.
Perfume and a Preventative against Moths: Take one ounce of Tonquin beans, caraway seed, cloves, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, well ground; add six ounces of Florentine orris root; mix well, and put in bags among your clothes.
Painting and Papering: Painting and papering are best done in cold weather, especially the former, for the wood absorbs the oil of paint much more in warm weather, while in cold weather the oil hardens on the outside, making a coat which will protect the wood instead of soaking into it.
Milk Paint: Mix water lime with skim-milk to proper consistency to apply with brush, and it is ready for use; it will adhere well to wood, smooth or rough, to brick, mortar, or stone, where oil has not been used, and it forms a very hard substance as durable as the best of paint; any color which is desirable may be had by using colors dissolved in whiskey.
To Clean Bricks: To remove the green that gathers on bricks, pour over them boiling water in which any vegetables, not greasy, have been boiled; repeat for a few days and the green will disappear. For the red wash, melt one ounce of glue in one gallon of water; while hot, add alum the size of an egg, one-half pound Venetian red, one pound Spanish brown; if too light, add more red and brown; if too dark, water. By experimenting, the color desired may be had.
Oil of Roses for the Hair: Attar of roses one drachm; oil of rosemary, one drachm; olive oil, one quart, mixed together. It may be colored red by steeping a little alkanet root in the oil (with heat) before scenting it.
Milk of Roses: Put into a small bottle two ounces of rose water, one teaspoonful of oil of sweet almonds, ten drops of oil of tar. Shake the bottle until the whole is combined; it makes a nice and perfectly harmless cosmetic to apply to the skin after washing.
Marrow Pomade for the Hair: Marrow, a quarter pound; lard, a quarter pound; castor oil, six ounces; salad oil, six ounces; palm oil, half ounce; scent with oil of bergamot; melt the lard and palm oil together; then strain it, and strain the marrow; mix all well together, until nearly cold and put in pots.
Perfume for Linen: Lavender flowers, half pound (free from stalk); dried thyme and mint, of each, half ounce; ground cloves and carroway, of each, a quarter ounce; common salt dried, one ounce; mix well together, and put into cambric or silk bags.
Chapped Hands: Unsalted lard, a quarter pound; yolks of two new-laid eggs, rose water to mix well; add a large spoonful of honey, and enough of fine oatmeal or almond flour to work it into a paste.
Mr. C.A. Kirshtien, New York City (Grew up in Tennessee)
I was born in New York, but spent a good part of my childhood in the South; mother was the grand-daughter of a big plantation owner. All her folks lived in Tennessee, and we spent our summers there. . . .
There were several primitive but apparently effective remedies for illness practiced in my mother's family. When we children had a cough, mother would give us boiled water that had been sweetened, with a piece of clean cherry bark floating in it.
It was believed that to prevent fever for a whole year, a child should pick the first three violets he found in the spring, and eat them. Some of us used to eat violets all summer long, because we got to like the taste of them!
A recipe for Insomnia: Bruise a handful of anise seeds and steep them in waters then place in small bags, and bind one bag over each nostril before going to bed. . . .
A popular cure for warts, practiced by both blacks and whites, was to gather as many pebbles as you had warts, rub one pebble on each wart, take them to a crossroads and throw the pebbles over your left shoulder. The warts were supposed to go with them.
Of course, there was one always effective way to stop hiccoughs. Just swallow nine gulps of water while standing on one foot. . . .
STIFF NECK: Wrap a pair of underdrawers which have been worn more than two days around the neck.
STOMACH ACHE: Swallow a tablespoonful of clean white sand. . . .
DEATH TEST: To determine whether or not a sick person will die, rub his hand with yeast and let a dog sniff of it. If the dog licks the hand, the person will recover; if the dog refuses to lick his hand, he will die.
__________________ Thea
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
My mother had all kinds of home remedies she used to use on the children. I don't remember what particular ailment it was for, but we took catnip tea, and sassafras tea. Turpentine and sugar was given for worms, and sometimes people were dosed with straight turpentine, as in the case of my brother who died of diphtheria. It was the doctor who doped him, and he gave him too much.
Turpentine and lard rubbed on the chest was wonderful for colds, and if we had no turpentine we could use coal oil or kerosene. . . .
We also had several kinds of poultices, flax seed poultice, bread and milk poultice, and beefsteak poultice which my mother put on me whenever I came home with a black eye. But the very best poultice for sores was the angle worm poultice. It would draw all the smart out of even a bad felon. The worms were taken alive, placed upon the sore, and wrapped around with a bandage.
For earache sometimes mother used laudanum dropped into the ear with a dropper. There were pain killer pills to be got at the store, but the usual remedy for headaches was hot or cold packs applied to the head.
For burns, she made a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water and spread it over the burned area. Too, as soon as one was burned it was always best for him to hold the burn as close to the heat as possible and quickly as possible. This would hurt something dreadful but it would draw all the fire out almost at once.
Then for colds we had onion syrup. Onions were boiled to a concentrated solution and sugar was added to sweeten it.
Among the foremost of remedies "handed down" in the family is the tea made of dung. In the case of my grandmother the most efficaciously medicinal dung is that of the swine, the common sty-pig, which, when dried and baked in an oven and made into a tea is said to cure evils of all sorts, from the slightest indisposition to measles and smallpox. I recall several years ago when I was in Baker, Oregon that a child took sick with the measles. The grandmother procured the dung of a sheep, gave it the same treatment in the oven and made it into tea. This the child drank, being too young to know what the decoction was. . . .
Plain table salt was another good remedy for toothache, sore throat, etc. This was mixed with water, one teaspoonful to a glass of water. Vinegar or blue vitriol served to defeat the ravages of rashes, poison oak, etc. . . .
A so-called cure for warts was to place the head of one match upon the wart and touch it off with another, and so "burn it out." Another less painful but longer treatment consisted of rubbing the affected part with castor oil. This has been known to clean up warts slick as a whistle.
__________________ Thea
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
Medicine in the Civil War
When the Civil War began in April 1861, medicine was approaching what Surgeon General William Hammond called "the end of the medical Middle Ages." In Europe, the work of Koch and Pasteur was just beginning and American physicians had little knowledge of the cause and prevention of disease and infection. The Army Medical Department, which was responsible for the care of the sick and wounded in the North, was unprepared. The staff of 90 doctors was experienced in dealing with the health problems of small military outposts, but had no idea of how to deal with large scale medical and logistical problems.
Early in the war it became obvious that disease would be the greatest killer. Two soldiers died of disease (dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid, and malaria) for every one killed in battle. Soldiers from small rural areas suffered from childhood diseases such as measles and mumps because they lacked immunity. Outbreaks of these "camp and campaign" diseases were caused by overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in the field. To remedy this, the U.S. government created the U.S. Sanitary Commission in June 1861.
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
It's amazing they lived at all!!! Yuck! And think of the amount of arsnic used at that time as well. THat stuff could kill you twice as fast, yet women thought it would keep their complextion whiter if they took a dab of it a day. Not only was it used there, but it was also used in wallpaper coloring, especially green, and was used to set color sometimes in the Godey's and Petterson's magazines.
Thank goodness for modern technology and medicine.
Tapioca Jelly: Tapioca, two tablespoonfuls; water, one pint. Boil gently for an hour, or until it assumes a jelly-like appearance. Add sugar, wine, and nutmeg, with lemon-juice to suit the taste of the patient, and the nature of the case.
Interesting. Bet it was for soar throats and upset stomaches.
Jenna
A Refreshing Drink in Fevers: Put a little sage, two sprigs of balm, and a little sorrel into a stone jug, having first washed and dried them. Peel thin a small lemon, slice it, and put in with a small piece of the peel; then pour in three pints of boiling water. Sweeten, and cover it close.
POMADE, to prevent baldness, is made thus: Beef suet one ounce, tincture of cantharides one teaspoonful, oil of origanum and bergamot, of each ten drops. Melt the suet, and, when nearly cold, stir in the rest of the ingredients, until set. — Godey's Magazine, Nov. 1852
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