What was "eye-water"?

[Keiri]

Reading some letters, I came across this:
"the first Lieutenant is in command of the company now and he is as fine and brave an Irish lad as ever
buckled on a sword or faced an enemy. The only trouble with him is that he likes a little "eye water" now and then, but they can't get much of that down here."
When researching it, it seemed like either snuff (which I had no idea you could take via your eyes) or a kind of weird tincture. I have never seen this referred to before. Could anyone enlighten me?

 

[rpkennedy]

Reading some letters, I came across this:
"the first Lieutenant is in command of the company now and he is as fine and brave an Irish lad as ever
buckled on a sword or faced an enemy. The only trouble with him is that he likes a little "eye water" now and then, but they can't get much of that down here."
When researching it, it seemed like either snuff (which I had no idea you could take via your eyes) or a kind of weird tincture. I have never seen this referred to before. Could anyone enlighten me?

I know snuff can make one's eyes water but I've never heard it called that before.

R

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Onward, Volume 2 By Mayne Reid

It's a free book on Google

 

[rpkennedy]

View attachment 80597

Onward, Volume 2 By Mayne Reid

It's a free book on Google

Bingo bango.

R

 

[donna]

I believe it was a medicine or eye wash for the eyes.

See article "Dickey's Old Reliable Eye Water" at http://www.bristol-tenn-va-bottles.com/id5.html

It is about some later eye water but found other mention of eye water at Civil War time.

 

[civilken]

I remember when first dating my wife back in the early 70s we went to her grandmother's house in Brooklyn . This nice old woman in her 80s had a shelf with some of her dead husband's things on it one of them was a glass shaped like a half foot ball. I remember asking her what it was and she says her husband used to wash his eyes every morning and use that cup it was the strangest thing.

 

[Northern Light]

I remember when first dating my wife back in the early 70s we went to her grandmother's house in Brooklyn . This nice old woman in her 80s had a shelf with some of her dead husband's things on it one of them was a glass shaped like a half foot ball. I remember asking her what it was and she says her husband used to wash his eyes every morning and use that cup it was the strangest thing.

Eye cups are quite collectible.

 

[Rebforever]

Mom had one for dad to clean his eyes when he worked in Oats.
Them hulls will get you.

 

[Rebforever]

Nero had one he used while Rome was burning!

 

[Waterloo50]

Reading some letters, I came across this:
"the first Lieutenant is in command of the company now and he is as fine and brave an Irish lad as ever
buckled on a sword or faced an enemy. The only trouble with him is that he likes a little "eye water" now and then, but they can't get much of that down here."
When researching it, it seemed like either snuff (which I had no idea you could take via your eyes) or a kind of weird tincture. I have never seen this referred to before. Could anyone enlighten me?

He's Irish, then it's definitely Whiskey.

 

[kholland]

Bingo bango.

R

Now that makes sense!