Chapter 20

CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.--- The following singular means of curing habitual drunkenness is employed by a Russian physician. Dr. Schreiber, of Brzese Litewski: It consists in confining the drunkard in a room, and in furnishing him at discretion with his favorite spirit diluted with two-thirds of water; as much wine, beer and coffee as he desires, but containing one-third of spirit: all the food--the bread, meat, and the legumes are steeped in spirit and water. The poor devil is continually drunk and dort. On the fifth day of this regime he has an extreme disgust for spirit; he earnestly requests other diet: but his desire must not be yielded to until the poor wretch no longer desires to eat or drink: he is then certainly cured of his penchant for drunkenness. He acquires such a disgust for brandy or other spirits that he is ready to vomit at the very sight of it.

CURE FOR DYSPEPSIA.--1. Take bark of white poplar root, boil it thick, and add a little spirit, and then lay it on the stomach.

2. Take wintergreen and black cherry-tree bark and yellow dock: put into two quarts of water; boil down to three pints; take two or three glasses a day.

Here are two remedies for dyspepsia, said by those who "have tried them" to be infallible. 1. Eat onions. 2. Take two parts of well-dried and pounded pods of red pepper, mixed with one part of ground mustard, and sift it over everything you eat or drink.

HOW TO CURE EARACHE.--Take a small piece of cotton batting or cotton wool, make a depression in the center with the finger, and then fill it up with as much ground pepper as will rest on a five-cent piece; gather it into a ball and tie it up; dip the ball into sweet oil and insert it in the ear, covering the latter with cotton wool, and use a bandage or cap to retain it in its place. Almost instant relief will be experienced; and the application is so gentle that an infant, will not get injured by it, but experience relief as well as adults. Roast a piece of lean mutton, squeeze out the juice and drop it info the ear as hot as it can be borne. Roast an onion and put into the ear as hot as it can be borne.

HOW TO CURE ERYSIPELAS.--Dissolve five ounces of salt in one pint of good brandy and take two tablespoonfuls three times per day.

CURE FOR INFLAMED EYES.--Pour boiling water on alder flowers, and steep them like tea; when cold, put three or four drops of laudanum into a small glass of the alder-tea, and let the mixture run into the eyes two or three times a day, and the eyes will become perfectly strong in the course of a week.

CURE FOR WEEPING EYES.--Wash the eyes in chamomile tea night and morning.

EYES, GRANULAR INFLAMMATION.--A prominent oculist says that the contagious Egyptian or granular inflammation of the eyes is spreading throughout the country, and that he has been able in many, and indeed in a majority of cases, to trace the disease to what are commonly called rolling towels. Towels of this kind are generally found in country hotels and the dwellings of the working classes, and, being thus used by nearly every one, are made the carriers of one of the most troublesome diseases of the eye. This being the case, it is urgently recommended that the use of these rolling towels be discarded, and thus one of the special vehicles for the spread of a most dangerous disorder of the eyes--one by which thousands of workingmen are annually deprived of their means of support--will no longer exist.

CURE FOR STY IN EYE.--Bathe frequently with warm water. When the sty bursts, use an ointment composed of one part of citron ointment and four of spermaceti, well rubbed together, and smear along the edge of the eye-lid.

CURE FOR FELONS.--1. Stir one-half teaspoonful of water into an ounce of Venice turpentine until the mixture appears like granulated honey. Wrap a good coating of it around the finger with a cloth. If the felon is only recent, the pain will be removed in six hours.

2. As soon as the part begins to swell, wrap it with a cloth saturated thoroughly with the tincture of lobelia. An old physician says, that he has known this to cure scores of cases, and that it never fails if applied in season.

CURE FOR FEVER AND AGUE.--Take of cloves and cream of tartar each one-half ounce, and one ounce of Peruvian bark. Mix in a small quantity of tea, and take it on well days, in such quantities as the stomach will bear.

CURE FOR FEVER SORES.--Take of hoarhound, balm, sarsaparilla, loaf sugar, aloes, gum camphor, honey, spikenard, spirits of turpentine, each two ounces. Dose, one tablespoonful, three mornings, missing three; and for a wash, make a strong tea of sumach, washing the affected parts frequently, and keeping the bandage well wet.

CURE FOR FITS.--Take of tincture of fox-glove, ten drops at each time twice a day, and increase one drop at each time as long as the stomach will bear it, or it causes a nauseous feeling.

GLYCERINE CREAM.--Receipt for chapped lips: Take of spermaceti, four drachms; white wax, one drachm; oil of almonds, two troy ounces; glycerine, one troy ounce. Melt the spermaceti, wax and oil together, and when cooling stir in glycerine and perfume.

GLYCERINE LOTION.--For softening the skin of the face and hands, especially during the commencement of cold weather, and also for allaying the irritation caused by the razor: Triturate, four and a half grains of cochineal with one and a half fluid ounces of boiling water, adding gradually; then add two and a half fluid ounces of alcohol. Also make an emulsion of eight drops of ottar of roses with thirty grains of gum arabic and eight fluid ounces of water; then add three fluid ounces of glycerine, and ten fluid drachms of quince mucilage. Mix the two liquids.

FLESHWORMS.--These specks, when they exist in any number, are a cause of much unsightliness. They are minute corks, if we may use the term, of coagulated lymp, which close the orifices of some of the pores or exhalent vessels of the skin. On the skin immediately adjacent to them being pressed with the finger nails, these bits of coagulated lymph will come from it in a vermicular form. They are vulgarly called "flesh worms," many persons fancying them to be living creatures. These may be got rid of and prevented from returning, by washing with tepid water, by proper friction with a towel, and by the application of a little cold cream. The longer these little piles are permitted to remain in the skin the more firmly they become fixed; and after a time, when they lose their moisture they are converted into long bony spines as dense as bristles, and having much of that character. They are known by the name of spotted achne. With regard to local treatment, the following lotions are calculated to be serviceable: 1. Distilled rose water, 1 pint; sulphate of zinc, 20 to 60 grains. Mix. 2. Sulphate of copper, 20 grains; rosewater, 4 ounces; water, 12 ounces. Mix. 3. Oil of sweet almonds, 1 ounce; fluid potash, 1 drachm. Shake well together and then add rose-water, 1 ounce; pure water, 6 ounces. Mix. The mode of using these remedies is to rub the pimples for some minutes with a rough towel, and then dab them with the lotion. 4. Wash the face twice a day with warm water, and rub dry with a coarse towel. Then with a soft towel rub in a lotion made of two ounces of white brandy, one ounce of cologne, and one-half ounce of liquor potassa.

HOW TO REMOVE FRECKLES.--Freckles; so persistently regular in their annual return, have annoyed the fair sex from time immemorial, and various means have been devised to eradicate them, although thus far with no decidedly satisfactory results. The innumerable remedies in use for the removal of these vexatious intruders, are either simple and harmless washes, such as parsley or horseradish water, solutions of borax, etc., or injurious nostrums, consisting principally of lead and mercury salts.

If the exact cause of freckles were known, a remedy for them might be found. A chemist in Moravia, observing the bleaching effect of mercurial preparations, inferred that the growth of a local parasitical fungus was the cause of the discoloration of the skin, which extended and ripened its spores in the warmer season. Knowing that sulpho-carbolate of zinc is a deadly enemy to all parasitic vegetation (itself not being otherwise injurious), he applied this salt for the purpose of removing the freckles. The compound consists of two parts of sulpho-carbolate of zinc, twenty-five parts of distilled glycerine, twenty-five parts of rose-water, and five parts of scented alcohol, and is to be applied twice daily for from half an hour to an hour, then washed off with cold water. Protection against the sun by veiling and other means is recommended, and in addition, for persons of pale complexion, some mild preparation of iron.

GRAVEL.--1. Make a strong tea of the low herb called heart's ease, and drink freely. 2. Make of Jacob's ladder a strong tea, and drink freely. 3. Make of bean leaves a strong tea, and drink freely.

WASH FOR THE HAIR.--Castile soap, finely shaved, one teaspoonful; spirits of hartshorn, one drachm; alcohol, five ounces; cologne water and bay rum, in equal quantities enough to make eight ounces. This should be poured on the head, followed by warm water (soft water); the result will be, on washing, a copious lather and a smarting sensation to the person operated on. Rub this well into the hair. Finally, rinse with warm water, and afterwards with cold water. If the head is very much clogged with dirt, the hair will come out plentifully, but the scalp will become white and perfectly clean.

HAIR RESTORATIVE.--Take of castor oil, six fluid ounces; alcohol, twenty-six fluid ounces. Dissolve. Then add tincture of cantharides (made with strong alcohol), one fluid ounce; essence of jessamine (or other perfume), one and a half fluid ounces.

CURE FOR HEARTBURN.--Sal volatile combined with camphor is a splendid remedy.

SICK HEADACHE.--Take a teaspoonful of powdered charcoal in molasses every morning, and wash it down with a little tea, or drink half a glass of raw rum or gin, and drink freely of mayweed tea.

HEADACHE.--Dr. Silvers, of Ohio, in the Philadelphia _Medical and Surgical Reporter_, recommends ergot in headache, especially the nervous or sick headache. He says it will cure a larger proportion of cases than any other remedy. His theory of its action is that it lessens the quantity of blood in the brain by contracting the muscular fibres of the arterial walls. He gives ten to twenty drops of the fluid extract, repeated every half hour till relief is obtained, or four or five doses used. In other forms of disease, where opium alone is contra-indicated, its bad effects are moderated, he says, by combining it with ergot.

HEADACHE DROPS.--For the cure of nervous, sun, and sick headache, take two quarts of alcohol, three ounces of Castile soap, one ounce camphor, and two ounces ammonia. Bathe forehead and temples.

HIVE SYRUP.--Put one ounce each of squills and seneca snake-root into one pint of water; boil down to one-half and strain. Then add one-half pound of clarified honey containing twelve grains tartrate of antimony. Dose for a child, ten drops to one teaspoonful, according to age. An excellent remedy for croup.

HOW TO CLEAN THE HAIR.--From the too frequent use of oils in the hair, many ladies destroy the tone and color of their tresses. The Hindoos have a way of remedying this. They take a hand basin filled with cold water, and have ready a small quantity of pea flour. The hair is in the first place submitted to the operation of being washed in cold water, a handful of the pea flour is then applied to the head and rubbed into the hair for ten minutes at least, the servant adding fresh water at short intervals, until it becomes a perfect lather. The whole head is then washed quite clean with copious supplies of the aqueous fluid, combed, and afterwards rubbed dry by means of coarse towels. The hard and soft brush is then resorted to, when the hair will be found to be wholly free from all encumbering oils and other impurities, and assume a glossy softness, equal to the most delicate silk. This process tends to preserve the tone and natural color of the hair, which is so frequently destroyed by the too constant use of caustic cosmetics.

HOW TO SOFTEN HANDS.--After cleansing the hands with soap, rub them well with oatmeal while wet.

HOW TO REMOVE STAINS FROM HANDS.--Damp the hands first in water, then rub them with tartaric acid, or salt of lemons, as you would with soap; rinse them and rub them dry. Tartaric acid, or salt of lemons, will quickly remove stains from white muslin or linen. Put less than half a teaspoonful of salt or acid into a tablespoonful of water; wet the stain with it, and lay it in the sun for an hour; wet it once or twice with cold water during the time; if this does not quite remove it, repeat the acid water, and lay it in the sun.

HOW TO WHITEN HANDS.--1. Stir 1/4 of a pound of Castile soap, and place it in a jar near the fire, pour over it 1/2 pint of alcohol; when the soap is dissolved and mixed with the spirit, add 1 ounce of glycerine, the same of oil of almonds, with a few drops of essence of violets, or ottar of roses, then pour it into moulds to cool for use. 2. A wineglassful of eau-de-cologne, and one of lemon-juice, two cakes of broken Windsor soap, mixed well together, when hard, will form an excellent substance.

HOW TO CURE SCURF IN THE HEAD.--A simple and effectual remedy. Into a pint of water drop a lump of fresh quick lime, the size of a walnut; let it stand all night, then pour the water off clear from the sediment or deposit, add 1/4 of a pint of the best vinegar, and wash the head with the mixture. Perfectly harmless; only wet the roots of the hair.

HOW TO CURE CHAPPED LIPS.--Take 2 ounces of white wax, 1 ounce of spermaceti, 4 ounces of oil of almonds, 2 ounces of honey, 1/4 of an ounce of essence of bergamot, or any other scent. Melt the wax and spermaceti; then add the honey, and melt all together, and when hot add the almond oil by degrees, stirring till cold. 2. Take oil of almonds 3 ounces; spermaceti 1/2 ounce; virgin rice, 1/2 ounce. Melt these together over a slow fire, mixing with them a little powder of alkane root to color it. Keep stirring till cold, and then add a few drops of the oil of rhodium. 3. Take oil of almonds, spermaceti, white wax, and white sugar candy, equal parts. These form a good, white lip salve.

HOW TO REMOVE MOTH PATCHES.--Wash the patches with solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times during the day for two days, or until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours. After the process wash with some nice toilet soap, and the skin will be left nice, smooth and clear of patches. HOW TO TAKE CARE OF THE NAILS.--The nails should be kept clean by the daily use of the nail brush and soap and water. After wiping the hands, but while they are still soft from the action of the water, gently push back the skin which is apt to grow over the nails, which will not only preserve them neatly rounded, but will prevent the skin from cracking around their roots (nail springs), and becoming sore. The points of the nail should be pared at least once a week; biting them should be avoided.

HOW TO CURE HICCOUGH.--A convulsive motion of the diaphragm and parts adjacent. The common causes are flatuency, indigestion, acidity and worms. It may usually be removed by the exhibition of warm carminatives, cordials, cold wafer, weak spirits, camphor julep, or spirits of sal volatile. A sudden fright or surprise will often produce the like effect. An instance is recorded of a delicate young lady that was troubled with hiccough for some months, and who was reduced to a state of extreme debility from the loss of sleep occasioned thereby, who was cured by a fright, after medicines and topical applications had failed. A pinch of snuff, a glass of cold soda-water, or an ice-cream, will also frequently remove this complaint.

HOW TO CURE HOARSENESS.--Make a strong tea of horse-radish and yellow dock root, sweetened with honey and drink freely.

REMEDIES FOR HOARSENESS.--Take one drachm of freshly scraped horse-radish root, to be infused with four ounces of water in a close vessel for three hours, and made into a syrup, with double its quantity of vinegar. A teaspoonful has often proved effectual.

HOW TO CURE HUMORS.--Take equal parts of saffron and seneca snake root, make a strong tea, drink one half-pint a day, and this will drive out all humors from the system.

HOW TO CURE HYSTERICS.--Take the leaves of motherwort and thoroughwort, and the bark of poplar root; equal parts. Mix them in molasses, and take four of them when the first symptoms of disorder are felt, and they will effectually check it.

HOW TO CURE BARBER'S ITCH.--Moisten the parts affected with saliva (spittle) and rub it over thoroughly three times a day with the ashes of a good Havana cigar. This is a simple remedy, yet it has cured the most obstinate cases.

ITCH OINTMENT.--1. Take lard, one pound; suet, one pound; sugar of lead, eight ounces; vermillion, two ounces. Mix. Scent with a little bergamot. 2. Take bichloride of mercury, one ounce; lard, one pound; suet, one pound; hydrochloride acid, one and a half ounces. Melt and well mix, and when perfectly cold, stir in essence of lemon, four drachms; essence of bergamot, one drachm. 3. Take powdered chloride of lime, one ounce; lard, one pound. Mix well, then add essence of lemon, two drachms. 4. Take bichloride of mercury, one part; lard, fifteen parts. Mix well together. 5. Take white precipitate, one part; lard, twelve parts. Mix. A portion of either of these ointments must be well rubbed on the parts affected, night and morning.

HOW TO CURE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH.--1. Use plenty of castile soap and water, and then apply freely iodide of sulphur ointment; or take any given quantity of simple sulphur ointment and color it to a light brown or chocolate color with the subcarbonate of iron, and then perfume it. Apply this freely, and if the case should be a severe one, administer mild alteratives in conjunction with the outward application. 2. The sulphur bath is a good remedy for itch or any other kind of skin diseases. Leprosy (the most obstinate of all) has been completely cured by it, and the common itch only requires two or three applications to completely eradicate it from the system. 3. Benzine, it is said, will effect a complete cure for scabies in the course of half to three-quarters of an hour, after which the patient should take a warm bath from twenty to thirty minutes.

HOW TO CURE JAUNDICE.--1. Take the whites of two hen's eggs, beat them up well in a gill of water; take of this a little every morning; it will soon do good. It also creates an appetite, and strengthens the stomach. 2. Take of black cherry-tree bark, two ounces; blood root and gold thread, each half an ounce; put in a pint of brandy. Dose, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful morning and night.

HOW TO CURE STIFFENED JOINTS.--Take of the bark of white oak and sweet apple trees, equal parts; boil them down to a thick substance,

and then add the same quantity of goose-grease or oil, simmer all together, and then rub it on the parts warm.

HOW TO CURE KIDNEY DISEASE.--Equal parts of the oil of red cedar and the oil of spearmint.

HOW TO CURE LAME BACK.--Take the berries of red cedar and allow them to simmer in neatsfoot oil, and use as an ointment.

HOW TO KILL LICE.--All kinds of lice and their nits may be got rid of by washing with a simple decoction of stavesacre (_Delphinium staphisagria_), or with a lotion made with the bruised seed in vinegar, or with the tincture, or by rubbing in a salve made with the seeds and four times their weight of lard very carefully beaten together. The acetic solution and the tincture are the cleanliest and most agreeable preparations, but all are equally efficacious in destroying both the creatures and their eggs, and even in relieving the intolerable itching which their casual presence leaves behind on many sensitive skins. The alkaloid delphinia may also be employed, but possesses no advantage except in the preparation of an ointment, when from any reason that form of application should be preferred.

RHEUMATIC LINIMENT.--Olive oil, spirits of camphor and chloroform, of each two ounces; sassafras oil, 1 drachm. Add the oil of sassafras to the olive oil, then the spirits of camphor, and shake well before putting in the chloroform; shake when used, and keep it corked, as the chloroform evaporates very fast if it is left open. Apply three or four times daily, rubbing in well, and always toward the body.

SORE THROAT LINIMENT.--Gum camphor, two ounces; castile soap, shaved fine, one drachm; oil of turpentine and oil of origanum, each one-half ounce; opium, one-fourth of an ounce; alcohol, one pint. In a week or ten days they will be fit for use. Bathe the parts freely two or three times daily until relief is obtained.

A WONDERFUL LINIMENT.--Two ounces oil of spike, two ounces origanum, two ounces hemlock, two ounces wormwood, four ounces sweet oil, two ounces spirit of ammonia, two ounces gum camphor, two ounces spirits turpentine. Add one quart strong alcohol. Mix well together, and bottle tight. This is an unequaled horse liniment, and of the best ever made for human ailments such as rheumatism, sprains, etc.

HOW TO CURE SORE LIPS.--Wash the lips with a strong tea, made from the bark of the white oak.

LIVER COMPLAINT.--Make a strong tea of syrup of burdock, wormwood and dandelion, equal parts, and drink freely.

LOCK JAW.--It is said that the application of warm lye, made of ashes as strong as possible, to a wounded part, will prevent a locked jaw; if a foot or hand, immerse in it; if another part of the body, bathe with flannels wrung out of the warm lye.

MUMPS.--This disease, most common among children, begins with soreness and stiffness in the side of the neck. Soon a swelling of the parotid gland takes place, which is painful, and continues to increase for four or five days, sometimes making it difficult to swallow, or open the mouth. The swelling sometimes comes on one side at a time, but commonly upon both. There is often heat, and sometimes fever, with a dry skin, quick pulse, furred tongue, constipated bowls, and scanty and high-colored urine. The disease is contagious. The treatment is very simple--a mild diet, gentle laxative, occasional hot fomentations, and wearing a piece of flannel round the throat.

HOW TO PREVENT INGROWING NAILS.--If the nail of your toe be hard, and apt to grow round, and into the corners of your toe, take a piece of broken glass and scrape the top very thin; do this whenever you cut your nails, and by constant use it makes the corners fly up and grow flat, so that it is impossible they should give you any pain.

HOW TO WHITEN NAILS.--The best wash for whitening the nails is two drachms of diluted sulphuric acid, one drachm of tincture of myrrh, added to four ounces of spring water; first cleanse the hands, and then apply the wash.

SURE CURE FOR NEURALGIA.--1. Fill a tight-top thimble with cotton wool, and drop on it a few drops of strong spirits of hartshorn. The open mouth of the thimble is then applied over the seat of pain for a minute or two, until the skin is blistered. The skin is then rubbed off, and upon the denuded surface a small quantity of morphia (one-fourth grain) is applied. This affords almost instant relief. A second application of the morphia, if required, is to be preceded by first rubbing off the new formation that has sprung up over the former blistered surface.