Part 7
NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL--Good for dysentery, cholera morbus and diarrhœa. Take one pound green peppermint, simmer in half gallon water and strain off; then take four ounces Turkey rhubarb, simmer into half a gallon water, till all the strength is out; then strain, add these two liquids together, with two ounces saleratus and three pounds loaf sugar; then boil all a few minutes, and when nearly cold, add half pint brandy. Dose, wine glass full.
ELDER WINE.--Take sixteen quarts of elder berries, clean from the stem, put with six gallons cold water in a large tub; let them stand two days, then boil them till the berries fall to the bottom; strain and squeeze, and to every gallon liquor add three pounds brown sugar; boil and add quarter pound bruised ginger, two ounces allspice, and cloves, if you like; when cold, add a little yeast; let it work two days, then cork bottle up tight.
SWELLINGS.--Dogmacamus is good, scraped, for swellings; steep in milk and water.
ACID COUGH DROPS.--One pound sumach berries, four ounces elecampane, one ounce West Indian or African cayenne, one gallon vinegar; boil, strain and add three pounds honey, or double the quantity of molasses. If you add licorice, wild turnip, skunk cabbage, say two ounces, you will have a syrup that will cure sore throat, mouth or lungs. Take a tablespoonful when the cough is troublesome, or every two hours, gargling it in the throat, if sore.
SNUFF.--For headache and catarrh: Take one pound yellow dock, half pound bayberry, four ounces elecampane, three ounces bloodroot and three ounces beth-root. Take a pinch occasionally, particularly on going to bed.
VEGETABLE TOOTH POWDER.--Equal parts bayberry bark, yellow oak bark, black alder bark, pulverized; add half a pound elecampane, quarter pound prickly ash bark, four ounces cloves. This will cure scurvy, and, if the teeth are sore and loose, it will cure and make them firm in a short time.
NERVE DROPS.--One pint and half gin, half pint water, two ounces nerve powder, one ounce hops, pulverized, half ounce skunk cabbage; let this stand ten days, shaking it often; strain and let it settle. This will calm and strengthen the nervous system; whereas opium destroys every energy of the system, and makes it a complete wreck.
ANODYNE BATHING SOLUTION.--Two ounces camphor, six fluid drachms solution ammonia, and one pint essence lavender; mix the lavender with the ammonia, then put in camphor, and it is ready for use.
ULCERS OR BAD SORES.--Boil one pound each vervain, yellow dock and sage, half pound cicuta leaves, in one gallon water; wet cloths in this, and let them lay on the sores; then dry and sprinkle with powdered bloodroot, mornings only. Make a strong tea of vervain, drink a teacupful three times a day, taking three or four of my bilious pills at night, for nine nights successively.
IROQUOIS UNIVERSAL OINTMENT.--Take one pound tobacco leaves, bruise and steep twelve hours in one pint red wine; then add half pound fresh hog’s lard, simmer over a slow fire till the red wine is consumed; then add four ounces tobacco juice and two ounces rosin; simmer again till juice is evaporated, then add one ounce wild turnip, and rosin sufficient to make into an ointment. This is good for sores of every description, and a wound dressed with this will never putrefy; if you have pain in your head, anoint your temples; apply to the stomach and lungs, and no inflammation will settle there; anoint the bowels of children in case of worms or weakness. This ointment is, as I know, the best now in use, for sores, burns, ulcers, &c.
OLD SORES.--Pumpkin or carrot poultice is good for old sores; if they smell bad, sprinkle charcoal on the poultice; to prevent putrefaction, wash it twice a day in saltpeter water.
ST. ANTHONY’S FIRE.--Drink lemonade and tar water, warm, and wash in tar water.
ANTI-EMETIC DROPS.--Take a teacup full of good cider vinegar; add a teaspoonful each of salt and cayenne pepper; give a teaspoonful every fifteen minutes. I never knew a case where but a half teaspoonful had not the desired effect. It is good in external application for rheumatism, bruises, headaches and sprains; for the latter, use hot.
SORREL EXTRACT.--If you wish to make sorrel extract, for burns or sores, gather it before the 20th June, press out the juice and dry on a pewter plate. This is the best way to make good extract.
TO CLEANSE THE BLOOD AND STRENGTHEN THE LIVER.--Wide leaf dock, black alder bark and buds, burdock roots and leaves, sarsaparilla, striped maple, and half as much bloodroot;. a handful of each, to which add one gallon of water. Drink a teacup full three times a day, before eating.
FEVERS.--Marigolds are good to put on the stomach, in all cases of fevers, inflammation, &c.
GOITRE, OR ADAM’S APPLE.--Take a teaspoonful nettle seed, pulverized, morning and noon; at night take a teaspoonful of a mixture of one ounce cream tartar, one ounce sulphur, and half ounce Turkey rhubarb. This is good for corpulent people and for spitting blood.
TONIC.--Red rose willow is an excellent tonic.
CHRONIC RHEUMATISM.--Unicorn root (aletois farinasa), is good with prickly ash bark; add a small quantity bloodroot; it is necessary in some cases to add spirits, for flatulency, colic or hysterics. Take a teaspoonful in warm water.
TINCTURE OF SOAP ANODYNE.--Take two ounces hard soap, shaved, one ounce opium, one ounce camphor, half ounce of rosemary, two pounds alcohol; let the soap and opium stand three days; shake often, then add the camphor and oil. This is good for sprains, and pains of all descriptions.
But one thing I would remark; that is, where opium is used frequently, it will debilitate; but from three to five times will not injure, but will allay pains for the time being.
RHEUMATISM.--Take one ounce mandrake, two ounces Epsom salts, put into one quart metheglin wine--wine glass twice a day; an anodyne at night, say a cup of strong hop tea; rub the parts affected with the following ointment: boil skunk cabbage in water, make a strong decoction, then add hog’s lard, simmer all the water away, and add sulphur. This is an excellent anti-rheumatic ointment. It must be rubbed near the fire.
FOR HUMORS.--Make a very strong decoction of boiled oats, to one pint of which add one ounce saltpeter; this is good for swellings. For carbuncles, mix equal parts of bloodroot, beth root and honey; purge with anti-bilious pills.
RHEUMATISM.--Take bark of sumach roots, and cayenne, if it can be borne by the patient; boil in rum and bathe the parts; take inwardly a strong decoction of prickly ash bark. I would recommend salt and vinegar, with cayenne, for bathing, but in most cases it must be hot, and applied with cloths.
INDIAN TURNIP, OR WAKE ROBIN.--For chronic, deep-rooted rheumatism, pains, debilitated habits, loss of appetite, lowness of spirits, faintness, &c. Take three pounds fine Indian turnip and three pounds fine loaf sugar; mix them together in a mortar; there must be equal parts of each, well mixed. Take a teaspoonful three times a day, half hour before eating; it must be taken dry, if possible. Begin with half teaspoonful and increase to whole one.
GRAVEL.--Life root is good for the gravel.
DROPSY.--Wild lettuce is good for dropsy, ten or twelve grains a day; use white cohosh as drink, also cuckles seed mixed with juniper berries.
GALL, &c.--Low centuary, of all herbs, is one of the best for overflowing of the gall, and, in my opinion, is good in jaundice and all bilious complaints, and also in cleansing the blood from humors; it must be used plentifully and for some weeks.
BLOODROOT.--This is good for the rattles; mix with honey and give a child five years old a teaspoonful.
BONE OINTMENT.--Equal parts small kind mullen, red clover tops, burdock burs, plantain, sweet alder bark, yarrow, black alder buds and tobacco; simmer down in hog’s lard and fresh butter. This ointment is likewise good for all kinds of sores.
STICKING SALVE.--Equal parts catnip tops, horsemint, sarsaparilla, striped (some call it soft) maple, spikenard, mouse wood, (this wood or tree grows bushy, and the wood is tender but the bark is tough; use the wood and bark,) comfrey, young mullen leaves, Solomon’s seal, yellow dock, princes pine, wormwood; boil down thick, then add one pound and four ounces mutton tallow; roll, and it is fit for use; all cuts and sores, with or without swellings, inflammations and wounds, this will cure, and no proud flesh will be created.
BALSAM OF HONEY.--Take as much balsam of tolu as will dissolve in alcohol.
OIL SOAP.--Take as much Castile soap as will dissolve in alcohol.
SALVE FOR SCROFULOUS SORES.--Take turpentine, and half a pound bayberry, and tallow; dissolve and add sweet oil if necessary.
THE BEST SALVE I ever found, in all cases of humors, is composed of raw linseed oil, beeswax, and mutton tallow, for sore lips, and chapped hands; if the sore is very bad, sprinkle pulverized bloodroot on it every morning, then apply salve; a sore need not be washed but once a day, but dress it three times a day, if bad.
OINTMENT PILLS.--Sweet fern, sweet apple-tree, rose leaves, cats foot, and cream; simmer on a slow fire. The best I ever found was composed of hog’s dung and lamp oil, simmered; a little beeswax will be good to keep it firm.
HOT DROPS.--To one quart alcohol add one ounce hemlock oil, one ounce gum myrrh, two tablespoonsful cayenne; shake well twice a day for at least a week. This is good for rheumatism, pains in head and stomach. Take from ten drops to a teaspoonful, in sugar and water.
TAR SYRUP.--One gill tar, one pint wheat bran, half pound loaf sugar, and two quarts water. Dose, wine glass full three times per day, for cough and consumptive complaints.
RUPTURE PLASTER.--One part fresh buckthorn, bruised, and two parts fresh cranes bill; blend by bruising in a mortar; spread on leather and apply; wear a truss or bandage; this must be occasionally changed and worn three months.
INDIAN TURNIP.--Pulverize it fine, two ounces loaf sugar or sugar candy, half ounce flour sulphur; mix and let the patient take a teaspoonful three times a day, dry, if possible, if not, in any vehicle the most palatable, molasses, &c. Use in all lingering, or beginning of pains of a consumptive nature, such as pain in the breast, weak appetite, and slow circulation of the blood; where there is any cough, whether loose or tight, add half ounce pulverized bloodroot. I can testify by experience that this is good, not only for the young, but particularly for the aged, it is better than all the tinctures in the world, as it creates action and warms the blood. Either of the ingredients can be omitted, if disagreeable.
FOR CONSUMPTIVE PERSONS.--Two ounces aven root, half ounce wild turnip, one skunk cabbage ball, masterwort and ginseng, half ounce each, and one ounce sugar candy; mix one tablespoonful, and boil in one quart water; add one pint new milk; two teacupsful of this chocolate to be taken night and morning; bathe with cold or tepid water every morning, if the patient can bear it; walking is the best exercise.
CANCERS.--A cancer under the eye was cured by the patient drinking one quart of tar water daily, and apply a plaster and mutton tallow, melted together; this cured a cancer of twenty years standing, in two months; mix black pepper, burnt alum, and honey, equal parts, and use as an ointment; the last I would not recommend to be used but a few times--rather use bloodroot, daily.
DYSENTERY, OR RELAX IN CHILDREN.--Take equal parts good vinegar and hens’ eggs, and beat them well together; mix in wheat flour, stiff as common dough; bake this moderately, then pulverize; give one teaspoonful of the powder three times a day; mix with the above powder, hens’ gizzards, pulverized.
BATHING WITH OX GALL.--In gout or pains, heat a shovel, mix a little vinegar and pour on; bathe the parts affected with the steam. In all pains, never use any local application, without taking some warming medicine internally, if but a little red pepper; it is not essential to give alcohol in any form; a little carminative, such as pulverized mandrakes, or angelica seed, ought always to be on hand.
ANTI-BILIOUS POWDERS.--One pound jalap, two pounds Alexandria senna, one pound peppermint; let these all be pulverized, then mix, after sifting fine; for a grown person, a teaspoonful in a cup full of boiling water; then cool, sweeten it and drink; no harm if two teaspoonsful are taken. I would advise the patient to take three anti-bilious pills the night previous. This medicine can be taken at all times.
TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE HAIR.--Mix equal parts olive oil, spirits rosemary, and bloodroot.
WEAKNESS.--Acorns are good for weaknesses; make into coffee.
ANTI-SCROFULOUS PLASTER.--One gill tar, two yolks eggs roasted inside, and one puff ball; simmer over a slow fire, spread on thin leather, and apply.
ULCER ON THE LEG.--Wash the ulcer twice a day, night and morning, with one pint of weak lime water, and apply a poultice over the sore, twice a day, made of blood root and beth root, finely pulverized and mixed with honey; in case the leg is swelled, apply a poultice of slippery elm bark, every night.
Give a wine glass full of my cleansing syrup, morning, noon and at bed time, and drink, as a common beverage, the following: take a handful each of cherry bark and princes pine, put them into two quarts boiling water, and let it steep well; then strain. Abstain from spirituous liquors and salt meats.
CANCER.--Take the powder of dry yellow dock root, wet with port wine and put it on the cancer, renewing it three times a day; make your daily drink a decoction of one handful of yellow dock root, bruised, and a handful of the bark or buds of black alder, boiled in four quarts of rain water to the consumption of two quarts.
PROLAPSUS UTERI.--Take one ounce each of white oak bark, beth root, crowfoot roots, and rose leaves; boil the whole in four quarts of water, down to two; strain the decoction, to which add a pint of port wine, and two ounces of powdered alum, while it is warm. The patient must first take a dose of castor oil, and, after its operation, must foment the part four or five times a day, with a flannel dipped in the decoction as warm as it can be held in the hand. In order to prevent a relapse, the patient must wet the parts twice a day with warm water, in which a spoonful of salt has been dissolved, and keep the bowels open by a dose of castor oil once a week, using salt water bath twice a week.
RUPTURE OF THE TESTICLES.--Three years ago, a Canadian, who had been laboring under a large swelling of the testicles, and been given up as incurable, made application to me. The surgeons had held consultation over him, and agreed that he must be castrated, but he would not comply. Upon examination, I found it to be a sarcocele, or fleshy tumor of the testicles, and therefore resolved to attempt the cure by discutients. I first cleansed and purified the blood from humors and mercury, and applied the following cataplasm, or poultice, over the scrotum: take every-night two handsful of goose-grass, or cleavers, in two quarts of cider vinegar; foment the swelling with flannel wet in the vinegar, for the space of fifteen minutes, then bind the leaves over the tumor. Anoint it frequently, every day, with the following ointment: take the scrapings of a powder horn, and the inner bark of rose willow, pound it fine, and wet it well with brandy; apply through the day.
HIVES IN CHILDREN.--Dissolve twenty grains of bitter root in six teaspoonsful of warm water, and give the child, according to age--from six months to a year old, one to two teaspoonsful of the infusion; if it does not operate in fifteen minutes, give the child a little warm camomile tea, in order to cleanse the stomach; after the operation, give it, according to age, a little poppies of syrup, in catnip tea. Give the child, until well, the following: take one ounce of dragon’s claw root, ten grains of bitter root, and a quarter of an ounce of mandrake root; pour on all these one quart of boiling water, and let them steep four hours; stir frequently, then strain; give from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful every four hours, until well; give always according to age.
SYRUP FOR WORMS.--Take six ounces of fresh bark of black alder, eight ounces of dry buck-horn plantain, and three ounces of unicorn root; boil the ingredients in four quarts of water, down to two; strain the decoction, to which add two quarts of molasses, and boil it away to the consistency of syrup. Children from two to four years of age, may take from three to four teaspoonsful of the syrup, morning and evening, for three days before both the full and change of the moon, which will carry away the worms, and stop the fever. Adults may take a wine glass full, morning and evening, for three days respectively, before both the full and change of the moon.
TO CREATE AN APPETITE.--Dissolve two tablespoonsful of bay salt in half pint of warm rain water, and add one ounce of rectified spirits of salts. Dose--a teaspoonful, in a wine glass of cold water, before breakfast and dinner. This will excite the appetite, without vomiting, and increase the urinary discharge.
TO CLEANSE THE BLOOD FROM MERCURY.--Put four ounces, of the powdered root of may apple into one gallon of metheglin; dissolve four ounces of Epsom salts in a quart of the liquor, made warm, and mix all together; shake the vessel frequently, and let it stand for a week. The patient may take a wine glass full of the above liquor, once or twice a day, according to its effects.
Take the leaves and roots of skunk cabbage, of each eight ounces, bruise in a mortar, and boil them in two pounds of hog’s lard, for four hours; then press it through a hair sieve or canvas, and mix in it one ounce of pulverized roll brimstone. The parts affected must be rubbed with this ointment, before the fire, for ten minutes every night and morning, and covered with flannel, using the warm bath twice a week, in the spring of the year. After all the pains are removed, the patient may use tonic medicines, such as fine Columbia root, and ten grains of the rust of iron, three times a day. Use the salt water bath twice a week, in the months of June and July, and have moderate exercise on horse-back, in order to brace the solids.
OINTMENT.--Take pitch pine knots, and saw them into dust; then boil the dust in water; when well boiled, skim off the turpentine, and strain the water; then put in equal parts of rue, saffron, sage and camomile; boil the strength out, strain the liquid, and put in fresh butter.
BLACK JAUNDICE.--Take a handful of the leaves of artichoke, bruise, put them in an earthen pot, and pour three pints of good ale on them; set the pot near the fire, for two days; strain the liquor, to which add a quart of Tenerife wine. The patient, if costive, must take a wine glass of this syrup every morning, for nine mornings, first taking a dose of anti-bilious pills.
SEVEN YEARS’ ITCH.--Take four ounces each of white hellebore and yellow sharp pointed dock root, and two ounces of elecampane root; bruise them in a mortar, and boil them in four quarts of water, down to two; strain the decoction, and while warm, dissolve one ounce of cura sal-amoniac in the wash; wet the parts with a linen rag, dipped in the lotion, every night at bed time, and take a teaspoonful of cream of tartar and flour of sulphur, in molasses, twice a day for three days, by which time the itch will be cured. This is a more cleanly method than using greasy ointments, and is an infallible and safe cure. Put on clean linen and sheets the fourth night, to prevent a relapse.
CORNS ON FEET.--To keep the feet in proper condition, they should be frequently soaked and well washed; at these times, the nails of the toes should be pared, and prevented from growing into the flesh. Corns are the most troublesome evils connected with the feet; they are of two kinds, soft and hard. The soft corns are those which grow between the toes; they may be easily removed by applying ivy leaf, steeped in vinegar; if the corn be very painful, change the ivy leaves every morning; the leaf may be steeped for one or two days before using.
PLEURISY.--Drink freely of soot tea, half a pint of hot tar water every hour, or a strong tea of nettles, and the leaves pounded and applied as a poultice, every day; at night, apply the white of an egg, mixed with sulphur.
WEAKNESS.--Half pound spikenard root, half pound Solomon’s seal, quarter pound tamarac bark, and quarter pound lungwort; boil in one gallon rain water ten minutes, then let them steep six hours; strain, and add half pound loaf sugar and half pint best Holland gin. Take a wine glass full three times a day.
LOSS OF APPETITE AND DEBILITY.--Take one pint of white pine bark, tamarac bark, and spikenard root, and one ounce spruce gum; boil all together in three quarts and a half rain water, fifteen minutes, then strain and add half pint molasses; boil six minutes, then let it cool. Drink half a teacup full morning and evening; if there is no heat, add half pint best brandy.
SMALL POX.--Make a warm tea of saffron and catnip, and give the patient; immerse the feet in weak ley, and wash the body or surface three times a day.
Give also the follow ing: take one ounce mandrake, ten grains bitter root, four grains blood root, ten grains sassafras bark, and half ounce Turkey rhubarb; put all into one quart boiling water, and let them steep four hours; stir frequently, then strain. Give a child one year old, a teaspoonful four or five times a day--to others, according to age and constitution.
Bathe the head with tepid vinegar and water; if the throat is sore, gargle with sage and hyssop, sweetened with honey; when excessive restlessness prevents the rising and filling of the pox, give a teaspoonful of the syrup of poppies, in a little catnip tea, every five or six hours; and if purple spots appear among the pox, give yeast inwardly, and apply strong poultices to the feet.
COUGH OR WHOOPING COUGH.--Take one ounce each colt foot, St. John’s wort, spikenard, elecampane root, and mullen leaves; let them boil half an hour slowly, then add half an ounce Indian physic, or American ipecacuanha, pulverized; stir often, and steep for four hours; then squeeze, strain, and add one pint of pure honey. Give as often as required, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful. It will loosen the phlegm and heal the lungs, is very sudorific, and good for all coughs or colds.
INJECTIONS.--Take weak thoroughwort tea, one pint milk, half pint molasses, and half a wine glass full oil--olive oil is generally used, but hen’s oil is equally as good; for a child, use less. This is excellent in fevers, inflammations, &c.
ASTHMA.--Ether, tincture of castor, and opium, equal parts; mix all together, and take a teaspoonful when the symptoms appear, as often as required.
PLEURISY.--Drink freely of wind root (otherwise called lung root or pleurisy root), and make a syrup of the following: take one ounce each wild cherry bark, white ash bark, poplar bark and red ozier bark, and half ounce each culver root, sassafras bark and mandrake root; put all in three quarts warm water, boil ten minutes, then steep three hours; strain, and bottle. Drink a wine glass full mornings, and half a teacupful at bed time.
SPITTING BLOOD.--Take four ounces fresh comfrey root, the same quantity fresh burdock root, two ounces red willow bark, one ounce parsley, and two ounces yarrow tops; boil these ingredients in four quarts water and one quart new milk, to the consumption of three quarts; strain it, and take one gill of this decoction, well sweetened with loaf sugar, three times a day.