WARNING!!   The following 'recipes' are provided here for historic value and entertainment purposes ONLY!   DO NOT use any of them!

HEAL SORES OR CRACKS IN THE SKIN OF MAN OR BEAST: Use pine tar to Coat the sore area well to keep off insects and promote healing.

SLACKED LIME: dust on animal cuts to seal injured area and promote healing.

FOREIGN OBJECT IN THE EYE: Drop a flax seed into the eye. The particle in the eye will stick to the flax seed and the flax seed is easy to see and remove.

COUGH REMEDY: 2-3 drops of kerosene on a tsp of sugar.

COUGH REMEDY: Equal parts of oil of peppermint, friars balsam and tincture of red lavender. Mix and use drop by drop on a tsp. of sugar to alleviate the condition.

COUGH SYRUP:
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp glycerin
juice of 1 lemon
Mix well and use when needed.

CANKER AND COLD SORES: Collect the berries from wild rose bushes and make a tea from them. (These berries may be picked and dried for winter use.) Drink a little of this when you feel a canker or cold sore coming and it should clear up.  A little pot ash daubed on a cold sore will also clear it away.

SUNBURN AND STEAM BURNS: Sprinkle area with vinegar.

DYSENTERY AND DIARRHEA: Take a liberal amount of black pepper on a tsp and cover this with thick cream and take this to relieve the situation.  Toast bread until almost burned pour boiling water over this. Drink the brown water for diarrhea.

PIONEER LINIMENT: Beat one egg slightly and measure the beaten egg. Add to the egg the exact amount of turpentine as egg and the exact amount of apple cider vinegar as the egg. Mix altogether well and store in a covered jar. This is very good for Arthritic and Rheumatic pain.

HONEY: Honey has been used through the years to cure many things. Taken internally, it has been known to relieve arthritis. Externally it is good first aid for wounds and burns. Bacteria will not live in honey.

BURN SALVE: This recipe is from 1860

1 tea cupful lard
1 tea cupful mutton tallow
1 tea cupful olive oil
beeswax the size of an egg
resin the size of an egg
2 tsp carbolic acid

Dissolve all ingredients on the stove except the olive oil and carbolic acid, which you add upon removing from the heat. Mix well and store in covered jar.

FLU OINTMENT: An early Lethbridge druggist, J.D. Higgenbotham, made this ointment for the flu epidemic of 1918.

2 large jars white Vaseline
2 oz. turpentine
1/4 oz. menthol crystals
2 cakes of camphor gum
1/3 oz. oil of peppermint
1/4 oz. eucalyptus
1/4 oz. oil of wintergreen

Melt and mix well over low heat and store in covered jars.

BLACK CURRANT TEA: (An infallible remedy for a sore throat)

1 Tbsp black currant jam or jelly
juice of half a lemon
1 pint boiling water
sugar to taste

Simmer altogether for 15 min. the hotter you are able to drink the tea the better.


Hygiene and Household Recipes & Hints for the Toilet Source: The Ladies' New Medical Guide, 1890

GREASY TIN & 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.

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.

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.

MOTH PREVENTION: 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 & 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.

BRICK CLEANING: 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.

HAIR OIL: 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.

POMADE FOR 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.

LINEN PERFUME: 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.

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....

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.

FEVER THIRST: 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.

BALDNESS: 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)

CHAPPED LIPS: Earwax


Properties and Uses of Vegetables from Inquire Within, 1858

CATNIP: for diaphoric or sweating nature.

HOARHOUND: excellent in a cough, or stoppage in the stomach.

WHITEROOT: for removal of wind pent in the stomach, or part of the bowels.

FIRE RETARDANT: 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.

AVOIDING COLDS: 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."

DIARRHEA AND 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.

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.

FROST BITE: 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.

FAINTNESS: Effusion of cold water on the face, stimulants to the nostrils, pure air, and the recumbent position, afterwards avoidance of the exceiting cause.

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.

HAIR OIL: 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.

NAIL WHITENER: 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.

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.


From The Young Housekeeper’s Friend, 1846

APPLE TEA: Roast sour apples and pour boiling water upon them. Drink it when cold.

FEVER DRAUGHT: Put a few sprigs of sage, balm and sorrel into a jug, having first washed and dried them. Take off the yellow part of the rind of a small lemon; remove the white, slice the lemon and put it into the jug with part of the peel; pour in three pints of boiling water, sweeten it and stop it close.