Part 41 (1/2)

This retains its strength for years, and is useful to take a few drops at a time for the colic; it is also valuable to apply with sugar to a cut or wound.

Cure for Bites.

Use equal quant.i.ties of resin soap, brown sugar, and powdered resin, worked well together, with a few drops of mola.s.ses. A poultice of onions, sa.s.safras, or bread and milk may be used with advantage. For mosquito bites, apply spirits of hartshorn and camphor.

For Scurvy of the Gums.

Take a quarter of an ounce of bark, and a piece of new lime the size of a hazle-nut; put them in a bottle with half a pint of water; wash the mouth with this three times a day.

For an Infant's Sore Mouth.

Make a strong sage tea; put in a little bark and borax or alum, with honey to sweeten it; cork it up in a vial, and wash the child's gums with it three times a day, using a fresh rag every time.

For Affection of the Kidneys.

Boil some onions soft, mash, and apply them where the pain is seated.

This has given great relief.

For a Gathering on a Finger.

Mix together equal parts of castile soap and chalk; wet it with camphor, and bind it on, or dip the finger in honey and camphorated spirits, as hot as you can bear. A little burnt alum put on lint is good; also a bread and milk poultice, with pounded sa.s.safras root stewed in it, and renewed frequently. Honey and camphor mixed is useful for gatherings that have been of long standing.

Take of the following ingredients a tea-spoonful each: black pepper powdered finely, ginger, spirits of camphor, laudanum, and honey; beat them well with the yelk of an egg, and thicken with rye flour, or if you cannot obtain rye, corn and wheat flour mixed will answer; this will form a soft poultice, and should be applied in sufficient quant.i.ty to keep moist, and changed once a day. I have known this to cure several gatherings that threatened to be severe.

Huxham's Bark Tincture.

Take two ounces of bark, three drachms of Virginia snake root, one ounce of orange peel, and one quart of good spirits; set it in a warm place, and shake it daily for two weeks; then pour it off, and add a pint more spirits to the ingredients.

This is very useful to take, when recovering from the ague or bilious fever, or in the fall of the year; when these are apprehended, take two tea-spoonsful a day, before breakfast and dinner.

Wine Bitters for Debility, &c.

Take two ounces of chamomile flowers, two of centaury flowers, one of iron filings, and an ounce and a half of Jesuit's bark; put these in two quarts of good wine, and set it in the sun three days, shaking; it frequently. Half a wine-gla.s.s of this taken, twice a day, with water, is useful in cases of debility, where there is no fever.

Chamomile, and wormwood teas, are both excellent tonics, as is also wild cherry tree bark, made in strong tea, and taken cold.

Spice Wood Berries.

Boil in a pint of new milk, a table-spoonful of bruised spice wood berries. This has a very healing effect in cases of dysentery, and summer disease in children.