Part 144 (1/2)

Avoid purgatives or strong physic, as they not only do no good, but are positively hurtful. Pills may relieve for the time, but they seldom cure.

Powdered resin is the best thing to stop bleeding from cuts. After the powder is sprinkled on, wrap the wound with soft cotton cloth. As soon as the wound begins to feel feverish, keep the cloth wet with cold water.

Eggs are considered one of the best remedies for dysentery. Beaten up slightly, with or without sugar, and swallowed, they tend by their emollient qualities to lessen the inflammation of the stomach and intestines, and by forming a transient coating on those organs, enable Nature to resume her healthful sway over the diseased body. Two, or at most, three eggs per day, would be all that is required in ordinary cases; and, since the egg is not merely medicine, but food as well, the lighter the diet otherwise, and the quieter the patient is kept, the more certain and rapid is the recovery.

Hot water is better than cold for bruises. It relieves pain quickly, and by preventing congestion often keeps off the ugly black and blue mark. ”Children cry for it,” when they experience the relief it affords their b.u.mps and bruises.

For a sprained ankle, the whites of eggs and powdered alum made into a plaster is almost a specific.

MEDICINAL FOOD.

Spinach has a direct effect upon complaints of the kidneys; the common dandelion, used as greens, is excellent for the same trouble; asparagus purifies the blood; celery acts admirably upon the nervous system, and is a cure for rheumatism and neuralgia; tomatoes act upon the liver; beets and turnips are excellent appetizers; lettuce and cuc.u.mbers are cooling in their effects upon the system; beans are a very nutritious and strengthening vegetable; while onions, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots, all of which are similar, possess medicinal virtues of a marked character, stimulating the circulatory system, and the consequent increase of the saliva and the gastric juice promoting digestion. Red onions are an excellent diuretic, and the white ones are recommended raw as a remedy for insomnia. They are tonic, nutritious. A soup made from onions is regarded by the French as an excellent restorative in debility of the digestive organs. We might go through the entire list and find each vegetable possessing its especial mission of cure, and it will be plain to every housekeeper that a vegetable diet should be partly adopted, and will prove of great advantage to the health of the family.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

HOUSEKEEPERS' TIME-TABLE.

| MODE OF | TIME OF | TIME OF | |PREPARATION| COOKING |DIGESTION| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | H. M. | H. M. | Apples, sour, hard |Raw | | 2 50 | Apples, sweet and mellow |Raw | | 1 50 | Asparagus |Boiled | 15 to 30| 2 30 | Beans (pod) |Boiled | 1 00 | 2 30 | Beans with green corn |Boiled | 45 | 3 45 | Beef |Roasted |[A] 25 | 3 00 | Beefsteak |Broiled | 15 | 3 00 | Beefsteak |Fried | 15 | 4 00 | Beef, salted |Boiled |[A] 35 | 4 15 | Ba.s.s, fresh |Broiled | 20 | 3 00 | Beets, young |Boiled | 2 00 | 3 45 | Beets, old |Boiled | 4 30 | 4 00 | Bread, corn |Baked | 45 | 3 15 | Bread, wheat |Baked | 1 00 | 3 30 | b.u.t.ter |Melted | | 3 30 | Cabbage |Raw | | 2 30 | Cabbage and vinegar |Raw | | 2 00 | Cabbage |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 30 | Cauliflower |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 2 30 | Cake, sponge |Baked | 45 | 2 30 | Carrot, orange |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 15 | Cheese, old |Raw | | 3 30 | Chicken |Frica.s.seed | 1 00 | 3 45 | Codfish, dry and whole |Boiled |[A] 15 | 2 00 | Custard (one quart) |Baked | 30 | 2 45 | Duck, tame |Roasted | 1 30 | 4 00 | Duck, wild |Roasted | 1 00 | 4 50 | Dumpling, apple |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 00 | Eggs, hard |Boiled | 10 | 3 30 | Eggs, soft |Boiled | 3 | 3 00 | Eggs |Fried | 5 | 3 30 | Eggs |Raw | | 2 00 | Fowls, domestic, roasted or |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 00 | Gelatine |Boiled | | 2 30 | Goose, wild |Roasted |[A] 20 | 2 30 | Lamb |Boiled |[A] 20 | 2 30 | Meat and vegetables |Hashed | 30 | 2 30 | Milk |Raw | | 2 15 | Milk |Boiled | | 2 00 | Mutton |Roast |[A] 25 | 3 15 | Mutton |Broiled | 20 | 3 00 | Onions |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 3 00 | Oysters |Roasted | | 3 15 | Oysters |Stewed | 5 | 3 30 | Parsnips |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 00 | Pigs' Feet |Soused | | 1 00 | Pork|Roast |[A] 30 | 5 15 | Pork |Boiled |[A] 25 | 4 30 | Pork, raw or |Fried | | 4 15 | Pork |Broiled | 20 | 3 15 | Potatoes |Boiled | 30 | 3 30 | Potatoes |Baked | 45 | 3 30 | Potatoes |Roasted | 45 | 2 30 | Rice |Boiled | 20 | 1 00 | Salmon, fresh |Boiled | 8 | 1 45 | Sausage |Fried | 25 | 4 00 | Sausage |Broiled | 20 | 3 30 | Soup, vegetable |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 00 | Soup, chicken |Boiled | 2 00 | 3 00 | Soup, oyster or mutton |Boiled |[B]3 30 | 3 30 | Spinach |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 2 30 | Tapioca |Boiled | 1 30 | 2 00 | Tomatoes |Fresh | 1 00 | 2 30 | Tomatoes |Canned | 30 | 2 30 | Trout, salmon, fresh, boiled or|Fried | 30 | 1 30 | Turkey, boiled or |Roasted |[B] 20 | 2 30 | Turnips |Boiled | 45 | 3 30 | Veal |Broiled | 20 | 4 00 | Venison steak |Broiled | 20 | 1 35 |

[Footnote A: Minutes to the pound.]

[Footnote B: Mutton soup.]

The time given is the general average; the time will vary slightly with the quality of the article.

MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES.

USES OF AMMONIA.

All housekeepers should keep a bottle of liquid ammonia, as it is the most powerful and useful agent for cleaning silks, stuffs and hats, in fact cleans everything it touches. A few drops of ammonia in water will take off grease from dishes, pans, etc., and does not injure the hands as much as the use of soda and strong chemical soaps. A spoonful in a quart of warm water for cleaning paint makes it look like new, and so with everything that needs cleaning.

Spots on towels and hosiery will disappear with little trouble if a little ammonia is put into enough water to soak the articles, and they are left in it an hour or two before was.h.i.+ng; and if a cupful is put into the water in which clothes are soaked the night before was.h.i.+ng, the ease with which the articles can be washed, and their great whiteness and clearness when dried, will be very gratifying.

Remembering the small sum paid for three quarts of ammonia of common strength, one can easily see that no bleaching preparation can be more cheaply obtained.

No articles in kitchen use are so likely to be neglected and abused as the dish-cloth and dish-towels; and in was.h.i.+ng these, ammonia, if properly used, is a greater comfort than anywhere else. Put a teaspoonful into the water in which these cloths are, or should be, washed everyday; rub soap on the towels. Put them in the water; let them stand half an hour or so; then rub them out thoroughly, rinse faithfully, and dry outdoors in clear air and sun, and dish-cloths and towels need never look gray and dingy--a perpetual discomfort to all housekeepers.

A dark carpet often looks dusty soon after it has been swept, and you know it does not need sweeping again; so wet a cloth or a sponge, wring it almost dry, and wipe off the dust. A few drops of ammonia in the water will brighten the colors.

For cleaning hair-brushes it is excellent; put a tablespoonful into the water, having it only tepid, and dip up and down until clean; then dry with the brushes down and they will be like new ones.

When employed in was.h.i.+ng anything that is not especially soiled, use the waste water afterward for the house plants that are taken down from their usual position and immersed in the tub of water. Ammonia is a fertilizer, and helps to keep healthy the plants it nourishes. In every way, in fact, ammonia is the housekeeper's friend.

Ammonia is not only useful for cleaning, but as a household medicine.

Half a teaspoonful taken in half a tumbler of water is far better for faintness than alcoholic stimulants. In the Temperance Hospital in London, it is used with the best results. It was used freely by Lieutenant Greely's Arctic party for keeping up circulation. It is a relief in nervousness, headache and heart disturbances.