Digestive system

For wind

Two ounces of rhubarb. Shred it very thin and infuse it in a pint of white aniseed water for forty-eight hours and then measure off a spoonful and half as a moderate dose. If thought too strong, it may be diluted with peppermint water.

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For the piles

Take equal parts of balsam and sulphur, oil of turpentine and ointment of tobacco. Incorporate them and anoint the part.

Mrs GT

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For indigestion

Rhubarb: 4 grains
Ginger: 3 grains

These are to be made into a pill and swallowed in a cup of wine every day after dinner.

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Worm powder

Rhubarb, senna pods, hartshorn, and wormwood powder of each in equal quantity, powdered and sifted. Take care they are all powdered as fine as possible. Keep it in a jar, close-topped for use. You are to give as much of this powder as will lie on a shilling. Let it first be taken for three nights successively and then repeat it from time to time. As you may find occasion for a little child or weakly person, use at first as much as will lie on a sixpence and gradually increase the quantity.

Mrs Mary French

For every kind of lax

Twenty grains of Hyppo and twenty grains of cloves powder and mix them with syrup of cloves or of rhubarb. Make it into four pills and take two at night and two in the morning. If that does not cure, repeat it. For children, make this quantity into twelve or sixteen according to their ages.

Mrs GT

Coughs and throats

For a dry asthma

For a strong grown-up person, ten grains of saffron grounded and made into a pill by mixing with any liquid. Two taken when going to bed.

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A gargle for a putrid sore throat

Forty drops of spirit of sea salt, one ounce of honey of roses, eight ounces of barley water.

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For a cough

A large teacup of honey clarified by putting it into a saucepan of water and letting it remain while the water boils until all the scum is off the honey and it becomes quite clear. Then add to the honey two drops of elixir of vitriol and as much boiling water as will make it pleasant to the taste and light to the stomach. This quantity ought to be taken in twenty-four hours at different times and also to be kept warm by the fire.

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For a cough

A quarter pound of white sugar candy and the same of conserve of roses and ditto of best raisins stoned. Pound and mix all those well together and then add forty drops of spirit of sulphur and like of spirit of vitriol. Mix these well. Make the size of a nutmeg. Morning and evening when the cough is troublesome.

For a dog’s cough

An ounce of brimstone ditto of cold-drawn linseed oil, ditto salt petre. Divide it into four pieces. Give one every other day. 

One spoonful of honey every day is also good for a dog’s cough.

Liver and gall bladder

For the jaundice in children

Pound two handfuls of clean dried currants with half an ounce of good powder of rhubarb until it comes to the consistence of an unction Let the child take about the size of a small nutmeg every morning for several days together.

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Retention of bile and to cure other liver complaints

Try chervil with hogs lard and apply it very hot to the navel, shifting it if necessary once or twice.



For the same: about a spoonful at a time of bruised mustard used in any convenient vehicle.

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A certain cure for the stone or gravel (in the bladder)

Sir. A son of mine now in his seventh year was born with a stone in his bladder, attended with all the symptoms of that dreadful disorder. In vain, with the most eminent of the faculty and the most estimable solvents tried, in this hopeless situation a friend recommended the following remedy which was strictly adhered to for five weeks before relief appeared: the stone then disappeared and gradually discharged itself accompanied with a large quantity of mucilaginous matter. In about six weeks more the cure was perfected. For the benefit of mankind in general, I submit this case to their perusal that the unhappy may receive the advantage of a cheap, easy and efficacious (remedy) and doubting your readiness to insert the same, any enquiries will be readily answered by your humble servant. 

J.C.S.

Take a large handful of fibres of garden leeks. Put these to two quarts of salt water. Let them be close-covered and simmer gently over the fire to reduce to one (quart). Then pour it off and drink a pint in the course of the day, divided morning, noon and night. This is a sufficient quantity for a man or woman.

Skin, hair & bones

For rheumatism

Mix fifteen drops of laudanum and ten grains of Hyppo in water and take it going to bed and repeat it every fourth hour if it sweats violently.

Dr. J Butler

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For chapped hands

The yellow of three eggs, two spoonfuls of brown sugar, two spoonfuls of brandy, two of sweet oil, one ounce of spearmint, one ounce of spermaceti and as much beeswax. Give all these a boil or two and as it grows cold mix it with two ounces of Naples soap.

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For the teeth

Take one ounce and a half of pink rose; one ounce of orris root; half ounce of cream of tartar; half ounce of cuttlefish bone; two drachms of burnt alum; one drachm of cinnamon. Reduce all these ingredients to a fine powder and sift them in through a very fine sieve of muslin. 

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For a cancer - especially of lips or gums

Procure a copper vessel, newly tinned. Pour a certain quantity of olive oil into it. Boil over a small fire, sufficient to keep it gently agitated. And so for three times in twenty-four hours. With this the oil resolves itself to the consistency of an ointment. By constantly rubbing the part effected, the cure is effected in fourteen days. Nothing else is needed.
NB: the vessel must be newly tinned.

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Accidents & injuries

For burns and scalds

Beat lime water and oil with a spoon ‘til thoroughly incorporated and anoint the burn with this on a feather twice a day. This mixture may be kept in a bottle ready for any sudden emergency.

Decoction of walnut leaves for sores, burns, and fresh wounds

Fill large iron pot with walnut leaves in July or August when they are come to their full strength. When filled to the top, press them down, continuously adding more leaves until the pot will contain no more. Then take a large knife and cut the leaves to the very bottom adding spring water ‘til it runs over. Put it on the fire and let it stew. Boil for twelve hours. It must be watched and stirred often with a stick to prevent it from burning and the vessel must be covered with glass. When quite cold strain and bottle or barrel it for use. This will cure all bad sores, burns, scalds, fresh wounds. It is good for the healing of cancer.