Chapter II: Part 2

This is opening and strengthening, and is a sure cure for yellow jaundice: Take as much madder as you can hold in a tablespoon, twice as much hoarhound, and snakehead, and half an ounce of mandrake; put this into three pints of boiling water, keep it warm ten hours, then strain, and add three tablespoonsful of white ash bark; put all into a bottle and shake it well; drink half a wine glass full in half a tumbler full of water.

PRICKLY ASH TEA.

Make this tea by steeping prickly ash bark in hot water; take it three times a day before eating.

GOOSEBERRY.

The leaves and berry are good in all cases of inflammation, being of a cooling nature; they were much used in the olden time, for coughs, and in salves.

TAMARACK.

I use the bark in all my syrups, as it is cleansing and quickens the circulative action.

HEMLOCK.

This bark is excellent in all colds, to be used as a steam bath. It will break up a fever, and by taking a teaspoonful of powdered mandrake root, internally, it will remove the fever, and probably save fifty dollars doctor’s bill. It is good, internally and externally. The tincture is very warming, and good to bathe the back and loins, when weak or painful. Always take few drops on sugar, internally, before bathing. Remember, never bathe with any tincture without taking something internally, it may injure you for life.

CHICKWEED.

This will be found good in all poultices for sores.

SPIKENARD.

Every one is well acquainted with this root; it is balsamic and healing; I generally use it for coughs and general debility.

MALE FERN.

This root is a great vermifuge; I have used it with success for exterminating the tape worm; and is in no wise dangerous, which cannot be said of some vermifuges. Always administer a brisk cathartic after drinking a decoction of this root, once a day for three days; then give the vermifuge for three days, then a cathartic, and so on for nine days, and all worms will be expelled, both from the stomach and bowels. To be taken before eating.

SWEET FERN.

How little is known of this shrub, yet all know it by its beautiful smell. For any derangement of the womb, there is nothing better: Take five roots of this shrub and boil in two quarts of water, down to one, and when cool strain; then add one gill of Holland gin. Take half a wine glass full in the morning, and a wine glass full at bed time. This is a good remedy in all weaknesses, especially for children having weak bones, or are troubled with scrofula, or any tumors; also, for those who cannot hold their water, or have weak bowels.

BITTER SWEET.

This plant rises eight or ten feet in hight, and entwines around trees the same as a vine; flowers in loose clusters, always turning against the sun; the carolla is composed of one petal, wheel shaped, and divided at the bottom or border into five pointed segments, which are bent back; purple prominences, like dots, surround the rim of the carolla, from the nectary; the yellow anther making a beautiful contrast; the flowers become bright red; berries something similar to currants, and are of a bitter, sweet taste. This climbing shrub grows common in low grounds and marshes. The dulcamara is a powerful and useful medicine; it increases all the secretions and excretions, excites the heart and arteries, and is also beneficial in all cutaneous effections, rheumatism, scirrhus swellings, ill-conditioned ulcers, scrofula, whites, jaundice, and obstructed menses. Cancers of the breast have been cured by the application of the juice to the cancer, and the green leaves applied to the breast.

PREPARATION.--Boil half a pound of the bark of the bitter sweet in eight quarts of spring water to the consumption of one gallon; a gill to be taken three times a day; it is also good in fevers. The patient ought to take a dose of sal glauber once a week, while using the medicine.

COMFREY.

This well known, useful plant, rises about two feet in hight; leaves very large, similar to water dock; roots long, thick as a man’s thumb, very mucilaginous, and are black externally and white within; flowers of a pale blue color. It grows in moist meadows, near springs, and is planted in gardens for family use. The roots are inspissant and demulcent, having the same virtues as marsh mallow; they correct salt sharp serum, heal erasions of the intestines in diarrhœa and dysentery, and prevent the spitting of blood; bruised and applied to ruptures, externally, they have proved beneficial.

PREPARATION.--Take four ounces of the fresh roots, or three of dry, four ounces of burdock root, two of red rose willow bark, one of parsley, and two of yarrow tops; boil these ingredients in four quarts of water and one of new milk, to the consumption of two quarts; strain and sweeten it with loaf sugar. A gill of this decoction, taken three times a day, will cure the recent clap in a few days, using the tormentil injection, elsewhere directed. It is also beneficial in curing the fluor albus, or whites, in weakly females. The roots, boiled in milk, are good for fluxes, dysentery, and ardor of urine. Take two ounces of dry comfrey root, bruised, and one ounce of tormentil root, boil them in three quarts of water down to two; strain it and add a pint of brandy, with four ounces of powdered loaf sugar dissolved in it. A gill may be taken by adults, and a tablespoonful by children, four times a day, in cases of dysentery, diarrhœa, or flux.

FOX GLOVE.

The stalk is erect, tapering, and is four feet in hight; leaves large, oval, shady, wrinkled and veined, growing on short winged foot-stalks, downy underneath; the lacteas attendant on the flower stalks are small, spear shaped and sessile; the flowers, always on one side, are purple, bell shaped, marked internally with little dark colored spots, placed in whitish rings, and long hairs defend the entrance of the tube, hence no insects ever approach this flower. The flower stalks vary in length; at first they depend like the flowers, afterwards becoming erect, when they elevate a two-celled capsule, containing many blackish seeds.

This most elegant plant is raised in gardens, and is an exotic plant; flowers in July, and seeds in September. It would take a small volume to describe all the virtues which different authors have ascribed to its various qualities; however, as it is a dangerous medicine in the hands of the unskilful, I will give a few descriptions of its qualities, with directions how it may be used with safety in families.

PREPARATION.--Take of the dried bruised leaves of fox glove four ounces, powder of masterwort root one ounce, leaves of rue and wormwood, each, two ounces, elecampane and comfrey root bruised, each, two ounces, lungwort and wild cherry tree bark, each, one ounce; put all the ingredients into a new gallon earthen pot, and pour one gallon of boiling rain water on them; cover the pot and set it near the fire, on hot ashes, for twelve hours; after which strain the liquor through a linen cloth and add four quarts of honey, and let it stand near the fire twelve hours longer; then strain the liquor and put it in bottles for use. In all consumptive and asthmatic complaints, the patient may take a tablespoonful of this balsam three or four times a day, in a tea cupful of the following tea: put one ounce of skunk cabbage root and half an ounce of wild cherry tree bark in a tea pot, and pour boiling water on it, and use it daily; the dose may be increased from a tablespoonful to a wine glass full three times a day.

SENNA.

This plant rises from two to four feet in hight, resembling a shrub, and sending out hollow, woody stems; leaves in alternate order, compound, composed of several pairs, oval, pointed and nerved pinnæ, of a yellowish green color; flowers yellow, forming a spike consisting of five petals; the pod is curved and short. It grows in Canada, along the Ottawa river, in great quantities. It has been customary to reject the pedicles of the leaves of senna, but this is mere prejudice, for both leaves and pedicles act in the same way. The American senna operates milder than the senna that is imported, but it must be given in a larger dose.

Pour a pint of boiling water on eight drachms of American senna, and put a teaspoonful of ginger, or the powder of masterwort root, to it; let it stand in the pot for fifteen minutes for use; sweetened, with milk in it, it will prove a mild purge without griping. Children may take one or two teacupsful twice a day. Adults may take a desert-spoonful of the powder, with a teaspoonful of ginger, night and morning. As a safe and gentle purge, the following electuary is an excellent laxative for loosening the bowels of persons of costive habits: Take of senna leaves, powdered, six ounces, masterwort or ginger, one ounce, pulp of French prunes one pound, pulp of tamarinds two ounces, molasses one pint and a half, essential oil of caraway two drachms; boil the pulps in the molasses to the consistence of honey, then add the powders, and when the mixture cools put in the oil, and mix the whole intimately. Dose, a teaspoonful twice a day.

AVENS.

This plant rises a foot in hight; root fibrous, very pleasant and aromatic; leaves large and lyre shape; stalks upright and hirsute; flowers yellow and terminal. It is a perennial plant, and grows wild in the uncultivated fields of New Jersey and the New England states. Flowers from June to July; the roots are fibrous, of a dark red color externally, and white internally; has the flavor of cloves, with a bitterish, astringent taste. The large roots are preferable to the fibrous ones, which must be dug up in April, cut into thin slices and dried in the air as quick as possible. After being pulverized, sift the powder through a hair sieve and put it in bottles, well corked, for use. It is a good febrifuge, and is really an excellent substitute for the Jesuit bark in the cure of intermittent fevers, dysentery, chronic diarrhœa, wind colic, effections of the stomach, asthmatic symptoms, and cases of debility.

PREPARATION.--After the patient has taken a puke of the American ipecacuanha, and the fever is off, a teaspoonful of the powder may be administered every hour until the fever is broke, then use my stomach bitters, mentioned in this work, in order to prevent a relapse. Take of aven root two ounces, arum root half an ounce, (in powder,) skunk cabbage balls, in powder, half an ounce, gentian and masterwort, each half an ounce, sugar candy one ounce; mix one tablespoonful of these powders and boil them in one quart of rain water and one pint of new milk, for an hour. In all debilitating complaints, or beginning consumptions, the patient may take two teacupsful of this chocolate morning and evening, sweetened with loaf sugar, and ride out every day two hours before dinner.

GARDEN PÆONIE.

This plant rises two feet in hight; leaves cut into lobes which are oblong, or if pinnated, terminate by an odd pinnæ; capsules, two; oblong hirsute, and crowned with a stigma. It grows plentifully in the gardens throughout the United States. The seed is imported from Switzerland; it is noted for its virtues in the cure of epilepsy, and fits in children. The root must be dug in March, dried and pulverized, and kept in bottles, close corked, for use. Adults, subject to epilepsy, may take a desert-spoonful of the powder four times a day, in a teacupful of bitter sweet tea, made as follows: Pour a quart of boiling water on an ounce of the bruised dry bark of bitter sweet, taken from off the roots, and sweeten the tea with sugar; give to children, two years old, ten grains of the powder four times a day, in molasses, and wash it down with the bitter sweet tea. Apply the bruised roots to the soles of the feet when going to bed.

RECIPES.

FOR SORE THROAT, STOMACH, OR BOWELS.--Take of the inside bark of slippery elm, dried and powdered fine, one teaspoonful, and same quantity of brown sugar; pour in a little cold water and stir till mixed; then add a little warm water. Take a teaspoonful once an hour. For a poultice, it may be mixed with powdered crackers, or ginger, equal quantities of each, which is excellent for burns, scalds, &c. It will also remove inflammation, or pain in the eyes.

BUTTERNUT FOR BLISTERS.--Take the green shell of the nut, or the bark of the root, powdered; keep it moist while applying it. It is much better than Spanish flies.

FOR PHTHISIC.--Steep the leaves of white cedar; drink a gill three times a day.

FOR LOCKJAW.--Soak the part affected in ley.

FOR WORMS.--Steep sweet flag and wild turnip together. Take wild aloe leaves, (Indian hemp,) powder them and sweeten with molasses; tea good for children.

Make a syrup of equal quantities of the twigs and buds of balm of gilead, the same of white ash, and molasses; boil them together, and add a little spirits; it may also be made into pills.

A GOOD SALVE.--Steep princes pine till the strength is out; add fresh butter or mutton tallow; simmer till the water evaporates.

COMPOSITION.--Take 1 lb. bayberry root, ½ lb. inner bark of hemlock, ½ lb. ginger, 2 oz. cayenne pepper, 2 oz. cloves; mix, pound fine and sift.

AN EMETIC.--Take butternut bark, from the body and roots: boil till the strength is out; then strain and boil down sufficient to make into pills. They operate as an emetic, or cathartic.

Nervine is also good for a puke; with, or without boneset, it is an excellent remedy for a fever, in the first stages.

NERVE OINTMENT.--Take of bitter sweet bark two parts, of wormwood and camomile equal parts; moisten with warm water, and add some animal oil; simmer over a slow fire ten hours; then strain and add 1 oz. spirits turpentine to each pound of ointment; to be used for bruises, sprains, callouses, corns or swellings.

GOOD SALVE.--Take 1 lb. beeswax, 1 lb. salt butter, 12 oz. balsam fir; simmer together and strain; this is excellent for burns and scalds, after the inflammation is out.

INJECTION.--Burdock seeds soaked in water.

DYSENTERY.--Take rhubarb and nutmeg, on going to bed.

Strawberry leaves and roots are good in cases of dysentery, inward inflammation, or for derangement in monthly courses. A syrup made of the berries, is good for jaundice; a decoction from the leaves and roots, will cure sores, inflamed eyes, and humors in the skin.

EYE WASH.--Take one pint of ripe strawberries and put them into a quart bottle with half a pint of good rum, fill it up with rain water; then place it in a bed of horse-dung for one week. This will make a good wash for inflamed eyes.

MALLOWS.--An excellent remedy for phthisic, and for effections of the chest. Also good as a syrup, when ladies expect to be confined; if costive, they will be much benefited by a frequent use of the tea. The juice, mixed with boiled oil, is good for all tumors, scurf, dandruff, sores on the head, scalds, burns, St. Anthony’s fire, and all feverish and painful swellings. The blows, boiled in water, adding a little alum and honey, will cleanse and heal sore mouth or throat. A tea, made of this, is good for hoarseness, coughs, shortness of breath, gravel and dysentery.

CONSUMPTIVE COUGH MIXTURE.--Take one tablespoonful of good tar, three ditto of honey, three yolks of eggs, half a pint of good wine; beat the tar, eggs, and honey well together, then add the wine; dose, a teaspoonful three times a day. Make a tea of barley, and drink frequently.

GRAVEL.--Heart’s Ease is good.

WORMS.--A decoction made from witch hazel, or spotted alder bark, scraped off downward, is a good remedy.

Take sage, pounded fine, put in milk, sweetened with molasses, to which add a little alum, is good to turn worms.

RHEUMATISM.--Princes pine, horse-radish, elecampane, wild cherry, mustard seed, a small handful of each; one gill of tar, one pint of brandy; let it stand three days, shaking it often. Dose, two tablespoonsful three times a day.

HECTIC COUGH.--Take one pint of barley, one pound of turnips, four ounces of elecampane, three quarts of water; boil to one pint, and then add one pound of honey or loaf sugar, and half a pint of brandy; dose, one tablespoonful three times a day.

CANADA THISTLE--Blows or roots, are good for dysentery and piles.

SICK OR NERVOUS HEADACHE.--Take half a pint of white pine bark, half a pint of hemlock bark, one gill of sassafras bark, taken from the root, one gill black cherry bark; dry these and pulverize them to a powder; put them into two quarts of good brandy, and take a tablespoonful three times a day, thirty minutes before eating.

MOTHERWORT--Is good in all female complaints, trembling at the heart; a few of the leaves, powdered, and a small tablespoonful taken in wine, helps women in travail, and prevents suffocation; it is also good for cramps when females have taken cold.

THOROUGHWORT.--The leaves of this plant, steeped in rum, is a good remedy for all kinds of bruises; the expressed juice of the leaves, with butternut oil, makes a useful pill; the blows, steeped with leaves of the nervine, make a good vomit.

NETTLES--Made into syrup, is good when sweetened with honey, to free the passages of the lungs, which is the cause of phthisic, and is also good for swelling of the almond of the throat; cleanses and helps the palate, heals inflammation, soreness of the mouth and throat; steeped in wine, it will assist those about to be confined, and help prevent all diseases arising therefrom. In severe colds, grind the tops and roots together, and mix with gum mastic, to be applied outwardly. The seed is good for worms; a strong tea made of it, and taken frequently, is good for the gravel; as a wash it is excellent for wounds, bruises, burns, and will relieve the skin from leprosy. The seeds and leaves, pulverized, and rubbed into the nose, will cure the polypus. An ointment made of the juice, neatsfoot oil, or hen’s oil, and beeswax, is good to rub cold and benumbed limbs. Take a handful of the leaves, and the same of walnut leaves, pound to a pulp, and apply as a poultice in rheumatic effections. The mashed leaves are good to stop flooding.

GROUND MOSS--Is a first rate cure for gravel, as it dissolves and carries it away with the urine. It grows in shady places, at the bottom of hollows. Boiled in water, it is good in inflammations, and cures the gout and rheumatism.

Tree mosses are cooling and binding, partaking of a mollifying quality. Each moss partakes of the nature of the tree on which it grows: that which grows on the oak is the most binding, and is good for fluxes, puking, and bleeding; powder them, and, taken in wine, good in profuse flowing. As a tea, good for dropsy; steeped in vinegar, good for headache caused by heat; used in ointment, good for shrunk sinews.

Moss, taken from the maple tree, is good, sweetened with honey, for a bad cough, and for consumptive persons.

FOR A RELAX.--Take equal parts of beeswax and mutton tallow, mix and simmer in molasses; give a tablespoonful warm to a grown person, reducing the dose for children.

RHEUMATIC OINTMENT.--Stramonium leaves, or juice, and poke root; add hogs’ fat and tallow.

A POULTICE FOR RHEUMATISM.--Elecampane roots and burdock roots and leaves, put on hot, will cure rheumatic affections in a few days. Inwardly, use a tea made of smartweed, adding a very little black cohosh. Great care must be taken in using black cohosh, as an overdose is very dangerous. Those unacquainted with its properties should use the smartweed alone.

Poke root and spikenard make a good poultice; must be put on hot and often.

BALSAM OF LIFE.--Gum benzoin, 4 oz.; gum storax, 3 oz.; socatrine aloes and gum myrrh, each, 1½ oz.; angelica root and johnwort tops, each, 2 oz.; pound all together; put them into three pints of rectified spirits of wine, and let it stand four weeks; keep warm, shaking it every day, strain and it is fit for use; thirteen or fourteen drops to be taken in a spoonful of wine. This balsam is good for all in consumptive complaints, weakness, whooping cough, pain in the side; to be taken morning and evening.

SALT RHEUM.--One pint yellow dock root, boil till the strength is out, strain and add one pint spirits turpentine, one pound fresh butter, four ounces burgundy pitch, two ounces mutton tallow, two ounces beeswax, for summer use, (for winter, use only half the quantity of mutton tallow and beeswax.) Simmer together three hours, stirring it all the time; do not let it burn.

RHEUMATIC PLASTER.--White beech bark and hemlock bark, each, one bushel, tamarack bark half a bushel; cut these fine and boil till the strength is out, then strain; to this add one gill white pine turpentine, and boil down till thick enough for a plaster, and apply.

SPRAINS AND BRUISES.--Use beefs’ brine and roman wormwood; boil half an hour; when cool bathe the parts affected.

TOOTHACHE DROPS.--One ounce sweet spirits nitre, one ounce alum, together; wet with lint or cotton and put into the tooth.

SUPPRESSION OF MENSES.--Gum myrrh, sulphur, steel filings, loaf sugar, each, four ounces; pulverize and simmer in a quart of wine, and when dry make into pills, or take half a teaspoonful of the powder three times a day.

DROPSY.--Take Canada thistle root, stone root, dwarf alder, mountain lettuce, tops and roots queen of the meadow, trumpet weed, equal parts of each; boil in two quarts of water down to one; after it is strained add half a pint of juniper berries, and one pint of Holland gin.

DIABETES.--Take of beth root, black cohosh, cranesbill, equal parts, and pulverize; to a tablespoonful of the powder add a pint of the boiling water, and drink in the course of the day.

Take spikenard and Solomon’s seal, equal parts, bruised; to an ounce add one quart of wine; a wine glass full to be taken three times a day, and eight grains of diaphoretic powder at bed time.

INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS.—_Injection_: One pint of slippery elm, one pint of milk, one gill of olive oil, half a pint of molasses, one drachm of saleratus, half an ounce of laudanum; administer this injection blood warm, to foment the parts. Take drinks made from tanzy, hoarhound, wormwood or hops; they are cooling and demulcent, or slippery elm, flax seed, and barley water tea, or clear whey.

INCONTINENCE OF URINE.--Hemlock, wild cherry tree bark, bayberry bark, pulverize, add water sufficient to make a strong tea. Take twenty drops of balsam copaiva in a tumbler of beth root tea.

Peach leaves are good for bloody urine.

TO STOP VOMITING.--Bicarbonate of potash one drachm, mint water eight ounces; give a teaspoonful as occasion may require.

INFLAMMATION OF THE LIVER.—_Symptoms_: A dull pain in the right side and top of the shoulder. Tincture of lobelia may be given two or three times per week.

INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS.--To produce perspiration take the following: One ounce spirits nitre, half an ounce balsam copaiva, one ounce spirits turpentine, half a drachm each of oil of sweet almonds and gum camphor; give a teaspoonful three or four times a day.

VOMITING OF BLOOD.--Sugar, alum whey; drink a tea made from beth root, and black cohosh, and use anti-dyspeptic pills to keep the bowels in order. Also, the restoration cordial; apply strengthening plaster to the pit of the stomach.

DROPSY OF THE CHEST.--First, take two drachms of digitalis plant, divide into twelve powders of ten grains each; after this, add fourteen tablespoonsful of boiling water; take one tablespoonful every hour, or two every two hours.

2d. 3 grains mandrake, night and morning.

3d. Bathe the stomach and abdomen night and morning with precipitate ointment.

4th. Drink an infusion of parsley tea.

Let the diet be light and nutritious.

BLEEDING AT THE NOSE.--Dried beef, pulverized, and snuff up the nose.

CRAMP IN THE STOMACH.--Ten drops oil of hemlock; camphor, peppermint, laudanum, and apply hops to the stomach.

DROPSY.--Take common whortleberries, dried and bruised, four ounces, and add a small quantity of boiling water. Likewise, mandrake, cream tartar, peppermint plant, equal parts; of this powder give a large teaspoonful every few hours until it operates; drink freely of a decoction made from spearmint, parsley, elder flowers, dandelion roots and tops; give capsicum pills.

TO RELIEVE SPASM.--Steep angelica seed; for an injection take of this infusion one pint, to which add one teaspoonful of salt, one gill of olive oil, one gill of molasses, and one pint of milk.

ANTI-BILIOUS PILLS.--Equal parts of butternut and white ash extract; to one pound of this extract add three ounces of aloes, two ounces of gamboge, two ounces canker violet, three ounces of American ipecac, two ounces nerve powder, two or three ounces of poplar bark and cloves; make into pills of ordinary size; dose, from two to five, to be increased or diminished as the condition of the patient may require.

COMPOUND MANDRAKE POWDERS.--Mandrake, spearmint, and cream tartar, equal parts; mix them well; dose, a teaspoonful, in tea or syrup. Useful in diseases of the liver, dyspepsia, obstructed menses, dropsy, and every taint of the system. Take the above every other morning; gum pills to be taken at night.

SOUR STOMACH.--Three parts of pulverized beth root and one of pearlash, mixed and ground well together; take half a teaspoonful in liquor or cider--cider is the best. Or, steep bitter root and add princes pine, pulverized.

ACID COUGH DROPS.--One pound sumach berries, four ounces elecampane, one ounce skunk cabbage, half an ounce blood root, one ounce cayenne, boil in one gallon of vinegar, and when the strength is out add three pounds of honey. Use this syrup as the judgment of the patient, or the occasion, may require. To be taken in asthma, quinsy, whooping cough, common colds, sore throat, canker in the throat and stomach, catarrh, and any other difficulty in the head or throat caused by colds.

_Directions._--Take from one teaspoonful to a tablespoonful several times a day; children, or grown persons, troubled with any kind of a cough should take it whenever the cough is severe, by day or night. Children may take half the quantity given to adults. This has cured when all other remedies have failed.

MEASURES.--Tea-cupful, four fluid ounces, or a gill.
Wine glass, two fluid ounces.
Tablespoonful, half a fluid ounce.
Teaspoonful, one fluid drachm.

VEGETABLE OINTMENT.--To one gallon neatsfoot oil add one pound of bitter sweet root, (dried and pounded fine,) half a pound of camomile flowers, pounded fine, half a pound of wormwood, pounded, one ounce of cayenne pepper, one quart brandy; add two ounces spirits turpentine to each pound. To be used outwardly for callouses, swellings, bruises, tightness of the sinews, stiffness of joints, &c.

VEGETABLE COUGH POWDERS.--Hoarhound, pulverized, four ounces; lobelia, one ounce; fire herb, one ounce; cayenne, two ounces; elecampane, two ounces; skunk cabbage and ladies’ slipper, one ounce; thoroughwort, pulverized, one ounce; mix in molasses. Take a teaspoonful morning, noon and at bed time, or at any time the cough is troublesome.

INFLAMMATIONS, FELLONS AND FEVER SORES.--Take of catnip, hearts of mullens, wormwood, mayweed and double tanzy, each two double-handsful; boil them in six quarts of water with one pint of soft soap, till the strength is out, then steam the parts affected, and cover close with a blanket for fifteen or twenty minutes. Immediately afterwards bathe the parts with the following: half a gill of spirits, half an ounce of gum camphor, a tablespoonful of laudanum, the marrow of three hogs’ jaws, simmer together; rub the swelling downward, and apply a poultice, for which take of dandelion roots, hearts of mullens, catnip, each one handful, boil in milk and thicken with flour; after the swelling breaks, apply a salve made of one handful English clover, a lump of rosin as big as a walnut, half a pound sheeps’ tallow, one handful bitter sweet berries, stewed over a slow fire; apply the salve two days. To cleanse the sore of proud flesh, use a salve made of equal parts of charcoal, loaf sugar, and red precipitate, pulverized.

EXTREME CASES OF RELAX.--Beeswax, mutton tallow and molasses, equal parts of each; melt these together, and while warm give a child a teaspoonful three times a day, a grown person a tablespoonful.

GOUT.--One quart beefs’ gall, one gallon gin, one gallon molasses; take a wine glass full in the morning, half an hour before eating, and the same at bed time.

ANTI-EMETIC DROPS.--Take a cup of cider vinegar and add a teaspoonful each of fine salt and cayenne pepper, put them into a bottle and shake well. Take from a half to a whole teaspoonful of the mixture and put it into a cup full of cold water; take a tablespoonful until the vomiting ceases. This has cured in all cases. I have known this to stop vomiting when four of the most skilful physicians had failed. This should be kept in every body’s house; it is a good wash for poison, the bite of bees, and is good to bathe all pains.

FAMILY VEGETABLE PILLS.--One pound fine poplar bark, one pound sweet bugle, one pound thoroughwort, eight ounces wormwood, boil them as thick as molasses, and add two ounces cayenne pepper, two ounces golden seal, two ounces bitter root, two ounces extract butternut, one ounce lobelia, two ounces aloes; you may have all these made into a fine powder and mix with molasses. Take three to seven every night on going to bed. They are good to remove costiveness, headache, pains in the stomach and bowels, to help the digestion, and to remove wind from the stomach and bowels. Children may take half the quantity.

SCIATICA, OR HIP JOINT GOUT.--Take one pint linseed oil, half pound red lead, four ounces white lead, put these into an earthen vessel, and simmer over a slow fire, stirring it constantly. Apply this to the joints, and in case of toothache apply a little in the joints of the jaw and under the ear.

FAMILY PHYSIC.--Take mandrake root and butternut bark, each half a pound, boil them in half gallon water to one pint, to which add one pint old Jamaica rum, and one pint molasses; one tablespoonful to a grown person, and a teaspoonful for a child.

MOTHER’S RELIEF.--Take two pounds of partridge berry vine, half pound high cranberry or cramp bark, half an ounce unicorn root, quarter of a pound of blue cohosh or pappoose root, one pound each of flax seed and red raspberry leaves; let as many as possible of these articles be green, and all well pulverized; boil them in three gallons of water two hours, and then strain off and continue to simmer till reduced to a gallon and a half, then add four pounds of loaf sugar and half a gallon of good Holland gin.

_Directions._--Take half a wine glass of this three times a day, for several weeks before confinement. It will invigorate the constitution, the mother will pass the time with little danger, and will be less liable to take cold _after_ confinement. This medicine should be taken by every mother. Use, also, occasionally, a drink made from a handfull of slippery elm, boiled in a quart of water.

COUGH POWDER.--Take elecampane, licorice root and seneca, half ounce of each; powder them fine and mix them with a pound of honey; Dose, a teaspoonful three times a day. Life root tea, or crosswort, princes pine, or life-everlasting, to be continued, is best. Life root, if given too freely, will debilitate so rapidly as to lay dormant all the functions of life; use it with caution where the patient is feeble. Nourish your patients with whatever they require or fancy; oat meal is healing and salutary.

MEDICAL COFFEE--Is good in cancerous or scrofulous habits, or where mercury has been improperly used. Take avens root, sweet cicely, and spikenard, four teaspoonsful twice a day, boiled in coffee water, or wine, with milk and sugar to suit the palate.

DROPSY ON THE BRAIN.--Take physic, first, of vegetable pills, and then apply deadly nightshade, pounded fine or soft, to the top of the head; this removes the pain and soreness. Take life root tea, express the juice of Irish daisy, (cultivated in flower pots in most gardens,) let the patient lay with his head very low, and pour a spoonful of this juice in the nostril every morning. Bayberry bark snuff, taken at night, operates ten or twelve hours after. I have known the juice of dwarf alder answer the same purpose.

INSANITY, OR MELANCHOLY.--Deadly nightshade, as above.

SALT RHEUM AND SCALD HEAD.--Take two tablespoonsful of powdered culver root, one tablespoonful of sulphur, and the same of ginger; mix them well together. To an infant, one year old, give a teaspoonful in molasses, or in any other suitable way, four days successively, then omit giving the medicine for two days; continue thus until all is taken. Make an ointment of rosin and hogs’ lard. After the physic has been administered four days, apply the ointment, washing the parts with castile soap suds daily. Make a syrup of hyssop and let the patient take freely while using the above.

_Remarks._--In all cases of putrefaction, or danger of the same, give strong spikenard tea sweetened with honey, add a little brandy and apply the same externally; sarsaparilla with it, is cooling. Wash the body with hot vinegar and water; make a decoction of black snake root and sage, and give a teaspoonful once in ten minutes until the effect is answered. To promote perspiration in fevers, epidemics, &c., bathe the feet in weak lye.

ANTI-BILIOUS PHYSIC.--Bitter sweet, tied around the neck.

DROPSY.--Take eight ounces dwarf alder bark, boil it in a gallon of water to two quarts, add half a pint of gin and sweeten with honey or molasses. Dose, a gill three times a day.

Another, take three handsfull of water cresses, four of white onions, boil them in three pints of water; then strain and add honey and gin. Dose, a wine glass full three times a day.

DIGESTIVE MEDICINE.--Take tartar emetic, blood root and lobelia, six grains each, salt petre, fifty grains. It is highly diuretic, and adapted to all cases of gravel, &c. In back and liver complaints, give a mild cathartic, or salts, twice a week.

ANTI-SCORBUTIC BITTERS--To purify the blood, which strengthens the nervous system, creates an appetite, and guards the stomach against infectious diseases.

_Preparation_: Take one ounce of the bark of the roots of white wood, one ounce of butterfly root (white root), two ounces of black Indian hemp, two ounces of angelica root or seeds, four ounces black snake root, four ounces tamarack bark; add prickley ash bark in cold cases. Powder them and mix well.

_Directions._--Infuse one tablespoonful in pint of spirits three days, then strain it, and take from one to three teaspoonsful in a glass of wine half an hour before dinner.

FOR THE ASTHMA.--Use the lobelia as above directed three days; then boil goose grease and honey equal parts, one pint; add a tablespoonful of the lobelia and white root powder, and a tablespoonful of wild turnip powder; strain after being sufficiently boiled. Dose, a teaspoonful three times a day, or offener, for three days. Dip a piece of flannel in hot goose grease and apply it to the lungs or throat, where the greatest stricture is, for two nights, or more if necessary; after using the honey and grease two days, take a teaspoonful of the digestive medicine in two tablespoonsful of water, half at a time, to loosen the mucous. Next morning take a portion of anti-bilious physic; continue the other medicines, and take a portion of primhedge once a week till cured. Tobacco is accounted hurtful for asthmatic people; the smoking of juniper berries, or stramonium seeds, is recommended, and taking bay berry root, or catarrh snuff.

Digestive medicine is prepared thus: Take as much tartar emetic as will lay on the handle of a teaspoon, twice that of blood root, the same of lobelia, and one teaspoonful of saltpeter, to one pint of water; this corrects the stomach in every case of oppression, and promotes expectoration and respiration; promotes rest and breaks up fevers. Dose--a teaspoonful in a wine glass of water; take a tablespoonful every three hours until relieved.

_Remarks._--For putrid or common sore throat, and quinsy. Make a gargle thus: take sumach berries when sour, black snake root, and sage, equal parts; boil strong to a pint; add two teaspoonsful of saltpeter, and sweeten with honey or molasses; gargle often, and swallow a spoonful at a time. If the throat or tongue swells, boil nanny bark in a little water, and bind it hot around the throat once an hour, chewing the same. Bittersweet ointment will allay all heat and swelling. Anti-bilious physic--first in all fevers; primhedge, to restore strength to the patient and regulate the bowels.

OINTMENT FOR SORES, BOILS, &c.--Use the parsley ointment.

WEAK EYES.--One stalk and three buds lobelia, in spring water; use twice a day.

SWELLED RED EYES.--Sweet cicely and red rose leaves; simmer slowly, and laid on the eyes, will restore the sight, and remove all swelling and inflammation, if by poisonous bite of spiders, &c.

FOR WITLOWS, FELONS, BOILS, SWELLED HANDS, &c.--Make a thin Indian meal poultice, bind in it equal parts of catnip and mullen leaves; boil soft, and apply it warm.

ANTI-BILIOUS PHYSIC.--A sovereign remedy for all bilious, autumnal, putrid, spotted, and yellow fevers, agues, and diseases in children, sore throat, and consumptive cases. It acts in bilious cases as a vomit, then as a cathartic; promotes prespiration and rest. One dose is sufficient in any case. For gravel and dysentery it is invaluable.

_Preparation._--Take eight ounces of powdered jalap, two ounces coriander seed, two ounces of blood root, one ounce of cassia, three ounces mandrake root, three ounces culver root, and one grated nutmeg; infuse the whole in one gallon of old brandy for twelve days, shaking it every day, and filter for use.

_Directions._--Dose--for an adult, one ounce, or a common wine glass full, upon an empty stomach; if it does not operate as a vomit in ten minutes, take half a glass full more of the physic; if a vomit is necessary, drink plenty of warm tea and thin water gruel every hour, to aid the operation. For an infant two months old, two teaspoonsful; give it the breast, or warm tea. In any inflammable complaint, a glass of lemon or lime punch, will check the operation, if too long continued. Guard against taking cold. If pains in the head accompany the disease, bathe the feet in warm water, and wash the body in warm vinegar and water, in all cases of putrid and yellow fevers.

TO PRESERVE FRUIT.--All kinds of fruit which you wish to keep fresh--such as grapes, peaches, pears, quinces, &c., should be gathered carefully, and the stems broke off at full length; then have a vessel of sealing wax, and dip the end of the stem which you broke off from the tree or vine into it, and lay them carefully in a cool, dry place, and they will keep for months, and not wither.

TO MAKE ESSENCES.--All kinds of essences in general use, can be made by putting one ounce of the essential oil in one pint of alcohol; half an ounce of the oil of cinnamon, cloves and tanzy, is sufficient, to three half pints of alcohol; you can reduce the others after the oil is cut or dissolved, by putting in whiskey, which is preferable to alcohol.

POLYPUS, OR FUNGUS OF THE GUM.--This disease is essentially hypertrophy of the gum, arising from mechanical irritation. If a tooth decay on one side, below the level of the gum, leaving a sharp margin in contact with the gum, a tumor frequently forms from it, spreads into, and partially fills up the hole of the tooth, or the vacancy between the two decaying teeth; the tumor is usually composed of dense fibrous tissue, covered with epithelium, and is almost insensible unless ulcerated, when it becomes very painful. If the tumor be removed, it will grow again and again, unless the tooth be extracted, when it will suddenly disappear. The tumors show, on dissection, an undulating surface of fibro-cellular tissue, covered by a thick layer of epithelium.

The best application for this troublesome state of the gum is sulphate of copper, applied every day or two.

SORE, OR RED EYES.--Soft maple bark.

ANTI-BILLIOUS FEMALE PILLS.--Take two ounces mandrake root, two ounces gamboge, two ounces blood root, two ounces lobelia, pulverized fine; mix and moisten with molasses, and make into pills of common size; take from two to three pills every night. They are good for a relax, dysentery, rheumatism, jaundice, or female obstruction.

RHEUMATIC POWDER.--One ounce Virginia snake root, two ounces white pine bark, two ounces prickly ash, pulverized together, put into two quarts of water, and boil to three pints. Dose, one gill three times a day.

FOR DYSENTERY.--A strong tea made of black cherry bark and rhubarb, sweeten with loaf sugar, and add a little brandy. A grown person should take a tablespoonful every fifteen minutes; younger persons in proportion to age.

HEALING SALVE.--Take one pound each of rosin and beeswax, two ounces mutton tallow, one ounce gum camphor, one ounce tincture myrrh; melt the rosin, beeswax and tallow together, then add the camphor, previously finely pulverized; strain, return it clear into the kettle, and when it is again well mixed add the tincture of myrrh, and stir them well together; then turn it into cold water, and work it like wax. This is likewise a good strengthening plaster, and one of the best healing salves in use.

RELAX IN CHILDREN.--Take wine vinegar and hens’ eggs, equal parts, and beat them well together; mix in wheat flour stiff as common dough; bake this moderately. Give one teaspoonful of the powder three times a day. Mix with the above powder a little powder of hens’ gizzards, the skin of the gizzard only.

TAR WATER.--One gallon of water, one quart of good tar; shake well for ten minutes, and let it stand four days, then bottle it up; for pleurisy, palsy, scrofula and salt rheum, drink warm every three hours. In fact, it is good for consumptive and debilitated females.

CLEANSING AND STRENGTHENING SYRUP.--Take equal parts of spikenard, spruce, sage, sarsaparilla, tamarac, garden rhubarb, elder roots, the bark of burdock roots, aven roots, wintergreen (such as bears the small red berry and grows low), water cresses, white Solomon’s seed, Johnwort, sweet egrimony, princes feather, swamp brake or plenty root, one pound of raisins, two ounces saffron; put all into an earthen pot, adding four quarts of water, and cover close; let them stand six hours to soak, then add three quarts of water; boil all together, and keep hot nine hours, then strain and add one pound of loaf sugar; boil six minutes, let it cool and then add half a pint of the best brandy. Take a wine glass full morning, noon and at bed time; take it one hour before eating. At the same time drink a tea made from white maple bark, (some call it whistle-wood); drink freely.

INDIAN BEER.--Take five quarts of spring water, one quart of wheat bran, half pint of good tar, half pint of honey; simmer these three hours over a slow fire, in an earthen pot, and when cool add half pint of emptyings; when worked, drink a wine glass full three times a day, or less, as the patient can bear.

EYE WATER.--Take three pints of rain water, to this add one tablespoonful of fine salt; boil lightly three minutes, and put it into bottles without straining; let it stand, and put into the eyes night and morning.

FOR THE DROPSY.--Make a tea of poke root, sliced fine, one ounce and a half; put this into one pint of white wine, add two tablespoonsful of ground mustard seed, and let it stand twenty-four hours. Drink a wine glass full every morning.

Another: Take half an ounce of Indian hemp, and add one quart of boiling water; simmer down to one pint, and add two ounces of cream tartar, half an ounce of ginger, one tablespoonful of brown sugar. Give the patient one tablespoonful every three hours, and increase if the patient can bear it. Use it moderately as it is powerful.

COMPOSITION.--Take two pounds bayberry bark, one pound ginger, one pound pulverized hemlock bark, one ounce cayenne pepper, one ounce cloves, all pulverized; mix thoroughly and sift. It is particularly useful as a convenient family medicine in sudden colds, febrile attacks, hoarseness, sore throat, coughs, influenza, toothache, pain in the stomach, bowels, or other parts of the body, rheumatism, cold hands and feet, diarrhœa, dysentery, colic, croup, giddiness, hysteria, mumps, jaundice, worms, nervous disorders, and the various affections of the skin.

_Directions._--For a grown persen half a teaspoonful of the powder and add a little loaf sugar, rub them together and add half a pint of boiling water; drink the tea as hot as you can bear it. There is no occasion for swallowing the grounds, as is a common practice, for the strength of the medicine will be extracted by the boiling water, and the sediment can have no other effect than to clog and irritate the stomach. When the tea is taken the patient should be in bed with a warm brick at their feet, or sitting by a fire wrapped in a blanket, to create perspiration.

FOR A SCALD HEAD.--Take of hops and wood soot, four ounces each, and three pints of water; boil down to half a pint, then strain and add four ounces fresh butter; let it simmer till the water is out; use every day. Or, beef’s gall, dried to the consistence of a salve, spread on linen, and let it remain for five days; then make use of the soot ointment.

FOR DEAFNESS.--Take a turnip, wrapped in brown paper, and put it in a bed of hot ashes; when cooked take it out and squeeze out the juice, and put it in bottles. Use by putting three drops on a piece of cotton every other day.

CURE FOR SORE NIPPLES.--Take a large flat turnip, scrape out the heart of it and put into the hollow half an ounce of beeswax, a gill of train oil, and a gill of honey; set it on hot ashes for an hour, when you must pound the turnip and contents until the juice is out. Apply this to the nipples four times a day, which will surely cure.

EYE WATER.--Take fresh eggs and empty out the contents, leaving in each shell a little of the white of the egg, put into each shell ten grains of white vitrol and fill them with rose or rain water; set each shell in warm ashes to simmer for half an hour; strain the water through a piece of fine linen, and pour a gill of rose water in it; keep it in a bottle well corked. This will cure by applying it three or four times a day, and taking care not to catch cold.

CONSUMPTIVE COMPLAINTS AND INFLAMMATION CAUSED BY COLDS IN WOUNDS.--Take yellow pond lily root and boil till the strength is out, then strain and thicken with coarse wheat flour; if yellow lily cannot be had, use slippery elm or basswood bark. Cattail flag is good to make a poultice.

STOMACH TINCTURE.--Take one ounce of gentian root, half an ounce of dried orange peel, one ounce of the inside bark of white pine; put these into one pint of cogniac brandy, and in four days it will be fit for use.

FOR PILES.--Canada thistle, simmered in clear lard.

LIME WATER.--Take half a pound of unslacked lime, put it into two quarts of water, and let it stand twenty-four hours, stirring it two or three times. Take off the clear water, blow the scum aside, and take half glass full two or three times a day; if too strong, add water, or if it heats the stomach take vinegar.

TO REGULATE THE BOWELS.--Take one teaspoonful of castile soap before breakfast, and one teaspoonful after breakfast, for three days, then take gentian bitters.

HOARSENESS.--Nettle roots, powdered fine, and mixed with an equal quantity of molasses; take one tablespoonful night and morning.

INFLAMMATION IN THE EYES.--Put half an ounce of quicksilver in three pints of water, and boil to one pint; then bottle it; make a poultice of this with Indian meal, and apply under the chin; renew it when too dry.

FOR A COUGH.--Take equal parts of moss taken from white oak, white maple and white ash; make a strong tea, and sweeten with honey; this will generally cure. Take half a wine glass full three times a day, and in the night if required.

Another: Smartweed, pulverized fine, mixed with an equal quantity of molasses; take a teaspoonful three times a day.

FOR A FELLON.--Take rock salt, rolled in a cabbage leaf and pulverized, two ounces spirits turpentine; mix and apply.

VOLATILE SALTS.--Take one ounce sal amoniac, two ounces pearlash; powder them separately, then mix together, and moisten with the essence of cinnamon, or spirits of any kind; put it into a bottle and keep well corked. This is good to apply to the nose in case of faintness.

TOOTHACHE DROPS.--Take wild celendine root in powder, or wet a piece of lint with the juice, and apply it to the tooth.

FOR WORMS.--Take dry cobbs and burn them and make a powder; boil them in soft water till the strength is out; strain off the ley, and boil down very strong; give the patient a teaspoonful once an hour for three or four hours. This is very good for worms. Or make a strong tea of sumach berries of which drink a wine glass full. This will do when the patient is first attacked.

BATHING FOR ALL PAINS.--Take three ounces of the oil of lavender, three ounces sulphuric ether, one ounce of alcohol, two drachms of laudanum; mix well together, and rub the afflicted part with a piece of flannel wet with the mixture; sit by a fire and keep it warm, before going to bed.

OX GALL--Is good for the gout. Bathe the parts affected with the gall and warm it in with a hot shovel or brick. It will give prompt relief.

TO RENDER TEETH INSENSIBLE TO PAIN.--Diseased teeth have been rendered insensible to pain by a cement composed of Canada balsam and slacked lime, which is to be inserted in the hollow, or cavity, of the tooth; it will relieve instantly.

A CANCER UNDER THE EYE--Was cured by drinking one quart of tar water daily, and applying a plaster of tar and mutton tallow melted together; this cured a cancer in two months, and of twenty years standing. Or mix black pepper, burned alum and honey, equal parts, and use it as an ointment.

A NEWLY DISCOVERED CURE FOR A POLYPUS.--An elderly lady applied to me for advice, who had been afflicted for a long time with a fleshy excresence, which filled up the passage of her nose. By using the following simple prescription a cure was performed in a few days: Take half an ounce of blood root, finely pulverized and sifted, and one drachm of camomile; mix them together for a sternutatory. A small pinch of this powder is to be snuffed up the nostrils for the polypus of the nose, three times a day. The following wash, or lotion, is to be thrown up the nostrils with a syringe twice a day, until the polypus is removed: Dissolve half an ounce of powdered alum in a gill of brandy, and shake the vial until the alum is dissolved. This is a tried, safe and sure cure for polypus of the nose without the use of instruments, which subjects the patient to extreme pain and is often very dangerous.

ELIXIR PRO.--Take one quart of good spirits, to which add two ounces myrrh; let it stand in the sun four days, then add half an ounce of aloes, one ounce of saffron, and let it stand two days.

ALTERATIVE SYRUP.--Take two pounds sarsaparilla, one pound guaiacum, eleven ounces sassafras, eleven ounces alder flowers; boil together in three quarts of water, pour off, add one pint and a half of spirits and five pounds of sugar. Drink a wine glass full three times a day.

FOR A COUGH.--Take two heads of garlic, a lemon sliced, four ounces licorice, half a pint of liquor, four ounces flax seed, three pints of water, boil down to one quart, and strain; take a tea cup full on going to bed.