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"Not Now Dear, I've got a Headache" |
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Dealing with Aches and Pains |
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Living in a damp and cold environment meant living with the aches and pains of rheumaticism and arthritis, and every Canadian magazine or almanac, abounded with suggestions for dealing with the discomfort.
Massaging the affected area with a lotion made from saltpetre, vinegar and new rum, or a good stiff drink of Canadian balsam after every meal, would have you up and about in no time. |
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Another suggestion was to wash with cucumber juice, but if the pain was severe enough, you simply had to soak a piece of flannel in vinegar, place it over the ache and apply a hot iron. Heck, you could even get your shirt pressed at the same time. |
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For pains of the jaw or teeth: kerosene, cayenne pepper, alcohol, oil of cloves, opium or chickweed juice. Headaches were cured by applying a mustard plaster to the back of the neck, dropping cold water from a great height onto the patient's head or administering a stiff drink (as much as half a glass) of raw rum or gin. You may still have had your headache, but no longer cared, and if there was ever a good excuse for drinking...that darned headache you woke up with the next morning.
But, if you were inflicted with a Nervous Headache, you did not get off so easy. Search Lights on Health 1894, had this suggestion: "The Medical Record is authority for the statement that 'nervous headaches may be cured by the simple act of walking backward ten minutes. It is well to get in a long narrow room where the windows are high and walk slowly, placing first the ball of the feet on the floor, and then the heel. Besides curing the headache, this exercise promotes a graceful carriage'."
The same book had a few other suggestions for dealing with pain. |
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SICK HEADACHE - Take a spoonful of finely powdered charcoal in a small glass of warm water to relieve a sick headache. It absorbs the gasses produced by fermentation of undigested food. |
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NERVOUS DISABILITY, HEADACHE, NEURALGIA, NERVOUSNESS -
Fluid extract of skullcap, 1 ounce.
Fluid extract valerian (herb with small pink and white flowers) , 1 ounce.
Fluid extract catnip, 1 ounce.
Mix all. Dose from 15 to 30 drops every two hours, in water; most valuable.
Also compressed tincture of cinchona (quinine from tree bark), in teaspoonful dose in a little water, half hour before meals.
ANOTHER EXCELLENT TONIC -
Tincture of gentian, 1 ounce.
Tincture of Columbia, 1 ounce.
Tincture of Collonsonia, 1 ounce.
Mix all. Dose, one tablespoonful in one tablespoonful of water before meals. |
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TREATMENT FOR CRAMP - Whenever friction can be conveniently applied, heat will be generated by it, and the muscles again reduced to a natural condition; but if the pains proceed from the contaction of some muscle located internally, burnt brandy is an excellent remedy. A severe attack which will not yield to this simple treatment may be conquered by administering a small dose of laudunum or ether, best given under medical supervision. |
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SPRAINED ANKLE OR WRIST - Wash the ankle very frequently with cold salt and water, which is far better than warm vinegar or decotions of herbs. Keep the foot as cool as possible to prevent inflammation, and sit with it elevated on a high cushion. Live on a low diet, and take every morning some cooling medicine, such as Epsom salts. It cures in a few days.
CHILBLAINS, SPRAINS, ETC. - One raw egg well beaten, half a pint of vinegar, one ounce spirits of turpentine, a quarter of an ounce spirit of wine, a quarter of an ounce of camphor. These ingredients to be beaten together, then put in a bottle and shaken for ten minutes, after which, to be corked down tightly to exclude air. In half an hour it is fit to use. To be well rubbed in, two, three, or four times a day. For rheumatism in the head (?), to be rubbed at the back of the neck and behind the ears. In chilblains this remedy is to be used before they are broken. |
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FOR NEURALGIA - Tincture of belladonna, one ounce; tincture of camphor, one ounce; tincture of armica, one ounce; tincture of opium, one ounce. Mix them. Apply over the seat of the pain, and give ten to twenty drops in sweetened water every two hours. |
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GOUT - Half an ounce of nitre (saltpetre); half an ounce of sulphur, half an ounce of flour of mustard, half an ounce of turkey rhubarb, quarter of an ounce of powdered gualcum. Mix and take a teaspoonful every other night for three nights, and omit three nights, in a wineglassful of cold water which has been previously well boiled. |
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E-MAIL ME |
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