Tonic for the Chronic

Curing the More Serious Illnesses

Serious illnesses usually meant certain death, but the pioneering women would always give it their best shot.  Consumption was one of the worst killers, and many of our ancestors believed that it could be prevented by positive thinking and living right.  But if that failed, from The American Frugal Housewife, dated 1838: "Doses of pitch pine boiled in brandy and sweetened with sugar, or tar, egg yolks and wine to be taken three times a day."

Lockjaw, which was often fatal, was treated with a variety of poultices, including:  stewed white beans, wheat bran and vinegar, or chopped boiled onions and raw salt pork.

Even tuberculosis, also known as Phthisic,   was not considered to be beyond mother's medical know- how.  In 1850, the cure was a mixture of hen's fat and skunk cabbage juice, taken three times a day.  If the patient was experiencing lung hemorraging, frequent doses of dry salt were given and later two or three teaspoons of chloroform was thrown into their mouths.

For Smallpox, the Peerless Cookbook stated that:  "The worst case of smallpox can be cured in three days simply by the use of cream of tartar.  One ounce of cream of tartar dissolved in a pint of water, drank at intervals when cold, is a certain, never failing remedy.  It has cured thousands, never leaves a mark, never causes blindness, and avoids tedious lingering."  For Asthma, the 1851, Ladies Indispensable Assistant suggested:  "Take the root of skunk cabbage, and boil it until very strong, then strain off the liquor, to which add one table-spoonful of garlic juice to one pint of the liquor, and simmer them together.  Dose, one table-spoonful, three times a day." Or from the Every-Day Cook Book:  "Sufferers from asthma should get a muskrat skin and wear it over the lungs, with the fur side next to the body.  It will bring certain relief."

For deafness, perhaps caused by the Cure for Earrache,  the 1845 New England Housekeeper said to:  "Take a strong glass bottle, and fill it nearly full of pure clarified honey; insert the bottle into the centre of a loaf of unbaked bread, first taking care to stop it tightly, and bake the whole thoroughly in an oven.  Pour a small quantity of the honey thus treated in your ears, and protect them with the action of external air by the use of cotton." Or from the Ladies Indispensable Assistant, 1851:  "Take ants' eggs and onion juice, mix, and then drop into the ear at night, six or eight drops of warm chamber lye."

For Piles, the 1856 Improved Housewife:  "Roast, pulverize and mix the sole of an old shoe with lard or ox marrow, and apply it." Or..."Take of sulpher one ounce, hog's fat four ounces, strong tobacco juice half a pint, and simmer them together into an ointment, and apply it." To cure Stammering, from the 1854 New Household Receipt Book:  "Impediments in the speech may be cured, where there is no malformation of the organs of articulation, by perservrance for three or four months in the simple remedy of reading aloud with the teeth closed, for at least two hours in the course of each day." To expand the lungs of Public Speakers, from Mother Hubbard's Cupboard: "It has been found by the experience of many, that drinking tar-water very much deterges and opens the lungs, and thereby gives a very sensibly greater ease in speaking.  A quart of tar is to be stirred six minutes in a gallon of water; but if there be somewhat less tar, it may do as well, especially at first, to try how it sits on the stomach.  Take about one-fourth of a pint, at four times a day, at a due distance from meals.  Begin taking it in the spring for about fourteen days, and continue it for a greater length of time, as occasion may require."

Light on Dark Corners B.G. Jeffries - Toronto 1894

DYSPEPSIA CURE - (difficult or painful digestion, usually chronic) Powdered Rhubarb, two drachms; bicarbonate of sodium, six drachms; extract of gentain, three drachms; peppermint water, seven and a half ounces.  Mix them.  Dose, a teaspoonful  half an hour before meals. 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.

TO CURE DEAFNESS - Obtain pure pickerel oil, and then apply four drops morning and evening into the ear.  Great care should be taken to obtain oil that is perfectly clear. DEAFNESS -  Take three drops of sheep's gall, warm, and drop it into the ear on going to bed.  The ear must be syringed with warm soap and water in the morning.  The gall must be applied for three successive nights.  It is only effacious when the deafness is produced by cold.  The most convenient way of warming the gall is by holding it in a silver spoon over the flame of the light.  The above remedy has been frequently tried with perfect success.

Cholera and dysentery were the two great causes of death and since no one was even sure of what caused the illnesses, there was no effective cure; though many suggestions; including: From the 1838 Frugal Housewife: Certain Cures for Cholera Morbus "Black or green tea, steeped in boiling milk, seasoned with nutmeg, and best loaf sugar, is excellent for the dysentery. Flannel wet with brandy, powdered with cayenne pepper, and laid upon the bowels, affords great relief in cases of extreme distress. A spoonful of ashes stirred in cider is good to prevent sickness at the stomach. Physicians frequently order it in cases of choleramorbus."

The 1851 Ladies' Indispensable Assistant:  "Take of Cherry Rum and Brandy, each half a pint, half a pound of loaf sugar, two ounces of essence of peppermint. Dose, one spoonful two or three times a day. Bleeding from the arm, with the patient in an upright position, to the point of fainting will often cut short the disease at once." They also offer a cure for Diabetes: "In one quart of proof brandy, once ounce of spruce gum, and half an ounce of ginger.  Dose, from one tablespoonful to half a wine-glassful three times a day. CURES FOR TYPHUS The 1856 Improved Housewife:  "I have heard of typhus fever in which all hope was gone, and yet the patients recovered by yeast being given by the wine-glassful every three hours." The 1869 Housekeeper's Encyclopedia:  "Procure a lump of mutton suet fresh from the sheep, as large as a coffee-cup, and a lump of loaf-sugar one-third as large; put the suet in an earthen bowl, and lay the sugar on it; set it before the fire, where the heat will gradually melt the sugar and suet together in a mass. There must be no heat under the dish, or the suet will melt faster than it should. For an adult a dose is one teaspoonful every hour of the brown sediment in the bowl. This rule has cured cases of this disease given over by the physician."

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