Old Time Remedies

[Shan]

This is a fun thread, so don't believe everything you see in it. Old Time Remedies fascinate me and some of the legends around what cure works for what ailment can be very funny.

If you know of one that you would like to share please do so. It can either be a real one or one of legend.

Reader Beware!!! If you make yourself sick from this thread, it is not my fault!!!! ;D


A quote saying that not all old time remedies are false. In fact there are people today that still believe that they are some of the best cures out there.


I smile to think of what they used

To help us kids survive,

But I am "going on" 69

And very much alive.

My sorest throats were eased, and I

Still hold no bit of rancor

To think of sucking sugar lumps

With a drop or two of camphor.



And camphor mixed with goose grease for

A winter chest congestion;

Baking soda cleaned my teeth

And helped my indigestion.

Because of Mother's tender heart

I hereby sing a Gloria!

She never gave me castor oil,

Just syrupy Castoria.



Salt for all mosquito bites,

Cobwebs on the scratches,

The sickroom fumigated with

Our sulphur kitchen matches.

Somehow there's quite a bunch of us

That never had a shot,

But here we are still kicking

And enjoying it a lot.


- Author Unknown

[Shan]

It is not recommend that you use these remedies. But, just in case you get a wild hair and decide to try one, be forewarned, some of these may very well be dangerous! If you try them, you do so at your own risk. Better yet, just DON’T try them!! ;D



Acne - Wash your face with a wet diaper.


Anemia - Eat raw liver and drink fresh blood.


Ant Bites - Take a dip of snuff and rub the fresh dipped snuff on the bite.


Appendicitis - Tie a leather thong around your waist and the appendicitis will enter the thong. Take the thong and tie it around a tree and the sickness will enter the tree.


Arthritis - Dissolve 3/4 teaspoon powder pectin (or 1-tablespoon liquid pectin) in a glass of purple grape juice. Drink once a day. This is from an Amish doctor and about 60% of the people who try it say it really works. The liquid dissolves better than the powder.

2 - Take a dead cat into the woods to a hollow stump that has spunk in it. Twirl the cat overhead and then toss the cat to the south. Walk away north but do not look back.

3 - Carry a potato in your pocket. It will not rot, but harden as it absorbs the arthritis.


Asthma - If a child has asthma stand him up against a tree and drive a nail in the tree an inch above his head. If the child grows an inch in the next year, the asthma will disappear.

[Shan]

Asthma - If a child has asthma stand him up against a tree and drive a nail in the tree an inch above his head. If the child grows an inch in the next year, the asthma will disappear.


Baldness/Thinning Hair - Smear your head with fresh cow manure.

2 - For thinning hair make a solution of salt and water and comb through hair every day until you see hair becoming thicker.


Beard Growing - The Liquid obtained from boiling old boots was used to promote the growth of hair on the face of young men—an attempt to appear more masculine.


Bee Stings - Mix up honey and dirt dauber’s nest and rub it on the sting.


Boils - Catch a chaparral bird (roadrunner) in the early morning. Kill and eat it and the boil will go away.

2 - Soak a small section of heel of homemade white bread in boiling water. Squeeze with back of spoon. Lay on sterile gauze or boiled cloth. Add pinch baking soda (1/4 tsp). Mix with soaked bread, wrap in gauze and apply to affected area.


Burns - Apply ice wrapped in damp washcloth until pain stops. No scaring will occur.

2 - Go the lot and make a calf get up and defecate. Put the feces in a flour sack and cover the burn with it. Leave it on until the next morning.

3 - Apply strong tea to the burned area

[janggut]

looking at the remedy, i think i rather go bald. ;D

fun thread, Shan!!

[Mea Culpa]

LOL you think that's weird, you gonna love this one ...
Some years back when I first found out about Arthritis (and yes ppl have told me about the pectin ..although in this case it was apple vinegar early in the morning.. and no I did not try it) anyway we had this waiter from Columbia and he said that where he came from there is a real easy cure, what you do is before you go to bed drink 1 litre of Beer, DO NOT eat anything! in the morning when you wake up first thing you do is go to the toilet, Pee in a glass and drink "it" while it is still warm ..... No I did not try that either ...but gods know it may work

[Shan]

meaculpa said:

LOL you think that's weird, you gonna love this one ...
Some years back when I first found out about Arthritis (and yes ppl have told me about the pectin ..although in this case it was apple vinegar early in the morning.. and no I did not try it) anyway we had this waiter from Columbia and he said that where he came from there is a real easy cure, what you do is before you go to bed drink 1 litre of Beer, DO NOT eat anything! in the morning when you wake up first thing you do is go to the toilet, Pee in a glass and drink "it" while it is still warm ..... No I did not try that either ...but gods know it may work

YUCK!!!!! That is pukey! ;D

I don't think so, but if you ever decide to try it, Mea, we will let you tell us how it work. ;D

[Shan]

Cancer - Preventing - Eat three almonds a day and you will not die from cancer.


Chills - Take a new broom and sweep across his back in the sign of a cross.


Colds - Curing - Catching leaves in your hand, which fall from the trees in the fall, will cure a head cold.


Colds – Preventing - Eat an onion sandwich and wash your hair.


Colic - Close the windows and doors of the baby’s room and have the father keep smoking a pipe or cigar.


Coughs - Put some cow dung in water and bring it to a boil. Gargle the water three times a day and your cough will be gone.

2 - Bake onions and pour all the juice from the baked onions into a glass and drink.


Crick in the Neck - Go down to the hog pen and find where a hog has rubbed his neck against the fence, then rub your neck in the same spot.


Croup - Pack sheep droppings into a tobacco sack and soak in warm water. Apply the sack to your neck and wear it until the choking spell is over.


Cuts - Pack the cut in axle grease.

2 - Take a large army ant and apply him to the cut, so that he takes hold of each side of the wound with his pincers. Cut his head off from his body, leaving his head to hold the cut together.

3 - Apply spider’s web to a bleeding cut.

[Shan]

janggut said:

looking at the remedy, i think i rather go bald. ;D

fun thread, Shan!!

Thanks Jags. I hope everybody enjoys it. I thought we might get some laughs from some of the old legendary remedies.

A bald Jags, ooooooooo, that might be funny. ;D

[Glance A'Lot]

Cancer - Preventing - Eat three almonds a day and you will not die from cancer.

Ah - yes!

I believe that one - with three a day, there is a chance you'll fall on a bitter almond one day and die from the cyanide in it!

[Shan]

glancealot said:

Cancer - Preventing - Eat three almonds a day and you will not die from cancer.

Ah - yes!

I believe that one - with three a day, there is a chance you'll fall on a bitter almond one day and die from the cyanide in it!

If you try it Glance, let us know how it works. ;D

[LaFille]

Funny... And poor people who invented/used these remedies!

Bee Stings - Mix up honey and dirt dauber’s nest and rub it on the sting.

Then you would be relieved from the disturbance of the sting... But attract all the wasps around. ;D

I think soft drinks were used as medication at the start and were only sold in apothecary shops... Ketchup too, if I remember well, among else.

And this topic reminded me of this...

killerzzz said:

If its a fevor, I know one old fashionned way they used to get over them.

First: Drink a bottle of whiskey.
2nd: Wrap yourself up in heavy clothes and tons of blankets.
3rd: Sweat it out all night. ;D

But its probably better to just drink your oj and take your meds and get your rest.

Seriously though, thats one way they used to do it.

Get well soon!

Killerzzz

;D

[Shan]

Unless I miss my guess, Fille, you have a bunch of others that you could post.

[Galadriel]

• Everyone must have a dose of sulphur and molasses in the spring – it was a cleansing!
• Tansy tea was very good for ailing animals – I never remember any human taking it.
• Steeped gold-thread root was a cure for sore mouths in babies.
• Steeped red clover blossoms was very good for “striking out” measles or any disease with a rash. Other things were mentioned, not quite so palatable.
• Sweet poultry tea was good for something in children, I’m not sure what. “Mint Tea”, made from sprigs of wild mint that grew along the brook, was excellent to help cure a cold. (There were two kinds of mint – peppermint and horsemint. Only the peppermint was good.) Onions boiled with sugar to a thick syrup was also good for a cold. Red peppers (the hot kind) soaked in vinegar, was taken for sore throat, needless to say, in very small sips! A few drops of fir balsam on a spoonful of sugar, and a woolen sock tied around one’s neck and left all night was also good.
• A spoonful of cream-of-tartar in a glass of sweetened water was “cooling” for a fever.
• Ginger tea was given for a “belly-ache”.
• Nutmeg Tea was given for diarrhea. (A city cousin of seven years was given this at our house and went home and told his mother that Aunt L. gave him “maggot tea:!) Steeped leaves of wild raspberry was also given for this ailment.
• A concoction of steeped wild cherry bark (preferably black cherry), fir bark, juniper twigs and lion’s paw was the best appetite restorer I ever saw.
• Goose grease in molasses was good for a cough if taken internally. Rubbed on the chest and covered with hot flannel, it loosened a cold. If this failed to work, a mustard plaster usually did the trick. I was badly blistered by this as a youngster during a bout of pneumonia. Minards Liniment rubbed on the chest, covered with a brown paper was also a cure. A salt herring strapped to the sole of each foot was helpful in the case of typhoid.
• A cloth wrung out of soda water and placed on the forehead would ease a headache.
• A woolen sock leg filled with coarse salt and well heated was used as a pillow for earache or toothache.
• A baby must not be shown himself in the mirror until he was a year old or he would be unlucky. A baby born with a “caul” or “veil” was very fortunate. Also anyone whose hair grew in a “widow’s peak” on the forehead was supposed to be lucky.
• An old couplet runs:
Trust no man, not even your brother
Whose hair is one color and moustache another.
• If you were going away, even if only a mile down the road,and a black cat crossed the road in front of you, turn back and stay the rest of the day, or bad luck would overtake you. A squirrel was considered lucky.
• If, in the course of your rambles, you counted the white horses you saw, after counting 27, the first man you shook hands with, you would without a doubt, marry!
• If the kitchen fire refused to burn brightly, then your husband was angry at you.
• If you accidentally spill some salt, you must immediately throw a pinch over your shoulder if you wish to avoid dire effects.
• The first time you see the new moon, make sure you are not looking over your left shoulder.
• It is not a good omen to have someone dressed all in black at your wedding.
• “Happy is the bride that the sun shines on,", but “Happy is the corpse that the rain falls on”.
• A poultice of soap and sugar was good to draw out infection. Also used for this purpose was a poultice of bread and milk with baking soda added.
• The rind of salt pork was a cure for puncture wounds, such as that caused by a rusty nail.
• A cold tea bath was a help for sore eyes or cold tea leaves, after steeping, bandaged on the eyes was also good.
• A liniment made of egg whites and turpentine was a help in case of sprains.

Note: This account is found in Stories of the Stewiacke Valley, collected and printed during the Stewiacke Valley Bicentennial celebrations in 1980.

[killerzzz]

Hey Fille, I was gunna post that! Glad you remembered tho; it could come in handy. ;D

Drink up, everyone! Chugalug!! ...erm... if you have a fevor that is.

Killerzzz

[LaFille]

In fact, Shan, I don't remember any funny treatments like that offhand (well, funny now and if you're not given it ;D ) and I would have to dig to find some. No, not true; I do remember a few, but they're on the gory side; the blood-letting treatments the doctors were doing in the ancient times or the very first "shots" ways, where what was done was to steep a needle in an infected person's pus and then to sting the person they wanted to immunize with it. ;D Or the practice of putting a piece of raw steak on a blackeye, that just reminds me.

Apart from that, those I know of are more natural treatments which are not spectacular and which have their efficiency explained or proven/demonstrated. I'll post some more if I remember or happen on some, though. jang could maybe tell us of some from the Asian side too...

And yeah, Killerzzz, that's a remedy to keep in mind; one that would at least make you forget you're sick for some time... And then on the day after make you realize that you weren't so bad, after all, beside the way you feel after the treatment. But at least, the fever wouldn't bother anymore! ;D

[janggut]

i need to find out more about this as there are varying 'remedies' to all sorts of ailments.

tiger's private parts, anyone? ;D

[Shan]

fille, if you know of some natural ones that are proven treatments, how about starting a thread for those. i might be able to come up with a few myself.

[Shan]

janggut said:

i need to find out more about this as there are varying 'remedies' to all sorts of ailments.

tiger's private parts, anyone? ;D

Yuck!!!! Poor tiger. Jags might use his/her private parts for unknown ailments. ;D

[Shan]

Dandruff - To one quart of water, add one ounce of sulphur. Shake very well very two hours and saturate the head every morning with the liquid. Dandruff will disappear, leaving hair bright and glossy.


Diarrhea - Eat several coconut cookies (some say this really works.)


Earache - Have someone blow tobacco smoke into the ear five times while saying, “Hurt, hurt, go away; go into a bale of hay.”


Fever - Gather a supply of rabbit dung and make a strong tea of the dung in hot water. Strain and drink the tea every half hour until the sweating stops.


Flu - To cure the flu, put sulphur in your shoes.


Foot Gone to Sleep - Wet your finger with spit and put the sign of the cross on the sole of your foot.


Freckles - To get rid of freckles, get up at five-thirty on Sunday morning and go outside. If there is a lot of dew get your hands real wet in the grass. Rub the dew on your face and turn around nine times, saying, “Dew, dew, do, do, take my freckles; wear ‘em on you; dew, dew, thank you.” Say this nine times while turning around. Do not wash the dew off and do not wash your face until the next day.


2 - To remove freckles or skin spots — take a small flatfish fresh from the sea and hold it firmly against the skin until the fish dies. This will also cure the whooping cough

[Shan]

Headache - Sleep with a pair of scissors under your pillow. The next morning the headache will be gone.


Hiccups - Hold your arms above your head and pant like a dog.

2 - Take a drink of water while standing on your head.

3 - Stick your head under water and count to twenty-five.

4 - Put your head between your legs and look at the sun


Ingrown Toenail - Tie a lizard’s liver to a leather string. Take the leather string and tie it around your left ankle. The ingrown toenail will disappear in nine days.


Lice - First, put your clothes on an anthill. Then wash your head in kerosene. Spring your head with sea salt and then, parting the hair, pour raw whisky on your scalp. Let it stay for 48 hours. Do not smoke or go near the fire.


Liver Trouble - Take one-half of a white turnip and one-half of a purple turnip and tie together with a white string. Urinate on it. Hang this on the bedpost of the bed on the first night, then on the foot post the second night until you circle the bed.


Measles - Put burned cornmeal in a tobacco bag and hang it around the neck.