A Look at Folk Remedies
Traditional folk medicine has been around for a long
time. People have been working with the natural elements – such as plants – and
with behaviors and attitudes designed to ‘right’ a wrong deed or thought.
However, as medical practices modernized, people turned to clinics and other
centralized medical centers. Many ceased to rely upon home remedies developed
by local herbalists and, later on, the potions found in home doctoring books.
Here are a few fun examples we found in “Early
American Home Remedies”.
Note: We do not suggest you try any of
these folk remedies as we cannot attest to their validity.
Asthma: A muskrat skin worn over the lungs with the
fur side next to the body is certain relief for asthma.
Bowel Inflammation: Apply soft clay from the bottom of
the creek where the water runs all the time to cheesecloth. Cover with another
cloth to protect the clothing, and apply as a poultice.
Deafness: Drop rattlesnake oil in the ear once or
twice a week.
Dropsy: Lobsters dried in an oven, and reduced into powder
are of a great use if that powder is taken by the patient every morning in some
white wine.
Hair Restorer: For baldness, pound fine one-half pint
of kernels of peach seeds, put them in one pint of good cider vinegar and use
as a wash.
Nerves, in pain: Take red snails and ground worms out
of a burial ground. Wash them and cook with olive oil and six ounces of virgin
wax in earthen pot over a slow fire. Stir frequently until it is an ointment. Strain
it through a white linen cloth, and store in pots.
Sore Throat: Slice a piece of old smoked bacon, the
older the better. Stitch this to a piece of flannel and blacken it with pepper.
Warm it and fasten it closely around the throat. Do not remove it until it has
drawn the inflammation out.
Toothache: Burn a piece of paper on an old plate, then
with a small wad of cotton, wipe up the brown sweat on the plate and plug it
into the tooth.
Here’s to your good health!
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