Important: Safety Warning
This page recommends preparations containing opium, laudanum, morphine, or similar narcotics — in some cases for children. These substances are dangerously addictive, easily fatal in overdose, and strictly controlled by law today.
In addition, this page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Indigestion
drachms; Turkey myrrh 1 drachm; socotrine | propensity to sleep at this time is almost irresistialoes a drachm; extract of chamomile flowers 2ł drachms; essential oil of chamomile flowers 16 drops. Mix well together, and divide into 80 pills. Two or three to be taken about an hour before dinner.
Tonic Draught in cases of General Debility.
Take of the decoction of bark 12 drachms; tincture of bark 1 drachm; syrup of Tolu drachm; aromatic sulphuric acid 8 drops. Make into a draught, to be taken three times a day.
Abernethy's Prescription for Indigestion.
Take of calomel (or proto-chloride of mercury), precipitated sulphuret of antimony, each 1 scruple; powder of gum guaiacum 2 scruples; Spanish soap as much as will be sufficient to form into twenty pills, which are to be taken night and morning.
For Indigestion and Costiveness.
The following remedies for indigestion, attended with heartburn and costiveness, were prescribed by Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh: Take of carbonate of potassa 4 drachms; simple cinnamon-water, pure water, each 6 ounces; compound tincture of gentian of an ounce. Mix. Three large spoonsful are to be taken twice a day. Accompanying Purgative.
Take of compound pill of aloes, with colocynth, 2 drachms. To be divided into 24 pills, two to be taken twice a week.
Remedy for Flatulency.
Take of bay-berries 6 drachms; grains of paradise 2 scruples; socotrine aloes and filings of iron each 2 scruples; oil of turpentine 2 drachms; simple syrup sufficient to form an electuary.
Dr. Reese's Remedy for Flatulence and Cramp in the Stomach.
Take of carbonate of soda 1 drachm; compound tincture of rhatany 1 ounce; compound tincture of ginger and chamomile 3 drachms; camphorated julep 7 ounces. Mix. Three tablespoonsful are to be taken twice a day.
Night-mare.
Great attention is to be paid to regularity and choice of diet. Intemperance of every kind is hurtful, but nothing is more productive of this disease than drinking bad wine. Of eatables those which are most prejudicial are all fat and greasy meats and pastry. These ought to be avoided, or eaten with caution. The same may be said of salt meats, for which dyspeptic patients have frequently a remarkable predilection, but which are not on that account the less unsuitable.
Moderate exercise contributes in a superior degree to promote the digestion of food and prevent flatulence; those, however, who are necessarily ble. Those who are habitually subject to attacks of the night-mare ought never to sleep alone, but should have some person near them, so as to be immediately awakened by their groans and struggles, and the person to whom this office may be entrusted should be instructed to rouse the patient as early as possible, that the paroxysm may not have time to gain strength.
Digestive Pills, Take of soft extract of quassia, 1 drachm; essential oil of peppermint, 1 drop. Make into 12 pills, of which take 3 an hour before dinner.
These pills are excellent to create digestion in habits injured by hard drinking.
To improve Digestion.
Eat a small crust of bread every morning, fasting, about an hour before breakfast. To restore the Appetite.
Take of shavings of quassia, 2 drachms; boiling water, 1 pint. Let this remain in a close vessel until cold, then strain off, and add to the strained liquor, compound tincture of cardamoms, 2 ounces; spirit of lavender, 4 drachms; powder of rhubarb, 1 scruple. Take three tablespoonfuls an hour before dinner to create an appetite.
Aloetic and Assafœtida Pills.
Take of socotrine aloes, in powder, assafœtida, soap, equal parts. Form them into a mass with mucilage of gum arabic. These pills, in doses of about 10 grains twice a day, produce the most salutary effects in cases of dyspepsia, attended with hysteria, flatulence, and costiveness.
For Heartburn.
This complaint is an uneasy sensation in the stomach, with anxiety, a heat more or less violent, and sometimes attended with oppression, faintness, an inclination to vomit, or a plentiful discharge of clear lymph, like saliva.
This pain may arise from various causes; such as wind, sharp humors, and worms gnawing the coats of the stomach; also from acrid and pungent food; likewise from rheumatic and gouty humors, or surfeits, and from too free a use of tea. The diet should be of a light animal kind; the drink brandy and water, toast and water, Bristol water; no vegetables should be allowed; very little bread, and that well toasted. If heartburn has arisen from acidity in the stomach, it will be necessary to take two tablespoonfuls of the following mixture three times a day :- 3 drachms of magnesia, 1 scruple of rhubarb, in powder; 1 ounce of cinnamon water, a drachm of spirits of lavender, and 4 ounces of distilled water.
For Heartburn, attended by Pain and Flatulence.
Mix together 12 grains of prepared chalk, an ounce of peppermint water, 1 ounce of pure water, confined to a sedentary occupation, should par- 2 drachms of spirits of pimento, and 12 drops of ticularly avoid applying themselves to study or bodily labor immediately after eating. If a strong propensity to sleep should occur after dinner, it will be certainly better to indulge it a little, as the process of digestion frequently goes on much better during sleep than when awake.
Going to bed before the usual hour is a frequent cause of night-mare, as it either occasions the patient to sleep too long or to lie long awake in the night. Passing a whole night or part of a night without rest likewise gives birth to the disease, as it occasions the patient, on the succeeding night, to sleep too soundly. Indulging in sleep too late in the morning, is an almost certain method to bring on the paroxysm, and the more frequently it returns, the greater strength it acquires; the tincture of opium. This draught is to be taken three times a day.