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Useful Domestic Medicines

Dover's Sudorific Powder.

Take of ipecacuanha in powder, opium (purified), each 1 part; sulphate of potass, 8 parts. Triturate them together into a fine powder.

The dose is from two to five or ten grains, repeated according as the patient's stomach and strength can bear it. It is proper to avoid much drinking immediately after taking it, otherwise it is very apt to be rejected by vomiting before any other effects are produced. Perspiration should be kept up by diluents.

Aloetic Powder with Iron.

Take of socotrine aloes, powdered, 1½ ounces; myrrh, powdered, 2 ounces; extract of gentian and sulphate, each in powder, 1 ounce. Mix them.

In this powder we have an aloetic and chalybeate conjoined. It is a useful medicine, and is particularly employed in cases of obstructed menstruation. Compound Assafœtida Pills.

Take of assafœtida, galbanum and myrrh, each 1 ounce; rectified oil of amber, 1 drachm. Beat them into a mass with simple syrup.

These pills are anti-hysteric and emmenagogue, and are very well calculated for answering those intentions. Half a scruple, a scruple, or more, may be taken every night or oftener.

Compound Aloetic Pills.

Take of hepatic aloes, 1 ounce; ginger powder, 1 drachm; soap, ounce; essential oil of peppermint, drachm. Let the aloes and the ginger be rubbed well together, then add the soap and the oil, so as to form a mass.

These pills may be advantageously used for obviating the habitual costiveness of sedentary per- The dose is from ten to fifteen grains. sons.

Aloetic and Myrrh Pills.

Take of socotrine aloes, 4 drachms; myrrh, 2 drachms; saffron, 1 drachm. Beat them into a mass with simple syrup.

These pills have been long employed to stimulate and open the bowels in chlorotic, hypochondriacal, and long-diseased habits. The dose is from ten grains to a scruple, twice a day.

Plummer's Pills.

These pills are alterative, diaphoretic, purgative, and beneficial in cutaneous eruptions, etc. Take of calomel, 1 drachm; sulphate of antimony, 1 drachm; gum guaiacum, 2 drachms. Mix these assiduously with mucilage, and divide into sixty pills, two pills forming the dose. To be taken at night.

Compound Soap Liniment.

Take of camphor, 1 ounce; soap, 3 ounces; spirit of rosemary, 1 pint.

Digest the soap in the spirit of rosemary until it be dissolved, and add to it the camphor. This is useful to excite action on the surface, and is used to disperse scrofulous enlargements, and to moisten flannel which is applied to the throat in cases of quinsy.

Cajeput Opodeldoc.

Take of almond soap, 2 ounces; alcohol, 1 pint; camphor, 1 ounce; cajeput oil, 2 ounces.

First dissolve the soap and camphor in the alcohol in a retort, by means of a sand heat, and when the solution is about to congeal, or becomes nearly cold, add the oil of cajeput: shake them well together, and put it into bottles to congeal.

This composition is a great improvement on the opodeldocs in general use, and in cases of rheumatism, paralytic numbness, chilblains, enlargements of joints, and indolent tumors, where the object is to rouse the action of absorbent vessels, and to stimulate the nerves, it is a very valuable external remedy.

In several cases of lumbago and deep-seated rheumatic pains, it has been known to succeed in the almost immediate removal of the disease.

Liniment of Ammonia.

Take of water of ammonia, an ounce; olive oil, 1½ ounces.

Shake them together in a phial till they are mixed.

In the inflammatory quinsy, a piece of flannel, moistened with this mixture, applied to the throat, and renewed every four or five hours, is one of the most efficacious remedies. By means of this warm stimulating application, the neck, and sometimes the whole body, is put into a sweat, which, after bleeding, either carries off or lessens the inflammation. Where the skin cannot bear the acrimony of this mixture, a larger proportion of oil may be used.

Eau-de-luce.

Ten or 12 grains of white soap are dissolved in 4 ounces of rectified spirit of wine; after which the solution is strained. A drachm of rectified oil of amber is then added, and the whole filtered.

With this solution should be mixed such a proportion of the strongest volatile spirit of ammonia, in a clear glass bottle, as will, when sufficiently shaken, produce a beautiful milk-white liquor.

If a kind of cream should settle on the surface, it will be requisite to add a small quantity of the spirituous solution of soap. Those who may wish to have this liquor water perfumed, may employ lavender or Hungary water instead of the spirit of wine.

This composition is, however, seldom obtained in a genuine state when purchased at the shops.

Its use as an external remedy is very extensive; for it has not only been employed for curing the bites of vipers, wasps, bees, gnats, ants, and other insects, but also for burns, and even the bite of a mad dog, though not always with uniform success.

Besides, it affords one of the safest stimulants in cases of suffocation from mephitic vapors, and in that state of apoplexy which is termed serous, as likewise after excessive intoxication, and in all those paralytic complaints where the vessels of the skin or the muscular fibre require to be excited into action.

Simple Ointment.

Take of olive oil, 5 ounces; white wax 2 ounces.

This is a useful emollient ointment for softening the skin.

Ointment of Hog's Lard.

Take of prepared hog's lard, 2 pounds; rosewater. 3 ounces. Beat the lard with the rose-water until they be mixed: then melt the mixture with a slow fire, and set it apart that the water may subside; after which, pour off the lard from the water, constantly stirring until it be cold.

This ointment may be used for softening the skin, and healing the chaps.

Lip Salve.

Melt together 24 ounces of white wax; 3 ounces of spermaceti; 7 ounces oil of almonds; 1 drachm of balsam of Peru; and 14 ounces of glycerin wrapped up in a linen bag.

Pour the salve into small gallipots or boxes, and cover with bladder and white leather.

Basilicon, or Yellow Resinous Ointment.

Take of yellow resin, 1 pound; yellow wax, 1 pound; olive oil, 1 pint. Melt the resin and wax with a gentle heat; then add the oil, and strain the mixture while yet warm.

This plaster is employed for the dressing of broken chilblains, and other sores that require stimulating; it is also used to drive milk away, being placed over the tumid breasts when the child is weaned.

Turners' Cerate.

This ointment is known by the vulgar name of Turners' cerate, as curing the wounds of Turners.

It is generally used for broken chilblains.

Take of prepared calamine, yellow wax, each pound; olive oil, 1 pint.

Melt the wax with the oil, and as soon as they begin to thicken, sprinkle in the prepared calamine and keep it stirring till the cerate is cool. Savin Ointment.

Take of fresh savin leaves, separated from the stalks, and bruised, pound; prepared hog's lard, 2 pounds; yellow wax, pound. Boil the leaves in the lard until they become crisp; then filter with expression; lastly, add the wax, and melt them together.

This is an excellent issue ointment, being, in many respects, preferable to that of cantharides.

It is mixed with equal parts of blistering ointment, in order to keep up a discharge. Mercurial Ointment.

Take of mercury, and mutton suet, each, 1 part; hogs' lard, 3 parts. Rub the mercury diligently in a mortar with a little of the hogs' lard, until the globules disappear; then add the remainder of the lard, and rub until the ointment is completely prepared. One drachm of this ointment contains twelve grains of mercury.

The preparation of mercurial ointment requires much labor, care, and patience. During the trituration, the mercury is mechanically divided into minute globules, which are prevented from running together again by the viscosity of the fat. These globules at length disappear, being oxidized, or rendered black by intimate mixture with the lard.

Whatever tends to favor this (for instance, a slight degree of rancidity of the lard) shortens the time, and lessens the labor required for the preparation of the ointment. It is not uncommon, however, to use other means, which are not admissible, to facilitate the process, such as the use of sulphur or turpentine. The first may be detected by the sulphurous odor exhaled when a paper covered very black color of the ointment, and also by the with a little of it is held over the flame of a candle. The turpentine is detected by its odor also, when the ointment containing it is treated in the same manner.

When newly prepared, mercurial ointment has a light gray or bluish color, owing to its containing some unoxidized metal, which separates in globules when it is liquefied by a gentle heat; when kept for some time the color is much deepened, and less metallic mercury is seen, owing to the more complete oxidizement of the metal.

Cerate of Spanish Flies.

Take of cerate of spermaceti, softened with heat, 6 drachms; Spanish flies, finely powdered, 1 drachm. Mix them by melting over a gentle fire.

Under this form cantharides may be made to act to any extent that is requisite. It may supply the place either of the blistering plaster or cintment, and there are cases in which it is preferable to either. It is particularly more convenient than the plaster of cantharides, where the skin to which the blister is to be applied is previously much affected, as in cases of small-pox, and in supporting a drain under the form of issue it is less apt to spread than the softer ointment.

Compound Burgundy Pitch Plaster.

Take of Burgundy pitch 2 pounds; labdanum 1 pound; yellow resin and yellow wax each 4 ounces; expressed oil of mace 1 ounce.

To the pitch, resin and wax melted together, add first the labdanum and then the oil of mace.

After a long-continued cough in the winter, a Burgundy pitch plaster should be put over the breast-bone.

Compound Labdanum Plaster.

Take of labdanum 3 ounces; frankincense 1 ounce; cinnamon, powdered, expressed oil of mace, each an ounce; essential oil of mint 1 drachm.

To the melted frankincense add first the labdanum, softened by heat, then the oil of mace. Mix these afterwards with the cinnamon and oil of mint and beat them together in a warm mortar into a plaster. Let it be kept in a close vessel.

This has been considered as a very elegant stomach plaster. It is contrived so as to be easily made occasionally (for such compositions, on account of their volatile ingredients, are not fit for keeping), and to be but moderately adhesive, so as not to offend the skin, also that it may without difficulty be frequently renewed, which these applications, in order to their producing any considerable effect, require to be. They keep up a perspiration over the part affected, and create a local action, which diverts inflammation; consumption from colds in delicate habits is by such means frequently obviated.

Adhesive Plaster.

Take of common, or litharge plaster, 5 parts, white resin, 1 part.

Melt them together, and spread the liquid compound thin on strips of linen by means of a spatula or table knife. This plaster is very adhesive, and is used for keeping on other dressings, etc.

Court-Plaster.

Bruise a sufficient quantity of fish glue, and let it soak for twenty-four hours in a little warm water; expose it to heat over the fire, to dissipate the greater part of the water, and supply its place by colorless brandy, which will mix the gelatine of the glue. Strain the whole through a piece of open linen; on cooling it will form a trembling jelly.

Now extend a piece of black silk on a wooden frame, and fix it in that position by means of tacks or pack thread. Then with a brush made of badger's hair apply the glue, after it has been exposed to a gentle heat to render it liquid. When this stratum is dry, which will soon be the case, apply a second, and then a third if necessary, to give the plaster a certain thickness; as soon as the whole is dry cover it with two or three strata of a strong tincture of balsam of Peru.

This is the real English court-plaster; it is pliable and never breaks, characters which distinguish it from so many other preparations sold under the same name.

Compound Tincture of Rhubarb.

Take of rhubarb, sliced, 2 ounces; liquorice root, themselvos to the use of spirituous liquors; it often relieves flatulent complaints and colics where the common cordials have little effect; the dose is from one to two ounces. It is a very useful addition to castor oil, in order to take off its mawkish taste; and, as coinciding with the virtues of the oil, it is therefore much preferable to brandy, shrub, and such like liquors, which otherwise are often found necessary to make the oil sit on the stomach.

Solution of Citrate of Magnesia.

Take of magnesia, 120 grains; citric acid, 450 grains; bicarbonate of potassa, 40 grains; dissolve the citric acid in 4 fluidounces of water, and, having added the magnesia, stir until it is dissolved. Filter the solution into a strong twelveounce bottle, into which has been poured 2 fluidounces of syrup of citric acid. Then add the bicarbonate of potassa, and enough water almost to fill the bottle, which must be closed with a cork, and this secured with twine. Shake moderately till all is dissolved. This is a very pleasant drink, and in the dose of a tumblerful a pretty active and cooling purgative.

Duffy's Elixir.

Take of senna, 2 pounds; rhubarb shavings, 2 pounds; jalap root, 1 pound; caraway seeds, 1 pound; aniseeds, 2 pounds; sugar, 4 pounds; shavings of red sanders-wood, pound.

Digest these in 10 gallons of spirits of wine for 14 days, and strain for use.

This elixir possesses almost the same qualities as the Compound Tincture of Senna. The above quantities may be reduced to as small a scale as may be required. The Black Drop.

Take a pound of opium, sliced; 3 pints of good verjuice; 1½ ounces of nutmeg; and an ounce of saffron; boil them to a proper thickness, then add a of a pound of sugar and 2 spoonsful of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire for 6 or 8 weeks, then place it in the open air until it becomes of the consistence of a syrup; lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle. Dose, 5 to 15 drops.

The above ought to yield about two pints of the strained liquor.

Godfrey's Cordial.

Dissolve an ounce of opium, 1 drachm of oil of sassafras, in 2 ounces of spirits of wine. Now mix 4 pounds of treacle with 1 gallon of boiling water, and when cold mix both solutions. This is often used to soothe the pains of children, etc. It must be employed with caution, however, as it contains opium. It is an injurious error to bruised, ounce; ginger, powdered, saffron, each keep children quiet by stupifying them constantly 2 drachms; distilled water, 1 pint; proof spirits of wine, 12 ounces by measure.

Digest for 14 days, and strain. Dose, an ounce as an aperient, or 1 ounce in violent diarrhea. Tincture of Ginger.

Take of ginger, in coarse powder 2 ounces; proof spirit, 2 pints.

Digest in a gentle heat for 7 days, and strain.

This tincture is cordial and stimulant, and is generaily employed as a corrective to purgative draughts.

Compound Tincture of Senna.

Take of senna leaves, 2 ounces; jalap root, 1 ounce; coriander seeds, ounce; proof spirits, 24 pints.

Digest for 7 days, and to the strained liquor add 4 ounces of sugar candy.

This tincture is a useful carminative and cathartic, especially to those who have accustomed or frequently with opiates, or other narcotics.

Balsam of Honey.

Take of balsam of Tolu, 2 ounces; gum storax, 2 drachms; opium, 2 drachms; honey, 8 ounces.

Dissolve these in a quart of spirits of wine.

This balsam is exceedingly useful in allaying the irritation of cough. The dose is 1 or 2 teaspoonsful in a little tea or warm water. Tincture of the Balsam of Tolu.

Take of balsam of Tolu, 1 ounce; alcohol, 1 pint.

Digest until the balsam be dissolved, and then strain the tincture through a paper.

This solution of the balsam of Tolu possesses all the virtues of the balsam itself. It may be taken internally, with the several intentions for which that balsam is proper, to the quantity of a teaspoonful or two in any convenient vehicle.

Mixed with simple syrup it forms an agreeable balsamic syrup.

Tincture of Peruvian Bark.