Ulcer on the Leg.—Wash the ulcer twice a day, night and morning, with one pint of weak lime water, and apply a poultice over the sore, twice a day, made of blood root and beth root, finely pulverized and mixed with honey; in case the leg is swelled, apply a poultice of slippery elm bark, every night.
Give a wine glass full of my cleansing syrup, morning, noon and at bed time, and drink, as a common beverage, the following: take a handful each of cherry bark and princes pine, put them into two quarts boiling water, and let it steep well; then strain. Abstain from spirituous liquors and salt meats.
Cancer.—Take the powder of dry yellow dock root, wet with port wine and put it on the cancer, renewing it three times a day; make your daily drink a decoction of one handful of yellow dock root, bruised, and a handful of the bark or buds of black alder, boiled in four quarts of rain water to the consumption of two quarts.
Prolapsus Uteri.—Take one ounce each of white oak bark, beth root, crowfoot roots, and rose leaves; boil the whole in four quarts of water, down to two; strain the decoction, to which add a pint of port wine, and two ounces of powdered alum, while it is warm. The patient must first take a dose of castor oil, and, after its operation, must foment the part four or five times a day, with a flannel dipped in the decoction as warm as it can be held in the hand. In order to prevent a relapse, the patient must wet the parts twice a day with warm water, in which a spoonful of salt has been dissolved, and keep the bowels open by a dose of castor oil once a week, using salt water bath twice a week.
Rupture of the Testicles.—Three years ago, a Canadian, who had been laboring under a large swelling of the testicles, and been given up as incurable, made application to me. The surgeons had held consultation over him, and agreed that he must be castrated, but he would not comply. Upon examination, I found it to be a sarcocele, or fleshy tumor of the testicles, and therefore resolved to attempt the cure by discutients. I first cleansed and purified the blood from humors and mercury, and applied the following cataplasm, or poultice, over the scrotum: take every-night two handsful of goose-grass, or cleavers, in two quarts of cider vinegar; foment the swelling with flannel wet in the vinegar, for the space of fifteen minutes, then bind the leaves over the tumor. Anoint it frequently, every day, with the following ointment: take the scrapings of a powder horn, and the inner bark of rose willow, pound it fine, and wet it well with brandy; apply through the day.
Hives in Children.—Dissolve twenty grains of bitter root in six teaspoonsful of warm water, and give the child, according to age—from six months to a year old, one to two teaspoonsful of the infusion; if it does not operate in fifteen minutes, give the child a little warm camomile tea, in order to cleanse the stomach; after the operation, give it, according to age, a little poppies of syrup, in catnip tea. Give the child, until well, the following: take one ounce of dragon’s claw root, ten grains of bitter root, and a quarter of an ounce of mandrake root; pour on all these one quart of boiling water, and let them steep four hours; stir frequently, then strain; give from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful every four hours, until well; give always according to age.
Syrup for Worms.—Take six ounces of fresh bark of black alder, eight ounces of dry buck-horn plantain, and three ounces of unicorn root; boil the ingredients in four quarts of water, down to two; strain the decoction, to which add two quarts of molasses, and boil it away to the consistency of syrup. Children from two to four years of age, may take from three to four teaspoonsful of the syrup, morning and evening, for three days before both the full and change of the moon, which will carry away the worms, and stop the fever. Adults may take a wine glass full, morning and evening, for three days respectively, before both the full and change of the moon.
To Create an Appetite.—Dissolve two tablespoonsful of bay salt in half pint of warm rain water, and add one ounce of rectified spirits of salts. Dose—a teaspoonful, in a wine glass of cold water, before breakfast and dinner. This will excite the appetite, without vomiting, and increase the urinary discharge.
To Cleanse the Blood from Mercury.—Put four ounces, of the powdered root of may apple into one gallon of metheglin; dissolve four ounces of Epsom salts in a quart of the liquor, made warm, and mix all together; shake the vessel frequently, and let it stand for a week. The patient may take a wine glass full of the above liquor, once or twice a day, according to its effects.
Take the leaves and roots of skunk cabbage, of each eight ounces, bruise in a mortar, and boil them in two pounds of hog’s lard, for four hours; then press it through a hair sieve or canvas, and mix in it one ounce of pulverized roll brimstone. The parts affected must be rubbed with this ointment, before the fire, for ten minutes every night and morning, and covered with flannel, using the warm bath twice a week, in the spring of the year. After all the pains are removed, the patient may use tonic medicines, such as fine Columbia root, and ten grains of the rust of iron, three times a day. Use the salt water bath twice a week, in the months of June and July, and have moderate exercise on horse-back, in order to brace the solids.