The English Housekeeper: Or, Manual of Domestic Management / Containing advice on the conduct of household affairs and practical instructions concerning the store-room, the pantry, the larder, the kitchen, the cellar, the dairy; the whole being intended for the use of young ladies who undertake the superintendence of their own housekeeping

by Anne Cobbett

CHAPTER XXXI.

MEDICAL RECIPES.

In almost every family little illnesses are likely to occur, which may require medicine, though not, perhaps, the aid of a Doctor; it is, therefore, convenient to keep a small supply of common medicines in the house, especially in the country. The list I give was written by a medical gentleman; but while I am induced to insert it in this work, from a belief that it may, in some cases, be found of use, I cannot refrain from observing that it is far from my desire to lead any young housekeeper to adopt the fatal error that Doctors may be dispensed with, when anything approaching to serious illness betrays itself. Too many instances have occurred wherein life has been lost, for the want of timely medical skill, which might, perhaps, have arrested the progress of disease at its feeble commencement, and before it had acquired sufficient strength to baffle opposition.

The following receipts have all been tried by the persons who gave them to me; many of them may be old fashioned, but some I can assert to be good. That for the croup has been resorted to, several times in our own family, and always with success. The complaint is a violent one, its attacks are sudden and the progress of the disease is so rapid that there ought not to be an instant of delay in administering the remedies. The croup is of common occurrence in America, and the following receipt came from that country.

For the Croup.

The healthiest children are the most liable to this complaint, which is caused by sudden changings in the atmosphere, draughts of cold air, and checking of the perspiration, It betrays itself by a hoarse croaking cough, something like the hooping cough.—Put the child into a warm bath placed opposite the fire; cover it all over with flannel, or a blanket; in the meantime chop an onion or two, squeeze the juice through a piece of muslin, mix it in the proportion of 1 tea-spoonful with 2 table-spoonsful treacle; get the child to swallow as much of this, from time to time, as you can: when it has been in the bath ten or twelve minutes, take it out in a blanket, and as quickly as you can, rub the stomach and chest with a mixture of rum and oil, or goose grease, wrap the child in a flannel and put it to bed, or keep it in the lap by the fire; if the child go to sleep, it will be almost sure to awake free from the disorder. These remedies may not succeed if there be delay in applying them.

For Weakness of Stomach.

1 drachm of prepared Columba root, and ½ drachm of rhubarb root, infused in ½ pint of boiling water, one day: add 1 oz. tincture of Columba, and a little sugar. 2 table-spoonsful, twice a day.—Or: put about 25 camomile flowers into ½ a pint boiling water, with 3 cloves, and 2 hops, cover close and let it stand all night: a tea-cupful first in the morning, and again an hour before dinner. If giddiness ensues, the camomile does not agree with the patient, and must not be continued. Where it does agree, this will be found to restore the appetite.

Camphor Julep.

Rub ¼ oz. of camphor in a mortar, with a few drops of spirits of wine, and a few lumps of sugar; add, by degrees, a quart of water, boiled, and cold. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then strain through muslin, and bottle it.