Medical Properties and Use.
It is diuretic and tonic and is useful in all eruptive forms of diseases, especially in scrofula and cancer. A strong decoction may be made of the leaves and twigs, and a gill taken 3 times a day. Many cures of old ulcers, sore throats and like affections have been ascribed to the use of the pipsisseway. A decoction made of the leaves and given in small portions is excellent for colic in children. For grown persons it should be put in good rye whiskey, which, if made strong will seldom fail to cure the severest cases of colic and cramps. The pipsisseway put into whiskey and distilled the same as Wickey’s cholera medicine is much better. Dose for an adult is from 1 to 3 tablespoonsful, for children from 10 drops to a teaspoonful.
TO THE CONSUMER.
If you want to save money never buy your castor oil by the bottle, but buy a pint of oil of some honest druggist, and you will then be able to perceive the difference. If put up in bottles it will cost you from 50 to 62½ cents; by the pint it may cost you 31 cents per pint. This is a great saving, as the article is always needed in a family. Never buy any other medicine or any thing that goes by measurement in small quantities, and especially such articles as come into every day use. Paying from 40 to 100 per cent. more for domestic articles will amount to a considerable sum in 5 or 10 years. Some persons may say: “I am too poor and cannot spare the money.” That kind of argument will not hold good. By saving 50 or 100 per cent. is the means to make you able. Try the experiment and you will soon be convinced; money is worth but 6 per cent.
FOR PICKLING PEARS.
Take 1 pound of sugar to one quart of vinegar; 6 pounds of pears, peeled and quartered; ½ ounce of cinnamon bark, broken in small pieces; ½ ounce of cloves. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar, then put the pears, cinnamon and cloves into a pot or crock, pour over the vinegar and boil all together until the pears become soft, and you have a pickel far superior to any preserves. This is worth giving a trial. Should the pears be too sweet, add a little vinegar at any time, heating after the addition.
ON THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.
As this work is designed for the benefit of families as well as other purposes, it is hoped that a chapter on the preservation of the health of young girls will not be out of place. What we design to say in this chapter, will be applicable to the girl of ten years and upwards. It is the duty of the mother or guardian so to direct the conduct of the daughter that she may enjoy the blessings of life, and become a useful member of society. But in order to lay the foundation of future usefulness, the health should be well guarded in early life. Much of course depends upon a good constitution, and strict attention should be paid to its development and preservation. The child at an early age should be guarded against all that would tend to weaken or derange this desirable attribute of the human system.
Exposure is one of the principal sources of injury to the constitution, and therefore the clothing should always be adapted to the season of the year, and the temperature of the air, whether children are at home or abroad. Girls are generally clothed sufficiently warm while at home, but when they are going from home, they change their warm apparel for thinner and cooler garments. They are often allowed to expose themselves to the chilling blasts of winter, with their arms naked, their breasts and shoulders exposed, and their feet clad with thin stockings and shoes, in the place of those just laid aside, which were warm and comfortable.—This is a practice that cannot be too much deprecated, being one of the great evils of dress and fashion, upon whose altar thousands have been sacrificed. How many do we find in these days with enlarged tonsils and broken croaking voices, the fruits of exposure and nothing else?