The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

WARTS.

Cut an apple, and rub it for a few minutes over the wart; the juice of the apple will loosen the wart, and in a few days it will drop off. Any strong acid, either vegetable or mineral, has the same tendency.

CORNS.

Mr. Cooper, in his Dictionary of Surgery, gives the following recipe as infallible for the cure of corns:—Take two ounces of gum ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax, six drams of verdigris, melt them together, and spread the composition on a piece of soft leather or linen; cut away as much of the corn as you can with a knife before you apply the plaster, which must be renewed in a fortnight, if the corn is not by that time gone.

FOR BURNS OR SCALDS.

When the blisters are open, dress them with a simple white ointment spread thinly on the smooth side of lint, the first day, and every day after sprinkle a little powder of prepared chalk, and dress it as before. To alleviate the immediate pain, apply any quick evaporating fluid, as æther, spirits of wine, or brandy; or better than all, if at hand, spirits of turpentine, or rags dipped in vinegar and water, and often renewed.

Another.

Rub the part burnt every two or three hours with spirits of turpentine, or with vinegar if the skin be not broken, or vinegar and cold water. Half a pound of alum dissolved in a quart of water, likewise makes an admirable wash for a burn or scald; bathe the part with a linen rag dipped in the mixture, then bind the rag upon it with a slip of linen, and keep it moist with the alum water for two or three days, without removing the bandage.

TO EXTINGUISH FIRE WHICH MAY HAVE CAUGHT THE CLOTHES.

The mischief which arises from this accident is owing to the party standing in an erect position, because flame ascends, and feeds and accumulates in intensity during its ascent. The first remedy is, therefore, to lay the child or other person on the floor, in which position the flames will not only make no progress, but will do little or no harm to the person. The fatal consequences of this accident arise from the ascent of the flame to the throat, head, and sensitive organs, an effect which cannot take place if the body is instantly placed in an horizontal position. Sir Richard Phillips, who first promulgated this treatment, proved its efficacy by taking two strips of muslin, a yard long, and one of them, which was set on fire at the end, and held perpendicularly, burnt out with an intense flame in less than half a minute; but the other piece, laid hollow and horizontally, on being set on fire at the end, burnt even with difficulty, and twenty minutes elapsed before it was entirely consumed; the flame at the same time being inconsiderable and harmless.