Important: Safety Warning
This page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Diabetes
Put the bladder of a wether sheep in a bottle with a quart of Madeira wine, and let it soak two days. Drink half a gill at a dose, three times a day, until all is used, when a cure will generally be effected; or if not, as the remedy is rather palatable, repeat the filling of the bottle until a complete cure is accomplished. Poultice for old Sores. - Scrape a quantity of yellow carrots and wilt them well in a pan until they are soft, then mash them, put them on a clean linen cloth and bind them on the sore, repeating the operation four or five times. It is also good for a sore breast Inward Weakness, and Pain in the Side, Back, and Stomach. Put five lbs. fir boughs, four ounces spikenard root, and one lb. red clover, into two and a half gallons of old cider. Boil it well half an hour, then add two lbs. brown sugar, and keep the liquid well covered, drinking it in doses of a gill every night and morning until the pain entirely ceases.