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.
Hectic Cough
Mix the yolks of three eggs, a gill of honey, and a table-spoonful of tar together, then add to them half a pint of Port wine. Place them over a slow fire about three minutes, stirring the compound well; then bottle it. Use a teaspoonful of the mixture three times a day, before each meal; and at night, on going to bed, take a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper in half a pint of hot water. Great relief will be found from the practice of rubbing the breast with a coarse towel every morning on rising, until warmth is produced by the friction.
Pain in the Breast or Side. - The Indian remedy for this is, two pounds of fir boughs, a quarter of a pound of spikenard, half a pound of red clover, and a gallon of sweet cider, boiled to three pints. Drink half a gill of the mixture each night on going to bed, and morning, on getting up.