Common Medicines for the Family Home

By Anna Kathryn Lanier


A few weeks ago, I came across a reproduction copy of THE FAMILY NURSE or COMPANION OF THE AMERICAN FRUGAL HOUSEWIFE by Mrs. Lydia Child. It was originally published in 1832 and is full of helpful medical help. One chapter is Common Medicines.


Mrs. Child says, “Every family ought to keep a chest of common medicines, such as ipecac, castor oil, magnesia, paregoric, etc., and especially such remedies as are useful in croup.” She stresses that medicines should be kept covered and have their names on them. Medicines such as opium, laudanum, nitric acid, etc. should also be marked “in large letters, Poison or Dangerous" and kept out of reach of children.


“The operation of medicine is always favored by very simple food, very sparingly used. Gruel is the best article. As a general rule it is better to avoid the use of emetics, when cathartics [purging] will answer the purpose equally well.”


What do these medicines do?


Castor oil is a cathartic producing little pain. It is recommended for pregnant women and those who just delivered, as well as children. You can mask the taste of it by mixing it with cinnamon water or with sweet coffee.


Carbonate of Magnesia is good for an acid state of the stomach. “A heaped up table-spoonful, well mixed in water or milk may be taken.”


Paregoric is used to control diarrhea.


What kinds of medicines were common in an 1837 household? Besides those mentioned above, Mrs. Child suggests:


Manna as a laxative, but because of its mildness, it can mixed with senna, rhubarb or some other cathartic.


Rhubarb is “at once a tonic and cathartic…Some aromatic is usually combined with it, to render it less painful. 1 ounce of senna leaves, 1 drachm of bruised coriander seed, and a pint of boiling water; steeped an hour in a eathern vessel, and strained.”


Jalap is also a cathartic (evidently, making people vomit was considered a good remedy for many illnesses). It is recommended especially where physic is required and is good to use in cases of dropsy.


Alum in “a weak solution held in the mouth is excellent for canker.”


Ginger, cinnamon, cloves and carroway are not only cooking spices, but may be used for medicinal reasons as well. The Home Nurse knew how to use these spices for helping family members with such things as dyspepsia, tooth aches, digestive problems and flatulence.


Cayenne may also be used as home remedy. Sprinkled on flannel it can be used as a rubefacient [causing redness of the skin] and was thought to be effective “for violent pain of the bowels and as a wash for rheumatism.”


Camphor must be dissolved in alcohol or expressed oil and is good for nervous head-ache or faintness. “Likewise comforting to bathe the hands, feet, and forehead, in cases of dry skin and nervous restlessness.” Camphor can also be used for muscular pains.


Mrs. Child lists twenty pages of common medicines in her book (along with long definitions of how to use them…the list is not twenty pages long). THE FAMILY NURSE is available via Barnes and Noble and a great resource for anyone writing in the 19th Century.


Anna Kathryn Lanier
http://www.aklanier.com/
http://www.annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/  

Nineteenth Century Medicine . . . and More

My love for the late nineteenth century has led me to collect an array of reference books. Today I would like to share with you some passages from DR. CHASE’S RECIPES OR INFORMATION FOR EVERYBODY. Quite a title, eh? That's only the short version. Inside the frontspiece says An Invaluable Collection of About Eight Hundred Recipes and he goes on. I make fun, but this is a helpful book published by Dr. A. W. Chase in 1866 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In it he covers everything from medicine to tanning hides. Dr. Chase has compiled a wealth of information on the times. I would think his book would have come in very handy for anyone in a remote area who had to be almost totally self-reliant.

Having had TB years ago, I was impressed and amazed at Dr. Chase’s advice on the disease. At a time when most TB patients were shut up in darkened rooms with no exercise or fresh air, Dr. Chase suggested a walk outside in a clear environment, beginning with a few yeards and working up to a half mile or so each day. He also suggested a diet which made total sense today. Let me share some other quotes with you:


Page 77 and 78 list several treatments for Ague. One is "Ague Medicine Without Quinine. Mrs. Wadsworth, a few miles south of this city, has been using the following Ague mixture over twenty years curing, she says, more than forty cases without a failure. She takes Mandrake root, fresh dug, and pounds it; then squeezes out the juice to obtain 1 ½ tablespoons, with which she mixes the same quantity of molasses, is divided into three equal doses of 1 tablespoon each to be given two hours apart, commencing so as to take all an hour before the chill."

I have no idea how you know the chill is coming an hour before it arrives.
Page 116 lists treatment for "Burns—Salve for Burns, Frost-bites, Cracked Nipples, Chapped Lips, etc. Equal parts of turpenine, sweet oil, and beeswax; melt the oil and wax together, and when a little cool, add the turpentine and stir until cold, which keeps them evenly mixed. Apply by spreading upon a thin cloth—linen is best."

Dr. Chase’s book contains food recipes, substitutions, calculating interest, tanning, dyes, training a horse, and building furniture. Some of his treatments sound worse than the disease. Others treat incurable diseases of the times, and I wonder if they merely offered hope to the hopeless. However, if one could only take one or two books on the trip West, I think this one would have been a good choice.

The ads on the inside cover interest me. I love reading old ads, though. Can't help myself. Imagine an all-night drugstore in 1866! And Walgreen's thought they'd come up with a new idea.

If any authors need a remedy from this book, just email me and I’ll check out what Dr. Chase says. My email is caroline@carolineclemmons.com and I'll be happy to explore for you.