The macerated leaves themselves could be placed directly over the area , or the solution applied as a soak . Witch hazel solution was also popular to rub onto aching muscles and joints . It has been available in a commercially produced form since the mid-19th century and remains so today .
Epsom salts , originally discovered in Epsom , England in the sixteenth century , were also useful for treating joint and muscle pain and sprains with minor swelling . The Epsom salts had the advantage that they could be made into a paste or poultice and allowed to dry on or over the affected area . This meant that the application could last for several hours or overnight . A similar overnight application of Epsom salts was thought to be effective in removing splinters . With care , they would allegedly come out easily as the poultice was removed . In addition to external applications , a solution of Epsom salts was an effective purgative , though dosing was somewhat vague . Midwifery uses of Epsom salts solution waxed and waned over the centuries , as did ingestion or external application for treatment of hemorrhoids ( the effective ingredient in Epsom salts is magnesium ).
One other handy treatment for splinters was bacon – uncooked . It had to be left on long enough to be effective , though how long was long enough I have not been able to discover . My guess is that bacon predated Epsom salts and remained readily available after the salts were discovered . Epsom Downs is a long way from the north of England and in the 16th and 17th centuries , travel between the two would take weeks , not days .
Chewing on whole cloves as a remedy for toothache or swollen gums can be regarded as a centuries-long therapeutic trial . The fact that cloves were an essential ingredient for mulled wine meant they were readily available through the ages in England . Who knows , maybe the first therapeutic example involved a whole clove which got stuck in a tooth cavity as the tooth owner imbibed . Waking up with a hangover but without a toothache may have been the eureka moment . We know now that cloves are one source of eugenol and that eugenol oil or paste is used currently in dental applications .
I mentioned earlier that regional availability of ingredients might lead to variations in remedies . I believe that family preferences also played a part . On my mother ’ s side of our family , it was coal tar . We took our weekly bath in front of the fire and scrubbed ourselves with coal tar soap , which also doubled as shampoo . I never questioned the efficacy of the soap , because when the nit nurse came to school to check us for head lice – a once monthly ritual – I never had a problem . Those of my friends who weren ’ t so lucky and whose families had other preferences were occasionally subjected to the mayonnaise treatment . ( Instruction : Apply a thick layer of mayonnaise to suffocate the lice , then comb out the insects and their eggs .) Imagine what a mess that made , and for anyone with longer hair , it took a lot of mayo . Although we were sworn to secrecy , we always knew ( since we were the local grocers )
URBAN LEGENDS IN MEDICINE who needed large bottles of said product at certain times of the school year .
My maternal grandmother went one step further ( or several steps actually ) in her belief in the health properties of coal tar ; not the soap , but the real thing . Her home was within walking distance of one of the big Lancashire coal tar distilleries . By the time I was 8-years-old , I was permitted to go visit her on the bus by myself . On nice days , we would take a brisk walk out to the tar works and breathe in the health-giving fumes to strengthen our lungs . I never knew how she came across this snippet of medical lore . She was my adored grandmother . By the time I was old enough to wonder how much poison we had both inhaled , she had long since passed away . And anyway she was the champion of the toddy .
I think for colds , a fairly widespread remedy , even now , is some variation of the whiskey toddy . For us , it was hot water , lemon juice , honey and good whiskey , sipped slowly at bedtime . My grandmother , however , had another very specific use for the toddy . I do not remember how old my sister and I were , but we had been told in school that a student had developed chicken pox . It must have been either a Tuesday or a Thursday because those were the days my grandmother visited us . On reaching home , I dutifully told my mother about the chicken pox who turned to her mother who said , “ Mary , give them each a hot toddy before they go to bed tonight . The spots will be out in the morning .” She was right . We were then slathered in calamine lotion . Apparently , the toddy was no good for either itching or speeding up recovery .
Remedies that have failed to make the grade in our age of medical enlightenment involve urine ( the use of ) and bathing ( the prohibition of ). Advice for the treatment of foot fungus was to urinate on your own feet and then rinse them in clean water . For the treatment of acne , collect the first-morning urine of a pregnant cow . Dab it on the pimples and leave for 15 minutes . Rinse . Repeat daily until the pimples are gone . Alternatively , take a urine-soaked diaper ( a cloth baby diaper , of course ) and apply in the same way . Bathing advice for men indicated that too many hot baths could cause infertility . For pregnant women , taking a bath could drown the fetus .
It was again my grandmother who warned me of the dangers of overbathing in general and in the specific . I was a young teen when we had a bathtub installed in our home . My sister and I were excited that we would be able to take a bath every day , each of us in clean water . And we would be able to wash our hair every day as well if we wanted to . This was too much for my grandmother . She was worried that all this water would destroy our hair , seriously damage our skin and do who knows what to our inner private parts . She was our grandmother , she loved us and taught us what she knew . I think she would have felt very modern in 2019 / 2020 having her lovely gray hair styled in a dry bar . Dr . Amin is a retired diagnostic radiologist .
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