General Chat

oA fried mouse was a traditional cure for whooping cough,and I am sure it worked extremely well.

Wasn't gripe water delicious?I liked Dinnefords too and have been known to use them for hangovers in my youth.Owbridges was a bit tasty too,well worth getting a cough for.

Chica, strange that curry or cayenne can keep your feet warm lol
I just remembered some yellow ointment as opposed to the pink ointment lol, called Acriflavin for burns? Mum managed to tip boiling fat over her hand when making us chips one snowy day. She bandaged her hand and carried on, even going outside to try and knock us up a sledge as we wanted one to play out in the snow with and Dad was at work. It must have hurt her hand, working outside in the shed but she did her best to cobble together a sledge for us, despite not being a handywoman!

When I was about 11, I started to get a strange rash on my hands feet, elbows and sometimes in my mouth, it came out like big spots that turned into blisters, so painful I couldn't open or close my hands as the skin stretched and split. Doctors couldn't help at all but I remember my Dad one day came home with some Fuller's Earth cream, he must have spoken about me at work and someone recommended it. I don't think it helped much, even touching the blisters to put anything on them made me scream. I had to be helped with everything, washing, dressing and lost quite a bit of schooling through the rash. The erythomycin? I was prescribed made me come out in big cold sores on my lip, always in the same place and I still suffer with cold sores to this day. The rash used to appear every six months or so but once I left school I only ever had it one more time, a slight outbreak when I was 22.

Lizx

I remember going to school with the little bag of camphor pinned to the inside of my liberty bodice and the smell of the dreaded senna pods soaking. Hated both,.. and the liberty bodice!
Lots of the old remedies my nana used back then I use today as a naturopath and they work very well indeed without the side effects of modern drugs. My granda brought back from India curry powder and we used to sprinkle it into our boots to keep our feet warm. I tell my patients to do that with cayenne pepper in the winter.

Just remembered, Mum used to paint the floorboards with permanganate of potash, used it myself to stain baskets when the dark flower baskets were selling well.

Margaret, I can remember applying that to a patients chest, as prescribed by a GP.

ipecac, squills and toulus for chesty coughs !

I suffered chilblains as a child , sometimes
used to be in agony with them but mum used
to cut an onion in half put some salt on and rub it into my toes .
Hazelx

Thanks Liz,didn't think of googling fennings fever cure...but what surprised me was that apparently you can still get Fennings powders for children.
Must admit,these were not as bad to take as the fever cure!

Thanks Liz-I hadn't thought of googling Fennings fever cure so thank-you.

My husband remembers iodine and the gritting of teeth when used!! I never had the pleasure but I do remember that pink Germoline and the smell of that too!

I remember being plastered with vinegar when I fell in a bed of stinging nettles-when it gets in my nostrills now it takes me right back!!

I love the opportunity to reminice my youth.
Thanks
oldbean

I just googled Fennings fever cure and found this, there is even a picture of the bottle.

Bottle of Fennings' Fever Mixture, England, 1950-1960
Credits: Science Museum, London

One wineglassful of the clear ‘Fennings' Fever Mixture’ was recommended to be drunk by adults to help ease fevers; young children drank a quarter of a glassful. The bottle cost 1shilling and sixpence. Alfred Fennings (d. 1900) opened his first shop in 1840 in London and produced a large and popular range of ‘over the counter’ treatments. On his death, trustees took over running the business and the profits went to a children’s charity. Among some of Fennings earlier products were ‘cures’ for diseases such as cholera. As with all such products, some treatments were more effective than others.


I remember warmed olive oil in my ear to ease earache.
Hot milk with butter for a cold - hated it and the smell haunts me lol
My Dad was a medic in the army at one stage of his service life, and swore by iodine, blowing on it as he administered it to a cut ! Ow, it stung. Then Mum got all modern and bought Germolene, can still remember that smell.

Lizx

My Nan used to give me Phennings (Fennings) Fever Cure in a little glass it tasted absolutely dreadful-what the hell was it?!!!

oldbean

Does anyone remember Bile Beans?

There were some of these in Mum's cabinet for years but I don't remember anyone taking them.

Liver salts for indigestion.

Butter and sugar for a cough (lovely)!

Syrup of figs to keep you 'regular'

I remember having a little bag round my neck with a solid cube of camphor in the winter underneath my school blouse to ward off colds.

Having your chest rubbed by Mum, with eucalyptus oil, stunk the place out but helped a cough and cold! Mum had sandpaper hands too!

Vick disso;ved in hot water for an inhalant, in a bowl, towel over your head and breathe in!

It's strange that today I have just received this e-mail of old remedies...pity I can't show you the pictures of the bottles,but you will get the gist!!




A bottle of Bayer's heroin. Between 1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was also used to treat children with strong cough.


Coca Wine, anyone?


Metcalf Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market. Everybody used to say that it would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal treatment.



Mariani wine



Mariani wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time. Pope Leo XIII used to carry one bottle with him all the time. He awarded Angelo Mariani (the producer) with a Vatican gold medal.



Maltine...with Coca wine



Produced by Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York. It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after every meal... Children should take half a glass.



A paper weight:



A paper weight promoting C.F. Boehringer & Soehne ( Mannheim , Germany ). They were proud of being the biggest producers in the world of products containing Quinine and Cocaine.


Vapor-ol treatment no.6.
Opium for Asthma:

No comments.



Cocaine tablets (1900)


All stage actors, singers teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum performance. Great to "smooth" the voice.


Cocaine drops for toothache



Very popular for children in 1885. Not only did they relieve the pain, they made the children happy!


Stickney and Poors
Opium for new-borns



I'm sure this would make them sleep well (not only the Opium, but 46% alcohol!)


No wonder they were called The Good Old Days!

Island just do not ingest it, it is very poisonousness.

Gail

MGH!!

what a selection!! thanks
much "Food" for thought there!

I might add that its not for me. but a family friend, and I DO recall having chilblains when I was young, 1948 ish sort of time.....
Melrose was the cure?/treatment at that time.


Sharron, thats the one!! LOL

Bob

Can't get the old po to go under the bed to do your chilblains in anymore can you?

I was going to suggest Menthol Crystals but was beaten to it!!

however,

any suggestions for treating toe chilblains?

there is a favourite one in the family but I wont divulge it yet!!
but am interested in new ideas....

Thanks
Bob

My mother,who really wasn't quite the ticket,always had a bottle of hydrogen peroxide,possibly so she could make any little injury I had sting.

I can remember her putting this peroxide on my toes once.Now,I have no idea why she should have done this as I didn't have athletes foot or anything like that.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time I suppose!