CoMAINrXO CTHE N \MEJJ ANT) ]> KSOKI I'TION S OK.ilX OIK MOST I SEECI. f IIEHUS KND PI.ANTS THAT (.Rmv IN THIS t:(|H NTUY WITH THEUl MKHIOTTs Aii ivl Al-ITIES ANNEXED A‘..-IQ, 1 ON MANY “I- TIJK l.fNOEitJMY lMSK.VSES Iff WHICH MANKIND All' VlTlf NKW A.VI> I’l. V .. AKCVMK.vi - •IKSt’Bt ' IN' * i 'nirw&tKKST u/tjk asiK-, Jii A TREATISE Wit’p A LAfiGE LIST W RECIPES, £* IIICH HAY* Mi BN CAKKKUI.IA SKI -KCTHI* ITKO.N INMAN I'BHSONIP- »*•* PttHMAMOSU. Ytitjl rKIISONK WHO WKU> O.-Uht) BY 2 1HK 8AWK Jlhri-V? K'NKltY HI II k H JIKlIKUf UA'J JT.UI.KIl UE>l( SK'''VOK THE i\k Ol . I UI Ml> IN HIE T.'MTJBJ) -viig BY l’lKRI*UNT F. BOW KER. 'iTuIV!(’ A • » ; v i • rCBMHUJSl* liY J\UED DOOLITTLE 1851. THE INDIAN VEGETABLE FAMILY INSTRUCTED: CONTAINING THB NAMES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE BIOST USEFUL HERBS AND PLANTS THAT GROW IN THIS COUNTRY, WITH THEIR MEDICINAL QUALITIES ANNEXED; ALSO, A TREATISE ftM MANY OF THE LINGERING DISEASES TO WHICH MANKIND AKB SUBJECT, WITH NEW AND PLAIN ARGUMENTS RESPECTING THE MANAGEMENT OF THE SAME; WITn A LARGE LIST OF RECIPES, WHICH HATH BEEN CAREFULLF SELECTED FROM INDIAN PRESCRIP- TIONS AND FROM THOSE VERY PERSONS WHO WERE CURED BT THE SAME AFTER EVERY OTHER REMEDY HAD FAILED. DESIGNED FOR THE USE OF FAMILIES IN THE UNITED STATES. BY FIERPONT F. BOWKER. UTICA: PUBLISHED BY JARED DOOLITTLE 1851. Entered according to Act of Congrese, in the year 1836, by Purport F. Bottkkr, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Vermont. INDEX TO THE LIST OF MEDICAL PLANTS. [The figures refer to the number of the description, and not to the pages.] Archangel . 72 Avens, called also Cole Wort and Herb Bonet 92 Artichoke - 183 Buck’s Horn 12 Blackberry Briar, the roots 22 Blue Flag, the roots 28 Black Alder, the bark 29 Bitter Sweet 36 Barberry 37 Black Birch 45 Bitter Thistle 46 Blood Weed.. 49 Birth Wort. 50 Bay berry 51 Blood Root 60 Balm of Gilead 71 Bitter Quassia 89 Butternut 101 Burdock 147 Burnet 158 Creepers, the seeds 25 Chocolate Root 39 Camomile 40 Colt’s Foot.. 41 Comfrey 56 Cherry Tree Bark 63 Calimint or Mountain Mint 91 Common Agrimony, Eupatory 97 Celandine 105 Clivers 106 Common Arrowhead 124 CONTENTS. IV Check erberries •._ 131 Convulsion Roots 136 Carrots 138 Canker Root or Cold Water Root . ....139 Currants .140 Catmint, or Catnip ...142 Crowfoot or Buttercup 150 Crane’s Bill 151 Consumption Weed 154 Cinquefoil, or Five-fingered Grass 168 Caraway ....170 Cancer Maple, or Caravan Wood 185 DogAcna 3 Dog’s Grass, or Couch Grass 20 Dandelion 98 Eyebright 82 Endive 83 Evergreen Plant, or Wild Lettuce 115 Earth Chestnuts, or Groundnuts 167 Five Finger Leaf - 24 Female Flower 68 Fever Bush - 69 Fragrant Water Lily 128 Flower de Luce, or Velvet Flower, Amaranthus 179 Fox Gloves - 180 Featherfew, or Feverfew 181 Germander 8 Ginger 59 Golden Rod 77 Gout Wort or Herb Gerrard 81 Gooseberry Bush 84 Garlic.. ....119 Garget 122 Gold Thread 125 Genseng 148 Garden Pinks 159 Gravel Weed 186 Holly 5 Hops 33 Heart’s Ease 113 CONTENTS. V Hawk Weed 153 Hyssop 157 Herb True Love, or One Berry 177 Hemp . 184 Horsetail 187 Indian Milkweed, sometimes called Bitterroot 67 Indian Umbil, called also Ladies’ Slipper, Nervine, &c. 99 Inner bark of Hemlock 100 Indian Wormwood 192 Jill grow over the grouud , 6 Juniper Bush 7 Jacob’s Ladder 120 King’s Evil Weed % 64 Loose-stripe or Willow Herb 9 Lavender Cotton „ 10 Lemon Balm 23 Lavender 26 Low Mallows 30 LungWort ’... 74 Ladies’ Smock, or Cuckoo Flower 80 Ladies’ Thistle 165 Large Golden Thread 189 Master Wort 13 Mosses 14 Marigolds 15 Maidenhair 50 Meadow Fern 75 Marsh Mallows pg Mullein Mouse Ear, or Puddle Weed 109 Melilot, or Seneca Clover HO Marsh Rosemary 116 Mountain Ash 117 Meadow Saffron, Colchicum 127 Motherwort 409 May Weed igo Moon Wort Noble Liverwort 47 Nail Wort, or Whitlow Grass 178 VI Oats 16 Oak of J erusalem 35 Orchis Habernaria 55 Prim Roses 17 Poplar 34 Pennyroyal 43 Peach Tree 53 Parsley 56 Pipsisway, or Wintergreen 102 Plantain 112 Peppermint -146 Piony,the roots * 161 Pusley 169 Queen of the Meadow 85 Running Hemlock 4 Rattle Grass 11 Rattle Snake Plantain 54 Red Raspberries 78 Round Leaved Wintergreen . — — 132 Red Beech - 149 Red Rose — 160 Red Clover 163 Star Thistle 18 Shepherd’s Purse, or Case Wort 19 Sweet Balm - 27 Snake Root — -- 43 Shin Leaf 48 Sage 61 Slippery Elm 62 Spikenard 66 Snake’s Head, sometimes called Brook Aloes 75 Seneca Snakeroot 86 Spotted Cardis 90 Samphire 95 Strawberries, the leaves 107 Sicily - 108 Sasftfras - Ill Sweet Fern — 134 Solomon’s Seal 135 Sweet Elder - — 141 Spearmint 143 CONTENTS. Squaw Weed, or Cocash 144 Summer Savory 145 Sarsaparilla 155 Spider Blows 162 Saffron 164 Swamp Plantain, or Deer’s Ears 188 Seneca Snakeroot 193 Tanzy ! 73 Tompena, or Hensfoot 94 Thorough Wort 103 Trencle Root 191 Violets, the blows 1 Vervine Wood Betony 93 Wild Cherry White Birch 137 Witch Hazle 152 White Maiden Hair 175 White Oak Bark and Buds 194 Yarrow, or Thousand Leaf... 126 CONTENTS. VII INDEX TO TIIE RECIPES CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK. [The figures refer to the number of the description, and not to tli# pages.] A wash for a sore mouth, or canker 3 An excellent family syrup 6 A burn 7 A strain or weakness of the kidneys 21 A cough 24 A cure for corns 27 Asthma 34 A wen - 41 A sore throat 67 Asthmatic coughs 84 A good pill for hysterics 92 A child who has the dysentery 98 A child who has a relapse 99 A cold 106 A sprain 108 A lame side 110 A felon 114 A cure for henbane 146 A recipe almost always handy ...170 Bleeding of stomach 13 Bilious cholic 31 Bite of a rattlesnake ... 53 Bilious habit, syrup for 56 Bitters to go with the above 57 Burns, salve for 60 Beer for cancers 81 Beer to guard against bilious fevers 137 Bitters to go with the above 138 Bilious habit, pills for 145 Bite of a dog, or pricking of a thorn, ointment for.... .148 CONTENTS. IX Cough, or phthisic 1 Cough, or pain in the breast «. 10 Common cough .» 24 Catarrh in the head 25 Children not holding urine 50 Canker rash 51 Cough with much phlegm.............. 62 Cure for the dysentery 82 Convulsion fits 101 Consumption .107 Canker 109 Cramp in the stomach 132 Cure for gravel 133 Cure for yellow jaundice 147 Cancers 162, 163 Deafness, singing in the ear, &c 5 Dropsy, cure for 18 Dysentery in its worst form 36 Excellent family pill 80 Excellent wash for all kinds of fretting sores 149 Excellent drink for a dry cough, wheezing, and short- ness of breath 152 Elongation of palate and distention of other parts con- nected 159 Eye wash 176 For the rheumatism 16 Frost bitten feet 44 For weak nerves 79 Fora felon 115 For a cancer 116 For a burn 122 Fresh wounds, to stop blood from 129 Film from the eye 143 Gravel..... 33 Green wound salve Ill Good salve for ladies’ sore breasts 141 Hemorrhage 52 Heart burn v 66 X Inflammation of the heart 7 Inward hurts, or ulcers.. 30 Indigestion 75 Indigestion 76 Inward ulcers, cure for 119 Inveterate sprain, or wrenched side 166 Jaundice 23,155 King’s evil, or kernels of the ears 2 Liver complaint, beer for 100 Ladies’ sore nipples 144 Nose bleeding 127 Numb palsy 142 Ointment for piles 42 Ointment for old ulcers, or sores 47 Ointment for weak joints 68 Old inveterate sore legs 112 Palpitation of the heart 9 Pills for the hysterics 14 Phthisic in children 22 Phthisic, cure for 38 Pills for dull and heavy pains in the head 45 Piles 49 Poison afterithas begun to discharge 69 Plaster to ease the pains of felons 135 Pin Worms, remedy for 154 Prevention and cure of piles 169 Quinsy in the throat r.. 103 Remedy to stop vomiting 12 Rheumatism 85 Rheumatism, another for the same 86 Remedy for canker in the mouth 121 Remedy for the dysentery 128 Remedy for rattles in children 130 Rheumatism in the loins 134 Rickets in children 139 Receipt forgery sore eyes 167 CONTENTS. Strengthening plaster 15 Strain, or weakness of the kidneys.*. - 21 Swellings which come of their own accord 26 Stiff joint, or shrunk sinew 28 Strained stomach — 29 Strained stomach, or spitting of blood 37 St. Anthony’s fire - 39 Sores without inflammation. 48 Swelled face, or scurvy of the teeth 54 Stone, remedy for 64 Syrup for the jaundice 70 Stranguary, cure for 77 Sore throat 78 Stoppage of water 97 Splenetic persons 104 Stiff joint, or shrunk sinews 113 Salt Rheum - 120 Steam hemlock sweat - 168 Sarsaparilla syrup 171 Shaw’s liniment 173 Shaw-’s medicine for breach . 175 To destroy worms in sickness or in health 140 To cure a burn, or scald, without a scar 159 To staunch blood and heal chafe 160 Toothache 161 To make balsam wild red cherry.... 164 The more disordered state of throat and lungs 165 Urinary obstructions 156 V egetable poison, cure for 11 Worms in children 17 Weakness and general debility 20 Weak or inflamed eyes . 32 Weak at the stomach 72 Wind in the stomach 73 Weak eyes 87 Wind in children 95 Wen. cure for 117 Weak stomach 123 VVeakness in the side, or breast .124 Weakly obstructions in the female sex..... 126 Walker’s liniment 172 Walker’s cure for corns 174 Yellow jaundice ....147 CONTENTS. XI FAMILY INSTRUCTED SPRING. Now comes the soft season of b ids and of bovvers, The opening of bells and the blooming of flower*, The hill-tops and meadows are verdant and gay, O this is the month, the fair blooming May. See yonder she comes with a wreath on her brow, How grateful and gay is a glance at her now; Fair sunshine :s her mantle, it dazzles the ey<, Her vestments are bright as the heavenly sky. O'er the wide peopled earth she is every where seen, With a foliage of lively and beautiful green, She invites the fair damsel there heedlessly stray, And follow the florist along the smooth way. Learn the true use of herbs, of trees, and of flowers, Then wander afar, for wide are her bowers, And easy the task and more useful than wealth, ’T is earth’s sweetest treasure, the sure way to health. Vegetation is now springing forth; it is the season of sunshine and showers; sweet spring, like a herald from heaven, invites our footsteps abroad over the green fields that surround our native dwellings. If you have a leisure hour, employ it in minutely searching God’s works. Cull medicine and prepare it ready against sick- ness and distress. Say not I have none, for sick- ness will surely come. Our fields abound with 14 vegetable medicine, and the fertile meadows, the witness of your labor, produce many, yes, very many, a valuable root. It is now the season of complaint. Jaundice and universal weakness of the whole system is common. The remedy is simple and easy. Expense is out of the question entirely. Hoots and herbs are at the command of every one, and nature’s prescriptions are all free gratis. She demands not your money for her services, but like a kind patron and friend invites you to partake of her blessings, and her only reward is to come and taste more. There is no excuse for you to lay and suffer if you are sick. No; this physician is kind and charitable. The rich and poor may share the blessing alike. Equal- ity and equal rights is the motto. Very little trouble when you are well will procure a store of medicine against the day you may become diseased. But I have insensibly deviated from the path I was tracing. Return again to spring. If you are in the habit of being unwell about this time, all you have to do is to cleanse arid promote a free circu- lation of the blood. This may easily be done. Root beers and vegetable bitters are simple and easy medicines. These are the cheapest and best restoratives to human nature ever known. An enlightened and civilized republic, it is hoped, will shortly see the day when the bands of thraldom to apothecary medicine will be loosed, and like the shackles of royalty that would lain encumber our liberty, sleep with the dust of ages or remain to dupe mortals of another country with its oppres- sion. America! the land of the free! may thy name and nature accord in golden harmony together. FAMILY INSTKL'CTJSU. 1. Violets—the Blows. MEnrCAL PLANTS. 15 These are pretty garden flowers, sometimes called Ladies’ Delights, and well known to the florist. They are • of a mucilaginous nature and good in canker and strengthening to the stomach ; they are also good in syrups. 2. Dwarf Elder—the Berries. This elder grows chiefly in pastures and is com- monly found in plenty among raspberry bushes. The stalk runs up high, with several small berries on the top, resembling whortle berries. They are good for all rheumatic complaints, dropsy, and swollen limbs. Steep the berrios in spirit, and take it before eating in small doses. .‘5. Dog Acna. This bush grows commonly in w'et places, and is covered with a smooth, speckled bark, of light and dark green. It branches out very much like dog wood. The bark of this made into a tea and used as a wash, is good for canker. 4. Running Hemlock. This is a little bush that grows wild in the woods, of a light green color and has a small red berry. These berries are good for a weak stom- ach; the bush is good boiled in water, to cure swollen limbs. 5. Holly. These bushes grow in most places near the sea shore, by the sides of roads and hedges. The leaf resembles that of an oak, except it is prickly. This shrub has small black berries. The bark and berries are astringent and tonic. 16 6. Jill Grow Over the Ground. FAMILY INSTRUCTED This is a common herb, found in door-yards, and by the sides of the roads. It is a small run- ning vine, resembling Low Mallows, except the leaf is smaller. This taken green and pounded up, is good applied to a fresh wound, or where humors prevail. It is also the best thing known in the world to correct female irregularities. 7. Juniper Bush. To give a description of a bush so commonly known, is needless. The berries do not ripen the first year, but continue green two summers and one winter, before they are ripe, at which time they are of a black color, and therefore green ber- ries are always to be found upon the bush. The berries are ripe about the falling of the leaf. This admirable solar shrub is rarely to be paralleled for its virtues. The berries are hot in the third degree, and dry; but in the first, being a most admirable counter-poison, and as great a resister of the pesti- lence as any thing that grows. They are excellent for the biting of venomous beasts; they provoke urine exceedingly, and therefore are very available in dysuries and stranguaries. It is so powerful a remedy in the dropsy, that the very ley made of the ashes of the herb, and drank, cures the disease. They strengthen the stomach exceedingly and expel the wind; indeed ihere is scarce a better remedy for wind in any part of the body, or the cholic, than the chemical oil drawn from the berries. Such people as know not how to extract this oil, may content themselves by eating ten or a dozen of the ripe berries every morning, fasting. They are good for a cough, shortness of breath, and 17 consumption; they fortify the eye sight by strengthening the optic nerves. The ashes of the wood are especially beneficial to such as have the scurvy, to rub their gums with. The berries stop all fluxes, help the haemorrhoids, or piles, destroy worms in children, procure a lost appetite, and is good for palsies and falling sickness. MEDICAL PLANTS. 8. Germander. Common Germander shoots forth a number of stalks, with small and somewhat round leaves, dented about the edges. The flowers stand at the tops, of a deep purple color. The roots are com- posed of divers sprigs, which shoot forth, round about, quickly overspreading the ground. It grows usually in gardens, and flowers in June and July. This herb is considered to strengthen the brain and apprehension exceedingly. This taken with honey is a remedy for coughs, hardness of the spleen, and difficulty of urine, and helps those that are fallen into a dropsy, especially at the beginning of the disease. It is most effectual against the poison of all serpents, being drank in wine; and the bruised herb outwardly applied, used with honey, cleanses old and foul ulcers. It is good in all diseases of the brain, as continual headache, filling sickness, melancholy, drowsiness and dullness of the spirits, convulsions and palsies. One drachm of the seeds taken in powder will purge by urine, and is good for the yellow jaundice. The most common kind is called Yellow Loose Stripe. It grows to he four or five feet high or more, with large round stalky a little crested, and diversely branched from the middle of them to the 9. Loose Stripe, or Willow Herb. 18 FAMILY INSTKUCTER. top into great and long branches. At all the joints there grows long and narrow leaves, but broader below, and usually two at a joint, yet sometimes more, something like willow leaves, smooth on the edges, and of a fair green color. From the upper joints of the branches, and at the tops of them, also stand yellow flowers, of five leaves each, with yellow threads in the middle, which turn into small round heads containing small cornered seeds. The root creeps under ground like couch grass roots, but larger, and shoots up every spring, brownish heads, which afterwards grow up into stalks ; it has neither scent nor taste, but is astringent. It grows in moist meadows, and by the side of water. This is good for all manner of bleeding at the mouth and nose, and all fluxes, either to drink, or taken by clyster. It is also good for green wounds to stop the bleeding, and quickly close together the lips of the wound. The juice of the herb is used in gargles, for sore mouths. 10. Lavender Cotton. This being a common garden herb, I shall for- bear the description; only that it flowers in June and July. It resists poison, putrefaction, and heals the bites of venomous beasts. A drachm of the powder of the dried leaves, taken every morning, fasting, stops the running of the reins in men, and whites in women. The seed being pounded into powder, and taken as worm-seed, kills worms, not only in children, but also in people of riper years. The herb itself has the same effect, but is not so powerful as the seed. MEDICAL CLAMTS. 19 11. Rattle Grass. Of this there are two kinds, which I shall speak of, viz. the red and yellow; the common red rattle has a number of reddish hollow stalks, and some- times green, starting from the root, lying for the most part on the ground, some growing more up- right, with many small reddish or green leaves, set on both sides of a middle rib finely dented about the edges. The flowers stand at the tops of the stalks, and are of a fine purple red color, like small gaping hoods, after these come dark brown seeds in small husks, which lying loose therein, rattle when shaken; the roots consist of two or three small whitish strings, with some fibres. The Yellow' Rattle has seldom above one round large stalk, rising from the root, about half a yard or two feet high, with but fewr branches on it, having two long and somewhat broad leaves, set at a joint, deeply cut in on the edges, resembling the comb of a cock; broadest next the stalks, and smaller at the end. The flowers grow at the tops of the stalks, with some shorter leaves with them, hooded after the same manner that the others are, but of a fair yellow color, or in some they are rather pale. The seed is contained in a large husk, and when ripe, will rattle or make a noise, being loose in the husk. The root is small and slender, perishing every year; they grow in meadows and woods, where the land is wet, generally; their virtues are very much alike; the herb boiled with beans, and some honey put thereto, and drank, is good for a cough, as also for dimness of sight. 12. Buck's Horn. They have many small and weak straggling branches trailing here and there upon the ground; it 20 FAMILY INSTRUCTED has a large share of leaves, small, jagged, very much like Buckshorn Plantain, but smaller, and not so hairy; the flowers grow among the leaves in small rough whitish clusters; the seeds are small- er and brownish, of a bitter taste; they grow in barren sandy grounds, and flower and seed when the other plantains do. The virtues are very much the same as Buckshorn Plantain; the leaves being bruised, and applied to a cut or wound of any kind, stops bleeding. 13. Master Wort. Common Master Wort has a great many stalks of winged leaves, divided into sundry parts, gener- ally with three standing together, with a small foot stalk on both sides of the greater, also three at the end of the stalk, somewhat broad, and cut in on the edges into three or more divisions, all of them dented about the brims, resembling the leaves of Angelica, of a dark green, only they grow nearer the ground and have full as many stalks, among which rise up two or three short slender stalks, about two feet high, with such loaves at the joints as grow below, but with less divisions, bearing um- bels of white flowers, and after them small, flat, thin, blackish seeds; the root grows rather side- ways than deep in the ground, shooting forth heads, of a sharp biting taste, which are the hottest parts of the plant; and the seed next to it is rather blackish on the outside, and has a good smell; this flowers and seeds about the end of August; the root of this is hotter than pepper, and very good in diseases of the stomach and bowels, dissolving very powerful- ly upwards and downwards ; it is wood in wine, for all cold rheums, shortness of breath, and distillation upon the lungs ; it is also good for the cramp and 21 dropsy. The best way is to take the distilled water from the herb and root. It is also very good for the gout. MEDICAL PLANTS. 14. Mosses. I shall not trouble the reader with a description of all these, but treat of two kinds, Ground Moss, and Tree Moss ; these are very well known. The Ground Moss grows in moist wood lands, and at the bottom of hills, in boggy grounds, and shadowy ditches, and many other places. Tree Moss grows only on trees. The Ground Moss, bruised and boiled in water, will ease all inflammations and pains coming of a hot cause. Tree Mosses are of a cooling nature, and partake of a mollifying diges- ting quality. The powder of this taken in drink, is good for the dropsy; it is also good to strengthen the sinews, and with oil of roses, will cure the head ache. 15. Marigolds. These are so well known and plentiful in every garden, that they need no description. They blow all summer, and if kept warm, sometimes flower in the winter. They are very strengthening to the heart, and will, in case of the measles and small pox, answer in room of saffron; the juice of the leaves, mixed with vinegar, and used as a bath, will ease hot swellings. The flowers, either green or dried, made into a drink, are good for the spirits, and a plaster made of the dry flowers in powder, with hog’s lard, rosin, and turpentine, applied to the breast, strengthens the heart in fevers, even if pes- tilential. 22 FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 16. Oats. These are too well known to need a description. These fried with bay salt, and applied to the sides, take away pains, and ease wind in the belly. These, with other things, are also good for the itch and lep- rosy. The meal of oats, boiled with vinegar, and applied, will take away freckles and spots on the face and other parts of the body. 17. Primroses. These are too well known to need a description. Of the leaves is made the finest salve to heal wounds ever known, as will hereafter be shown in the Recipes. The common Star Thistle has many leaves, lying next the ground, cut deeply on the edges, in many parts. The leaves are green, soft and wool- ly, among which rise up weak stalks, parted into several branches, which all lay on the ground; it has leaves at the top, where stands small whitish green heads set with white sharp prickles; no other part of the plant is prickly; out of the mid- dle rises the flowers, composed of many small reddish purple threads ; the root is small, long and woody. The root of this, in powder, given in wine, is good against the plague ; and the distilled water being drank, is good to open obstructions of the liver, and cleanse the blood from humors. 18. Star Thistle. 19. Shepherd's Purse, or Case Wort. The root is small, and white; dies every year; the leaves are small and long, of a pale green color, and deeply cut in, on each side, from which MEDICAL PLANTS. 23 spring up a stalk w hich is small and round, contain- ing upon it leaves even to the top; the flowers are white, and very small; after them come little cases, which hold the seed, which are flat, almost in the form of a heart; it generally grows in moist ground, in pine woods, and sometimes by the edges of swraxnps; they blossom all summer, and some of them arc so fruitful that they flower twice a year. This herb is of a binding nature ; it helps all fluxes of blood, either caused by inward or out- ward wounds; it is an excellent remedy for those persons who spit blood, and have blood mixed with their water as it passes from them. It is used for the jaundice, by binding it to the wrist, and to the soles of the feet; the herb made into a poultice, helps inflammations and St. Anthony’s fire. 20. Dog's Grass, or Couch Grass. This grass creeps about far under ground, with long, white, jointed roots, and small fibres at almost every joint; the root and branch are very sweet in taste; the roots interlace each other, from which start up a number of fair grassy leaves, small at the ends, and sharp on the edges; the stalks are jointed like corn. It has also a large spiked head, with long husks in it, and hard, rough seeds. If this description falls short of the intend- ed object, watch the dogs when they are sick, and they will quickly lead you to it. This grass, I believe, grows very common in old ploughed fields, to the no small trouble of husbandmen, as also the gardeners, in gardens, to weed it out (if they can,) for it is a constant customer to the place it gets footing in. This is the most medicinal of all the quick grasses. Being boiled and drank, it 24 opens obstructions of the liver and gall, and the stopping of urine. It is good for all griping pains, and inflammations; the roots bruised and applied will consolidate wounds; the seeds are good to stop vomiting; the distilled water alone or with a little wonnword, kills worms in children. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 21. Wood Sorrel. This is very well known; having small leaves coming from the root, of a yellowish green color, and very sour, the juice of which will turn red when clarified; the roots are nothing but small strings. This is good for all inflammations, to quench thirst, and strengthen a wreak stomach, restore a lost appetite, and stop vomiting. 22. Blackberry Brier,—the roots. These hushes grow common, by the sides of walls, and about fences and hedges, and is too common to need any further description. The ►roots of this, with other things, are a sure cure for the canker in the mouths of children. The root, made into a tea, is also good for dysentery. This herb growrs chiefly in gardens, and is of a cooling nature; it grows from the height of six to eighteen inches, has a very odoriferous smell, and is good in fevers and inflammations. 23. Lemon Balm. 24. Five Finger,—the Leaf. This is a species of strawberry, and grows com- mon in mowing lands ; it nils on the giound, with a long vine, the leaves are smaller than that of a MEDICAL PLANTS. 25 strawberry leaf, and grow five in a bunch. These leaves, made into a tea, are very cooling, and good in a fever. 25. Creepers,—the Seeds. This vine, I presume, is generally known; it is of a creeping nature, and climbs along fences and hedges, and affords a pleasing shade for windows; it has a large prickly bud; the seeds of this, dried and made into a tea, will cure the cholic, and has been known to answer this purpose, when every thing else has failed, and the disease has baffled all other medicine. 20. Lavender. This herb grows chiefly in gardens, and sends forth a very odoriferous smell, and is an excellent perfume. The oil of this, with other things, is good to supple shrunk sinews and stiff'joints, being very powerful; it is also good for cramp in the stomach. 27. Sweet Balm. This is a well known garden herb, of a savory taste and smell; it grows high, and has on the top a pretty red blow ; this dried and made into a tea, is good in a fever, and very cooling. 28. Blue Flags,—the Roots. These flags grow chiefly in gardens, and have a handsome blue blossom. The roots of these flags, with other things, are an excellent cure for felons ; the roots are made into a salve, as will hereafter be found in the list of Recipes. 26 29. Black Alder,—the Bark. FAMILY INBTKCCTKtt. The bark of this well known shrub or bush is good made into a syrup, for those troubled with indigestion; it is also good in spring beers, for jaundice complaints, &c.; the tags of this, made into a salve, is good to cure swellings that come of themselves. 30. Low Mallows. This herb is very common, growing in door yards and round buildings, having a small delicate white blossom; it is not, however, useless, being good to cure dysentery, and is excellent in salves and ointments. This is a garden weed, and retains its form and color when dried; it grows sometimes very high, with a bushy top of beautiful red; it is said to be good for the nose bleed. 31. Prince's Feather. 32. River Willow. This is a very common bush or shrub, generally growing near" some brook or river; it has a yellow- ish stalk, from four to ten feet high, with a long nar- row leaf, of a lightish green. It has a long cluster of roots, the bark of which, steeped in spirit, is good for a cough and other consumptive complaints. 33. Hops. This plant is so universally known as to render a description useless. It refuses poor, dry soil; the yellow dust of this, with other things, are a good preventive of all billious fevers, makes a healthy bitter, and is a fine thing in beers and syrups. 27 MEDICAL PLANTS. 34. Poplar. This is quite common, and derives its name from the motion of its leaves, which are in a con- tinual state of agitation, like the populace. There are several kinds of this, which grow in this coun- try, two of which are used as a medicine, the white and stinking Poplar; the latter is the best, because it is most bitter. The limbs are brittle, the inner bark of which only being fit for use, should be carefully preserved, and pounded fine; made into a tea, it is good to restore digestion, or for a relax and headache. It is a fine thing for a weak stom- ach, and several other complaints caused by indi- gestion ; it is good for all urinary obstructions and weakness; those who are consumptive, will find this a great relief to that lingering and slow com- plaint. 35. Oak of Jerusalem. This herb is common; it grows in gardens and round buildings, and may be known by its taste, for it is bitter even to a proverb. It is of a sweat- ing nature, and if drank of freely will throw off fevers at first attack, and frequently prevent colds ; it is also good in syrups. This weed is very healthy, and useful as a medicine, and may be administered with good success. 36. Bitter Sweet. This is a valuable and useful medicine. It is found on wet low land, on the banks of rivers, &c.; it is of a climbing nature; the top or vine runs on bushes, and creeps along the ground. The root is of a reddish yellow, the bark of which, with other things I shall hereafter describe, are an excellent ointment for external application. 28 FAMILY INSTftUCTER. 37. Barberry. This is a well known shrub, producing red ber- ries, of an acid taste. The bark is very useful; it is good for a sore mouth in children, and made into tea, is a line thing in many other cases. 38. Mustard. This is of a warm nature ; the herb when young and green, is good boiled; it greatly promotes digestion, and creates an appetite ; made into a tea, it is excellent to remove pain in the stomach and bowels. White mustard seed is good for those troubled with dyspepsia or indigestion ; when swal- lowed whole in doses of one tea-spoon full at a time, before eating, it is an excellent remedy in many cases. This grows in moist land, and is pretty well known, making a very good drink. The root is of a dark muddy color; the stalk, at the top, has four leaves in a bunch; from each leaf projects a small beard, something like one inch in length. When steeped strong, and mixed with a little cream and loaf sugar, it is an excellent remedy in many cases, for the dysentery; it is also good for the canker, and is too well known to need a more minute description. 39. Chocolate Root. 40. Camomile. This is a well known garden herb. It spreads over the ground, and has a small white flower, resembling may-weed. It is excellent made into a tea, for a weak stomach, to stop vomiting, and makes a mild and agreeable bitter; when steeped 29 strong, it will frequently stop bleeding at the stom- ach. It is very useful as a medicine in many other cases. MEDICAL PLANTS. 41. Colt’s Foot. This is a well known herb, growing by the sides of rivers and brooks, on the sand, and is sometimes cultivated in gardens. The leaf in shape is some- thing similar to a colt’s hoof, only it has scallopped edges, and is of a dark green color; the under side of the leaf is light green, and covered with a smooth, soft, white fur. It is good for syrups, and is a great restorative to the lungs. This herb is quite common on barren dryish spots of land, and is well known. It has a strong savory smell and taste, and is very useful as a medicine, it being of a warm sweating nature. It is good to restore the wonted heat of the stomach; it is a fine thing for a cold when drank freely, and will prevent fevers at the first onset, will remove wind in the stomach, and may be used without fear, as it is perfectly harmless. 42. Pennyroyal. 43. Snake Root. This grows wild, and is found mostly on rich low land, and around stones and stone heaps. Its leaf very much resembles that of colt’s foot, but smaller; it is of a hot biting taste. The root is good to drive out bad humors, and when steeped in very little spirit, is good for a weak stomach, it is a good bitter for jaundice complaints, in the spring of the year, and will not fail to strengthen the nerves, and tend to promote a free perspiration. 30 FAMILY INSTRUCT3R. 44. Iloarhound. This is a garden herb, well known, of a pectoral nature. It is very strengthening, for the lungs; a cold tea made of the leaves, is good to prevent children from coughing nights, and to loosen phlegm in the stomach. This mixed with colt’s foot, is a fine thing for lung complaints. It may also be used with good success in various kinds of syrups. This is quite a common tree, the bark of which is good and strengthening; the essence of this is excellent to scent snuff, giving it a healthy and grateful flavor. A tea made of this bark is good for all bowel complaints, and excellent in case of dysentery; it assists digestion, and will cure can- ker if applied in season. 45. Black Birch. This sort of thistle grows chiefly in gardens, it is sown once a year. Its leaves are numerous, and it has a great number of branches; its leaf is large and prickly, like the Canada Thistle. The seed is plump, and has a beard on the end. A tea of this is excellent for regulating the stomach and bile; no harm ever being sustained by its free,use; or it may be pulverized when dry, and taken in molasses. 40. The Bitter Thistle. 47. Noble Liverwort. This is a well known herb, usually found with the boxberry and wintergrcen. Its leaves start from the ground and frequently from the stalk or vine, which always keeps close to the ground. MEDICAL PLANTS. 31 The stalk is from two to ten inches long, with a white bunch of blossoms; although but few grow to this size. They are more commonly found with only two leaves, which are very hard and rough, close to the ground. This is excellent in syrups, for all consumptive complaints; and the leaves are likewise good to chew, swallowing the spittle. 48. Shin Leaf. This is a common herb growing in the woods. It has four round leaves, which start close to the ground. It sometimes has a small stalk or pistil, which bears on its top a number of white blows, which are always close to the stalk. The root has no fibres. Bruise the leaves of this herb and ap- ply them to a new wound. They are good to take out soreness and keep oflWiumors. 49. Blood Weed. This grows in old fields, and by some is called horse tail or wrhite top. It grows about waist or shoulder high, with but one stalk from the ground. It has a very bushy top. This green or dry is very good to stop blood. 50. Birth Wort. This herb grows wild. It has a slender stem, growing from six to teh inches high; the leaves oordate, oblong, acuminate; penduncles radical; lip of corolla lanceolate. The root has a bitter taste and an aromatic smell. The flower is infla- ted and purple. The root inay be used as a tonic in medicine. 32 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 51. Bay berry. This is a bush or shrub which grows common in many parts of this country. Its height is from one to four feet. It has berries about the size of the pepper corn, which grow close to the stalk. A kind of wax or tallow adheres to the berries. The leaves are of a dark, green color. No part of this bush, except the bark, which grows on the roots, is used for medicine, and this should be taken oft', and pounded as fine as snuff. This is good for all complaints of the bowels. It is like- wise good for canker. It will, when used for clear the head, and frequently stop its aching. It is very pungent and sometimes operates as an emetic. 52® Maidenhair, This is a common fern, and useful herb ; grows in moist land, by the side of old hedges; and at the foot of mountains, and is often found in the woods; it is so common as to make a further description useless. This made into strong tea, is excellent where there is inward inflammation, and may be freely used, for it is perfectly harmless. 53. Peach Trees. These arc among the many which need no description. They are wrell known, for the deli- cious fruit they hear, hut their uses, as a medicine, are not so generally known. The leaves of this tree are very useful in howel complaints, for chil- dren ; the meats of the stone are one of the best things known to strengthen the stomach and assist digestion. MEDICAL PLANTS. 33 54. Rattlesnake Plantain. This grows in dry places, in the woods, where the leaves may be found in March, forming a kind of whirl, and lying flat on the ground. The color is green, veined with white, with a lustre like vel- vet ; the stem to this plant rises to the height of a foot, and produces a spike of white flowers. This plant is so fond of its native woods that it refuses domestic culture ; this herb is used to cure the bite of a rattlesnake. 55. Orchis Habernaria. This grows in meadows, and rises to the height of two feet; the leaves are broad, lanceolate; its flowers are purple, each with five spreading petals, germs incurved and thickened in the middle, spur filiform, and longer than the germ ; it has a singu- lar root; each root has attached to it two tubers, one of which is withered and the other plump; the withered one has produced the growing plant, while the other is destined to be its successor the next year; the centre of the new tuber being about an inch from the old one, the plant travels about that distance every year, so that in a dozen years it will be found to have marched a foot from its former place. It is from this genus that the pre- paration called salep is made; it is a white pow- der, similar in its qualities to sago or arrow root. 50. Parsley. Tliis is well known as a culinary article, being found in almost every garden. It is also useful as a medicine; the roots are good to cure the phthisic in children, and mixed with other things, is good to cure the dropsy. 34 FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 57. Comfrey. This is quite common, and useful; it is mucila- ginous, the root is tuberous, the stalk is perennial and high; it blows several times a year; the root of this is good in syrups, and answers a fine pur- pose for cuts and wounds; it is also strengthening. 58. Holly Hock. This is a very beautiful plant, found in gardens. The root lives the year round, and shoots up a stalk of several feet high; its blossoms are like a tunnel, some of a lovely red, and others white, and crimson. This flower is also very strengthening, and good for a weak stomach. They are also good in weakly female complaints, if used as a constant drink, and taken in season. 59. Ginger. This is well known as a spice. The root is very good in syrups; being of a warming nature, it makes a good poultice to draw out cold, and makes a very good tea for the bowels, causing them to move gently, and promotes warmth, without the least sensible pain. (30. Bloodroot. This is a very useful, though not very common root, being found plenty only on ledgy land, or where Bitter Sweet abounds. It has a small root, something like chocolate, only when broken it emits a red juice, which is useful for many things; it has a very sharp biting taste. It is good for all weakly obstructions in females, will cure the tooth- ache, is good to cure a catarrh in the head; mixed with other things is good for inward sores and MEDICAL PLANTS. 35 ulcers, and with a little spirit is a healthy bitter to assist the blood, and may be found of great use in many cases, being of a warm nature. 61. Sage. This is well known as a garden herb; it is of a sweating nature, and in many cases a good restora- tive ; it is a safe tea in case of spotted fever, and when dried and powdered and taken with a little molasses, is good to turn worms, and frequently answers a good purpose to turn sickness at the stomach. 62. Slippery Elm. The bark of this tree is very useful in many cases. There are two kinds of Slippery Elm; one has a tough, the other a brittle bark : the brittle is best. The bark steeped in hot or cold water, is a good drink for a weak stomach, or any inward soreness. It is good for outward sores, and poultices of this will allay heat, and is good in almost all cases, being of a very cooling healing nature. It may also be used with good success in various kinds of syrups. 63. Cherry Tree Bark. The black cherry tree is common and well known. The bark of this tree dried and powder- ed with other things, is good to turn w'orms. Made into a drink it is good for rheumatism. The cherries, dried and pounded fine, are a good remedy for the cholic. 64. King's Evil Weed. This grows wild, in the shade, and under old timber, It is a beautiful p’ nt, much like Plan- 36 tain, only the leaves are smaller and spotted green and white. When it goes to seed there comes up a stalk in the centre of the plant, which grows to the height of six or eight inches. The seed is in a small round bud on the top of the stalk. The branch and root of this, pounded fine and made into a poultice, are good for the disease of the same name, and used in different ways will often effect a cure. FAMILY INSTRUCTED The Indians make great use of this. It grows wild in the woods, to the height of eight inches, and has a beautiful leaf, the ground work of which is dark green, striped and checked with light. The leaves all project from the bottom. The stalk is nearly bare. It has a spike of small white flowers. It is a good antidote for the bite of the rattlesnake, and is good for the catarrh and asthma. 65. Rattlesnake Root. 66. Spikenard. Tills is a very useful root. It is so common as to render a description useless. It is good for the asthma, and useful in all kinds of syrups, being very strengthening to the stomach. It is go#d in a poultice, is of a cleansing nature, and one of the best things in the world for irnvard sores and ulcers. Mixed with other things it is good for all sorts of weakness, inward fevers, coughs, pain in the sHe, stomach and breast, and all bilious complaints. 67. Indian Milkweed, sometimes called Bitter Boot. This is a very valuable vegetable ; it resembles Buckwheat very much; the stalk is of a reddish color, and sends out a number of branches, which has blossoms similar to Buckwheat. It grows in old hedges and wet land, it has two small, long pods, resembling the turnip seed pods, and con- tains a kind of silky substance. Its roots spread around under ground to a considerable distance, from which there are a great number of stalks, which grow up from different parts of the root, from one to two feet high; there are two kinds, or rather they grow in different places; one kind grows by the sides of rivers, and the roots run deep in the sand, but the medicinal virtues are much the same; the root is all that is made use of for medicine, and it may be used for a number of disorders ; it is very bitter, and somewhat physic- ing, it is, therefore, an excellent medicine for those persons who are troubled with costiveness. If it is steeped strong, and drank freely, it will some- times operate as an emetic. MEDICAL PLANTS. 37 68. Female Flowers. These often grow by the sides of rivers and ponds, and have leaves and blossoms resembling cowslips but smaller; they grow singly, one root or stalk by itself; the leaves are green, and the blossoms yellow. This is one of the finest roots for female use in the world, for weakly obstruc- tions ; it will be found in the list of recipes. 69. Fever Bush. This bush is much used by the Indians; they use it with good success in ail cases of inflamma- tion ; the bush is small and generally grows in wet land, or near some swamp ; a number of lit- tle bushes come up together; the color resembles that of beech twigs; it grows from two to six feet 38 FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. high, and has on the bushes round leaves a little scolloped, of a yellowish green color; it has a spicy taste when chewed, it is rather warm, and tastes some like ginger. 70. Wild Turnip, or Wake Robin Root. This is a plant that grows wild on wet land. It has three leaves in a triangular form ; from between these leaves it puts forth a naked stalk, which has on its top a very singular stem, or pistil, enclosed in a sheath, which resembles a flower, and is fol- lowed by a bunch of reddish berries. The root resembles a small turnip, and is used for medicine, and answers a very good purpose to give for wind; it is very sharp and prickling, and of a stimulating nature; it may also be given for pain in the bowels and cholic, which not unfrequently is caused by wind being pent up in the bowels. 71. Balm of Gilead. This tree is so well known ns to make a descrip- tion useless. It partakes of the nature of the Pop- lar, but the leaves differ in shape and are larger; the oil from the buds is one of the best remedies for healing a new cut, that is known; it is also good for strains; the buds bruised and put in spirits are good for bathing sores, the small twigs bruised and steeped in warm water, are good for those per- sons who think they are troubled with too much bile; but in my opinion they are deficient in quan- tity or quality, and need something to assist it; and as these twigs are bitter and somewhat physieing, they may be used with good success in such cases. MEDICAL PLANTS. 72. Archangel. 39 This is an herb that may frequently be found in wet land, by the sides of roads, and also by the edges of old wet ploughed land ; its height varies ac- cording to the places in which it grows, from three to fourteen inches; the leaves are in shape similar to spearmint, but smaller; it has a small bur, which grows around the stalk at every joint, that contains seeds. There are two kinds, which differ but little in looks, but considerable in taste, one being very bitter; the other has a kind of balsamic smell and taste. They are good in bilious complaints, and the balsamic kind is sometimes used for canker, and answers an excellent purpose. 73. Tansy. This herb needs no description; it grows common everywhere, and is good pounded, with a little spirit, for bruises, hysterics, and hysterical complaints, and also for obstructions of the urine. There are two kinds of this vegetable, and by some, well known; one grows on maple trees, on the north side ; the other grows on rocks, by the sides of rivers. It adheres to the rocks, its shape is similar to that of leather when scorched so as to cause it to wrinkle. The upper side is green, the under side is of a much lighter color. They are both very useful in lung complaints, in syrups, &c. That kind which grows on rocks is considered the best. 75. Snake's Head, sometimes called Brook Aloes. This is a very singular looking weed ; it grows on wet ground, by the sides of brooks, oftentimes 74. Lung Wort. 40 FAMILY INSTRUCTED a large lot of it together. It grows from two to three feet high. The leaf is about the size of Thoroughwort, and very bitter; it has a number of white blows, nearly resembling a snake’s head. This makes an excellent bitter, and for those who are fond of physic, will answer an agreeable purpose. 76. Meadow Fern. This is a thick cluster of shrubs that grow in or near stagnant waters, and in old meadows, from two to three feet high. It presents buds, when the leaves are off, of various sizes. They frequently have a small bur, or a cluster of seeds. If these seeds are rubbed between the fingers, they will be found to contain an oily sticky substance, having an odoriferous smell, similar to that of spirits of turpentine. This is an excellent article for a num- ber of diseases; and the burs, when pounded and made into an ointment, are most sure to cure that inveterate disorder, commonly called the itch. It can also be made into an ointment, and used with good success for salt rheum. When the burs can not be had, use the bush and buds. 77. Golden rod. This is a handsome herb, and is commonly found on pitch pine plains, and sometimes in old hedges; the leaves are long and narrow, and very glossy. It grows from two to three feet high, and has a large cluster of yellow blossoms, and its taste is somewhat spicy, and smells like annise. The oil from this herb prepared in essence, and used to scent snuff with, is good for those persons who are constantly troubled with headache. Be careful not to make a mistake, when you undertake to collect this herb, 41 for there ar$ several that imitate it very much in appearance, but they will differ widely in smell and taste. MEDICAL PLANTS. 78. Red Raspberries,—Leaves. This is a bush that every one knows. The ber- ries are very good to eat; but this is not all it is good for; the leaf made into a strong tea is one of the best things known for canker, and may be used writh good success in all bowel complaints of child- ren. This made Into a tea, sweetened, and a little milk put to it, is a very pleasant drink, and may be used freely, as it is perfectly harmless. There are people who think because a thing is simple and harmless, it can do no good, or at least, if it does not rack their constitution to its centre, it must be entirely useless. Such persons seem to forget that the food they eat is harmless, but nature cannot be supported without it. 79. White Pond Lily. This is a well known beautiful flower; it grows in fresh ponds, and is very common in all parts of the world. The root only is used, which is very large, and should be gathered in the fill of the year, as the water is generally lower at this season, and it can be obtained with less difficulty. Used in a syrup, with other articles, it is good for all bowel complaints, and for weakly obstructions in the fe- male sex. 80. Ladies' Smock or Cuckoo Flowers. The root is composed of many small, white threads, from which spring up divers long stalks of winged leaves, consisting of circular, tender, dark 42 green, secondary leaves, set one against another, upon a middle rib; the greatest secondary leaf be- ing at the end. Amongst the primary leaves rise up divers tender, weak, round stalks, somewhat streaked, w ith longer and smaller leaves upon them. On the tops of these stalks stand flowers, almost like the stock gillyflowers, but rounder and not so long; of a bluish white color. The seeds are red- dish, and grow in small bundles, are of a sharp biting taste, as is also the herb. They grow in moist places and near the sides of brooks. They flower in April or May, and the lower leaves keep green through the winter. They arc very little inferior to water cresses, in all their operations. They are good for the scurvy, urinary obstructions, and stone, warming to the stomach, restoring lost appetite, and helping digestion. FAMILY INSTRUCTKR. This herb seldom rises half a yard high; it has sundry leaves, three standing at the same height, on brownish green stalks, fluted, and of an unpleasant strong savor. The seeds are blackish, and the um- bels of the flowers are white. The root is long, and runs far into the ground. It. may be found growing by hedges and walls, and often in the corners of fields and gardens. It flowers and seeds about the end of July. This is good for the gout and sciatica, and when carried about, w ill serve to keep off that disease. It will also ease aching joints. 81. Gout Wort, or Herb Gerrard. The common Eyebright is a small, low herb, usually rising about a span high. It has generally but one blackish green stalk. It spreads from the bottom into several branches, on which are set 82. Eyebright. 43 small leaves, which arc neaidy round and pointed, of a dark green color, and finely notched about the edges. They are very thick, and two always set together at the joints ; the leaves turned upwards. From the middle spring forth small white flowers, mixed with purple and yellow spots or stripes. It has very small seeds in round heads. It has a small, slender root, with a thready end, and may be found in meadows and grassy places. The juice or dis- tilled water of this herb taken inwardly, in white wine, or put into the eyes, is good for all things that cause dimness of sight;—or it may be taken in a powder of the dried herb, mixed with a little sugar, mace and fennel seed; has a powerful effect to help and restore sight, decayed through age, and has been known to restore sight to those who have been nearly blind. MJSDICAL PLANTS. 83. Endive. This grows common in gardens, and bears a long large leaf. It lives but one year, and speedily runs to seed. The stalk then perishes. It has blue flowers, and is of a cooling, cleansing nature. A decoction of the leaves, or the juice, or the distilled water of Endive, serves well to cool the excessive heat of the liver and stomach, and in the hot fits of agues, and all other inflammations in any part of the body,—the seeds are of the same property, or rather more powerful, for faintings, swoonings, and passions of the heart. It is also good for redness and inflammations of the eyes, and for dimness of sight. It is also cooling in fevers, and helps to allay the pains of the gout. 44 FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 84. Gooseberry Bush. . This is so well known as not to need a descrip- tion. It grows very common everywhere. The berries, while they are unripe, being scalded or baked, are good to stir up a fainting or decayed appetite. The bark of the root being steeped strong, is one of the best things known for the stran- guary. The young and tender leaves are good to cool hot swellings and inflammations, when made into a strong tea. 85. Queen of the Meadow. This grows in meadows and by the sides of rivers, often to the height of five feet. The stalk is of a reddish color, the leaves long and narrow. The blos- soms are of a light red, and all grow' on the top of the stalk. The root of this is good in a syrup, for the phthisic, and all other complaints of a similar nature. This is a well known article. It grows by the sides of roads, and by some is called white vervine. It looks something like blue vervine, except that the blows are white. This is good in beers and syrups. 86. Seneca Snake Root. 87. Wild Cinnamon or Liquorice. This is frequently to he found in oak and pine woods, from one to two feet b;gh. *lts leaves are similar to those of the sweet nrm. It has a strong smell, like cinnamon. This, with other things, in a syrup, is good for a covigh. It is generally found growing plentifully in new Clewed land, from two to three feet high, and has Hiqh Deer Weed. on its stalk, towards the top, a spindle, of red blos- soms. The leaves are long and quite narrow. This is good for all inward inflammations and fevers. It is of a cooling nature. MEDICAL PLANTS. 45 89. Bitter Quassia. This tree was named by Linnaeus in memory of Quassia, a negro slave of Surinam, who had em- ployed it in curing a malignant fever which had raged there. This is well known as the purest of all tonic bitters. It is universally employed in medicine. It is a lofty tree and strongly branched. The bark and leaves resemble those of the common ash. The flowers are interminal racemes and of a bright red color. The roots and every part of the tree are very bitter. It is a native of the hottest parts of America. 90. Spotted Cardis. This herb is well known, and often found in gar- dens. The leaves are large, and the herb is thorny. The leaves are spotted. Its uses will be found in the list of Recipes. 91. Calimint or Mountain Mint. This i$ a small herb, seldom rising above a foot high, with square, hairy and woody stalks, and two small hoary leaves, set at every joint, a little dented about the edges ; the whole herb is of very fierce and quick scent. The flowers are small and gaping, like those of other mints, and are of a pale bluish color. They stand at several places on the stalks, from the middle nearly to the top. After this fol- low small, round, blackish seeds. The root is small and woody, with divers small strings, spreading in 46 the ground, which live a number of years. It grows on upland and dry ground in many places. This is an excellent herb for a number of disorders, such as convulsions, cramps, with shortness of breath, jaun- dice, vomiting, worms, leprosy, sciatica, and obstruc- tion of the liver and spleen. FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. 92. Avens, also called Coleicort and Herb Bonet. This ordinary colcwort has many long, rough, dark, green, winged leaves, rising from the root, every one made of many subordinate leaves, set on each side of the middle rib ; the largest three grow at the end, and are dented round the edges. The other leaves are small and stand on each side of the middle rib, underneath the others, among Avhich rise up divers rough and hairy stalks, about two feet high, branching forth with leaves at every joint, not so long as those below, but nearly as much cut in on the edges. Home are cut into three parts, and some more. On the tops of the branches stand small, pale, yellow flowers, of five leaves each, like flowers of cinquefoil, but larger. In the middle stands a small, green herb, which, when the flower is fallen, becomes round, being made of many long, greenish, purple seeds, like grains, which will stick upon your clothes. The root consists of many brownish strings or fibres, smelling something like cloves, especially those; which grow in high, hot dry ground, and free and clear air. It is good for all diseases of the chest or breast, wind and stitches in the side. It dissolves the inward congealed blood, happening by falls or bruises, and the spitting of blood. The roots are good, either green or dry, boiled in wine, and drank, for all inward or outward wounds, if washed therewith. The decoction being drank comforts the heart and strengthens the stom- MEDICAL PLANTS. 47 ach. It is also good in the spring, to open obstruc- tions of the liver, and helps wind and cholic. It is also good for those that have fluxes, or are burst, or have a rupture. The juice of the fresh root or the powder of the dried root, has the same effect as the decoction. It is good for indigestion and warms a cold stomach. It is very safe; you need not have the dose prescribed. It is very fit to be kept in every one’s house. 93. Wood Betony. Common or Wood Betony has a great many leaves, which rise from the root. They are broad and round at the end, and have round dents about the edges. They stand upon long stalks, from among which rise up small, slender, square, but up- right, hairy stalks, with some leaves thereon. Those at the joints are smaller than the lower leaves. On these there are several heads of flowers, spiked, re- sembling lavender, but generally thicker, and for the most part shorter. They are of a reddish purple color, with white spots on the upper and lower part. The seeds are contained within the husks that hold the flowers. They are black and rather long and uneven. The roots are many white, thready strings. The stalk perishes, but the roots with some of the leaves live through the winter. The whole plant is small and may frequently be found in woods and shady places. It blossoms in July. The seed is quickly ripe. This herb is a good remedy for epi- demical diseases. It assists digestion, is good for a weak stomach, and rising of the victuals. It may be used dry or green. Both the herb and root are good. The flowers are good for a broth or syrup, electuary or powder, as may best suit the patient. Taken in any of these ways it is good (or the jaun 48 .family lnstructer. dice, failing sickness, shrinking of the sinews, con- vulsions and palsy; it is also a fine thing for the gout and all dropsical complaints, and for a pain in the head. This powdered up and mixed with a little honey is a valuable remedy for coughs and colds, shortness of breath and consumptions. A decoction of this in wine is good for worms, and to open all obstructions of the liver and spleen. It is also good for a pain in the bowels, back or sides, for the stone in the bladder or kidneys. A decoc- tion of this with wine gurgled or held in the mouth, is good for the tooth ache. A wash of this out- wardly or taken inwardly, is recommended for the stinging or biting of any venomous serpents, and the bite of mad dogs. It will stop the nose-bleed, is good for a rupture or bruise occasioned by a fall. The juice of the green herb applied to an inward burst or outward green wound, in the head or body, will quickly heal it up. It will draw any thing out of the flesh, such as a broken bone, splinter or thorn. It is good for old and filthy sores. Mixed with a little hog’s lard, it is good for biles and pushes. The fumes of this in a warm decoction admitted into the ear is good for the ear ache, and will cure sores in the cars. The juice dropped into them will do the same. The root has an unpleasant taste, but the leaves and flowers are sweet and spicy. This is a very precious herb, and should be kept in every man’s house, either in a syrup, conserve, oil, ointment or plaster. The flowers are and ought to be conserved. This herb possesses virtues too nu- merous to mention, and I am thoroughly persuaded the better it is known the more general will be its use. 49 94. Tompena, or Hen's Foot. MEDICAL PLANTS. This is a very common article. It is found in the woods, generally where it is ledgy and moist, and sometimes out in the open fields, where the land has been lately cleared. It has one stalk, starting up entirely leafless, which rises from one to two feet high. Towards the top there start out things which resemble the seeds of the gourd, with a kind of tassel on the end of every one. The root looks very much like a hen’s foot, only there are more toes than is necessary. The root of this is very strengthening to a weak stomach. It is like- wise good for all disorders of the. nerves. It is used as a powder for the nerves. Half a teaspoonful is a dose in clear running water. The root pounded with other things is a good bitter for the stomach. This grows up with a tender green stalk, some- thing like two feet high, branching forth almost from the very bottom, and has a great many thick, almost round leaves, of a deep green color. There are commonly two together, and sometimes more, on a stalk. The leaves are juicy, and of a pleasant, hot and spicy taste. At the tops of the stalks and branches stand umbels of white flowers, and after them come large seeds, bigger than fennel seeds; the root is large, white and long, and lives a number of years. It generally grows on rocks which are frequently moistened with salt or sea water. It is a very good herb and was used more in former times than it now is. It is well known to almost every one that ill digestion and obstructions are the cause of most of the diseases which the frail nature of man is subject to. Both might be remedied in 95. Samphire. 50 a measure by a more frequent use of this herb. It is a safe herb, very pleasant, both to taste and stomach. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 96. Marsh Mallows. Our common Marsh Mallows have soft hairy white stalks, rising three or four feet high, spreading forth a number of branches. The leaves are soft and hairy, somewhat smaller than the leaves of the common Mallows, but longer, pointed, cut deep, (for the most part) but into few divisions, it has a number of flowers, but they also are smaller than common Mallows, and white or tending to a bluish color. The cases which contain the seeds are very much like the Mallows. It has a number of roots, which are long, shooting from one head, of the size of a thumb or finger, very pliant, tough, and much like liquorice, of a light yellow color on the outside, and more white within, full of a slimy juice. It will thicken water, if laid in it, as if it were a jelly. This is a very effectual remedy for a number of disorders. A decoction of the leaves may be used, gently to loosen the belly, and for clysters, to ease all pains of the body—opening the straight passages, and making them slippery, w'hereby the stone may descend the more easily, and without pain, out of the reins, kidneys and bladder, and to ease the torturing pains thereof. The roots are equal, or better than the leaves, for any purpose. The roots boiled in wine, or honey and water, are good for coughs, hoarseness, short- ness of breath, and wheezings. It is also good for the bloody flux, by easing the violence of sharp, fretting humors, and healing the soreness. It may be taken to good advantage by those who are 51 troubled with ruptures, cramps or convulsions of the sinews. It is also an excellent remedy for the imposthumes of the throat, or king’s evil, and for kernels that rise behind the ears. The dried roots are very good being boiled in milk for the chin cough. It is also good made into a salve with honey and rosin, for all fresh cuts or wounds, healing them immediately. The seeds, either green or dry, mixed with vinegar, will clear the skin of all discolorings, by being bathed with it in the sun. MEDICAL PLANTS. 97. Common Agrimony—Evpatoria. This weed grows from one to three feet high. The leaves are placed interruptedly, pinate, oblong, ovate, and serate leafets. It has spikes of yellow flowers, which are scattered. It is a very common plant about fences and road sides, and was for- merly used as a tonic in medicine. 98. Dandelion. This is so well known as not to need a descrip- tion. This herb, root and branch, should be taken, steeped in fair water, a sufficient length of time to get out the strength, when you may strain the liquor from the herb, and continue to simmer the whole till quite thick. This is one of the finest medicines known for billious complaints, and it can easily be made into pills. Those who have long been habituated to swallowing a pill or two every night will find this as healthy a kind as they can use. It will likewise save considerable expense, for they can be made at home for less than one dollar per hundred. , 52 99. Indian Umbel, sometimes called Ladies' Slip- per., Nervine, dec. FAMILY INSTRUCTED There are four kinds of this vegetable. They are distinguished by the color of the blossoms. One kind is called yellow, and grows in wet land, and sometimes in swamps. It has a large number of fibrous roots, matted together, which join to a solid root. It sends up a number of stalks, that grow from one to two feet high. The leaves are large and in shape similar to poke leaf. There are three different kinds remaining yet to be described, which are as follows : Red, red and white, and white. The first has only two leaves, which start from the ground and lean off each way from the stalk, which shoots up ten or twelve inches high, and has on its top a red blossom, of a singular shape, and is sometimes called female umbel. This kind can be found in hedges and on high ledges. The striped and white can only be found in swamps. The roots of these are in larger clusters than the yellow kind,—the top is Similar to the red, except that the blossoms differ in color. The yellow and red are best for use. It should fie dug either in the spring or fall, on account of its shrinking less if dug at that time. When you have dug them, be sure to wash them clean, and dry them carefully. When thoroughly dried, you may pound them as fine as possible, and sift them through a fine sieve and cork it up tight from the air. This article is used by the Indians in all nervous disorders. It is called perfectly harmless. It may be given in hys- terical symptoms, spasmodic affections, and all dis- orders of the nerves. It answers a much better purpose than opium, fin- it has a tendency to quiet the nerves without destroying sensitylity. It may MEDICAL PLANTS. 53 be given in boiling water, sweetened, something like half a teaspoonfull at a dose. You will find this to answer the most sanguine expectations. 100. The Inner Bark of Hemlock. This is a kind of tree that every one knows, for it grows in every part of the country. The bark from the young trees which grows nearest the -wood, dried and pounded fine, is good for the dys- entery. Mix it with boiling water, sweetened a very little, and use it freely. It will be sure not to have any bad effect. This is also a common tree in this country; the Indians use this both tor an emetic and cathar- tic. The way to prepare it is to take the bark from the roots and boil it in water till it is as thick as molasses, when it may be taken. A table spoonful is a smart dose for a grown person. If you want it as an emetic, scrape the bark up towards the body of the tree; if for a cathartic, scrape the other way. A syrup of this may also be made by adding one-third molasses, which is excellent for children that are troubled with worms. If you want to take pills, put in balm of gilead and white-ash bark, and simmer it till you can work it into pills. They will be as mild in their operation as any you can buy, and much more healthy and cheap. It can also be used with dandelions in a syrup, or pills, and are very useful to persons who have a bilious complaint, and have to use physic. 101. Butternut. 102. Plpsisway, or Winter Green. Hi is is an herb that grows on pine plains, and mountainous land, with the eheckerberry, and is 54 FAMILY INSTRUCTED always green. It grows from two to eight inches high, having a number of dark green leaves about half an inch wide, and from one to two inches long, with a scolloped edge; it bears a number of brown seeds, somewhat resembling allspice. The roots and tops may be safely used for medicine. The leaves of this plant made into a strong tea, are good for any kind of humors, but more particularly for scrofulas. It is good made into a salve with a little mutton tallow, being very healing to fresh wounds. 103. Thorour/hwort. This herb is too well known to need a description. It is however an excellent herb, and may be used in many different ways. It is of a sweating nature, and may be made into a strong tea, of which you may drink freely on going to bed. If you have a slight cold, you may generally get rid of it in this way, by being a little careful the following day. The blows of this herb, if taken freely, will operate as an emetic. The leaves, powdered fine, and mixed with molasses, is a gentle purge, and good to create an appetite. It may also be steeped, and drank cold, to correct the bile. 104. Mullein. This is so well known as to make a description useless, hut of its virtues we need instruction. It is generally considered as a worthless plant, hut tills I believe to be a mistake. The leaves, steeped in vinegar, are made use of for a lame side, or in- ward soreness; if applied warm, for a length of time, are most certain to effect a cure. The centre leaves, steeped in milk, and sweetened with sugar, are an excellent remedy for the dysentery, espe- MKDICAL PLANTS. 55 cially for children. It is good steeped with straw- berry leaves and clivers, for kidney complaints, and obstructions of the urine. 105. Celandine. There are two kinds of this hefrb. The yellow blowed is the kind made use of. It grows on all kinds of moist land, and by the side of old fences. Most people are acquainted with this herb, but not with its uses. It is one of the best articles known, for the jaundice, taken in new milk. It is frequently made use of in syrups. (See the recipes, where its uses will be more plainly shown.) 106. Clivers. This is a sort of w.eed or grass, that may be found in nearly all kinds of moist lands. The stalks are four square, and rough like a sickle, growing from one to two feet high, having a number of joints. The leaves are small, and start from the joints. This, with other herbs, is good for urinary ob- structions. These need no description. The leaves steeped in boiling water, and drank freely of, are good for inward fevers, and weak nerves. 107. Strawberries—the Leaves. This herb is generally found in gardens. It re- sembles parsley, but does not grow so high, and more in a bunch. It is of a sweet taste, and smells something like pink and senna. This is one of the best herbs known in a syrup for a cough, it being of a loosening nature. 108. Sweet Sicily. 56 109. Mouse Ear, or Puddle Weed. FAMILY INSTRUCTED This is one of the best articles now known for the dysentery. To prepare it for use, boil a small hand- ful of the herbs in a pint of milk and water, sweeten it with' a very little loaf sugar, and use it freely for drink. It is ‘perfectly harmless, and is most certain to cure the disorder. It grows in wet pla- ces. The leaves are shaped like a mouse’s ear, only larger, and are very soft, and when torn, hang to- gether as though woven with a fibre. It grows from four to ten inches high, a number of branches spring- ing from each stalk. 110. Mdilot, or Seneca Clover. This is good in salves and ointments, for swellings and inflammations, being mollifying and cooling. It resembles clover, except the leaves are longer. The stalk is rather smaller than common clover, and grows from six to eighteen inches high. Its smell is similar to what is called Seneca Grass, which is well known to most snuff users of the age in which we live. 111. Sassafras. This bush grows generally on mountainous, ledgy land. Its size is various. Its leaf is beautiful, about the size of the oak, and in the shape similar to a man’s hand, with the fingers cut oft’ at the second joint. It is very useful as a medicine in several complaints. The root mixed with other things, is a good ingredient in curing inward ulcers and sores. It is likewise good for the dropsy and rheumatism. When taken inwardly, the steepings of the roots should be drank on an empty stomach, every morn- ing. The pith is good for those troubled with weak 57 eyes, as will hereafter be seen in the list of recipes; and those who wish to break themselves of chewing tobacco, will find this an agreeable substitute. MEDICAL PLANTS. 112. Plantain. There are few who know the virtues of this sim- ple though useful plant. It is good to cure poison caused by ivy, dogwood, and the like, and is also very useful in syrups, and will drive away humors. 113. Heart’s Ease. This herb is similar to Smart Weed, only it grows much more rank. The stalk is larger; the leaf having in the centre a spot like a heart. It grows in rich soils, round barnyards and fences, and is very useful as a medicine. It is good for weakly female obstructions. A tea made strong of this, and drank plentifully, is good to cure the gravel. It is also very strengthening to the nerves, has a tendency to thin the blood, and mixed with other ingredients, is a cure for palpitation of the heart. 114. Yellow Dock. This has a short wide leaf, and is about the height of other docks; it is sometimes found near brooks, and round old buildings. It has a yellow root, which simmered with cream is good to cure the itch. 115. Evergreen Plant, or Wild Lettuce. This grows on pine plains and mountainous land. It has circular leaves, like that of garden lettuce. The root of this, finely powdered, is good for a bad humor, and used as a wash is very strengthening and good for the nerves. 58 116. Marsh Rosemary. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. This article is found on marshes, and round the salt water. It is good for the canker, and the leaves made into a wash is good to cure poison. 117. Mountain Ash. This tree is well known. Its size is various, and is often found in yards, being transplanted from the forest. It is of a very beautiful green. The leaf is similar to Sumach, and in the fall the top is cov- ered with bunches of berries, which are a lively red, and good in bitters for many complaints. 118. Nettle Root. This grows wild, almost every where. It is a very good thing for the nose bleed, and if applied often, will sometimes effect a cure. 119. Garlic. This grows chiefly in gardens, and resembles an onion very much, only its smell is stronger. The root of this, with other things, is good for the dropsy, and will frequently turn worms. No harm can be sustained by its use. 120. Jacob's Ladder. This vine grows often in a rich interval soil, and near woods or hushes adjoining grass land. The stalk is about breast high, and springs off into a number of branches, loaded with green leaves. The fruit is a large bunch of black berries; when ripe, they hang under the leaves by a small stem. This is the best thing known for the gravel. MEDICAL PLANTS. 59 121. White Pine. The bark of this tree, after the ross is off, made into a tea, is very strengthening to the stomach, and is a good remedy for dysentery, and other complaints of a similar nature. Pills made of this are good to stop bleeding at the stomach. It is very healing, and has been used with success. It is a safe and harmless medicine. This is a common plant, and grows in many places by the road sides; it has berries of a deep purple. These used outwardly, are a good thing for the rheumatism. 122. Garget. 123. House Leek. This grows chiefly in gardens, but frequently on almost naked rocks. It is a singular looking plant, having little root. Its shape. i3 something like a pine bud, only flat and green. The leaf of the plant is thick and juicy, and makes the best salve known, for wounds. 124. Common Arrow Head. This is frequently to be found by the sides of ponds and rivers, and is the chief ornament of such places. It rises to the height of two or three feet, and bears a close spike of white flowers; the leaves are radical and large, distinctly and beautifully arrow shaped, with very conspicuous veins; scape somewhat triangular; has three fine leaves, which are orbicular—it is perrennial. This is used for the cure of hydrophobia. 60 FAMILY INSTRUCT!®. 125. Gold Thread. This is also a common article found in the woods in nearly all wet places. It has small leaves, which barely clear the ground, about the size of a ninepence. It has small, fibrous roots, which are as yellow as gold, and as bitter as you please. This is one of the best roots known for the canker in the mouth, or it may be steeped and used to wash any kind of a sore where there is canker. 126. Yarrow, or Thousand Leaf. This common weed, I believe, grows every where, especially round old buildings, and by some, is called good to stop bleeding at the nose. But this is a mistake, without doubt, for I never knew it answer that purpose. It does much bet- ter to put into spring beer. It is very pungent and stimulating, and will cause a brisk circulation of the blood. 127. Meadow Saffron—Colchicum. This grows wild in meadows and wet places. It is a bulbous root with a stem about four inches high, which bears a single purple flower, with five petals, or fine leaves; linear, lanceolate and radi- cal ; the bulb is about the size of that of a tulip, and has, from time out of mind, been considered as poisonous in large doses, but has been known and employed as a medicine ever since the days of Hip- pocrates. At the present day, it is chiefly used in cases of a rheumatism. This often grows where the water is 10 or 12 feet deep. The flowers expand in the morning, 128. Fragrant Water Lily. 61 and close in the afternoon. The roots are of the size of a man’s arm, and may be used as etnollients medicine. Made into a poultice, it will rot a bile in a very few hours. MEDICAL PLANTS. This well known herb, of great value, is found mostly around old buildings. It grows from one to three feet high. The stalk is about the size of thoroughwort stalks, and has a stiff burr at every joint, of a lightish blue color. The leaves are nar- row and run to a point. These also start from the joint, and are very bitter. This is without doubt, as useful an herb as grows. It is good for all ner- vous and hypochondriac affections, dizziness in the head, and a strong tea made of this and drank freely, will raise the drooping spirits, and give new vigor to the whole system. 129. Mother Wort. 130. Wild Cherry, the Bark of the Tree. This tree is well known, growing wild in woods. The bark of this tree, with other things, is very good for the rheumatism, and steeped in a little spirit will often effect a cure. 131. Checkerberry. This grows common in the woods. The leaf is shaped like an egg, bearing a small, round, red plum. It has a very hot, biting taste, and is good in spring beer. 132. Round Leaved Wintergreen. This vine grows wild in the woods, and has a leaf nearly round, about as broad as it is long. This is also of a tonic nature, and is very healthy in beer in the spring of the year. 62 133. Umbelled Wintergreen. FAMILY INSTRUCTED This has a long leaf, like Solomon’s Seal, and is of the same nature and use as that before men- tioned. 134. Sweet Firm. This is a small shrub that grows common in pas- tures, and by the road sides. The bark of this bush, steeped in cider, is good for the jaundice. Taken in the spring of the year, it will give a start to the blood and create a good appetite. The leaves of this made into a tea, will often answer a good purpose for the dysentery in children. 135. Solomon’s Seal. This grows wild in the woods, and is sometimes cultivated in gardens. It is of two kinds, white and red. It grows from one to two feet high, and has an oblong leaf, which runs to a sharp point, and veined in streaks, similar to the plantain, of dark green color, and flares off from the stalk each way, similar to leaves on the stalk of the brake. It has a sort of spur, or beard, growing on the under side of the stalk, starting out with the leaf. The root of this is good for all consumptive complaints. This herb grows chiefly on timber land. It springs up in J uly ; its stalk is white and leafless, about six inches high, with a knob on the top. The top and root are both useful as a medicine. The root is composed of small fibres, and has numer- ous small knobs. A tea made of this root, or dri- ed and taken in a powder, is good for convulsion fits. 136. Convulsion Boots. MEDICAL PLANTS. 63 137. White Birch. This tree, being so common, needs no descrip- tion. It is generally considered useless, but is of great importance in medicine. The bark of the root of this tree, ground very fine, and given in small doses, several times a day, is good in canker rash, and with other things I shall hereafter men- tion, will generally effect a cure. 138. Carrots. The yellow carrot grows in gardens, and is known to every one. The root of this, scraped and wilted, is good made into a poultice, to sub- due inflammation and swelling and heal old sores. 139. Canker Root. Or, as it is sometimes called, cold water root. This root grows mostly in rich ground, by fences, log heaps, stumps and hedges. It springs up with a stalk a yard or more high, and then branches out very large. It has a leaf something like clover. The top of the root is yellow as gold, it then branches out into threads very much like a plan- tain. The root steeped in cold water is good for the canker in all common cases. This bush is too well known to need a descrip- tion, being found in almost every garden. The leaves made into a tea are good for the dropsy. Use it as a constant drink. It will promote a free passage of urine. 140. Currants. 64 FAMILY INSTRUCTED This is so common as to render a description of it entirely useless. It stretches along old hedges and is often found mixed with briars and stone heaps. The blow makes a physieing tea, that is good for children. A tea made of the roots is very good to prevent bilious fever. The green part of the stalk mixed with sweet cream is excellent for a sore where the humors prevail. The juice of the berries when ripe is good for those troubled with costiveness, being physieing and entirely harmless. 141. Sweet Elder. 142. Catnip. Needs no description. It is a common but use- ful herb. It is very good in many cases for chil- dren. Made into a tea, sweetened with loaf sugar, it will cure a sore throat, and is excellent mixed with fresh butter and sugar for a green wound. 143. Spearmint. This is of a hot nature. It is a good tea for sickness at the stomach and excellent for sweats and many other cases. This is a wild weed which grows in wet land by the side of small streams. It has a narrow leaf and high stalk, which is rough and has a late, blue blossom. The bottom leaves remain through the winter, but it shoots forth a new stalk in the spring. Its smell and taste is fragrant. The green roots and leaves, mixed with spirits, are good for all nervous affections, rheumatism, cold hands and dimness of sight. When made into a tea it is very good for the canker. 144. Squaw Weed or Cocash. 65 145. Summer Savory. MEDICAL PLANTS. This is a garden herb, and has a hot, pleasant flavor. When made into a tea and drank freely it is good for a cold and may be used with perfect safety. 140. Peppermint. This is of a warming nature, and is good to throw off a cold and slight diseases. The essence weak- ened with water and sweetened is good for children, in cases of pain in the stomach, wind, &c. 147. Burdock. The roots of this are good in a syrup. - The leaves wilted will ease pain, and pounded green and applied externally will afford relief to a bruise or sprain. They are of a strengthening nature. 148. Gensang. This root abounds in great plenty throughout the woods and fields of Vermont. It is good for the stomach, infused in a little spirit; the dry root grated in hot water, and sweetened, is good for children in case of pain in the stomach and bowels, caused by wind. This sort is long and white, and has a sweet bitterish taste. It is a safe remedy also for weakness, and valuable for many other complaints. This tree is also common, being found in plenty among others of the forest not so useful. The bark taken off the tree green, and well dried and pulverized with other things, is good for a weak- jr* 149. Red Beech. 66 FAMILY INSTRUCTER. ness in the urinary vessels, and steeped in water, wflll frequently cure the dysentery. It is both healthy and useful. 150. Crow Foot or Buttercup. This is a tuberous rooted, perennial plant, very common in rich meadows and moist places. It grows from' one to two feet high, and has a very glossy yellow flower. Every part of this plant is acrid. Those who wish to endure the pain of a blister, may have their ends sufficiently answered by making use of this herb. 151. Crane’s Bill. This is a beautiful though common plant, which grows in woody places, and bears a pretty purple flower. The root is knotty, and may be used as an astringent. It is also excellent in cankers. 152. Witch Hazle. This is a small bush or tree. It grows in swamps and wettish land, and by the sides of riv- ers. A tea made of this, and drank freely, is good to stop bleeding at the stomach. It is good in all bowel complaints. The bark boiled in milk and water, is good for those afflicted with a strain across the kidneys. 153. Hawk Weed. This weed grows upon dry hills. The leaves are radical, and spread on the ground, are narrow and elegantly variegated, with dark red veins. The stalk is erect, of a dark brown color, furnish- ed with a few scattered leaves. The flowers are MEDICAL PLANTS. 67 contained in a yellow pinacle. The whole plant is filled with a bitter milk, which is very cooling. 154. Consumption Weed. This weed grows chiefly round old buildings, fences and gardens. It will live in spite of time and hard usage. The leaf grows close to the ground, and is full of red veins. It may be used with success in all consumptive complaints. 155. Sarsaparilla. This bush grows wild in the woods, and has a small green stalk, which grows from one to three feet high. There are no leaves except those which grow upon the top of the stalk, and these branch out in three different directions, generally with five leaves on a branch. It very much resembles spike- nard in taste and smell. This root is good in syr- ups, and is an excellent preventive of all sorts of bilious complaints, and fevers. It is of a very strengthening nature. 15G. Vervine. This herb is common and well known. It is of two colors, blue and white, and is a good medicine in a fever, and for all consumptive complaints. It makes a harmless emetic, and may be taken pow- dered, mixed with thoroughwort, or made into a tea. It is a good thing for a weak stomach. 157. Hyssop. This herb grows chiefly in gardens, from three to eight inches high, has a small blow and an aromatic smell; made into a tea, it is good for children when wheezed at the lungs. It is also good in syrups, for children. 68 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 158. Burnet. This grows in gardens, and is known as a sallad. It has a small notched leaf, and acrid taste. It is of an astringent nature, and very cooling. 159. Garden Pinks. These arc also well known to the florist, and ranked among the beauties of gardens. They have pretty blows, of a red color, and sometimes mixed with white. The leaves of this flower dried, are excellent in syrups. 160. Red Rose. This is the queen of all flowers, and though short lived, falls not a useless sacrifice. The leaves of this dried, and steeped in milk, are very good for sore eyes. They are cooling, and will often allay inflammation. 161. Piony,—the Roots. This has a large, bushy and beautiful flower, cul- tivated in gardens, and is too well known to need any further description. The roots of this well dried, and grated in warm water, arc good to prevent fits, and also very good for wind in children. The leaves of this flower dried and made into a weak tea, are good for infants when troubled with wind in the stomach. These may be found growing wild in the woods, in great plenty, in the spring of the year. The blows are of a reddish brown, and pretty generally known. They are good for female weakness, and, 162. Spider Blows. steeped in a little spirit, makes a good and healthy bitter, being of a strengthening nature. MEDICAL PLANTS. 69 163. Red Clover. This, though common, is very useful in medicine. It is excellent for all inward weakness, for coughs, and inward fever, or pain in the stomach, side, or breast. It is used green. 164. Saffron. This grows in gardens, and has a bright yellow blow, and is universally known. It is good made into a tea, to cleanse the fluids of the stomach, and guard against sickness, and for bathing any affected outward part. It is also good to drive out humors; and employed as a-medicine, with other vegetables, is an excellent thing for a disordered stomach. 1G5. Ladies' Thistle. This has a number of large and broad leaves, lying on the ground, cut in and as it were crumpled, and somewhat hairy on the edges, of a light shining green color, wherein are many streaks of white run- ning over it, and set with sharp and stiff prickles. Among the leaves rise up one or more strong, round and prickly stalks, set with leaves to the top. At the end of every branch is a large thistle-like head, strongly armed with prickles, and with bright pur- ple thrums, rising out of the middle. The root is large, spreading in the ground, with many strings and fibres fastened to it. The plant is of a bitter taste, and is frequent on the banks of rivers and ditches. It is good to open obstructions of the liver and spleen, and thereby is good for the jaundice. It is also good for pains in the sides, and many 70 other inward pains and gripings. The seeds in dis- tilled water, are very powerful outwardly applied, with cloths or sponges, to the region of the liver inwardly and heart, to cool the liver, and for swoon- ings, and passions of the heart. Boil the tender plant in the spring, but cut off the prickles, (unless you have a mind to choke yourself,) and it will change your blood as the season changes, which is the rhost safe way to effect a change. FAMILY INSTRUCTED A decoction of either the leaves or bark of this tree is good to strengthen the liver. It is also good to ease pains in the sides, which proceed from the liver and spleen. The moss, which grows on the north side, is also very good for all lung complaints. 166. Maple Tree. 167. Earth Chestnuts, or Groundnuts. These are rather hot, and dry in quality. The seed is excellent for obstructions of the urine, and so is the root, although not so forcible. The root, beat to powder and made into an electuary, is an excellent remedy for spitting of blood, and is also good for those who make bloody water. 108. Cinquefoil, or Five Fingered Leaf. This spreads and creeps far upon the ground, ■with long slender strings, like strawberries, which take root again, and shoot forth many leaves, com- posed of five parts, dented about the edges, and rather hard. The stalks are slender, and lean downward, leaving a number of yellow flowers, with some yellow threads in the middle, standing about a smooth green head, which, when it is ripe, is a little rough, and contains small brown seeds. The root is of a dark brown color, about the size of a large goose quill, but long, with threads, and by the help of small strings, it quickly spreads over the ground. It grows by the side of woods and hedges. It is taken, twenty grains at a time, in white wine, or white wine vinegar, and is considered an excel- lent remedy for an ague of any kind. The leaves, made into a strong tea, are used in all inflamma- tions and fevers, whether infectious or pestilential; it is also good for the jaundice. The roots boiled in milk, and drank, is a most effectual remedy for all fluxes, in men or women. The juice or decoc- tion, taken with a little honey, helps the hoarseness of the throat, and is very good for a cough on the lungs. The roots are likewise effectual to help ruptures or burstings, being used with other things available for that purpose, taken inwardly or out- wardly, or both. It must not be despised because it is plain and easy. The ways of God are all such. It is the ungodliness and self-interestedness of man that have made things hard to understand! MEDICAL PLANTS. 71 169. Pusley. This grows in gardens, and is pulled up as a noxious weed. It is not, however, useless as a medicine. This weed, dried carefully, and made into a tea, is the best thing for worms ever known. It is an easy and safe remedy for children or grown persons, andjvill harm no one. This grows chiefly in gardens, and is well known as a spice. These seeds, steeped in water and sweetened, are good to relieve pain in the stomach, and are good for infants when troubled with wind. 170. Caraway. 72 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 171. Lovage. This grows chiefly in gardens, and needs little or no description, being pretty generally known by its strong smell. The roots are good for wind, and are the finest thing in syrup ever known, being very strengthening. 172. Knot Grass. This is too well known to need a description. It is found by foot paths in fields, by the highway sides, and by the sides of old walls. It springs up late in the spring and remains till winter, when all the branches perish. The juice of the common kind is good to stop bleeding at the stomach or nose. It is of a cooling nature, and good to temper the heat of the blood and stomach. A powder of the herb, taken in wine, for many days in succession, is good for those who have been bitten by any ve- nomous creature. It is also good for worms. The distilled water, taken by itself, or with the powder of the herb or root, is a sovereign remedy for all manner of inflammations, gangrene, canker and ul- cers. It is also good for broken joints and ruptures. 173. Lettuce. This is too well known to need a description, be- ing generally used as a sallad herb. The juice of this mixed with the oil of roses, and applied to the forehead, is good to produce sleep and ease the headache. 174. Liverwort. Common Liverwort grows in moist and shady places. It grows close and spreads much over the ground, It has many small, green leaves, which MEDICAL PLANTS. 73 stick flat, one to another, cut in very unevenly on the edges and crumpled, from among which rise small, slender stalks, at most only an inch or two high, having small, starlike flowers in the top. The roots are very fine and small. This herb is good for all diseases of the liver. It is both cleansing and cooling. It is likewise good for inflammations ajid the yellow jaundice, and made into beer, it'will cool the heat of the liver and kidneys. It is good to stop the spreading of ring-worms and other run- ning sores. 175? White Maidenhair. Tins has a very fine, pale, green stalk, nearly as fine as hair, set confusedly with pale, green leaves, on very short footstalks, something of the color of garden rue, not much differing in form. It is cut in more diversely on the edges, and thicker, smooth on the upper part, and beautifully spotted under- neath. It is green all winter as well as summer* It may be found in many places. A decoction of this herb is good fora cough, yellow jaundice, short- ness of breath, diseases of the spleen, stoppage of urine,.&c., and a tea of the dry herb is good to stop bleeding at the stomach. Taken green it loosens the belly, rectifies the blood, and cleanses the lungs. This herb, boiled in the oil of camomile, is good to> allay swellings and dry up ulcers. It will also stop the falling or shedding of hair, causing it to grow thick, fair and well colored.- For this purpose, boil it in wine, put in some oil and small sage seeds. If6. Golden Maidenhair. This herb grows on bogs and moorish places, and also on dry, shady places. It has no leaves, but small, brownish red hair, to supply their place. Ia 74 the middle of it rise small stalks, of the same color, set with very fine yellowish green hairs, and bear- ing a small gold, yellow head, smaller than a wheat corn, standing in a large husk. The root is small and thready. Its virtues are much the same as that of White Maidenhair. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 177. Herb True Love, or One Berry. The ordinary herb True Love, has a small creep- ing root, running under the upper crust of the ground, something like a couch grass root, but not so white, from which start up stalks of a* very dark green color, and without joints. The stalks rise up some- thing like a foot high, if it bear berries, otherwise not so high; having at the top four leaves, set di- rectly one against another, in the manner of a cross, or ribbon tied, as it is called, in a true-love knot, each of them separated like a night shade leaf, but broader. The number of leaves vary from three to six. In the middle of the four leaves there starts out one slender stalk, about an inch high, bearing at its top one flower, spread open like a star, con- sisting of four small and long, narrow pointed leaves, of a yellowish green color, and four others lying between them, smaller than the others. In the middle, there stands a round, dark, purple but- ton or head, compassed about with eight small, yellow, mealy threads, with three colors, making it the more conspicuous and lovely to behold. This button, or -head, in the middle, when the other leaves are withered, becomes a blackish purple berry, full of juice, about the size of a common grape, having within it a number of white seeds. The whole plant is without any taste. It grows in roads, and sometimes in the corners of fields and waste grounds. They come up in April or May, MEDICAL PLANTS. 75 and blossom soon after. The leaves, or berries, are effectual to expel poisons of all sorts, as also the plague and other pestilential diseases. Some have been helped thereby, which have laid long in a lingering sickness. The roots in powder, taken in wine, will speedily ease the pains of the cholic. The leaves bruised, are very effectual to heal green wounds, and also for filthy old sores and ulcers, and is very powerful to remedy sw'ellings in the groin, or any other part of the body, and speedily to allay all inflammations. The juice of the leaves, applied to felons, or those nails of the hands or toes that have imposthumes, or sores, gathered at the roots of them, will heal them in a short time. This herb ought to be nourished in every one’s garden, not altogether for its beauty, but for its real worth. 178. Nail Wort, or Whitlow Grass. This very small and common little herb has no roots, save only a few strings, neither does it ever grow to be above a hand’s breadth high. The leaves are very small and long, similar to those of chiekweed, among which rise up a number of slender stalks, bearing many white flowers, one above an- other, which are very small; after these come small, flat pouches, containing the seed, which is small, but of a sharp taste. It grows upon dry, gravelly ground, especially if there is other grass to shade it. It flowers very early in the year, for before the end of April they are not to be found. It is held to be exceedingly good for those impos- thumes in the joints and under the nails, which are called whitlows, felons, andicons, and nailwheels, by physicians. 76 179. Flower de Luce,or Velvet Flower—Amaranthus. FAMILY INSTRUCTED. It being a garden flower, I might, perhaps, spare a description, yet notwithstanding, because some may desire it, I shall describe it. It runs up with a stalk a cubit high, streaked and reddish towards the root, but very smooth towards the top, with small branches, among which stand long, broad leaves of a reddish green color, and slippery. What are called flowers, arc not strictly so, but tufts, very beautiful to behold, but of no smell. They also are of a reddish color. They keep their beauty a long time after gathering; the seed is of a shining black color. It is an excellent qualifier of the un- ruly actions and passions of Venus. By the icon or image of every herb, the ancients at first found out their virtues. Modern writers laugh at them for it, but I cannot but wonder, how the virtues of herbs came at first to be known, if not by their signatures. The moderns had them from the an- cients ; the ancients had no writings to obtain them from. There is also a sort of amaranthus whieh bears a white flower, used to stop the running of the reins. 180. Fox Gloves. This has many long and broad leaves, lying upon the ground, dented about the edges, a little sdift and woolly, and of a hoary green color; among these rise up a number of stalks, but sometimes only one, bearing similar leaves thereon from the bottom to the middle. From the middle to the top it is stored with large and long, hollow, reddish, purple flowers, a little long and encurved at the lower edge, with some white spots within them, one above another, with small green leaves at every branch, but all of them turning their heads one way and hanging downwards, having some threads also in the middle, from which rise round heads, pointed at the ends, wherein small brown seeds are contained. The roots are so many small fibres, and some greater branches among them. The flowers have no scent, but the leaves have a bitter, hot taste. It grows on high sandy ground, for the most part, and some- times in low places, and under hedge sides, in almost every country. It seldom flowers before July. This plant is of a gentle, cleansing quality, and very friendly to nature. The herb is frequently used to heal any fresh or green wounds, the leaves being bruised and bound on. And the juice of the leaves are also used for old sores, to cleanse, dry and heal them. The decoction of this herb, made up with some sugar or honey, is available to cleanse and purge the body, both upwards and downwards, of tough phlegm and clammy humors, and to open obstructions of the liver and spleen. It has been found by experience to be available for the king’s evil. The herb bruised and applied, or an ointment made with the juice of it, and so used, and a de- coction of two handsful, with four ounces of poly- pody in ale, has been found by experience to cure all sorts of falling sickness. MEDICAL PLANTS. 77 Common Feather few has large, fresh, green leaves, very much torn or cut on the edges. The stalks are hard and round, set with many small leaves, and at the tops stand many single flowers, upon small foot stalks. These flowers consist of many small white leaves, standing round a yellow thrum in the middle. The root is rather hard and short, with strong fibres about it. The scent of the whole 181. Feverfew or Featherfew. 78 FAMILY INSTllUCTSR. plant is very strong and pungent, and the taste is very bitter. This grows wild in many parts of this country, but is, for the most part, nourished in gar- dens. It flowers in June and July. Venus com- mands this herb, and has commended it to succor her sisters, and it is presumed the most of them already know its uses, or at least a part of them, and the remainder I shall endeavor to mention very correctly. A decoction of this herb, with sugar and honey put thereto, may bo used with success to help a cough and stuffing of the chest, by colds, as also to cleanse the reins and bladder, and it also helps to expel the stone in them. The herb bruised and applied to the crown of the head, is good to ease all pains coming of a cold cause, as also for the vertigo, that is, a running or swimming of the head. The distilled water takes away freckles and other spots in the face. The herb bruised and heated on a tile, with some wine to moisten it, or fried writh a little wine and oil in a frying-pan, and applied warm outwardly to the parts affected, helps the wind and cholic in the lower part of the bowels. It is an ex- cellent remedy where opium has been taken too liberally. 182. May Weed. This is an excellent herb, and grows in door yards and by the sides of the roads. It is of a pectoral nature, and is good for a pain in the side. A tea of it, made strong, and used freely on going to bed, is an excellent remedy for a bad cold. 183. Artichokes. The decoction of the juice of artichokes, is good to open the passages of the urine, and of course is good for stone in the bladder. MEDICAL PLANTS. 79 184. Hemp. This plant is good for something, besides making ropes. The seed steeped, is excellent to remove wind from the stomach. It removes obstructions to the bile, and is good against all fluxes; and very effective to kill the worms, either in man or beast. The steeped juice dropped into the ears, kills the worms in them, and draws out ear wigs. A prepa- ration of the roots is good to allay inflammation in the head, and any other part, or pains of the gout, joints, shrinking of sinews, and pains of the hips. It is a bush which grows ten or twelve feet high, resembling the sugar maple, both leaf and bark, and bears a long string of keys. It is found on the banks, and by the side of brooks, in swampy places. The bark and dogmanose steeped in cold water, and drank for any considerable length of time, eradicates from the system the baleful effects of mercury. The patient at the same time taking the 8th of a tea-spoonful of pulverized Lobelia in cold water three times a day, will soon effect a cure. 185. Cancer Maple; or, Caravan Wood. 186. Gravel Weed. It grows on dry land among winter greens. The stalk or vine runs along on the ground, and takes new root. The leaf is oval, of a pale green, thick and rough, not hairy, as wide as a spoon bowl, but not so long, and bears a small white blossom. It grows in little beds or mats like camomile, with the leaves thick together, almost one top of the other. This is in truth a lithontriptic, that is, a medicine for the gravel and stone. The leaves and vine steeped (not boiled) brings away the sand, and finally dissolves the stone. 80 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 187. Horsetail. This plant has a bushy top, jointed everywhere, resembling a horsetail, from whence it took its name. It is very powerful to stop or staunch blood, either inward or outward. A steep of this herb being drank, staunches all manner of fluxes, and healeth inward ulcers. It is good to heal a green wound, and cures ruptures in children. 188. Swamp Plantain; or, Deer's Ears. A noble remedy for the king’s evil. It grows in swamps and wet places; has a long, pale, green leaf, rather rough, near the size and shape of a deer’s ear, four or five lying round from the root, rising up a little. This pounded and applied to the tumor, presently cures the king’s evil, drinking at the same time, a preparation of the pounded root, steeped in cold water, constantly. 189. Larger Golden Thread. It is a vine growing on the banks of rivers and intervale lands. It is similar to Jacob’s ladder, and winds itself around the first bush to which it comes, like the bitter sweet. The root runs under the ground some distance, about the size of a pipe stem. It is quite bitter, and has nearly the virtues of the little yellow golden thread, and of course good for the canker in the mouth ; and in all eases where a little bitter is necessary to strengthen digestion, and cause a good appetite. 190. Moon Wort. It has only one large, round, shining, green leaf, lying flat on the ground. One side of this leaf is said to draw a blister, being applied to the flesh; 81 the other side to heal a sore. As for the truth of this I cannot say, as I netfcr tried it; but the root steeped or in powder, is a good remedy for children who are troubled with worms. medical plants. 191. Trencle Root. It grows, in a moist, rich soil, generally among beach, maple, and basswood timber, and is generally known. The top is frequently used for gjreens in the spring of the year. The root is white and jagged, of a warm peppery taste, and some people call it pepper root. The root bruised and taken in spirits eases pains in the breast and side, and is good in pleurisies. The pounded root applied to the spider cancer, wall frequently kill them in a short time, so that they may be taken out by the roots. 192. Indian Wormwood. It grows along watery places. It has several stalks together, two or three feet high, with long, narrow, dark, green leaves, which are' extremely bitter to the taste. Above the leaf it has white blows. This herb is both anthilmintic and cathar- tic. The pulverized herb given in small quantities, is excellent to remove worms. The herb steeped, is a very quick and powerful physic, though very mild in respect to griping the bowels. The top is only for use. 193. Seneca Snake Root. It grows in abundance in many places in this State. It is found in woodlands, in both dry and moist land. It grows so plenty in some places, that a large swarth might be mown for several rods. The stalk and leaves somewhat resemble the sting- 82 FAMILY IRSTRUCTER. ing wood nettle, only the leaf is smaller, and more • of an oval form. It blossoms upon the top of the branches, and they are wnite. The root is brown and almost as bushy as the tail of a horse, and of a very strong aromatic taste and smell. This is a very powerful, stimulating root, bracing, healing, cleansing, cheering, and animating the whole sys- tem ; making an excellent cordial, put into wine. 194. White Oak Bark and Buds. The inner bark of the white oak pounded and boiled with oats and applied, as a poultice, to any- wound, cut or sore, is a very good remedy. The leaves and buds steeped and taken, are said to be a sovereign remedy in female weaknesses, or in any haemorrhoid flux or fluor albus. AN INVOCATION- That nice machine, the human frame! 0 God! inspire my mind, That I may understand the same, No more to nature blind. Inspire my tongue, inspire my heart,. And useful knowledge give, That knowledge, too, may I impart, And teach mankind to live. To thee, gi'eat God, to thee I look, For naught there is but thine ; A lesson teach, ’tis nature’s book, To read it then incline. All mortals here ope wide your eyes And view all nature’s ways, Thou art the great Physician, Lord, To thee be all the praise. RECIPES. If all knew the right rules of prescribing, how much would it prevent of premature death and pain. For instance, it is now dead of night—it matters not who, perhaps a parent, is taken ill; one thing after another is tried ; their small store of skill is exhausted; it has done no good; all avail nothing. Ah! says a watchful friend, with tearful eye, “ we have done all that we can; call in one who knows still more.” Away they go, post haste ; the night is dark, and even rainy ; it is ten, twelve, or perhaps even twenty miles to his dwelling, and ere they reach home, the unfortunate man is no more. The physician looks grave, “ then he is gone—a pity I had not been a moment sooner; I could no doubt have saved his life.” He orders his horse, pockets a five dollar bill, and is gone. He has left you in the dark; you have paid him—for what?—he has prepared no medicine, pre- scribed no rule to you for a similar occurrence; not even remotely hinted at the nature of the disor- der that has thus spread terror and dismay over your household. We use our native language in all our common deal, What use is Greek or Latin to tell us how we feel? It is because to keep ignorant a part, And to deceive us with deceitful art T 86 1. For a Cough, or Phthisic. FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. Take the dried leaves of rosemary, shred small, and smoke them in a tobacco pipe. It will help those that have a cough or phthisic, or consumption, by warming and drying the thin distillations which cause those diseases. # 2. For the King's Evil, or kernels of the Ears. Take the root of bastard rhubarb, dry it, and boil it in wine. Bathe the part affected, and drink a glass of it three times a day, before eating. It is also good for the stone or gravel, to drink the steep- Ings of the root in Holland gin. 3. An Excellent wash for sore mouths, or canker. Take plaintain, honeysuckles, sage and rosemary, equal parts, and boil them in sour wine; add thereto a little honey and alum. Wash the mouth with this as often as necessary. A few times will be sufficient. It is very harmless, but not more so than it is healing. 4. For the Itch. Make a syrup of the juice of sorrel and fumitory. This is a sovereign remedy for that troublesome disorder. Use it inwardly, and the juice of sorrel and vinegar, as a wash, outwardly. RECIPES. 87 Take the juice of sow-thistle, and heat it with a little oil of.bitter almonds, in the shell of a pome- granate, and drop some of it into the ears. It is a good remedy for deafness, singings, and other dis- eases of the head and ears. 5. For Deafness, Singing in the Ears, Ac. 6. An excellent Family Syrup. Take buckthorn berries, and boil them in water, until all the strength is out. Strain off, and press the berries hard. Then add one pint of molasses to the same quantity of juice, and simmer it as long as any scum rises, which must be taken off as fast as it rises. When it stops rising, stir it well and put it up for use. If the weather is warm, add gin. or brandy sufficient to keep it from souring. A large is a dose for an adult. If it causes any griping, it may easily be remedied by steeping a little carraway seed with it, which will prevent its having that effect. It is very safe, but powerful, if taken in large doses, as are also the dry berries. From three to seven, are a smart dose for a grown person. They lose their strength by age, especially if exposed to the air. 7. For Inflammation of the Heart. Make a decoction of red roses with wine, and ap- ply it to the region of the heart, with a sponge; or let the leaves remain in, and bind them on, over where your heart beats, shifting them often. 88 FAMILY IN6TRUCTER. This is very good for St. Anthony’s fire, and many other diseases of the stomach, also for pains in the head, and hot and inflamed eyes. Be sure to remember that red roses strengthen thp heart, liver, stomach and retentive faculties. N. B. The leaves should be dry for all the afore- said purposes. 8. For a Burn. Take an onion and cut it in halves, warm it a very little, (but not roast it, for that decreases its strength, and consequently its virtues,) bind it on the affected part. It will stop the soreness and in- flammation, by drawing out the humors, which al- ways accompany a burn, if not prevented. 9. For Palpitation of the Heart. Take two pounds of heart’s ease, the same quan- tity of clover, that grdws the north side of buildings, or fences, three leaves of common door yard plan- tain, two ounces of white pine bark, and the same quantity of slippery elm, a table-spoonful of camo- mile, all cut fine, and put into an iron vessel, with one gallon of water. Let this simmer over a slow fire, till the strength is out of the herbs ; strain it, and simmer again till quite thick. Add one pound of loaf sugar, while warm. When cool, add half a pint of the best brandy, to keep it from souring. Commence with a table-spoonful, and increase the dose to half a wine glass, every morning, on an empty stomach. N. B. If the herbs be dry, take a less quantity for the syrup. RECIPE3. 89 10. For a Consumptive Cough, or Pain in the Breast. Take a table-spoonful of tar, three spoonfuls of honey, the yolks of three eggs, beat them well to- gether, then add half a pint of wine, and beat them again. Then cork it up tight for use. Take a tea- spoonful three times a day, before eating. Be sure to drink nothing but barley tea for your constant drink. 11. To cure Vegetable Poison. Take yellow blowed celandine, hawk weed, and toad plantain, in equal parts. Bruise them fine, and boil them in milk for a length of time sufficient to get out the strength. Wash the affected part with this, seven or eight times a day, and drink bitters of Indian milk weed root, steeped in gin, to keep it from striking to the stomach. This, if made strong, will physic the blood, and cure the disorder entirely. This is a simple and easy remedy. 12. An excellent remedy to stop Vomiting. Take green wheat or green grass, pound it and pour on boiling water, and sweeten with loaf sugar. Press out the juice, and let the patient drink a ta- ble spoonful every ten minutes. Or, take gum camphor, pounded fine, mix it with boiling water, sweetened. The same quantity will answer for a dose as the other. 90 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 13. A Cure for Bleeding at the Stomach. Take one pound of yellow dock root, dry it tho- roughly, and pound it fine. Boil this in a quart of milk, and strain it off. Use one gill three times a day, also one pill a day, made of turpentine, from the end of a white pine log, and honey, equal parts. This will heal the vessels that leak. Take the leaves of motherwort and thoroughwort, and poplar bark, from the root of a tree. Pound these fine, and sift them through a fine sieve. Mix with molasses and make it into pills, and take four of them when the disorder is coming on. This will settle the head, and make every thing as calm as a clock ! 14. Pills for the Hysterics. 15. Strengthening Plaster. Take a pitch pine knot and boil it in water, till all the gum is out. Then let it cool, and take off the pitch. Spread a plaster of this, and wear iUon the side or breast, or wherever it may be wanted. If it is too powerful, temper it with a little rosin or beeswax. 16. For the Rheumatism. Tal* a table spoonful of pitch from a white pine log. the same quantity of sulphur, and a spoonful of honey. Add these to two quarts of the best fourth proof brandy, and shake till it is dissolved. Cork it up tight for use. Take a table spoonful RBCIPES. 91 three times a day, before eating, and bathe the part affected in salt, and some of the same brandy, as hot as you can bear it. There are many things good for children in this case. The leaves of sage, powdered fine, and mix- ed with a little honey, a tea-spoonful for a dose; or flour of sulphur, mixed with honey, is good for worms. Sweetened milk, with a little alum added to it, is good to turn worms. 17. For Children troubled with Worms. 18. For the Dropsy. Take one pound of prickly ash bark, bark of sas- safras root one pound, fever wood bush half a pound, four ounces of parsley roots, four ounces of the bark of black birch, four ounces of horse radish roots, and three ounces of garlics. Boil them all in three gallons of small beer. Drink a gill three times a day. 19. For the Toothache. If the tooth be hollow, put in as much blue vitriol as it will contain. This repeated for a few days will kill the marrow. 20. For Weakness and General Debility of the Whole System. Take of lovage root half a pound, four ounces of burdock roots, and half a pound of comfrey roots to four quarts of water, and let it boil moderately for the space of two hours, strain it off and then con- tinue to boil it down to one quart, add half a pint 92 FAMILY INSTRUCTED of the best Holland gin, and one pound of honey, or loaf sugar will do if honey cannot be procured ; put it into a bottle and cork it tight for eight and forty hours, when it will be fit for use. Dose, a ta- ble spoonful three times a day before eating. This syrup has been known to perform a great many cures after every other remedy had failed, and the most celebrated physicians’ skill entirely baffled. 21. For a person that is strained, or weak across the Kidneys. Take one pound of the inner bark of witch hazel to two quarts of milk, and the same quantity of water, all boiled together, and drink of it three or four times a day, about one gill at a time. This treatment for a few days, will generally give relief, without further process. 22. For the Phthisic in Children. Take two ounces of liquorice stick, of parsley roots four ounces, four ounces of spikenard, four of snakeroot, boil them well in four quarts of water. After it is strained, sweeten it with loaf sugar, or honey ; dose, a glass night and morning. 23. A Cure for the Jaundice. Take half a pint of the last milk that can be ob- tained from a cow, and a small handful of yellow blowed celandine; put into a cloth and pound them ; then squeeze it till the juice is out, and then mix and drink the whole, while warm, every morning before eating, for the space of nine mornings in RECIPES. 93 succession, which will generally be sufficient; but if obstinate, or of long standing, it will be necessary to omit it for nine mornings, and then take it for the same space as before, which will be sufficient to cure the disorder in its worst form and longest standing. 24. For a Cough. Take of hoarhound a small handful, and about as much garden colt’s foot, two table spoonfuls of sage, and one of saffron, well simmered together. Strain it off, add half a pint of molasses, and simmer it again for the space of three hours, with a moderate fire, and while it is hot, add one gill of the best Holland gin. Dose, three times a day. Commence with a table spoonful, and increase to half a wine glass full. This is a safe remedy and may be relied on for a cough of any kind, except the whooping cough. 25. For the Catarrh in the Head. Take four ounces of snake root, four ounces of blood root, and four ounces of yellow dock root, split and dried well, one ounce of cinnamon, and half an ounce of cloves; pound them as fine as snuff, and use it as snuff ten or twelve times a day. Smoke a pipe full of cinnamon and tobacco every night. Sweat the head with brandy, camphor and hemlock; put a little camphorated spirits into the hot liquor to sweat. 26. For Swellings that come of their own accord. Take an ointment made of melilot, saffron, alder- tags and sugar of lead, simmered in hog’s lard; 94 strain it, anoint the affected part, and take some- thing to guard the stomach before ointing. If done in season, it will scatter the swelling. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 27. A Cure for Corns. Spread a plaster of white pine turpentine, put it on the corn, let it stay till it comes off of its own accord. Repeat this three times, and it will effect a cure. 28. For a Stiff Joint, or Shrunk Sinew. Take a small piece of blue vitriol, about as large as a chestnut, half an ounce of green melilot, half an ounce of oil amber, half an ounce of yellow besili- com. Simmer them to an ointment. Apply this to the affected part, and put it on the joint above. This often repeated, will perfect a cure. 29. For a Strained Stomach. 4Take one third of a pound of pitch from the end of a white pine log, the same quantity of sulphur, and half a pound of honey; simmer well together, take two pills of this every day before eating. There is but one chance in this medicine for a per- son to be disappointed. That is, it generally ef- fects a cure before the medicine is half used up. 30. A good Medicine for Inward Hurts or Ulcers. Take genseng roots, angelica, elecampane, mas- terwort, comfrey and spikenard roots, a pound of each, one pound of camomile, two pounds of fir 95 boughs ; put them into one gallon of rum and two gallons of water; still 1 hese, and draw off six quarts. Take a small glass night and morning. .RECIPES. 31. A valuable Remedy for the Bilious Cholic. Take one gill of West India molasses, one gill of West India rum, one gill of hog’s lard, and the urine of a beast one gill. Simmer these well to- gether. This will seldom if ever fail of performing a cure. 32. For Weak and Inflamed Eyes. Take the pith from the stalk of a sassafras bush, mix it with a very little water, about blood warm. Wash the eyes three or four times a day. This is far superior to the most celebrated eye water. Keep clear of greasy victuals. 33. A cure for the Gravel in the Bladder, or Kidneys. Take the herb called heart’s ease, make a strong tea of it, and drink plenty; or make the root of Jacob’s ladder into a tea, and drink of that. It is a most sure remedy, and has proved to be the best thing known. Take two ounces of elecampane root, two ounces of sweet flag root, two ounces of spikenard root, two ounces of common chalk; heat them in a mor- tar, till they become very fine, then add one pound of honey, and beat them all together. Take a tea- spoonful three times a day. 34. Cure for the Asthma. 96 35. For a person that has been troubled with a weak Stomach for a long time. FAMILY INSTRUCTED In the first place omit taking all kinds of medi- cine whatever. Take rye, wash it clean, and boil it in the same manner as you would rice. Make this your constant diet. This may be eaten with molasses, or in milk. Be sure and not take any other kind of food whatever, till you are thoroughly satisfied you can bear it. Drink a tea of white pine bark and slippery elm. This has been known to cure persons who have been troubled with a weak stomach for years, and become so much reduced as not to be able to bear half a cracker at a meal. 36. For the Dysentery in its worst form. Take the bark from the root of a spruce, and scrape it up towards the body of the tree. Dry this and pound it fine, sift it through a fine sieve, mix a tea-spoonful of this with half a glass of warm water, and drink it. If this does not answer, repeat the dose again in two hours, which will generally be sufficient. After this, make a strong tea from the inner bark of witch hazel, sweeten it with loaf sugar, and add a little milk. Drink of this freely. 37. For a person that has strained his Stomach, and spits Blood. Take rosin, fresh butter and loaf sugar, equal parts of each, bray these well together, and take a tea-spoonful three times a day before eating. This for a few days, will generally give relief. RECIPES. 97 Take a seed bowl of a skunk cabbage, that grows close to the ground, at the bottom of the leaves. Cut it up fine, stew this in four ounces of hen’s fat till it is dry. Strain it oft’ take a tea-spoonful three times a day. Make a syrup of queen of the meadow roots, and white swamp honey-suckle blossoms. Sweeten this with honey, add to a quart of syrup half a pint of brandy. Rarely fails. 38. For the Phthisic. 39. St. Anthony's Fire, cure for. Take of fine spirits of turpentine and highly rec- tified spirits of wine, equal parts, mix these well together, and keep it tight from the air. Anoint the affected part often with the composition, after shaking the bottle. Be a little careful not to ap- proach the eyes. It can be done with a feather to best advantage. This often effects a cure in two or three days. After it has pretty much healed, anoint with mutton marrow. This serves to soften, and helps allay the inflammation. 40. For any kind of Urinary obstr uctions. Take good ripe pumpkin seeds, dry them and pound as well as you can conveniently; add one quart of good gin to one gill of the pounded seeds. Keep it in some warm place till the gin is tolerably well tinctured with the seeds. Drink a wine glass of this three times a day before eating. This will be found to answer your most sanguine expectations. 98 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 41. To cure a Wen. Take clean white linen rags, and bum them on some kind of pewter ware, and collect the oil of the rags on the pewter w ith lint. Cover the wen with this oil twice or three times a day. This must be continued for some time, and the wen will generally drop out without further trouble. 42. Ointment for the Piles. Take sweet elder, the inner bark, and simmer it in sweet cream, the juice of camomile pounded and pressed out, and mix a table spoonful of this with a gill of the above, and use it night and morning constantly. This perhaps is as good a remedy as can bejmade externally for that troublesome dis- order. 43. For the Jaundice. Take a large handful of black alder; cut it up fine and boil it in a quart of old cider. Let it cool, and then drink of it freely. This is very good to remove this'disorder. 44. A cure for Frost Bitten Feet. Take the inner bark of elder and simmer it in hen’s oil, and rub the affected part with it twice a day over a warm fire; at the same time wrap the frost bitten part in a piece of woolen cloth well greased with the same. In a few days this will effect a cure, 99 45. Pills for all dull and heavy pains in the Head. RECIPES. Take of ginger and spikenard, of each two parts; the seed of sage toasted at the fire, eight parts; of long pepper, twelve parts ; bring all these to a fine powder; add thereto of the juice of sage sufficient to make them into a mass for pills ; use them after the following directions. Let one ounce of the mass or composition answrer for sixteen doses. Take a dose of them every morning, fasting, and also at night; drinking a little cold water after them. 46. For the Jaundice. Take the juice of cinquefoil or five-fingered grass, in new milk, every morning before eating or drink- the following manner. To every gill of milk add one glass of the juice; this must be drank while warm ; continue this treatment for a number of days, and your complexion will satisfy you of its good effects. For what you see with your own eyes, you will be sure there is no deception in. 47. Old Ulcers and Sores, an ointment for. Take the leaves of thoroughwort, shinleaf and pipsisway, pound them and press out the juice and simmer it with hog’s lard or goose grease; add thereto a little rosin and juice from the green of elder; simmer the whole for half an hour, stirring it well the whole time; anoint often with this, and you will be plagued to find your sore in a very short time. At the same time drink the decoction of thoroughwort in water and wine three or four times a day. 100 48. Cure for Sores without Inflammation. FAMILY INSTRUCTED Take half a pound of the oil of spike, one pound of mutton tallow, one pound of hog’s lard, heat them over a moderate fire till they are melted, then add a little rosin and beeswax, which will make it to a salve. This will cure all common sores. 49. A valuable remedy for the Piles. If outward, make an ointment of the leaves of burdock, sage, parsley and camomile ; simmer them in hog’s lard or fresh butter and sweet oil; anoint the parts with it; drink half a gill of tar water three times a day ; but if they are inward, drink essence of fir every night and tar water twice a day; a small half glass of this followed up for a month or two will effect a cure. 50. For Children that cannot hold their Water. Take the bark off a green red beech tree j dry this and pound it up fine; steep it in wine ; give a table spoonful at a time once a day. 51. For the Canker Rash. Take white birch root bark, pound it very fine, and give it in small doses three or four times a day; make a tea of the same for constant drink. For the fever give rattlesnake’s gall, three grains at a time. RECIPES. 101 52. For any Hemorrhage of the Blood. Take a handful of bloodweed, if green, pound it and press out the juice; let the patient take a table spoonful at a time, once an hour, till it stops. If the herb is dry, boil it very strong, and give three or four spoonfuls of the tea at a time. 53. To cure the Bite of a Rattlesnake. Take green hoarhound tops, pound them up fine and squeeze out the juice; let the patient take a table spoonful three times a day; apply the pounded herbs to the bite, and change them twice a day. The patient may also drink a spoonful of sweet olive oil. This generally effects a cure. 54. To cure a Swelled Face or Scurvy in the Teeth. Take scurvy grass and prince of pine, boil them in water, strain it, and add a little honey and rum, hold it in the mouth as hot as possible, boil a large quantity of the herbs and sweat the head over it. 55. For the Consumption. Take half a bushel of barley malt, boil six pails of water and pour it on the malt, let it stand six hours, take one pound of Syria grass, half a bushel of white pine bark, one pound of spikenard root, boil till the water is half evaporated ; put this into a dry keg and add some yeast; after it has fer- mented, put it up in bottles ; drink one pint a day. It is the best thing known. 102 56. Syrup for a person that is troubled with a Bil- ious habit. FAMILY INSTRUCTED Take dandelion root and branch, and bark from the root of a poplar, equal parts ; boil these in water till the strength is all out, then strain it off and simmer it down till it becomes quite thick ; add while warm one gill of molasses to a pint of syrup. If in warm weather, add a very little gin to keep it from souring. Take a tea-spoonful three times a day for a dose. This for a person troubled with a bilious habit, is one of the best things known, for it is perfectly harmless and does not weaken in the operation. 57. Bitters to go with the above Syrup. Take bitter root, poplar bark, and the leaves of snake’s head and barberry bark, equal parts; dry these and pound them fine; sift them through a fine sieve; take a tea-spoonful of this in a wine glass full of warm water, sweetened, every morning before eating. 58. For a Hectic Cough. Simmer in three quarts of water, one pint of bar- ley, four ounces of elecampane, and one pound of turnips; boil these, and after it is strained simmer it down to one pint; add one pound of loaf sugar or honey, and half a pint of brandy. Take a table spoonful three times a day. 103 59. For inicard Ulcers. RECIPES. Take one ounce of snake’s head, two ounces of colt’s foot root, one ounce of bloodroot, two ounces of sassafras root bark, one ounce of gum myrrh, winter bark one ounce ; steep these in two quarts of spirit, drink a glass every morning before eating. 60. Salve for a Burn. Take the green of elder bark, wild lavender, ca- momile and parsley ; simmer them in fresh butter; strain it and add to it rosin, beeswax and white diacalon, equal parts. This is one of the best salves for a burn known. 61. Syrup for Coughs. Use a large handful of the roots of comfrey, one peck of plantain leaves, and a handful of the oak of Jerusalem ; cut small and pound them fine. Press out the juice, add the same weight of sugar as you have of juice, and boil them to a syrup. This is an excellent remedy, and ought to be generally known. 62. Another, where there is considerable phlegm. Take the leaves of colt’s foot, dry them, and use them as you would tobacco for smoking. This simple remedy has not been known to fail of giving relief in any instance where it has been used. 104 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 63. Best method of curing a Wen. Bake a live bull frog in one pound of fresh butter. Keep the frog’s back down until he is thoroughly baked through; strain off the butter into a tight vessel, and keep it for use. Anoint the wen a dozen times every day. Any person wrho happens to be troubled with a wen, would do well to give this a fair trial, for it is sure, and can be easily obtained. It can frequently be squeezed out in from three to six months. Take red onions and pound them, press out the juice, add an equal quantity of horsemint juice, a table spoonful of each, well mixed together, to be taken three times a day before eating, and drink a strong tea of clivers and witch hazel bark. 64. For the Stone. 65. Cure for Sprains. Use a table spoonful of honey, the same quantity of fine bay salt, and the white of a hen’s egg. Beat the whole up together for two hours at least. Let it stand one hour and anoint the sprained part with the oil which is produced from the mixture, keeping it well bound with a flannel bandage. This will generally enable a person to walk free from pain in one day. 66. Heart Burn. This disorder is owing in a measure, to what a person eats and drinks. Any kind of food that will sour and ferment in the stomach, will be almost RECIPES. 105 sure to produce this disorder, and often times the sick head ache is caused in the same manner. Per- sons therefore who are troubled with these com- plaints, can prevent them in some measure, by being careful what they eat or drink. The best remedy is to use refined chalk, or if this cannot be had, use common chalk. The meat of peach stones, or peach leaves, or bark from the root of black cherry tree, dried and pounded fine. Use a tea-spoonful of the powder and the same quantity of chalk, in a glass of hot water after eating. It will be found an ex- cellent preventive of these disorders. 67. For a Sore Throat. Steam the throat with hot water, in which some hops are infused. After the hops have been tho- roughly scalded, apply them externally to the dis- eased part of the throat. 68. Ointment for Weak Joints. Boil together sweet apple tree, and white oak bark, with a piece of cod-fish’s skin, till you obtain an extract. Make a plaster of this and wear it on the affected part. It seldom fails of a cure. 69. Remedy for a Poison after it has begun to discharge. Sprinkle flour over the part affected very often. This will soon dry it up, if followed close for a few days. Physic often with mandrake roots. This treatment seldom fails. 106 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 70. Syrup for Jaundice. Take the bark of black cherry tree, white ash, butternut tree, and white poplar, one pound each. Cut these up fine, and put them into three gallons of water, boil it half away, then strain it and simmer it down to one quart, then add to this half a pint of proof spirit, and as much more molasses. Take a table spoonful two or three times a day; or if this is not enough to keep the bowels open, enlarge the dose. A glass is generally sufficient for any one. This is a good and healthy cathartic. 71. Strengthening Bitters. Take one ounce of cloves, of cinnamon one ounce, bitter root one ounce, of the inner bark of hemlock one ounce, well pulverized together. Add this to two quarts of Holland gin. For a dose, commence with a table spoonful, and increase to half a wine glass, every morning, on an empty stomach. 72. For a Weak Stomach. Let your diet be milk, with a table spoonful of the best brandy you can get in it, and any kind of light bread, and drink a tea made of strawberry leaves, with a red pepper broke in it. This is a safe remedy. 73. For Wind in the Stomach, Take a tea-spoonful of saffron, chew and swallow the spittle. This is easy, and sure to give relief in most cases. RECIPES. 107 74. An excellent Syrup for a Cough. Take hoarhound, comfrey, sage, and noble liver- wort, equal parts ; simmer these in four quarts of fair water for three hours, over a moderate fire; strain off and simmer again till quite thick. Add one gill of molasses and a very little spirit to keep it from souring. Take a tea-spoonful every time you feel like coughing. 75. For Indigestion. Swallow six gravel-stones about the size of a small pea, from a cool brook, every morning. Re- peat nine mornings in succession. Bum beef bones, pound them fine, and sift them. Take a tea-spoon- ful of the powder every time before you eat. This will cause your food to pass oft'without distressing you. There is no danger in the remedy. Take of white mustard a tea-spoonful every time before you eat, and drink a tea made of strawberry leaves and thoroughwort. This may be drank cold. It will keep the bowels loose without other physic. 76. Another for the same complaint. 77. Cure for the Stranguary. Make a strong tea of clivers, the inner bark of witch hazle and mullein. Sweeten it with loaf su- gar, and add a table spoonful of gin to every pint of tea. This is sure to give relief by carrying the disorder off in the water. 108 78. Cure for a Sore Throat, if taken in season. FAMILY INSTRUCTED Boil a small bag of white beans till they are quite soft, and bind them on the neck as hot as you can bear them, and keep them warm with hot flannels, changed often. Drink a strong tea of pennyroyal, as warm as you can bear it. This will generally sweat it away in the course of six or eight hours. After this, be a little careful about taking cold. 70. For Weak Nerves. Take the roots of Indian umbel, or as some call it, nervine, or ladies’ slipper. Pound them fine, and sift them through a fine sieve. Cork it up tight from the air. Take half a tea-spoonful for a dose, in hot water, sweetened. This is used by the In- dians for all disorders of the nerves. 80. Excellent Family Pills. Take the inner bark from the roots of a butternut, scraped down; balm of (iilead and white ash bark. Boil these in fair water until all the strength is out. Take out the bark, and continue to boil it down until you can work it into pills. This is a healthy physic, and good in all cases where cathartics are needed. Take the tops and roots of the whortleberry bush, sarsaparilla roots, and hop roots, one pound of each; three ounces of blood root, three ounces of unicorn ro ots, and half a peck of barley malt; make of 81. A Beer for Cancers. 109 these ingredients seven gallons of beer. Take half a gill for a dose, three times a day. This beer is very palatable. RECIPES. 82. Cure for the Dysentery. Take a quantity of ripe sweet elder berries, press out the juice, simmer it over a slow fire, add some brown sugar, and let it set till it becomes a thin syrup. Then add one-third the quantity of brandy and cork it up tight in a bottle. It is then fit for use. If a grown person, take a wine glass full for a dose. If a child, half the quantity will be suffi- cient. It may be taken three or four times a day. This medicine has proved good in many cases where all other remedies have failed. 83. For the Dropsy. Take pipsisway, and make a strong tea of the herb. This is very good in dropsical cases. A table spoonful is a dose; to be taken every hour with a little syrup. 84. For Asthmatic Coughs. Take one pound of sliced garlic, and one quart of boiling water, and let it soak for ten or twelve hours, keeping the water warm all the while. Then strain off, add four pounds of double refined sugar, and bottle it up. This is an excellent syrup, and may be used to advantage. A tea-spoonful is a dose, when you feel like coughing. 110 85. Rkeunkitism, cure for. FAMILY INSTRUCTED Take a single handful of sassafras bark, from the root, one ounce of gum camphor, one ounce of gra- ted ginger root, and one quart of best brandy. Let the whole be steeped moderately eight or ten hours. For a dose, one-third of a wine glass, three or four times a day. Increase the dose if necessary. Bathe the part affected with the same, and use considerable friction with a red flannel, as hard as you can bear it. This generally gives relief in a few days, by being careful about taking cold for a short time. 80. Another. Use a small lump of alum, as big as a walnut. Pound it fine, and dissolve it in water; bathe the affected part every night and morning, and keep a piece in your pocket, and you will seldom, if ever, be troubled with this painfiil disorder. This looks rather too simple to be relied on, but it is one of the best remedies known, and comes well authenti- cated. We all know that red flannel is the best article that ever was worn for the disorder. It is the alum which is in the cloth which makes it pre- ferable to any other color. Make a strong decoction of camomile, boiled in sweet milk. Bathe the eyes with this several times a day, as warm as can be suffered. If this remedy is persevered in for a length of time, it is most certain to effect a cure. It may be necessary to follow this treatment for six or eight weeks ; but this would be nothing if you only come off con* queror at last. 87. For Weaic or Weeping Eyes. 88. How to destroy Worms in the human species. RECIPES. 111 Take the spiky tops of wormwood, the blows of tansy and bark from the root of sassafras, pound them fine, and sift through a fine sieve. Then take the bright scales of iron from a smith’s forge, two or three ounces ; pound and mix this with the above carefully, so that the iron may be properly mixed with the composition. A small tea-spoonful is a dose for a grown person, every night and morning, on an empty stomach, for three days. It must be mixed with molasses. Physic the fourth day with any convenient physic. 89. For the Rheumatism. Take a handful of horse-radish roots, the same quantity of prince of pine, and a little of prickly ash bark, elecampane roots, bitter-sweet root bark, wild cherry tree bark, mustard seed, and a pint of tar water. Put this into two quarts of brandy, and drink a small glass full three times a day, before eating. Wash the affected part with salt and rum, by a hot fire. 90. To Cure Vegetable Poison. Take wild turnips, if green pound them, and press out the juice. If they are dry, boil them in water, and wash the part affected with the liquor. Add a little saffron and camphor to part of the liquor, and take it inwardly to guard the stomach. 112 FAMILY INSTRUCTED. 91. For a Cough. Take half a pound of brook liverwort, half a pound of wild liquorice, two ounces of elecampane, four ounces of Solomon’s seal, half a pound of spikenard, and four ounces of camphor; put these in one gallon of water, and boil it down to one quart; then add one pint of spirit, and two pounds of honey. Take half a glass, before eating. It is a fine thing for a cough. 92. A Pill for the Hysterics. Take a quantity of Canada or white root, and boil it in fair water; strain it, and boil the liquor down so thick that it may be made into pills. When the disorder is coming on, take two or three pills at a dose. 93. To stop Bleeding at the Stomach. A table-spoonful of camomile tea, every fifteen minutes, till the bleeding stops; it will give some- times instantaneous relief. 94. For the Dropsy. Take currant leaves, and steep them in water, and make a tea of them, for common drink. It is good for swelled limbs, &c., and answers the best turn for dropsical complaints of any thing known. RECIPES. 113 95. For Wind in Children. Take genseng roots, pound or grate a little into warm water, and sweeten it with loaf sugar. This given warm w ill afford relief. 96. To drive out Humors. Take saffron and snakeroot, equal parts of each; make this into a strong tea, and drink of it occa- sionally. This is good to drive out humors, and keep any kind of disorder from striking to the stomach. 97. For a Stoppage of Urine. Take a spoonful of the buds of currant bushes, and one spoonful of honey bees ; steep them very strong in hot water. Drink two spoonfuls for a dose, every half hour. Take the roots of cat-tail flags, wash them clean, and boil them in milk. Sweeten it with loaf sugar, and feed them with it every day. 98. For the Dysentery in Children. 99. For Children troubled with a Relapse. Take half a tea-cup full of new milk, and add to this two tea-spoonfuls of good brandy, and scald it. After it cools, feed the child with it freely, and continue this for several days. It will effect a cure. 114 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 100. A Beer for the Liver Complaint. Take fever-bush, wintergreen, checkerberries> hops, and black birch twigs. Make these into a beer, and after it is fermented, bottle it up. Add a tea-spoonful of ginger and loaf sugar, to a tum- bler full of the beer, before drinking. It is a heal- thy and good drink. 101. For Convulsion Fits. Make a tea of convulsion roots and drink it, or powder it fine, and take the powder in small doses. It seldom fails of a cure. 102. For Fits caused by Worms. Take cream sweetened with molasses, and pour it down the throat of the child ; it will immediately give relief, and turn the worms. It is one of the best things known, and very harmless. 103. For Quinsy in the Throat. Take spotted cardis, boil it in milk and water, steam the throat with this by holding a pot under it, as hot as can be borne, also hold some of it in the mouth. After this, wear a piece of black silk round the neck, and it will prevent a return of the disorder. RECIPES. 115 104. For the Spleen. This is a disorder which, as well as all others, needs a remedy, and the most effectual way to rid yourself of it, is to eat any thing you can make your stomach digest, in the first place. In the next place, be your own judge whether the food you eat, distresses you, or not. There will prob- ably be now and then articles which you would do well to avoid, such as saddle-bags and directions which commonly accompany them. Above all things, these are the first to be avoided. Never overload your stomach with that which you know will cause uneasiness. If you happen to feel a pain in the side or breast, see if you cannot recollect feeling the same, a dozen times before in your life, which had not killed you. Be sure to have your mind and disorder but little acquainted with each other, and among all the rest, if the above directions do not effect a cure, drink out of cans made of tamarisk, H dishes made of roses. If, after following these directions for one month, you do not perceive that it has done more towards a cure, than all the medicine you ever took in your life, you may depend upon it, your chance for ever being cured is small. It is easier to bring on such disorders, than it is to cure them, when they have got seated. I believe the same treatment which we are told will cure dyspepsia would make a dyspeptic of a stout healthy person. In the first place, it is bringing a person completely out of their bias. For instance, you shall take a person that has always been used to hearty food, as it is called, and perhaps other habits, such as using tobacco, and drinking a little cider, &c.,—and break him off from all these things, and restrict him to coarse bread, and water, and 116 FAMILY INSTRUCTED milk toast, without salt, and he will directly have to make use of physic, which will reduce his strength. He gets no nourishment from his food, for there is but little to it, or at least it does not serve to keep up his strength, for his cathartics weak- en faster than his slender diet can strengthen him. You can say there is no need of physic, but I can tell you it is impossible for a person to do without and live on such a diet as is usually prescribed in such cases. This will make a dyspeptic in one month’s time, or my ideas are incorrect. 105. For the Dropsy. Take the roots o'f dwarf elder, make a tea of them, and drink a tea-cupful after every discharge of urine. This has been known to perform cures when other remedies have failed. If you are attacked with cold chills, a pain in the breast, head or back, bathe the feet in warm water, just before going to bed, and drink freely of strong snake-root tea. It is a good thing, and if you are a little careful, will drive away a cold of the worst kind. 106. For a Cold. 101. For Consumption. Take a handful of hoarhound herbs, put them into two quarts of water, and boil them down to one. Strain it off, and then add some honey or 117 molasses. Set it on a moderate fire, to mix, and add a little rum. Then bottle it and cork it up tight. Take half a tea-cupful of this, with as much more milk warm from the cow, before breakfast. Repeat this dose about noon, on an empty stomach. Also, take a chafing dish, and dissolve over it some yellow wax and rosin, equal quantities of each. Let the patient remain in the room, as long as he pleases, and repeat this several times a day. RECIPES. 108. For a Sprain. Take one spoonful of honey, the same quantity of salt, and the white of an egg. Beat the whole together for an hour or two. Then let it set an hour, and after this, anoint the sprain with the oil that will be produced from the mixture, keeping the affected part well rolled with a good bandage. This is said to he the best thing ever known, for a sprained ancle, and will readily effect a cure. 109. For the Common Canker in Children. Take canker root, or, as it is sometimes called, cold water root. Wash it and pound it, then steep it in cold water, wash the tumor with this water, and drink of it. This will generally effect a cure. 110. For a Lame Side. Take common mullein leaves, wet them in hot vinegar, apply these to the side, confine them with a flannel bandage two or three thicknesses round 118 FAMILY INSTKUCTEK. the body, and change the leaves often. This treat- ment for a few days will give relief. 111. Green Wound Salve. Take the green of elder, pipsisway, shinleaf and melilot, equal parts of each ; pound these fine, and simmer them in sw eet cream. Apply this to the wound. It never fails curing. 112. For old inveterate Sore Legs. Take green horse dung and simmer it in hog’s lard. Apply this to the sores, and change it twice or three times a day. This has been known to perform cures when every other remedy had failed. 113. For a Stiff Joint and Shrunk Sinews. Take the skin of a codfish, wet it in strong red pepper water. Bind this on the joint, taking care to have it come at least six inches above and below the joint. Change this as often as dry, use consid- erable friction, and anoint the cords with a salve made of the following materials. Take white oak bark and sweet apple tree bark, equal parts, boil these in three quarts of water till all the strength is out; strain off and simmer again till quite thick, add the same quantity of goose grease that you have of syrup. Mix these while warm, and anoint the joints and cords. RECIPES. 119 Take a handful of wild turnip roots, and as much blue flag root, stew them both in half a pint of hog’s lard, strain it, and then add four spoonfuls of tar, simmer them together, apply this till the felon breaks; add rosin and beeswax to the ointment for a salve to dress it with after it is broken. This is a cure without losing the joint. 114. For a Felon. 115. Another. Take the yolk of an egg, one spoonful of the juice of heart’s-ease, one spoonful of vinegar, scra- pings of the pot one spoonful, one of pepper, one of honey, and one of salt. Mix these well togeth- er. Apply this to the felon. It is a cure, without losing the joint or nail. 116. Cure for a Cancer. Take the bark of red oak, and burn it to ashes. Apply this to the cancer till it is eaten out. Then apply a plaster of tar to cleanse and heal the sore. 117. Cure for a Wen. Take a small piece of blue vitriol, dissolve it in a little water, wash the wen in this a few days, and it will break. Make a salve of melilot, mutton tallow, and beeswax to heal it up. 120 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 118. For the Dropsy. Take half a pound of elecampane root, and half a pound of blue flag root. Boil this in two gallons of water. To one quart add one pint of molasses. Take half a gill before eating, three times a day. 119. To cure inward Ulcers. Take two ounces of sassafras root bark, two ounces of blood root, two ounces of coltsfoot, and two ounces of gum myrrh. Steep these in two quarts of spirit, live on simple diet and drink a small glass every morning. For common drink make a beer, of barley malt one peck, one pound of comfrey root, two pounds of spikenard root, two ounces of burdock roots, black spruce boughs five pounds, fennel seed four ounces, angelica root one pound. Make ten gallons of beer of this. Exercise but little, and drink a quart a day. Take beef bones, burn them in the fire till they become white, pound them fine, sift them, mix the powder with molasses ; take it three times a day, before eating. Continue this for several days, take a cabbage stump, scrape out the inside, put it into cream and simmer it well. Anoint the part affected. This has been known to perform great and wonderful cures. 120. Cure for the Salt Rheum. RECIPES. 121 121. To cure the Canker in the Mouth if ever so violent. Take the scrapings of a blackberry briar root, a few sumach berries, a little saffron, a little sage, and some gold thread or yellow root. Put with these a little alum, some vinegar and honey, simmer this on hot ashes, after adding a little water. Wet the mouth often. It seldom fails of a cure. 122. For a Burn, if very obstinate. Take the inner sole of an old shoe, burn it to ashes, sift the ashes, and sprinkle this on the sore. This will dry it up directly. Take the bark of a sumach root, simmer it in cream, and anoint the part affected with this often. It is an excellent cure. 123. For a Weak Stomach. Take saffron, spikenard root and camomile, rose leaves, pink leaves and lovage root. Boil these to- gether in a quart of water, strain it oft', and add half a pint of brandy, and one pound of loaf sugar: This is the best syrup for a weak stomach known. 124. For all sorts of inward iveakness, pains in the stomach or breast. Take four pounds of red clover, twenty pounds of fir boughs and one pound of spikenard. Mix these with ten gallons of cider, and put them into a still. Draw oft' three gallons and drink half a gill night and morning. It is an excellent essence and very- good for inward complaints. 122 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 125. Cure for Phthisic. Take three egg shells, roast them brown, and pound them up coarsely ; mix these with half a pint of molasses, take a spoonful three times a day. The cure is effectual in common cases. 126. For weakly obstructions in the female sex. Take white pond lily roots, turkey root, blood root, wild liquorice and heart’s ease herbs, equal parts of each, and double the quantity of female flowers. Make them into a syrup, boil out all the substance in clear water, strain it oft’ add a little honey, and rum enough to keep it from souring. On going to bed, every night, drink half a gill. This is very strengthening and will throw oft'obstructions. Keep the small of the back warm by wearing thereon a flannel. Take common nettle roots, dry them, and chew them every day as you would tobacco. Continue this three weeks. 127. For Bleeding at the Nose. 128. Remedy for fie Dysentery. Take three ounces of white pine hark, after the ross is oft’ and three pints of water; simmer it down to one quart, strain it oft’, and then add to it one half pint of West India molasses, and half a pint of West India rum. If the patient be a grown person, take the whole; for a child, half Tins remedy, though simple, seldom fails. RECIPE 123 Take three different kinds of herbs, you need not be particular what kinds, chew them, and apply the spittle to the wound. This remedy is good for man or beast. It is simple and easy, being always at hand. 129. To stop blood from a fresh wound. 130. Remedy for the Rattles in Children. Take blood root and pound it to a powder. Give a tea-spoonful for a dose, and if one dose does not break the bladder, repeat it often. This has seldom been known to fail of a cure. 131. For the Toothache. If the tooth be hollow, clear it, take a piece of fresh dug bloodroot, break it open, and apply the bleeding part to the marrow of the tooth. It will give immediate relief, and is an easy medicine. 132. A Cure for the Cramp in the Stomach. Take the oil of lavender, and put ten drops on loaf sugar or in a little wine. If this does not give immediate relief, repeat the dose once an hour. It very rarely fails. 133. A cure for the Gravel. Take heart’s ease herbs, make them into a strong tea, and drink of it freely. This is a good remedy in many cases. 124 FAMILY INSTRUCTED 134. For the Rheumatism in the Loins. Drink brandy, and bathe the affected part with salt and rum by a hot fire. Continue this for a week or more. It generally effects a cure. 135. A Blaster to ease the pain of Felons. Take a pitch pine knot from the side of an old log that lays next to the ground, then boil four ounces of strong tobacco. After the strength is out, strain oft', boil this liquor until it is thick, then add the pitch and simmer it over a moderate fire, stirring it all the while till it forms a salve. Make a plaster of this and wherever the sore is, lay it above the next joint. This will in a short time ease the pain. Dress the sore with any other good salve. This plaster is very good, and seldom fails of giving relief. 136. A Cure for women's Sore Nipples. When the infant stops nursing, Papply clear molasses. This seldom fails of a cure. It is a very easy medicine. 137. A Beer to guard against Bilious Fever. Take elder roots, burdock roots, spruce boughs, white ash bark, sarsaparilla roots, hops and spike- nard. Make small beer of this, and drink of it often. Take powdered bloodroot and mandrake roots, mixed together, once a quarter, for physic, and you will seldom, if ever, have an attack of the bilious fever. RECIPES. 125 138. A Bitter to go with the above. Make a bitter of unicorn bark and roots, quassia wood roots, and the dust of common hops. Those who follow this rule, will seldom be troubled with fever, jaundice, or any bilious complaint. 139. For the Pickets in Children. If any part of the body be outwardly affected with this disorder, bathe it thoroughly with good brandy, and take turkey root, steeped in wine, for a drink, three or four times a day. 140. To Destroy Worms in sickness or health. Take a table spoonful of molasses, and mix it with a tea-spoonful of the rust of tin. This is a safe remedy. 141. Good Salve for Women's Sore Breasts. Take one pound of spikenard, half a pound of oomfrey, and one pound of tobacco; boil these in three quarts of chamber lye till almost dry, then press out the juice, and add to it pitch and beeswax enough when simmered, to give it the consistency of salve. Apply this to the part affected. 142. For the Numb Palsy. Bathe the part affected, with spirits of hartshorn, and let the patient take a table spoonful of flour of sulphur, once an hour; and take one pound of soft brimstone, boil it in four quarts of water down to 126 FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. one quart. Let the patient drink a table spoonful once an hour. If applied in season, this will carry it off. 143. To take a film, from a person's Eye. Take sugar of lead, make it very fine, blow a little of it into the eye, morning and night, by means of an oat straw, and when the film is nearly consumed, apply to it a drop of hen’s oil, once a day, until it is well. 144. For Women's Sore Nipples. Take balsam fir, make a plaster of it, and apply it as often as possible. It will effect a cure in a few days. 145. Pills for those who have a Bilious Habit. Take two pounds of sweet rind aloes, four ounces of pulverized bloodroot, two ounces of saffron, twTo of cloves, and some juice from the bark of butter- nut, boiled till it is thick as molasses. If you wish these pills to act as physic, take four or five on going to bed. 146. A remedy for those toko have taken Henbane. Drink goat’s milk, honeyed water or pine kernels, or if neither of these articles can be obtained, use the seed of cresses, garlic, or onions, or mustard, fennel seed, or the seed of nettles. Take any of the above, in wine. It will help to free from dan- ger, and restore the person to health again. RECIPES. 127 147. A cure for the Yellow Jaundice. Make a syrup of the juice of hops and sugar in the following manner : Pound the hops, and press out the juice, then add the same quantity of loaf sugar you have of juice, and simmer the whole as long as any scum rises. If the weather be warm, a little brandy is necessary to prevent souring. It is perfectly safe, and may be used at discretion. The best time to take it is in the morning, on an empty stomach. 148. An Ointment for the Bite of a Dog, or Prick- ing of a Thorn. Take green leaves of hoarhound, bruise them, and boil them in old hog’s grease into an ointment, and apply it to the wound. Continue this for a short time, and the swelling will abate, and the sore be completely healed. 149. An excellent Wash for all kinds of fretting Sores. Take one part of plantain water, and two parts of the brine of powdered beef, boiled together, and clarified. It is a most sure remedy to heal all spreading scabs, or itch on the head or body, all manner of tetters, ring worms, the shingles, and all other running and fretting sores. 150. To cure a Burn, or Scald, without leaving a Scar. Take the roots of white pond lilies, and roast them with hog’s lard, to the consistency of a poul- 128 FAMILY INSTKUCTER. tice, and bind it on the wound with a linen bandage. It is a good remedy for scald heads. It is also good to unite sinews when they are cut. Take the juice of the above mentioned lily, tem- per it with barley meal, and bake it for ordinary bread. This has been known to effect a cure when medicine refused to do it. This is so harmless, there can be no danger in making a trial of it. Per- haps it may not answer for all, but if we can get rid of a disorder by a systematic diet without medi- cine, reason will teach us that it is the best way of doing it. 151. For the Dropsy. 152. For a dry Cough, Wheezing, or Shortness of Breath. Take liquorice, and boil it in spring water, with some maidenhair and figs, and use it for constant drink. It is good for all diseases of the breast and lungs. 153. For a Weak Stomach, or Indigestion. Take dried roots of lovage, half a drachm at a time, powdered and in wine, three times a day be- fore eating. It helps to warm a cold stomach, and clears it of all raw and superfluous moisture, which always exists when a person is troubled with indi- gestion. Want of action at the stomach is the cause. Any thing therefore which will produce an action by warming the stomach and assisting it to throw off the cold and superfluous saliva, must, ac- cording to the nature of things, be beneficial in such eases. RECIPES. 129 Take the tops and blows of Canada thistles, and boil them in spring water, until the strength is out. Strain off the liquor, and simmer it down, until it becomes quite thick, add the same quantity of mo- lasses, you have syrup, give for a dose, a wine glass, for an adult, and repeat every hour until it operates, which rarely fails of clearing the patient of those troublesome creatures. 154. For those troubled with Pin Worms. 155. For the Jaundice in its worst form. I insert this by request of an aged gentleman, whose hoary head has numbered more than seventy winters, who informed me that when he was twenty- seven years old he was given up by all the physi- cians in the vicinity where he then resided, to die with what they styled the black jaundice, and that he was so much reduced, as to be totally incapable of making the least exertion, when, luckily for him, an aged woman happened to come into the neigh- borhood, and hearing of his illness, called at his house, and made known her errand. ‘ Sir,’ said she, ‘ I perceive you are quite out of health. I heard of your difficulty this morning, and have called to inform you of a medicine, which, I think, will relieve you of your suffering, and put you on the road to health again. It would be a thousand pities for a young man like you to die with a disor- der which, I think, could be so easily cured.’ She then inquired if they kept a red cow; and after being informed that they did,—‘ Now,’ said she, ‘ I want you to promise me that you will use no other medicine except the kind I shall prescribe,’ and af- ter receiving a promise from him to that effect, in- 130 r formed him all she wanted him to take for medicine, was half a pint of urine, warm from their red cow, once in the space of twenty-four hours, and live on light food, until he should be sensible that food of any kind would not distress him. She then told him that she must leave him, and would take nothing for her advice, but conjured him, as he valued his life, to be sure and follow her directions. The old gentleman confessed that he had but little confi- dence in the medicine, and would not try it, until he thought he could see. death stare him full in the face, and then, like a drowning man, catching at a straw, resolved on trying the old lady’s medicine; and, to the astonishment of himself, and all who saw him, he recovered, and in less than six weeks was able to attend to his business as usual. He likewise informed me that in the course of his life, he had frequently had ill turns, but always resorted to the medicine which saved his life, and said he was determined never to use any other. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 156. For Urinary Obstructions. The common mulberry bush, made into a tea, and drank freely, is good for all urinary obstruc- tions. It is perfectly harmless in its operation. 157. Hoio you may keep clear of infection and poison. Take two dry walnuts and as many good figs and twenty leaves of rue, bruised and beat together, with two or three corns of salt and twenty juniper berries, which taken every morning fasting, pre- serves from danger of poison and infection, that day it is taken. RECIPES. 131 CHOICE RECEIPTS. 158. General application to concoct for breaking out at the Mouth. If you are rather petty, be sure and count ten before you show it, it will help; if you are almost in a fit of the despot suz,be sure you stop and count fifty, it will help very much; but if you have really gotten into a fit of anger, be sure you hold yourself back from speaking till you have counted one hun- dred, if not the hairs of your head, or any thing else of which you can think ; and the sense of shame and degradation will not let the rash break out of your mouth. 159. Elongation or distension of Palate, and other connected parts. Take the inside of hemlock bark, a young tree, strip out the flesh of the bark, and constantly chew it. Its virtue is to cohere and strengthen the parts. White pond lily root, to be used in chewing, is said to be very beneficial. While the palate and throat is in this weakened state, there is a constant accu- mulation of phlegmatic matter there, and a constant retching to throw it off. 1G0. To staunch blood and heal the chafe. Take the flesh of hemlock bark, (if convenient, young trees,) if blood is to be staunched in the mouth, throat, or stomach, it may be chewed and the product swallowed. This has staunched blood where every effort had failed. The woolly part of 132 sole leather on the exterior parts, has an,excellent effect to staunch blood. The chafe also, is very easily cured by it. Any one travelling 6n foot as a business, would find it much to his convenience to have a little piece, if no more, with him. If it is not pulverized to a powder, he can substitute chew- ing for it, on taking his bed, and apply where he has a mind. It will smart for a few minutes, but he will find himself cured in the morning. The writer has been a travelling man, and has known the incon- veniencies attending an itinerating life. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 161. For the Toothache. Take the flesh of wild black cherry bark, by stripping the inner part of the bark ; also white oak bark, or hemlock bark. Take a handful of the strippings, and put them in a kettle or boiler, over the fire. Let them boil twenty-five minutes. Then set the receptacle of the bark where it will be con- venient to set by the side. Take with the thumb and finger a little of it when quite hot, and put it directly into your mouth, as hot as you can bear it. As soon as it gets a little cooled, throw it out of your mouth, and put in some more, and so on until your gums are most par-boiled. It appears to soothe the nerve and to harden against taking cold. Should the first not be entirely effectual, it would be necessary to make a second trial. 162. For Cancers. Mix balm of Gilead buds, by pulverizing them, with lard so as to make a salve. Change plasters once in six hours, until the cancer is extracted. 133 163. Another cure for Cancer. RECIPES. Pound common sorrel and squeeze out the juice. Let it stand in the sun, and dry down to a salve. If the cancer is not broken open, apply nitric acid until you make a hole into it, or break the skin. Apply the sorrel the same as a plaster. Renew it whenever it gets dry. 164. To make Balsam of Wild Bed Cherry. Take four ounces essence of winter-green, one pound of loaf or good sugar, two ounces liquorice stick or ball, steep in a pint of water. Get one half peck of wild red cherry bark, (some call it bird cherry,) boil it by itself. Put one pint of tar into two quarts of water, stir it while boiling down to one quart of water and tar. Stir while cooling. Then pour off1 the tar water. Mix it with the cherry and liquorice preparations. While warm stir in the sugar, if you choose to have it in the mixture. When cool add the essence. It will then be fit for use. Instead of the essence of winter-green, if in cool weather, you can put in the herb winter-green, one half peck. When you have become more ac- quainted with this balsam, in its good effects to the human system, you will see cause why you can add some other roots and herbs. 165. A more disordered state of throat and lungs. Here I would make some remarks on the appli- cation of cold water to the human system. We by observation think that quick changes of weather from cold to heat, and heat to cold, act with a depressing unhealthy effect upon us. The 134 writer, in his travels, has seen quite a number in young and middle age, sinking away with the dis- ease called consumption. He has asked them if they had tried the cold water remedy. They have answered, “ O yes, but it did no good. It made us chill.” The writer has, in some degree, been so diseased. Made an application of the cold water by being packed in a wet sheet, which was done by wetting a sheet in cold water all through. Then it was spread out on a tick of straw, which lay on a bedstead. The writer with expedition laid his en- tirely naked body down on the sheet, his arms ex- tended down the body entirely their whole length. The sheet was then put over him each way, and the edges packed under as tight as w'ell might be, except his head. A feather tick wras immediately put over him, with some heavy quilts on the top. Then a hot stone was put to my feet. My nurse and benefactor in doing this good work for me, was a deacon, and apparently a good Christian man, whom I much to this day respect. But he had gotten the prepossessions of a yankee mind, if no more; and wanted on this, a very cold day in March, that I should have nothing more done tsp cure me, than to be packed in this cold w'et sheet. Then he • said the cold water would have all the praise of my being cured. But I had set my feeble powers of reasoning at work, and was determined to prevent the primary work for death chills. I had taken a strong dose compounded of gum gnac, gum myrrh, cayenne pepper, mixed with Alcohol of 50 per cent. This I had taken just before I stripped to take the wet sheet. But the good dea- con knew nothing of it. I did not suffer any by chilling. In lying in the bath about three hours, towrard the last of it, I had some perspiration, ar. d FAMILY IXSTRUCTER. RECIPES. 135 got to feeling quite comfortable. My covering was then removed. 1 washed myself in front while another washed my back parts in warm water. This got off the gluten or slime-like matter, which obstructs the pores, and gave me a more free circu- lation. After this at night on going to bed, I took heavy doses of the Wild Red Cherry Balsam, to strengthen the vital parts; and to prevent fever I wet a cloth and folded it to be from four to six thicknesses, and put it on over the chest. This I followed till I got much rid of the phlegmatic mat- ter in my throat and pressure of my lungs. The cold water and the vegetable matter are interspersed over the earth, and may be used together profitably, both for food and for medicine. Cures by their aid together much sooner and much cheaper effected. 166. Inveterate Sprain, or wrenched Side. One half pint 90 per cent. Alcohol; one half ounce camphor gum; one half ounce sapo castile, or as some say, castile soap; put these into the Alcohol in a bottle, and if you want to use it im- mediately, put a string around the neck, be sure to have it uncorked, and suspend it in a kettle of wa- ter. You can heat the kettle so as to make it boil and not break the bottle. When all has become liquid can take the bottle out. If you have, or can get, as much as half an ounce of the spirits of hartshorn, or aquemony, you had better add that also. Drop of this liniment into sugar what you can well take inside as much as six times a day. Apply outside as many times for a week, and you ■will probably find yourself on the gain. The writer has cured himself three times in this way, after he 136 FAMILY INSTRUCTED had tried blistering with Cantharides, (Spanish flies,) and the use of common opodeldoc. 167. For very sore Eyes. Immediately after you are taken, wash your eyes with camphorated spirit as strong as you can bear it. If this does not help you, you had better make you a small blister plaster, about as big as a cent. This you can make by putting one whole Spanish fly, or at the most two, into a tea-cup. Then take a two ounce vial in your right hand, holding the tea- cup in your left hand, and put the vial in your right hand into the tea-cup with a circular motion of your hand and vial upon the bottom of the cup. Keep it agoing till you have made a powder of the flies ; then prepare a piece of cloth, however a piece of soft thin leather is the best; if you can make blister plaster it would be best; but if this is not at hand, put on some paste, or common shoe wax; then you can put on your powder of the flies, so as to make the plaster look somewhat green; with the powder sprinkle the plaster with camphor and apply it on the temple near the eye. A fever is located in the eye, and you want to shift the in- flammation, which if you can do, your eyes will soon get well. The writer tried this remedy, and succeeded in curing his eyes. The body should be kept open by cathartics which are It is good in the first stages of very sore eyes to alter- nately wash them with camphor and rosewater. \\ hen we have taken a very hard cold, and are of a very feverish disposition, with catarrh in the head, falling into the throat, it is very good to take 1G8. Steam Hemlock Sweat. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 137 a steam hemlock sweat. For this purpose get and break up hemlock boughs, and boil them. Heat two or three pieces of brick or stone, or have them heating. Some of the hemlock liquor should be put into a tin pan, but not so very hot but what you can stand in it. Let the one to be sweated strip entirely in the bedroom, and put a large quilt or the like around him. Then walk deliberately and take the stand in the tin pan. Then put the quilt right over your head, and let it be full all around you. The kettle or pail of hemlock preparation should be set as close as may be to the tin pan. The shroud about the person should include both kettle and pan. The hot bricks then can be thrown into the kettle at the patient’s pleasure to make the sweat start and even run. As to the length of time of being sweated, every one, or the nurse, must judge themselves. 169. Prevention and cure of Piles. The old maxim, “ that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” will probably sometime be really found out. Keep from overdoing, and espe- cially the overdoing that you can lift more than any body else. But if you have aforetime brought this disease upon you, or are so unfortunate as to have so much trouble by yourself alone, keep from being -costive as much as may be, by proper diet. If you cannot get along without, use such cathartics as are •cleansing to the blood, Vegetable pills, Epsom salts, &c. If the disease does not then remove, apply alum to the part affected the most handy and easy way you can think of, and you will not be apt to be troubled with the disease long. A proper shaped piece of alum would always be a good arti- cle to have with us. 138 170. A Recipe almost always handy. FAMILY INSTRUCTED Take from an eighth to the sixteenth part of a tea-spoonful of saloeratus; the sixteenth being only half as much as the eighth part; put into a tea-cup with from half to a tea-spoonful of ginger. You can put in just as much cold water as you think best; but if you would be guided any by the writer about it, he would say about one quarter to one eighth of the measure of the tea-cup in cold water. This handy and stinted recipe the writer has made use of for more than twenty-five years, and if you wish to know his reasons why, he would say to you, it is to regulate in the digestion of the food taken into the stomach. The old plan used' to be, to regulate the cider by this alkali principle, and to regulate the stomach by drinking the cider. But the writer has found to his satisfaction, that it is best to take the first principle of regulation into the stomach. 171. To make Sarsaparilla Syrup. Take six ounces of sarsaparilla, one ounce of sas- safras, one ounce of shavings of gum guaiacum, one ounce of liquorice root, six drachms of mezerion root. To this quantity of sarsaparilla, after it is bruised, pour on three quarts of boiling water. Let it stand on the stove six hours, then strain off the liquor and put in the other articles. Split the mezerion root. Let the whole stand by a stove four hours; then boil it fifteen minutes; then strain the liquor. Add loaf sugar and brandy enough to keep from souring. Take a wine glass full three to six times a day. RECIPES. 139 172. To make Walker's Liniment. To one gallon of Alcohol add one pound of oil of cedar, half a pound of squaw weed oil, half a pound of oil origanum, half a pound of wormwood, half a pound of spearmint, half a pint of tincture of lobelia. Color with red sanders. To one gallon of Alcohol, add one pound red cedar oil and half a pound of squaw weed oil. Color with red sanders. 173. To make Shaw's Liniment. 174. Walker's cure for Corns. Take mullein leaves and pound them and moisten with soft soap. 175. To make Shaw’s Medicine for Breach. Comfrey root boiled in vinegar and spirits tur- pentine, and as much alum as can be dissolved in the same. Pulverized slippery elm bark in cold water. Another. Sugar of lead water in the morning. Another. Clear cold water in the morning- 17G. Eye Wash. A TREATISE On a complication of Diseases called by the follow- ing names, Dyspepsia or Liver Complaint, Bilious or Nervo%s Affections, Extreme Debility, Weakness, dec. As these are disorders which are becoming so common among mankind, and with which, by ex- perience, I am thoroughly acquainted, it may not be thought presumptuous that I should offer a few remarks describing the manner in which the above disorders have been scientifically treated. First, when the patient feels himself disordered, and can no longer attend to his usual occupation, he is at a loss what to do. Something ails him, he knows not what and here his reason wavers. The lesson, that in early childhood was deeply instilled into his mind, by the sly and deceitful assistance of art, like a courted phantom, now lures him away with the dreadful thought that he can do nothing for himself. Divested of all reason, he thus places himself in the hands of one in whom he has been taught to place entire confidence. He makes ap- plication to some learned prescriber, and here the long and dreary performance commences, which, to record, is almost enough to make one’s heart ache. “ Well, sir, what do you think the matter is ? ” “ I don’t exactly know. How do you feel 1 ” The patient readily informs him that he is troub- led with a pain in his right or left side, feels ex- tremely weak, and is very costive. “ How is your appetite,” inquires the doctor. 142 The patient readily informs him it is very good. “ Well, sir, I will tell you what I think the mat- ter is. You are rather worn down with hard work ; intense thinking, or some over exertion, has brought you where you now are ; but I can give you some- thing which will get you about again directly, if you will follow my directicyis.” The patient answers,—“ I am willing to try any- thing which you think may help me.” The poor man goes on, following closely the di- rections of his prescriber, for one, two or three weeks, and perhaps months, at the end of which time he feels no better. He informs his adviser of his thoughts. “ I am astonished,” says the doctor, “ if you will continue to follow my directions a short time lon- ger, I will make a well person of you.” “ No, sir, I think your medicine does me no good. I am willing to pay you for what you have done, and I want the privilege of trying some other per- son.” Here the scientific man, finding his labors at a close, presents his bill, which perhaps amounts to twenty-five dollars ! The poor man pays for this lesson with regret and sorrow. His health is worse, his money is gone, and he is still in ignorance. He has learned nothing; what has been done to him he does not know, but this lesson is not sufficient to bring him to his reason. The thought remains still in his breast, that he can do nothing for himself. This is a lesson that. was early taught him, and is hard to be forgotten. He perhaps now hears of a physician who lives at a great distance, who is very skilful in such complaints. Without even a solita- ry trial on himself, he prepares for his anxious jour- ney, with a tearful eye. He now takes leave of his FAMILY INSTRUCTER. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 143 family, with those heart-rending pangs, that a per- son of feeling must experience. Till at last, allured by the pleasing thought that he is on the road to health, which his fancy paints to him in colors so bright that nothing can fade them, he arrives at the stately mansion, and makes known his business. He is informed that he is in a bad situation, and has badly dealt with. “What course have you pursued,” inquires the doctor. The man tells as near as he can. “Well, sir, I wonder you are alive. The course you have pursued was entirely wrong. You have taken medicine enough to kill you. You don’t need but a little medicine, your diet has got to do the cure, or at least the main part of it.” He goes on, and prescribes accordingly. “ Here, sir, I want you to follow these directions three weeks, and then come and see me again.” Reader, I will not attempt to describe here all that would naturally occur through this long and dreary course. Suffice it to say, that after follow- ing close the directions of this great oracle of Epi- daurus, for a long time, the man grows still worse. His countenance, his gait and complexion, all an- nounce it to him in language not to be' mistaken, for disease is a cloak you cannot carry unseen. Thousands have run the gauntlet in this manner, and followed close the directions of all remedies which doctors are in the habit of prescribing, com- mencing with vermifuges, mercurial and mineral purges, next change of air, from cold to hot, coun- try amusement and exercise, followed up by all sorts of nostrums, change of climate from cold to hot all to no purpose, only to rob the poor sufferer of his money. Next comes diet in a coarse shape. 144 Here, kind reader, I want you to bear in mind that the man is only worn down with hard work. Close application to study, or a long- train of over exertions, in some shape or other, was all that ailed the man, in the first beginning of his trouble, which a very little attention paid to himself, would have corrected. I shall not here attempt to describe what thousands have suffered while laboring under the above complaints, for imagination will depict what language cannot express. It is thought that a person who feels most indif- ferent towards an object, is in the best situation to form a true estimate of its value. I differ in senti- ment with those who hold this argument. We must feel interested in an object, either directly or indirectly, in order to call forth our attention to- wards it. If we feel indifferent towards an object, we pay little or no attention to it, and of course are ignorant respecting it. A person who has no principle of humanity or compassion, may hear of the exercise of cruelty. It is a report which finds no place in his feelings ; he is indifferent as to its existence. Thus we readily see that such a person would be incompetent to judge concerning the mer- its of the report. Kind reader, having a mind of sensibility, I trust these masters will have their due operation on your feelings; and, under these considerations, I wish to make one remark, which it is hard for me to pass over without an explana- tion. Who of you, my dear friends, are so desti- tute of reason that if you had a horse that was worn down by constant labor and hard driving, that you would not know better than to give him, as often as two or three times in a week, heavy doses of poisonous and powerful cathartics, and restrict him to a rye straw and brand diet, with but very FAMILY INSTRUCTED FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. 145 little drink. You would readily see this treatment would kill your faithful animal. No doubt you set considerable by him, but do you not set more by your own life ? Why then sutler that to be done to yourself which you can easily see would destroy your faithful beast. It is an old saying, such a person is destitute of reason. Here again I differ with those who make use of this language. The person is not destitute of reason, but his reason has been blindfolded ever since he was born, and thus it is that he is not aware of it. If a person would use all their exertions to shake off the garb that had shielded their reason, instead of running the gauntlet, they would not only find themselves the gainers by such exertions, but would likewise discover the futility of the treat- ment which they had been taught to revere. Every man can in these cases be his own physician. He can prescribe for and practice on himself at a better advantage than any one can do it for him. When he is in health he trusts no one to tell him what he shall eat or drink, nor at what hour he wants it, or how it sets on his stomach. All this he knows without the advice of any one. What, then, I ask, in the name of reason, hinders a person from know- ing this, when he is attacked with any of the before mentioned disorders. The minute disease takes hold, his reason stands behind the curtain and will guide him no further. He now is a fit subject to be advised by any one. Whatever he is told by his advisers .that he must eat or drink, has to be used, although perhaps it is something he never tasted before in his life, and would not agree with him when in health. Thus he is duped and shifted from one thing to another, like the old man in the fable, and will be likely to succeed as he did, so 146 long as he depends upon others to tell him what he should know for himself. A person that has any reason, which is not hound up in prejudice, must know that bran bread is bad for a person who is costive, which is generally the case with the dyspeptic. But this is the diet usu- ally prescribed in such cases. 1 never knew a person to grow fat by starving, nor live any longer for stuffing, but whatever it takes to support our nature, that nature ought to have for its support; and that kind of food which is the easiest digested, and the most nourishing, prepared in such a manner as to need the least physic, must of course be the best for all the above disorders ; and for drink, use poplar bark steeped in water, or a tea made of the herbs of snakeshead or bitter root, or some other physicing herb, to keep the bowels loose, without the expense of using poisonous cathartics; and eat such food as will set the best on your stomach. If one kind don’t set well, try another; and by so doing you will find that which will suit you the best, and then be sure not to alter it, on any account, until you have suf- ficiently recovered to eat any kind of food ; which result you will undoubtedly arrive at, after first making up your mind to prescribe for and practice on yourself. The nefarious practice of starving a person to cure such disorders, is like the story of an old man who was disturbed by the sound of a cricket in his chimney, and for the sake of killing the cricket tore down the chimney. FAMILY INSTRUCTS R. NEW IDEAS, In Regard to a Person ever Melting in Hot Weather. How often do we hear it remarked, even by the learned doctors, that such a person has melted him- self. Now this idea is entirely irrational and un- founded. It would be nearer the truth if he should say that such a one had cooled himself. This I will endeavor to prove to any reasonable man’s satis- faction. in as concise a manner as possible, or any one who doubts the fact, may prove it on himself, by observing the situation he is in, when, as it is termed, he is “ almost melted.” Any of you, my kind readers, will find, by placing your hand on your bowels at the time you sweat profusely, and as you wrould call it, are about melted to death, that your stomach and bowrels are as cold as mar- ble. Nowr if you was melting, wrould this be the case 1 No. But this is not enough, perhaps, to satisfy you on the subject. I will, therefore, men- tion one thing more as a proof of what has been stated. If a person is in danger of being melted, he certainly ought to have nothing of a warming nature given him, for that would only increase his danger. Cool drink would be more safe for a pa- tient in such a case. You have doubtless seen those persons who were melted, as it is called, to such a degree as to cause the swreat to dry up and a total coldness pervade the whole system. This coldness on the surface could never be produced in 148 hot weather, by any other means than by a lack of inward heat, for so long as there is fire in a stove, sufficient to melt down the oven bottom, it is im- possible for the outside of it to feel cold; but when the fire is all extinguished, a total coldness must pervade. So it is when a person becomes cold in hot weather. The heat is all gone from its internal parts, and all the way you can raise him, is to ad- minister something of a hot and stimulating nature; and thus you raise the heat again, until you warm his stomach and bowels sufficient to cause the sweat to start profusely, and you will readily find the man is not melted. The cause of all this diffi- culty arose from too free a perspiration, and by drinking cold water. The heat and steam went from him by perspiration and otherwise, so fast, that nature could not support an internal warmth sufficient for the maintenance of life; and this is the case when a person dies by drinking cold water. It drives out the inward heat; but if he takes a swallow of something of a warming nature, before taking the cold draught, so as to guard the stomach, there will be no bad effects, unless he drinks enough to overpower the inward heat. This is the reason ginger and water is better than clear water. It helps to keep up an equilibrium of heat through the system. You will all readily see that such warm and stimulating treatment could never be needed where a person was in danger of melting. It is strange that any man who has studied every language, and spent his whole life in finding out the cause of diseases, should labor under such a mis- take, as to say a person is melted, when in fact, his bowels are as cold as marble, and his own manage- ment on the person is sufficient to prove the error, for he is sure to administer warm and stimulating FAMILY INSTRUCTED FAMILY INSTRUCTED 149 medicine in all such cases, or else lose his patient* Now this treatment would be as far from right as the east is from the west, if there was heat enough in the bowels to cause melting, for if you have your fire-place so hot as to cause every thing to melt around it, you certainly would be doing wrong to throw any thing into it which would assist the heat or cause it to burn with double fury. I htve said more, perhaps, on the subject than was really necessary, and more than I should have said, had I not been aware that where truth has to meet falsehood, prejudice and deception, in the open field, it needs to be well equipped. Some may deem it almost impiety that any one should come forwatd and offer opinions so contrary to those of our most learned men. A man may be brought up at college, and spend his whole life in studying, and if he has no natural capacity of his own, he will fall far bl*low those which nature and experience have taught. Strange it is that the human mind should remain so long ignorant of truths which would be of the highest importance to all mankind; but prejudice is a hard thing to combat. I am aware of the many inconveniences which a person has to labor under, who has not been tu- tored in the halls of refined art, and should proba- bly shrink from the arduous task which I have un- dertaken, had I not known that a man’s abilities are not to be measured by the cloth which he wears, or the honorable occupation he follows, or from the acquisitions he has made in literature by means of schools and books. There have been men, from the earliest ages of the world, blessed with the sublimer powers of genius, who could, as it were, with one cofnprehen- 150 FAMILY INSTRUCTED sive view, grasp the whole circle of science, and leave learning and art to follow after them in vain. Thus we readily see that a man never can he great with- out intellect, nor can he ever more than answer the end for which he was intended. Amid great discoveries and improvements, na- ture’s medicine has been too much neglected. There is a large field for improvement, and is an object of great importance, and I am thor- oughly satisfied that every one who will examine the subject with impartiality, will readily discover the utility and superior excellence of vegetable medicine over all other, for it is not only safer, but more congenial to our nature. OS THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF DISEASES. As there never was, an.d never will be, a disease without a cause, it should be our first study to find out that cause, and mitigate it as much as possible, for it must be universally allowed that a preventive, in all cases, is better than a cure. Therefore what- ever light is thrown upon the cause, is doing more towards the total annihilation of disorders than physical skill can do by patching the diseases, with- out making even a solitary trial to find out the cause. We often hear it remarked by aged peo- ple that when they were young it was a rare thing to hear of a person’s having a fever, and more es- pecially any of those chronic diseases which at the present day are so common among us. The reason we generally hear ascribed for this great change of health, is that the country has been cleared up and more inhabitants having settled in it, a change of climate has been produced, and that change is what makes people unhealthy. I don’t pretend to say but what this statement carries along with it a small glimmering of truth, for the more unhealthy people there are in the world, the more unhealthy the climate must be, but the change of climate is not the original cause of all or any part of this;difticulty. I will endeavor to find another, and, I trust, a more rational cause than the one before mentioned, and that is, that our mode of Irving and the treat- ment we give ourselves, is the original cause of the great change which has been produced, both in re- 152 FAMILY IN9TRUCTER. gard to our health and the health of the climate in which we live. In the first place our diet is alto- gether different. Nothing can be made too rich for our palates, and thus, by stuffing and stimulating our digestive organs, we bring on a train of ner- vous disorders, which were little known when the climate was considered healthy. In the next place, we sutler ourselves to be exposed to sudden chan- ges from hot to cold, which the people of former times considered unhealthy. It is impossible for the climate to effect so sudden, and so unhealthy a change on the system of a person, as is produced by leaving a tight room—where there is a stove, and perhaps steam from boiling water, and a con- fined dead air—and going out when the w'eather is cold enough to make ice in a moment. But this is so fashionable a change, that it is hardly considered possible for it to be unhealthy. I will suppose a place where people are obliged to pass, in going from one country to another, where there is a sud- den change of air, but half as great as the one above mentioned. Even our most robust men would think it more than their constitution was able to bear, to go through with so sudden a change. It would be thought imprudent for any person to risk his health in so dangerous a spot, if it was possi- ble for him to avoid it, but fashion wears so thick a veil that it will blindfold reason entirely. Eor if a person should be taken suddenly ill, after passing this dangerous place, every one would at once as- cribe the cause of it to the sudden change of air, which he had so lately met with, but if a person happens to be ill after leaving a room hot enough to melt him, and exposing himself to the most se- vere cold, no one knows the cause. We are all at our wit’s end. What could be the cause of this 153 difficulty, we cannot tell, and finally content our- selves by saying that it was the dispensation of Providence which caused it, or else ascribe it to an unhealthy climate; but that allwise Being, who or- ders all things, has so constructed us that we are able to bear both heat and cold, without experien- cing any inconvenience from either, for the changes of seasons are so exact in their orders, and so grad- ual, from hot to cold, and cold to hot, that the change is wrought with us so by degrees, that we can bear it without any serious injury. Therefore the difficulty must certainly arise from our effect- ing changes so contrary to the order of nature. The very course, taught at the present day for the preservation of our health, is in fact the most unhealthy course we can pursue. The reader will, without doubt, remember hear- ing the general remark made by those who live in houses which are kept as hot as an oven, that some of the family are sick almost the whole time, and the rest of them are troubled with a bad cold, and wonder how it can possibly be so, when, say they, there is such a neighbor, that lives in an old cold house, and the children go half naked, and there never is any thing the matter with any of the fam- ily. They don’t stop to consider which one comes the nearest the dictates of nature. Those who live in the cold house have an even temperature of air, for it is always cold, and when they leave the house, and go out into the open air, the change is but small compared with what those undergo who leave a room with the temperature above blood heat. This is one great reason why people are not so healthy as they were when the country was first settled. One other reason which I have mentioned, is FAMILY INSTRUCTED 154 owing to our diet. Half of the diseases, which we daily hear of, the doctors will tell us is owing to a deranged state of the stomach, but leave us to guess at the cause of this derangement, but I will endeavor to show you, in as plain a manner as possible, the cause, and let each one remedy it for himself. It is caused in the same manner as derangement in the head is caused by having too many kinds of study mingled together. The head gets so confused and deranged, by such a complication of studies that it cannot form a correct idea of any of them, and consequently if the study is not abated, the derangement will grow worse and worse, until the mind is totally incapable of making any progress, even with the easiest study. I contend that mix- ing all sorts of food together in the stomach, is the true cause of its getting deranged. It cannot be otherwise, for here perhaps twenty kinds of food are taken into the stomach, all of them possessing different properties, and of course have a different effect on the system. I know of no reason why any one kind of food should not be taken into the stomach, which sets perfectly easy on it, and is well digested. We are told by physicians at the present day, that meat of any kind is bad, and will make people unhealthy, it is strange this was never known until physicians told of it. There are other articles which are made use of by them, the names of which I shall forbear stating, which are far more unhealthy than meat, and will cause the system to be deranged quicker, and when it has become out of order, the mode of correcting it is entirely wrong. If, instead of dosing ourselves off with that which our stomachs dread, after being clogged or deranged, we should eat less for a few days, we should be able to get rid of the difficulty, without the assist- FAMILY IXSTRUCTER. FAMILY IXSTRUCTER. 155 ance of medicine. This needs no recommendation, only for each one to try the experiment on them- selves. I am well convinced that overloading our stomachs is the only cause of that dreadful disor- der, called the sick-headaehe, or any of those other kinds, which thousands are daily troubled with. If any doubt what has been said on the subject, or have an appetite which cannot be governed, they must learn to bear their suffering without murmur- ing. A person may think it hard to have good vict- uals placed before them, and be restricted from eating any of it. They will therefore venture to take a piece of this and a piece of that, and run the risk of what the consequences may be. Now this is entirely wrong for any person who is sub- ject to severe turns of headache, and something they can blame no one for but themselves. This I know by experience, for it is a disorder I was troub- led with for a series of years, until by severe pain 1 was led to study into the nature and cause of the difficulty, and found it to arise wholly from gor- mandizing, and stuffing and stimulating the digest- ive organs beyond the powers of nature. We are apt to think that, if we see a person who can eat a pound of pork, and other articles with it, and then finish ouA *iikc_ a carriage, our constitutions frequently get as badly racked by those who undertake to repair our health as they do by any other cause. This I call plain language, and I trust it will be viewed as coming from a plain fellow. We want nothing but what can be discovered with the naked eye; for if objects are placed in such obscurity as to need the assistance of a telescope to be viewed, a great part of the world must forever remain igno- rant of them, or content themselves with a second- FAMILY INSTRUCTED 157 handed representation. If one half of the time and expense which has been laid out in analyzing minerals and trying to find out the properties of exotic plants had been laid out in studying human nature, and how to remedy diseases by simple veg- etable medicine, we should have less reason to com- plain of an unhealthy climate. APPENDIX. GOVERNING OR MEDIUM PRINCIPLE IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. The dictates of common sense should guide us; especially where we are most interested, for our existence. Agriculture lays the foundation for a livelihood of all the other professions. Nature and Art combine their operations together for the good of the cultivator of the soil. He who skillfully manages in good farming, finds in it a rich reward for his labors. Close observation is very necessary to make a good farmer. By it the governing prin- ciple in vegetation may be discovered. He who brings his mind to first principles, will be thinking how it is that the maple sap keeps sweet in the tree, and how' it is that the juice and growth of ever- greens are preserved. The most of us say, we never studied Chemistry, and how can we analyze vegeta- bles and combine substances'? But there is an unobserved process going on every day in the com- mon machinery for a livelihood, which teaches us Analyzation and Combination. The fire-place and the stove in their operations, make somewhat of a chemical process. Who but has observed, and can observe, the effect of fire upon the wood which is put in either of these receptacles. The fire, by a volume of smoke, throws the bulk of the wood into the air, and becomes air itself. All the hardness of the wood, or the carbon and its sap, is now gone. 160 The ashes remain; they cannot be destroyed by fire. Let water be drained through them and we have lye. By a second action of fire, in boiling the lye to an almost congealed state, and finally melt- ing it into a more refined state, we get Potash and Pearlash. The governing principle of these articles is generally known. Takc'the best products of the vegetable kingdom, such as good rye and wheat flour, and let either of these be kneaded into dough. After the ferment has taken place, if it is not baked, an acidity is soon created in it. Now when this has taken place, the lady or cook has learned (what the farmer needs to learn) to infuse an alkali made of salmratus, or pearlash, &c., this radical or gov- erning principle, through the dough. When this is done, the acidity will be thrown out, and the dough very nearly be restored to its first state. This gives us to see its governing influence in ob- viating the sourness of the dough. The sugar manufacturer has also observed the operations of this governing principle. He extracts the sap from the maple, but if by chance it remains too long in a receptacle before it is boiled to the consistence of molasses, it will get soured. But if it so happens that it gets an acidity, he, like the epicure, or cook, understands the remedy. He throws in some of this alkali principle into his sap or syrup, and re- stores it again to its first state, very nearly as it was in the tree. Now this governing principle we find to exist in the vegetable called the maple tree, primarily, keeping it in a vegetative state. This principle of alkali, cannot be thrown into the air by fire or water, or be changed in its nature by their effects. The operations which have been al- ready illustrated, are but samples of the most part of the vegetable kingdom. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 161 Fabrication of Manures. Much has been said and printed upon this sub- ject. But the most of it is above the plain farmer language. Doct. Dana’s Muck Manual would do well for the author, and men like him well versed in Chemistry. Bomer’s patented receipt for manure making, with its irregular tables, requiring double the ingredient for the lye which is needed, its many obscure words, terms, and phrases, hardly seems to be what is wanted among the agricultural community. People dearly love to understand what they read, especially farmers, if it is agreeable to the dictates of common sense. I have been treating in the former section, upon the governing principle in the Vegetable Kingdom. And if I have succeeded to give the proper view of it, we learn that thw there. A few long rooted weeds and wild grafts grow to some extent. The manufacture and transportation of this acid and stagnant matter to barren soils, from which much of it has come, will eventually make it valu- able. Manures and amendments prepared in this way, by a compact of the articles, and by a lye, will not deteriorate, or lose their strength, like cattle manure, when exposed to the weather. In manuring a Held with manure so exposed to the weather, and which becomes so unequal in its parts, makes quite a difference with the crop. Manure made in the way I have described, would be calcu- lated to make the crop alike in all parts of the field. This may be called its first advantage. 2d. The governing principle of which I have spo- ken, that exists in the vegetable kingdom, is found here, also, to predominate, in making vegetable manure. The lye keeps them from souring and moulding, &c., and in a proper state to nourish the plant. 3d. If a farmer wishes to obviate the weeds from his fields, aifd the foul trash, he can do so. If he chooses to ferment all his barnyard manure, he can. All the lye he makes in the manner described, and it should have strength enough in general to be pretty sensitive to the human parts, will but make the manure the better. The ferment of the heap, by this lye, will destroy the seed, or germs of weeds. If he wishes, he can augment his manure from the barnyard, by putting in turf, bogs, muck, leaves from the woodlands, weeds of all kinds, rasp- berry, and brier bush. 166 4th. A fourth advantage in making manure in this manner is, a farmer can mak$ it when it shall best suit his convenience. But still, j£ he wishes to use vegetables, weeds, and the like,*ey are best when green. 5th. Another advantage in this manner of making manure, may well be given. The lye being satura- ted through the heap, prevents it being devoured by worms, and other insects. An ox drops his dung upon a meadow ; in a few days it breeds its own devourers, who take the most part, and the rest is dried into a crisp by the sun. Had this been taken wrhen first dropped, and mixed with a proper portion of earth, and then saturated with alkali, it wmuld have manured ten times its area richly. It would seem that another advantage is gained; but for brevity’s sake, I have included it here, which is its effect to destroy insects in the earth. Where the plant has this manure for its basis, you will find it to be much less disturbed at its roots with insects, than those plants wdiich are without manure of this kind—it feeds and guards the plant at the proper time. In the very season of its feebleness, it is guarded and sustained. The nursing of a plant is like the nursing of a young calf or lamb. In their first stages of existence, give them head speed, by giving the proper basis to the root. Many have manured in the hill, as has been the old fashion, from which we have the more often heard the worms had eat up the corn. The best way in general is to spread the manure over the whole ground, and plow it in immediately. In this manner the manuring qualities are kept from es- caping, and its worth realized. The profits which arise from well manured lands, are very great. About the same labor, and sometimes more, is re- FAMILY INSTRUCTKR. FAMILY INSTRUCTED 167 quired upon an acre which will not produce more than ten or fifteen bushels, as one which has a basis which will produce from 50 to 75 and even 100 bushels, or sometimes more than the last mentioned number of bushels. Agriculture and Horticulture are becoming la- bored topics, upon which quite a number of very useful reports have been made of late to the Patent Office of the United States. These have been em- bodied in bound volumes; and by members of Congress and others, sent out among the people. From which I now make a few short extracts upon the nature of potatoes, for the benefit of such as have not had an opportunity to examine the Patent Reports. The first here given, however, is from the “Transactions of the New York State Agricul- tural Society Failure of new varieties produced from the seed. “ This very strong and conclusive proof of the diminished energy of the potato has received no new and direct proof from the cultivation of the past year. But it has brought to light an indirect proof of great importance. A friend of mine re- ceived, on the 27th of April last, three potatoes from Bogota, the capital of New Grenada, South Ajnerica, a country whose elevation is from 8000 to 13,000 feet above the sea, and situated almost immediately under the equator. These potatoes were in a rich, moist, clay soil, not the best perhaps to promote their naturalization. They grew finely, exhibited enormous vines, with longer, stronger, and more numerous roots, stems, and tubers, than I ever before witnessed. The last of September, 27th, found them in full vigor of growth, and cov- 168 ered with fruit, and a number of flowers. Of the fruit, twenty-five balls were gathered, while numbers were known to have been destroyed. The tubers, it must be confessed, were small, nearly un- eatable. These plants perfectly escaped disease. Now is there not confident room for hope that the seed balls of these potatoes, will form the basis of new and strong varieties? Our old existing kinds, from the feebleness of their constitutional powers, are incapable of producing, at least not until after a long series of production and reproduction, under the most careful culture.” FAMILY INSTRUOTER. “In regard to the cultivation of potatoes, a few remarks are deemed appropriate, founded alike on experience and scientific research. There is no closer observer of natural phenomena in western New York, than Mr. John J. Thomas, who says: ‘ The average yield of potatoes has diminished of late years, independently of rot, from unknown causes, and rarely exceeds 100 bushels per acre.’ For ten years the writer has believed and said on all proper occasions, that the robbing of the soil of its potash and other elements indispensable to the healthy organization of potatoes, has tended power- fully both to diminish the crop, and impair the con- titutional vigor of the plant. A writer in the Patent Office Report for 1845, (in which the potato malady alone fills some two hundred pages,) over the sig- nature of ‘ Chemico,’ says : ‘ Dr. Lee, a scientific gentleman of New York, who is at present engaged by the New York State Agricultural Society to visit every county in that State, and deliver lectures on agricultural chemistry, in a letter to the editor From the Patent Office Report, 1849-50. of the Albany Cultivator, remarks : ‘ More than one-half of the ashes of potatoes is pure potash. A sugar maple, a grape vine, a potatoe plant, and an apple tree, need a soil that abounds in potash. In every town I have found scientific farmers, who, by the use of vnleached ashes, lime, and plaster, in equal parts, and placed in the hill with the seed, and on the hill as soon as the tops were well grown, have wholly escaped the potato rot, and harvested for several years from 500 to GOO bushels per acre/ Having found from personal experience that this treatment, even on good sed loam, and on new ground with an abundance of rotting forest leaves, was highly beneficial, we had before recom- mended it.” FAMILY INSTRUCTEK 169 Root Crops. The communications here given, in reply to the circular, do not contain as full information on this subject as we could wish to lay before our readers ; but they will show, in some measure, the extent of root culture, and the success or failure of the pota- toe crop in different parts of the country. In Maine, as appears from the report of George W. Drisko, of Washington Co., there is an increase of 33 per cent, over the crop of 1848. Many fields entirely escaped the rot; while others were more or less affected. “ Our farmers,” says he, “ seem a good deal encouraged, and will probably, next year, plant after the old style, and to as great an extent as before the disease appeared. Planting and dig- ging early have been found the only effectual pre- ventive against the disease in years past. The av- erage produce of potatoes per acre for the last two years will not exceed 175 bushels ; price from 50 170 FAMILY INSTRUCTED to 75 cents. Little attention is paid to the culture- of other root crops, except in the garden for family use. Turnips have been grown to some extent, and are highly valued as food for sheep and cows.” In New Hampshire, different correspondents seem to agree in reporting the ravages of the po- tatoe disease as gradually decreasing. Mr. Marsh, of Sullivan Co., says: “ The crop this year has suf- fered somewhat, but the disease has been more lo- cal, and would seem to justify the hope that it will eventually disappear. I have cultivated this veg- etable extensively for the last three years, and have succeeded in growing healthy crops. I think we may safely depend upon a profitable crop by mak- ing use of dry swamp muck, together with potash, soda, lime, magnesia, and sulphuric acid; as these are the inorganic elements required by the plant to form healthy tubers.”—Mr. Iluntoon, of Unity, says : “ On old pasture land, without manure, they are found not to rot. The average produce on such land is about 100 bushels per acre; number of bushels annually raised in the State before the rot commenced, about 7,000,000. Since that time it has not exceeded 4,000,000.”—Mr. S. Hale writes us from Keene : “ The only root crops raised here for other than family use, are potatoes, carrots, tur- nips, and beets—the last two by a few farmers on- ly. Many years ago, it is said, that 600 bushels of potatoes were raised from one acre in this town ; but now the average yield varies from 100 to 300 bushels. I think them a very exhausting crop. Of carrots the quantity raised in this county is con- stantly increasing; the product being from 500 to 900 bushels per acre. I raised this year 85 bush- els from one-eighth of an acre. A neighbor of mine raised 225 bushels from one-fourth of an acre ; val- ue from 20 to 30 cents per bushel.’ 171 Mr. Samuel Wells writes from Northampton, Mass., as follows : “ The produce of potatoes has been very large this year, and mostly free from rot. In this section they are extensively grown as a field and garden crop, and fed in large quantities to stock during the winter. Turnips are raised to some ex- tent for sheep, and beets and carrots for cattle and horses. Roots are getting more into use for feed- ing to stock, and many barn cellars are now being constructed for storing them. Average yield of po- tatoes, 200 bushels; turnips, 5Q0 bushels; beets, 500, and carrots 300 bushels per acre.” From Hydepark, Vermont, Mr. Thurston writes, that potatoes have not rotted the present year.— He says : “ They can be raised here for 12£ cents per bushel, and sell readily in our factory villages for 20 cents. Swede turnips are raised to some extent as food for stock.” Mr. John G. Clarke, of South Kingston, R. I., gives us the following information on this subject: “ Potatoes have been, until lately, largely cultiva- ted in this section, but the rot has prevailed so ex- tensively that this year not more than one-fourth as many acres were planted as were five or six years ago. The disease has been most destructive near the sea, and the shores of Narragansett Bay, where the greatest quantity was formerly raised.— Many farmers there raised from two to three thou- sand bushels. The kinds mostly cultivated are the Mercer or Chenango, White and long Red. The Mercer is much esteemed, and sells at a higher price than any other kind. Two hundred bushels per acre is about the average crop. Carrots are largely cultivated. The method practised by those who grow them extensively, is to plant carrots and on- iions in alternate rows, the onions ripening and be- FAMILY INSTRUCTED 172 ing removed before the carrots require much space. It is said that as many carrots can be raised in this way as if planted alone. This method is well worth the attention of farmers, as it is confidently recom- mended by persons of experience.” In Delaware Co., N. Y., as we learn from Mr. Merreck, the ruta-baga, Norfolk turnip, and wurt- zel are successfully raised for cattle. But the de- mand for hand labor in their cultivation so far ex- ceeds that of any other crop as to prevent their be- ing extensively grown where land is so cheap and labor so dear. “ Of potatoes, the red or hemlock, and the English white, yield well, are of good qual- ity, and have most successfully resisted the rot, of late the common enemy, which has discouraged their cultivation except for table use.” Mr. Thomas writes from Wayne Co., N. Y., as follows: “With the exception of the potato, root crops are but sparingly cultivated. A few intelli- gent farmers, however, find great advantage in rais- ing ruta-bagas, carrots, and beets ; the carrots are much the best. The average yield of potatoes has diminished of late years, independent of the rot, from unknown causes, and rarely exceeds 100 bush- els per acre. They are more easily raised than ru- ta-bagas or carrots, the latter needing much more hoeing. But the amount of labor required may be much lessened by ploughing and cultivating the ground repeatedly, from early spring until seeding time, which clears the soil of weeds.” Mr. Adams, of East Bloomfield, N. Y., says:— “ Since the potato rot has prevailed, the culture of this crop has very much declined. They are now of too much value to feed to stock, or to use for distilling. Carrots are the most popular roots cul- tivated here, and are in a great measure superse- FAMILY INSTRUCTOR. -ding ruta bagas, wurtzels, and sugar beets. They are raised mostly for cattle and horses. No better food can be procured for milch cows. Horses are very fond of them, and they are considered very healthy. The cost of raising carrots depends very much upon the former culture of the land, whether clean, or full of foul seed. The best way to culti- tivate this crop is in drills 3 feet apart, and with the plants 6 inches asunder in the rows. After the first weeding the cultivator is used. When large crops are raised the expense varies from $50 to $100 per acre, and the yield from 800 to 1300 bushels. They are worth at least 12£ cents per bushel to feed to stock.” Mr. George Blight, of Germantown, Pa., prefers ruta-bagas to carrots, beets, or any other root crop. He says : “ I consider ruta-bagas the most valua- ble crop, from their requiring less labor; they can be planted as late as 15th July, the others only in spring. And besides, carrots need the most care during the wheat harvest, and are therefore a more expensive crop. Cost of raising an acre of carrots, about $50; of turnips, about $20. Ruta-bagas may be grown after oats.” From Granville, 111., Mr. Ralph Ware writes as follows : “ Root crops are but little cultivated, ex- cept potatoes. These yield on an average 200 bush- els per acre, and the cost of production is about 6 cents per bushel. They have not suffered from the rot here, except in 1848, and a little in 1849.” In Floyd Co., Ind., as we learn from Mr. Wm. Russell, the Irish potato is a very profitable crop. It produces well, and has not been materially af- fected by the disease. Cost of cultivating, about the same as Indian corn, and the average product from 150 to 200 bushels per acre. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 173 174 In Wisconsin, according to the report of Mr. Perkins, of Burlington, the crop of potatoes the last season was light, although sufficient Avere generally raised for table use. They were less affected by the rot than for several years previous. Other roots suited to the climate yield abundantly, but they require so much labor that they cannot com- pete with the coarse grains for feed. Mr. Benjamin Whitfield, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., writes thus : “ The yam is the only root crop rais- ed in this section of the country to any extent. It succeeds best on land rather sandy, and not too rich; such ground as would produce 20 to 30 bush- els of corn to the acre. Yield from 200 to 300 bushels per acre. I have tried all the root crops for cattle, and think the yam superior to any other for that purpose. They are good food for milch cows, producing a large quantity of rich milk. They should be fed early, as they are somewhat difficult to keep.” Dr. White, of Quincy, Fla., says: “ The Irish and sweet potato both do well in this climate. Average of the latter, 200 bushels per acre. Tur- nips and ruta-bagas also succeed well here, and yield abundant crops.” Mr. Wm. S. Keaghey, writes from Jasper Co., Texas, as follows: “ I3ut few Irish potatoes were planted last spring, from the difficulty of obtaining seed. They were sold then for $2,00 per bushel. What few were planted did well, and yielded a large return. Sweet potatoes are raised here equal in quality to those grown in any of the Southern States. Of all the varieties tried, the yams and red Bermudas were the best.” FAMILY INSTRUCTED FAMILY IN6TRUCTER. 175 Raising Potatoes from the Seed. We have availed ourselves of the substance of a Report made by the Hon. Charles E. Clarke, to the Jefferson Co. (N. Y.) Agricultural Society, in the fall of 1849. On the subject of the decay of trees, bulbs, tubers, and roots, Mr. Clarke says : “ It is a principle that plants, which are usually propaga- ted from the bulb, root, or tuber, lose after a time their procreative or vivifying power, and it is nec- essary to resort to the original element or seed. The hop would lose much of its strength and pro- ductiveness, except for the introduction of an occa- sional male plant. The dahlia requires to be re- newed, and it is impossible to preserve for any great length of time any particular species of apple or pear by continued engrafting. The bulb, the tuber, and the tree all grow old, and require to be renewed from the seed. This principle is striking- ly illustrated in the case of the Lombardy poplar, now in a state of decay all over the United States. This tree, from the luxuriance of its growth, the symmetry of its proportions, and the beauty of its foliage was an universal favorite, and gained the name of the ‘ tree of civilization.’ It was brought to America by the late Chancellor Livingston, about forty-five years ago, and has been propagated from cuttings alone. The female tree only was introduced, and ic now bids fair to become extinct. “ Without inquiring whether the rot which has so extensively prevailed in the potato crop is ow- ing to the fact that it is cultivated from the tuber, and not from the seed, it is true that certain varie- ties of the potato do resist the disease more than others. It is desirable to ascertain whether new varieties raised from the seed are less liable to be 176 FAMILY INSTRUCTED attacked by the disease than old, and experiments should be extensively tried, and the results careful- ly noted. “ It becomes therefore desirable to know the best mode of propagating the potato from the seed. For this purpose, select good, fair-sized, ripe potato balls, from the best varieties of potatoes, cut the balls open, and wash the pulp containing the seed in water, until the seeds are entirely separated from the pulp and perfectly clean, then strain them out of the water and dry them; examined with a mi- croscope, they have the appearance of the seeds of the summer squash. The seed should be started in a hot-bed, so that the plants will be about tnree inches high when bhe weather is so warm that there is no danger from frost. They should then be carefully transplanted into warm, rich, and mellow earth, and set in drills two and a half feet apart, and ten inches from each other in the drill. The vines of potatoes thus set by me in 1849 grew strong and thrifty, three feet in height, blossomed, and bore balls, from which I have now the seed. Many of the potatoes attained a fair size, weighing in many instances six ounces each, and were good edible potatoes. In one season I have thus obtain- ed over one hundred varieties.” Mr. Clarke adds: “ That for two successive years the potatoes raised from the seed have been in no wise affected by the rot, and if there was not a potato in America, I should not despair of having a tolerable supply of good edible potatoes the first year from the seed. The common impression that three years are necessary to propagate potatoes from the seed is erroneous, and I impute the rapid growth and large size in the instance alluded to, to the perfect mode of saving the seed, and to high and judicious cultivation. “ It is an historical fact not generally known, that in the year 1742, there was in Ireland a disease similar to that which has prevailed of late years; and that the potato crop was cut off, and great dis- tress, famine, and pestilence followed.” By the kindness of B. P. Johnson, Esq., secreta- ry of the N. Y. State Agricultural Society, we have received proofsheets of the volume of Tran- sactions of said Society now going through the press, from which we condense the following : Mr. Aaron Killam, of Mexico, N. Y., has had great suc- cess in growing tubers from the seeds in potato balls. Tubers produced from seeds gave 175 lbs. of excellent potatoes to the square rod, and 230 bushels on half acre; although an early frost killed the tops before the plants had ceased to grow. Mr. K. says: “ I ploughed the land six inches deep, planted the potatoes three inches deep, leaving the hills level with the earth; and I planted the rows three feet apart, with the hills two feet from centre to centre, making 44 hills to the square rod, and 7841 to the acre. Allowing 14 hills to the bushel, as some of mine yielded, gives 500 bushels to the acre. I fully believe, that if Iliad had seed from the balls they would have produced at least 500 bushels.’’'1 We take this occasion to repeat, what we have said elsewhere in connection with an ana- lysis of potatoes, that wood ashes, in addition to a rich mould, are exceedingly valuable as a fertilizer for this crop. FAMILY INSTRUCTER. 177 A SHORT EXPLANATION OF THS DIFFERENT CLASSES OF MEDICINES. Absorbents—Suckers up, or imbibers of moisture. Agglutinents—Uniters—-Strengthened. Antiasthmatics—Medicines good in asthma. Alesipharmics—Expellers of poison by sweat. Anody nes—Easers of pain and procurers of sleep. Antalkalines—All acids. Anthelmintics—Medicines which expel worms. Antacids—Alkalizants—absorbents—neutral salts. Antidysenterics•—Medicines good against dysentery. Antiepileptics—Remedies against the epilepsy. An tihysterics—Remedies against hysterial affections. Antiscorbutics—Medicines good for scurvy. Antiseptifs—Resisters of putrefaction. Antispasmodics—Good against spasms and convul- sions. Antivenereal—Medicines which destroy the venereal virus. Aperients—Openers ; the same as deobstruents. Aphrodisaics—Exciters of venery. Aromatics—Medicines which warm the habit. Astringents—Remedies which bind and strengthen. Attenvants—Resolvers of humors. Balsamics—Medicines which cleanse, Jical and re- store. Carminatives—Expellers of wind. Ca taplasm s—P oul tices. Cathartics—Purgatives. Caustics—Medicines which burn and consume the flesh. 180 MEDICINES. Coolers—Medicines which abate heat. Cordials—Medicines which raise the spirits. Corroborants—Strengthenof the system in gen- eral. Corrosives—Medicines which gnaw away the flesh. Demulients—Medicines which obtund acrimony. Deobstruents—Medicines which open obstructions. Detergents—Cleansers and fillers with new flesh. Diaphoretics—Promoters of insensible perspiration. Digestives—Medicines which promote maturation. Dilutents—Medicines which render the parts more fluid. Discutients—Medicines which disperse humors. Diuretics—Medicines which produce urine. Emetics—Medicines which excite vomiting. Emenagogues—Exciters of menstrual discharges. Emollients—Medicines which soften and relax. Erhines—Medicines which excite snebzing. Expectorants—Promoters of expectorations. Febrifuges—Medicines which mitigate fevers. Increpants—Medicines which thicken thcHluids. Laxatives—Gentle cathartics—emolients. Narcotics—Medicines which produce stupidity. Nervines—Remedies good in various complaints. Opiates—Medicines containing opium. Purgatives—Cathartics. Refrigerants—Remedies which cool the human body. Relaxants—Medicines which relax the parts. Resolvents—Dissipators of tumors. Stimulants—Medicines which excite the motion of the fibres. $foTOacA?c$-Medicines which strengthen the stomach.