With a visit from my grandson yesterday. I was amazed at how children today get better so quickly (mostly). It got me thinking about, when we kids were ill and what we used to help the process. I remember the brown tincture of benzion, the blue iodine that sores were bathed in and the kaolin poultice to draw out infections. I don't remember taking pills. What did others use?
White Horse Oils for cramp or muscle aches. A tube of liquice tasting black ointment, in a green tube, to put on an ulcer (replaced by sugar when the black stuff was no longer available). Liquid paraffin once a week to 'clear you out'. Menthol chest rub if you had a cold. Cod liver oil pills and a spoonful of malt every day. Butter on a burn . Bandages made from torn up strips of cotton bed sheets, no sticking plasters. I survived and really do not remember being ill - other than the 2 weeks in bed for measles and chicken pox and the luxury of being given a glass of Lucozade. Dad used to get boils and Mum would make a bread poultice for them - not sure they did any good though!
My great grandfather once sliced through his foot with a scythe when out in the fields. He tore some material from his shirt tail, bound it up and then carried on working. He went by the nickname of 'toe-rag' after that.
Oh the memories! I still drink it, though usually when I'm feeling a down. Not what it was made for I know, but it helps. Maybe because it reminds me of my dear Mum.
I remember my grandfather making me a poultice of softened Sunlight soap mixed with sugar. A boil meant my dad coming at me with a hot needle Iodine, methylated spirits, a black ointment for drawing out 'stuff', cod liver oil ( I loved the stuff) Vick's Vapour Rub, lemonade and the best cure for after a bout of upset tummy.....vegemite still works.
You can still get something called Germoline, but its completely different - does not have the same nice smell. Liquid paraffin would now be called mineral oil, and is not considered a very desirable thing to be present in the diet. If the equivalent of a large spoonful was present in a person's daily food, it would probably be considered to be unfit for human consumption, or at least of very poor quality
The one and only time I was given a spoonful of cod liver oil, I promptly spat it out on the carpet.....I was given capsules after that I used to like Rose Hip Syrup and Dinniford's Gripe Water..... Ann
I remember my Mum telling me that her brother used to get boils. His father used to get a small pill bottle (the old brown glass ones) and sit it in boiling water. When the bottle was hot enough he would empty it and put the open end over the boil. As the air inside would cool down it would cause a vacuum and drain the boil. She said her brother used to almost pass out with the pain. I have suffered a Fistule. Had it surgically removed and packed every day (has to heal from the inside out). I know the pain my uncle went through .
How about this one, Sis? Gargle with salt water for a sore throat, tastes disgusting but kills the germs. I still use a lot of the old fashioned remedies as I believe they work better than todays over the counter bottled medicines.
Germoline for cuts and bruises, sulphur cream for spots. Sore throats and the like were treated with a brown concoction from the family doctor. This was made according to the maxim, the worse it tasted the more effective it was. It tasted vile but never seemed to do much good
Witch Hazel, Iodine and (God help us) Syrup o' Figs. Failing that, the Stockholm tar would come out. That was generally slapped on anything. Oh, and butter for burns, which didn't work.
My grandmother always treated our scuffs and bruises with Witch Hazel (which I love), anything more drastic with orange-flavoured aspirin, and insect bites treated with toothpaste My mum used Germolene a lot, and enjoyed preparing complicated dressings When my neighbour's children come to me crying about having fallen over I use a bit of Witch hazel (only if the skin isn't broken, but they complain about the smell); I generally find a plaster or two solves anything as if by magic I also remember calamine lotion on chicken pox, iodine once or twice, Lucozade when I had scarlet fever ...