A drink made with half a pint of hot water poured over a tablespoonful of good, home-made marmalade will often give relief in cases of neuralgia and pains in the head.
_Parsley._
Parsley is useful in cases of menstrual obstruction and diseases of the kidneys. The bruised leaves applied to the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of nursing mothers are said to cure painful lumps and threatened abscess. It may also be taken with advantage by cancerous patients. In all these cases parsley may be taken in the form of a soup, in common use among members of the Physical Regeneration Society, which consists of onions, tomatoes, celery, and parsley, stewed together in distilled water.
Dr. Fernie remarks that when uncooked parsley has been eaten to excess it has been observed to produce epilepsy in certain bodily systems. The oil of parsley has also been found useful in cases of epilepsy. This would naturally follow on the homeopathic principle of similars.
_Pear._
The pear possesses most of the virtues of the apple. But, unlike the latter, it is credited with producing a constipating effect if eaten without its skin. In an old recipe book I found the following tribute to Bergamot pears. The writer says: "I had for some years been afflicted with the usual symptoms of the stone in the bladder, when meeting with Dr. Lobb"s "Treatise of Dissolvents for the Stone and Gravel," I was induced on his recommendation to try Bergamot pears, a dozen or more every day with the rind, when in less than a week I observed a large red flake in my urine, which, on a slight touch, crumbled into the finest powder, and this was the same for several succeeding days. It is ten years since I made the experiment, and I have been quite free from any complaints of that nature ever since. The pears were of the small sort and full of knots."
_Pea Nut._
The pea nut--or monkey nut--is especially recommended as a cure for indigestion. I have not been able to find out why. As a matter of fact it is such a highly-concentrated food that, unless taken in very small quant.i.ties, it is liable to upset weak digestions. I suspect the secret to lie in the chewing. Almost any kind of nut will cure the habitual indigestion induced by "bolting" the food, if only it be chewed until it is liquid. Hard biscuits will do instead of nuts, although an uncooked food like the nut is the better. But whatever is taken must be "Fletcherised," that is, chewed and chewed and chewed until it is all reduced to liquid.
Pea nuts contain a good deal of oil, and for this reason are recommended for consumptives. They are the cheapest nuts to buy, for the reason that they are not really nuts but beans.
_Pine-apple._
Pine-apple juice is the specific for diphtheria. This seems to have been first brought to the notice of Europeans by the fact that negroes living round about the swamps of Louisiana were observed to use it with great success. A writer who records this says: "The patient should be forced to swallow the juice. This fluid is of so pungent and corrosive a nature that it cuts out the diphtheria mucous and causes it to disappear."
The above direction looks satisfactory enough on paper, and it is eminently cheering to read of how the pine-apple juice causes the diphtheria mucous to disappear, but anyone who knows anything about diphtheria knows that to "force" a diphtheria patient to swallow is more easily written about than accomplished. Fortunately I have been able to obtain the following explicit directions from an experienced nurse and mother:
The pine-apple should be cut up and well pounded in a mortar. The juice must then be pressed out and strained through well-scalded muslin. The patient"s mouth must be washed out with warm water. The juice may now be given with a silver teaspoon. It is possible that the patient may be quite unable to swallow any of it. If this be so, the juice will serve as a mouth and throat wash. It will gradually dissolve the membrane, and enable it to be sc.r.a.ped gently away with the spoon. The juice should be given, and the throat sc.r.a.ped as far down as the nurse can reach, as often as the patient can bear it. The time will come, sooner or later, when the juice is swallowed. No other food should be given. The nurse may have to work away for some hours before any juice is swallowed, but my friend a.s.sures me that if the sc.r.a.ping be done gently and skilfully, even children will bear it patiently. Only a silver or bone spoon should be used, and, needless to say, it must be well scalded in boiling water in the intervals of using.
It is a remarkable fact that while pine-apple juice exercises this remarkable corrosive power upon diseased mucous, its effect upon the most delicate, healthy membrane is absolutely harmless. I have seen sweet pine-apple juice given to six-months-old babies as a supplement to the mother"s milk, with excellent results.
Dr. Hillier, writing in the _Herald of Health_ in 1897, says "Sliced pine-apples, laid in pure honey for a day or two, when used in moderation, will relieve the human being from chronic impaction of the bowels, reestablish peristaltic motion, and induce perfect digestion."
"A slice of fresh pine-apple," writes Dr. Fernie, "is about as wise a thing as one can take by way of dessert after a substantial meal." This is because fresh pine-apple juice has been found to act upon animal food in very much the same way that the gastric juice acts within the stomach. But vegetarians should eat fresh fruit at the beginning of meals rather than at the end.
The pine-apple is useful in all ordinary cases of sore-throat.
One pine-apple of average size should yield half a pint of juice.
Tinned or cooked pine-apple is useless for curative purposes.
_Pine Kernel._
Pine kernels are recommended to those who find other nuts difficult to digest. They are the most easily digested of all the nuts. They are often used for cooking in the place of suet, being very oily.
_Plum, Prune._
The disfavour with which "stone fruits," especially plums, are generally regarded owes its being to the fact that they are too often eaten when unripe. When ripe, they are as wholesome as any other fruit. Unripe they provoke choleraic diarrhoea.
The prune, a variety of dried plum, has been recommended as a remedy against viciousness and irritability. An American doctor declares that there is a certain medicinal property in the prune which acts directly upon the nervous system, and that is where the evil pa.s.sions have their seat. He reports that he tried the experiment of including prunes in the meals of the vicious, intractable youths of a reformatory, and that by the end of a week they were peaceable as lambs. Most writers who comment on this seem to suggest that any fruit which is mildly aperient would produce the same effect. But the mother of a large family tells me that she has observed that prunes seem to possess a soothing property that is all their own.
_Prune Tea._
Prune tea is an excellent drink for irritable persons. It is made as follows: To every pint of washed prunes allow 1 quart of distilled water. Soak the prunes all night, and afterwards simmer to rags in the same water. Strain, and flavour with lemon juice if desired.
_Potato._
The potato is a cheap and homely remedy against gout, scurvy, and rickets. Dr. Lambe tells how he cured a case of scurvy solely with raw potatoes. One of the favourite dishes of that good old doctor was a salad composed of sliced raw potatoes and olive oil.
In order to preserve the medicinal properties of potatoes when cooked, they must always be steamed in their jackets. The skin may be removed before eating, but care should be taken not to allow a particle of the potato to adhere to it. The valuable potash salts chiefly lie just under the skin.
A raw potato sc.r.a.ped or powdered to a pulp is an excellent remedy for burns and scalds.
Dr. Fernie recommends the following decoction with which to bathe the swollen and inflamed joints of rheumatic sufferers. Take 1 lb.
potatoes, cut each into four, but do not peel them. Boil in 2 pints of water until stewed down to 1 pint. Strain, and use the liquid.
Eaten to excess potatoes are apt to cause dullness and laziness.
_Radish._
The radish is commonly cited as indigestible, but for all that it is commended by old writers as a potent remedy for stone. If not too old, well masticated, and eaten at the beginning of a meal, I do not think it is more indigestible than the majority of vegetables.
A syrup made with the juice expressed from pounded radishes and cane sugar is recommended for rheumatism, bronchial troubles, whooping-cough, and pustular eruptions.
Dr. Fernie notes that the black radish is especially useful against whooping-cough, probably by reason of its volatile, sulphureted oil.
"It is employed in Germany for this purpose by cutting off the top, and then making a hole within the root, which hole is filled with treacle, or honey, and allowed to stand thus for two or three days; afterwards a teaspoonful of the medicated liquid is to be given two or three times in the day, with a dessertspoonful of water, when required."
I am not acquainted with the "black radish," but mothers might do worse, in cases of whooping-cough, than give their children the juice of pounded radishes mixed with pure honey.
_Raspberry._
Raspberries are excellent against the scurvy, and, like the blackberry, good for relaxed bowels. They are a very wholesome fruit, and should be given to those who have "weak and queasy stomachs."
_Rice._
The chief medicinal value of rice lies in the quickness with which it is digested. One authority says that "it can be taken four times a day and the patient still get twenty hours" rest." It is consequently of great value in digestive and intestinal troubles. But it should be _unpolished_, otherwise it is an ill-balanced, deficient food. It should likewise be boiled in only just enough soft water to be absorbed during the cooking. One cup of rice should be put on in a double saucepan with three cups of cold water and tightly covered. When the water is all absorbed the rice will be cooked.
The large-grained, unpolished rice sold at "Food-Reform" stores at 3d.
per lb. absorbs the water and cooks much more easily than a smaller variety sold at 2d. I have found the latter most unsatisfactory.
_Rhubarb._