Avoid purgatives or strong physic, as they not only do no good, but are positively hurtful. Pills may relieve for the time, but they seldom cure.
Powdered resin is the best thing to stop bleeding from cuts. After the powder is sprinkled on, wrap the wound with soft cotton cloth. As soon as the wound begins to feel feverish, keep the cloth wet with cold water.
Eggs are considered one of the best remedies for dysentery. Beaten up slightly, with or without sugar, and swallowed, they tend by their emollient qualities to lessen the inflammation of the stomach and intestines, and by forming a transient coating on those organs, enable Nature to resume her healthful sway over the diseased body. Two, or at most, three eggs per day, would be all that is required in ordinary cases; and, since the egg is not merely medicine, but food as well, the lighter the diet otherwise, and the quieter the patient is kept, the more certain and rapid is the recovery.
Hot water is better than cold for bruises. It relieves pain quickly, and by preventing congestion often keeps off the ugly black and blue mark. "Children cry for it," when they experience the relief it affords their b.u.mps and bruises.
For a sprained ankle, the whites of eggs and powdered alum made into a plaster is almost a specific.
MEDICINAL FOOD.
Spinach has a direct effect upon complaints of the kidneys; the common dandelion, used as greens, is excellent for the same trouble; asparagus purifies the blood; celery acts admirably upon the nervous system, and is a cure for rheumatism and neuralgia; tomatoes act upon the liver; beets and turnips are excellent appetizers; lettuce and cuc.u.mbers are cooling in their effects upon the system; beans are a very nutritious and strengthening vegetable; while onions, garlic, leeks, chives and shallots, all of which are similar, possess medicinal virtues of a marked character, stimulating the circulatory system, and the consequent increase of the saliva and the gastric juice promoting digestion. Red onions are an excellent diuretic, and the white ones are recommended raw as a remedy for insomnia. They are tonic, nutritious. A soup made from onions is regarded by the French as an excellent restorative in debility of the digestive organs. We might go through the entire list and find each vegetable possessing its especial mission of cure, and it will be plain to every housekeeper that a vegetable diet should be partly adopted, and will prove of great advantage to the health of the family.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
HOUSEKEEPERS" TIME-TABLE.
| MODE OF | TIME OF | TIME OF | |PREPARATION| COOKING |DIGESTION| ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | H. M. | H. M. | Apples, sour, hard |Raw | | 2 50 | Apples, sweet and mellow |Raw | | 1 50 | Asparagus |Boiled | 15 to 30| 2 30 | Beans (pod) |Boiled | 1 00 | 2 30 | Beans with green corn |Boiled | 45 | 3 45 | Beef |Roasted |[A] 25 | 3 00 | Beefsteak |Broiled | 15 | 3 00 | Beefsteak |Fried | 15 | 4 00 | Beef, salted |Boiled |[A] 35 | 4 15 | Ba.s.s, fresh |Broiled | 20 | 3 00 | Beets, young |Boiled | 2 00 | 3 45 | Beets, old |Boiled | 4 30 | 4 00 | Bread, corn |Baked | 45 | 3 15 | Bread, wheat |Baked | 1 00 | 3 30 | b.u.t.ter |Melted | | 3 30 | Cabbage |Raw | | 2 30 | Cabbage and vinegar |Raw | | 2 00 | Cabbage |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 30 | Cauliflower |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 2 30 | Cake, sponge |Baked | 45 | 2 30 | Carrot, orange |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 15 | Cheese, old |Raw | | 3 30 | Chicken |Frica.s.seed | 1 00 | 3 45 | Codfish, dry and whole |Boiled |[A] 15 | 2 00 | Custard (one quart) |Baked | 30 | 2 45 | Duck, tame |Roasted | 1 30 | 4 00 | Duck, wild |Roasted | 1 00 | 4 50 | Dumpling, apple |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 00 | Eggs, hard |Boiled | 10 | 3 30 | Eggs, soft |Boiled | 3 | 3 00 | Eggs |Fried | 5 | 3 30 | Eggs |Raw | | 2 00 | Fowls, domestic, roasted or |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 00 | Gelatine |Boiled | | 2 30 | Goose, wild |Roasted |[A] 20 | 2 30 | Lamb |Boiled |[A] 20 | 2 30 | Meat and vegetables |Hashed | 30 | 2 30 | Milk |Raw | | 2 15 | Milk |Boiled | | 2 00 | Mutton |Roast |[A] 25 | 3 15 | Mutton |Broiled | 20 | 3 00 | Onions |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 3 00 | Oysters |Roasted | | 3 15 | Oysters |Stewed | 5 | 3 30 | Parsnips |Boiled | 1 00 | 3 00 | Pigs" Feet |Soused | | 1 00 | Pork |Roast |[A] 30 | 5 15 | Pork |Boiled |[A] 25 | 4 30 | Pork, raw or |Fried | | 4 15 | Pork |Broiled | 20 | 3 15 | Potatoes |Boiled | 30 | 3 30 | Potatoes |Baked | 45 | 3 30 | Potatoes |Roasted | 45 | 2 30 | Rice |Boiled | 20 | 1 00 | Salmon, fresh |Boiled | 8 | 1 45 | Sausage |Fried | 25 | 4 00 | Sausage |Broiled | 20 | 3 30 | Soup, vegetable |Boiled | 1 00 | 4 00 | Soup, chicken |Boiled | 2 00 | 3 00 | Soup, oyster or mutton |Boiled |[B]3 30 | 3 30 | Spinach |Boiled | 1-2 00 | 2 30 | Tapioca |Boiled | 1 30 | 2 00 | Tomatoes |Fresh | 1 00 | 2 30 | Tomatoes |Canned | 30 | 2 30 | Trout, salmon, fresh, boiled or|Fried | 30 | 1 30 | Turkey, boiled or |Roasted |[B] 20 | 2 30 | Turnips |Boiled | 45 | 3 30 | Veal |Broiled | 20 | 4 00 | Venison steak |Broiled | 20 | 1 35 |
[Footnote A: Minutes to the pound.]
[Footnote B: Mutton soup.]
The time given is the general average; the time will vary slightly with the quality of the article.
MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES.
USES OF AMMONIA.
All housekeepers should keep a bottle of liquid ammonia, as it is the most powerful and useful agent for cleaning silks, stuffs and hats, in fact cleans everything it touches. A few drops of ammonia in water will take off grease from dishes, pans, etc., and does not injure the hands as much as the use of soda and strong chemical soaps. A spoonful in a quart of warm water for cleaning paint makes it look like new, and so with everything that needs cleaning.
Spots on towels and hosiery will disappear with little trouble if a little ammonia is put into enough water to soak the articles, and they are left in it an hour or two before washing; and if a cupful is put into the water in which clothes are soaked the night before washing, the ease with which the articles can be washed, and their great whiteness and clearness when dried, will be very gratifying.
Remembering the small sum paid for three quarts of ammonia of common strength, one can easily see that no bleaching preparation can be more cheaply obtained.
No articles in kitchen use are so likely to be neglected and abused as the dish-cloth and dish-towels; and in washing these, ammonia, if properly used, is a greater comfort than anywhere else. Put a teaspoonful into the water in which these cloths are, or should be, washed everyday; rub soap on the towels. Put them in the water; let them stand half an hour or so; then rub them out thoroughly, rinse faithfully, and dry outdoors in clear air and sun, and dish-cloths and towels need never look gray and dingy--a perpetual discomfort to all housekeepers.
A dark carpet often looks dusty soon after it has been swept, and you know it does not need sweeping again; so wet a cloth or a sponge, wring it almost dry, and wipe off the dust. A few drops of ammonia in the water will brighten the colors.
For cleaning hair-brushes it is excellent; put a tablespoonful into the water, having it only tepid, and dip up and down until clean; then dry with the brushes down and they will be like new ones.
When employed in washing anything that is not especially soiled, use the waste water afterward for the house plants that are taken down from their usual position and immersed in the tub of water. Ammonia is a fertilizer, and helps to keep healthy the plants it nourishes. In every way, in fact, ammonia is the housekeeper"s friend.
Ammonia is not only useful for cleaning, but as a household medicine.
Half a teaspoonful taken in half a tumbler of water is far better for faintness than alcoholic stimulants. In the Temperance Hospital in London, it is used with the best results. It was used freely by Lieutenant Greely"s Arctic party for keeping up circulation. It is a relief in nervousness, headache and heart disturbances.
TO DESTROY INSECTS AND VERMIN.
Dissolve two pounds of alum in three or four quarts of water. Let it remain over night till all the alum is dissolved. Then with a brush, apply boiling hot to every joint or crevice in the closet or shelves where croton bugs, ants, c.o.c.kroaches, etc., intrude; also to the joints and crevices of bedsteads, as bed bugs dislike it as much as croton bugs, roaches, or ants. Brush all the cracks in the floor and mop-boards. Keep it boiling hot while using.
To keep woolens and furs from moths, be sure that none are in the articles when they are put away; then take a piece of strong brown paper, with not a hole through which even a pin can enter. Put the article in it with several lumps of gum camphor between the folds; place this in a close box or trunk. Cover every joint with paper. A piece of cotton cloth, if thick and firm, will answer. Wherever a knitting-needle can pa.s.s, the parent moth can enter.
Place pieces of camphor, cedar-wood, Russia leather, tobacco-leaves, whole cloves, or anything strongly aromatic, in the drawers or boxes where furs and other things to be preserved from moths are kept and they will never be harmed. Mice never get into drawers or trunks where gum camphor is placed.
_Another Recipe_.--Mix half a pint of alcohol, the same quant.i.ty of turpentine and two ounces of camphor. Keep in a stone bottle and shake well before using. The clothes or furs are to be wrapped in linen, and crumbled-up pieces of blotting-paper dipped in the liquid to be placed in the box with them, so that it smells strong. This requires renewing but once a year.
Another authority says that a positive, sure recipe is this: Mix equal quant.i.ties of pulverized borax, camphor gum and saltpetre together, making a powder. Sprinkle it dry under the edges of carpets, in drawers, trunks, etc., etc. It will also keep out all kinds of insects, if plentifully used. If the housekeeper will begin at the top of her house with a powder bellows and a large quant.i.ty of this fresh powder, and puff it thoroughly into every crack and crevice, whether or not there are croton bugs in them, to the very bottom of her house, special attention being paid to old furniture, closets, and wherever croton water is introduced, she will be freed from these torments. The operation may require a repet.i.tion, but the end is success.
MOTHS IN CARPETS.
If you fear that they are at work at the edge of the carpet, it will sometimes suffice to lay a wet towel, and press a hot flat-iron over it; but the best way is to take the carpet up, and clean it, and give a good deal of attention to the floor. Look in the cracks, and if you discover signs of moths, wash the floor with benzine, and scatter red pepper on it before putting the carpet lining down.
Heavy carpets sometimes do not require taking up every year, unless in constant use. Take out the tacks from these, fold the carpets back, wash the floor in strong suds with a tablespoonful of borax dissolved in it. Dash with insect powder, or lay with tobacco leaves along the edge, and re-tack. Or use turpentine, the enemy of buffalo moths, carpet worms and other insects that injure and destroy carpets. Mix the turpentine with pure water in the proportion of three tablespoonfuls to three quarts of water, and then after the carpet has been well swept, go over each breadth carefully with a sponge dipped in the solution and wrung nearly dry. Change the water as often as it becomes dirty. The carpet will be nicely cleaned as well as disinfected. All moths can be kept away and the eggs destroyed by this means. Spots may be renovated by the use of ox-gall or ammonia and water.
A good way to brighten a carpet is to put half a tumbler of spirits of turpentine in a basin of water, and dip your broom in it and sweep over the carpet once or twice and it will restore the color and brighten it up until you would think it new. Another good way to clean old carpets is to rub them over with meal; just dampen it a very little and rub the carpet with it and when perfectly dry, sweep over with meal. After a carpet is thoroughly swept, rub it with a cloth dipped in water and ammonia; it will brighten the colors and make it look like new.
TO TAKE OUT MACHINE GREASE.
Cold water, a tablespoonful of ammonia and soap, will take out machine grease where other means would not answer on account of colors running, etc.
TO WASH FLANNELS.
The first thing to consider in washing flannels so that they retain their size, is that the articles be _washed_ and _rinsed_ in water of the _same temperature_, that is, about as warm as the hands can bear, and not allowed to cool between. The water should be a strong suds.
Bub through two soapy waters; wring them out, and put into plenty of clear, clean, warm water to rinse. Then into another of the same temperature, blued a little. Wring, shake them well and hang up. Do not take out of this warm water and hang out in a freezing air, as that certainly tends to shrink them. It is better to dry them in the house, unless the sun shines. They should dry _quickly_. Colored flannels should never be washed in the same water after white clothes, or they will be covered, when dry, with lint; better be washed in a water for themselves. In washing worsteds, such as merino dress goods, pursue the same course, only do not wring them hard; shake, hang them up and let drain. While a little damp, bring in and press smoothly on the wrong side with as hot an iron as can be used without scorching the goods.
Flannels that have become yellow from being badly washed, may be nicely whitened by soaking them two or three hours in a lather made of one-quarter of a pound of soft soap, two tablespoonfuls of powdered borax and two tablespoonfuls of carbonate of ammonia, dissolved in five or six gallons of water.
TO STARCH, FOLD AND IRON SHIRTS.
To three tablespoonfuls of dry, fine starch allow a quart of water.
First wet the starch smooth in a little cold water in a tin pan, put into it a little pinch of salt and a piece of enamel, or shirt polish the size of a bean, or a piece of clean tallow, or a piece of b.u.t.ter the size of a cranberry; pour over this a quart of _boiling_ water, stirring rapidly, placing it over the fire. Cook until clear, then remove it from the fire and set the pan in another of warm water to keep the starch warm.
Turn the shirt wrong side out and dip the bosom in the hot starch as warm as the hands can bear the heat; rub the starch evenly through the linen, saturating it thoroughly; wring hard to make dry as possible.
Starch the collar and wristbands the same way, then hang them out to dry. Three hours before ironing them, wet the bosom and cuffs in cold water, wring out, shake and fold, roll up tightly, wrap in a towel and let remain two or three hours.
The back of the shirt should be ironed first by doubling it lengthwise through the centre, the wristbands may be ironed next, and both sides of the sleeves, then the collar band; now place a bosom board under the bosom and with a fresh clean napkin dampened a little, rub the bosom from the top toward the bottom, arranging and smoothing each plait neatly; then with a smooth, moderately-hot flat-iron, begin ironing from the top downward, pressing hard until the bosom becomes smooth, dry and glossy. Remove the bosom board and iron the front, fold both sides of the shirt towards the centre of the back, fold together below the bosom and hang on the bars to air.