Home Remedies, Cures, Doctors and Medicine
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~Contents~
- Old Time Doctors and Old Time Cures
- Home Remedies and Home Cures
Extracted and Excerpeted from Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore, Elmer L. Smith, Applied Arts Publishers, Lebanon, Pa, 1960
The following verses are selected from H. E. Miller's long poem about the medical doctors and ures that were a part of the every day life in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country of the past. The poem was rivately printed by J. H. Redsecker in 1901 in a booklet titled, Some Doctors of the Olden Time.
OLD TIME DOCTORS AND OLD TIME CURES
When the ever-famous healing art was in its infancy, It often happened on the score of sheer conveniency, That the family doctor also doctored, family, horse and cow, For doctors were much rarer then than the rarest of them now And the system which they practiced was pure allopathy, Three lengths ahead of Hahnemann's slow homeopathy, They always rode on horseback, and gen'rally the gallop, With saddlebags and packets full of calomel and jalap. Moreover they came fully armed with "pullicans" and lance, For to cut a vein or pull a tooth they never missed a chance, With fiery mustard plasters, or with vile cantharides, Or with devil's dung and opium they gave the paient ease. If the patient was a clinic, his pulse was promptly felt, His tongue was next examined and his breath was sometimes smelt; If not in doubt on diagnose of pulse and breath and tongue, The doctor got his saddlebags and the treatment was begun. If the case was chills and fever, or of trouble in the head, The first thing to relieve it was to have the patient bled, And next to have him blistered just for counter irritation, Then twenty grains of calomel for final salivation. If the patient prayed for water to cool his parched tongue, They send and fetched the parson, quick, who prayed for him and sung; If all these didn't kill him, it was not for want of skill. Nor yet for want of medicine, for of that he had his jill. The blacksmith and the tailor and St. Crispin's cobbling snob, By turns each took his turn to do a little healing job; To let, or check, or stop the blood, or break the spell of witch, While each one had the only salve that would surely cure the itch. Each was a dental surgeon, but to tell the honest truth, It often took the "three estates" to pull an aching tooth; The tailor held the patient's head, the cobbler his feet, And the blacksmith pulled the tooth so hard he landed on his seat. 0, Vulcan, still we honor thee-to thee the fame belongs- Of improvising dentistry with hammer, punch and tongs; And now behold what better things thy follow'rs have devised. Out painless teeth in jaws and gums which they have vulcanized.
Home Remedies and Cures
Extracted and Excerpeted from Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore, Elmer L. Smith, Applied Arts Publishers, Lebanon, Pa, 1960
Tie onions on the wrist to take down a high fever .
Rub a stye with a gold wedding ring.
To cure whoping cough, obtain a piece of bread covered with apple butter from a person who has the same married surname as her maiden name.
For rheumatism wash the part of the body affected in the water in which potatoes have been boiled.
To relieve a headache a buckwheat cake placed on the head will remove pain.
To cure sore eyes, melt snow £rom the winter's first snowfall and wash eyes.
To repair a hernia get a forged nail, drive it into a piece of wood and keep the wood in a dry place.
To remove warts, cut an apple, a turnip or an onion into halves and rub the wart with the pieces and bury them under the eaves of the house.
To cure a person of Alcoholism, scrape the dirt that collects under his fingernails and put it in his whiskey.
To reduce inflammation, make a poultice of warm Cow dung. (This is also considered to make a good poultice to draw a boil to a head.)
To get rid of a corn, rub a wax candle on a corpse and then rub the same wax on the corn.
To cure piles, carry horseches.tnuts in your pockets.
Homesickness can be avoided by sewing salt and crumbs of bread into the petticoat of the female or in the seam of the suit coat of the male.
To cure a wound the afflicted person should urinate on it.
A tumor can be cured by stroking it with the right hand of a corpse.
Rub urine from a pregnant woman to gain a cure for pimples.
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