Home remedies

My grandad used to rub yellow sulphur powder in my hair because I had bad dandruff as a child how weird! I just googled it and the advice still holds.

No anno I remember bread poultices and kaolin poultices very well. My parents didn't use them but I was introduced to them at the riding stables where I spent all my time. The owner of the stables (my mentor) showed me how to use them on horses and she used them on me a time or two when I got any kind of dog bite or injury around the stables. (Yes I know antibiotics had been invented then but hey ho). They are absolutely brilliant at drawing out infection. She also used goose grease on a bad chest.

I have used a bread poultice on minor wounds quite recently - I just put bread on a clean cloth then pour boiling water onto it and put it on the wound with another clean cloth or bandage on top. My daughter thinks I'm bonkers but they really are fantastic.

For bruises, my Mum put on tincture of arnica. I seem to bruise more easily these days and have recently bought arnica cream - it's amazing - really works. Do you remember the dreaded chilblains? I can't remember what was put on them, but it certainly didn't work!

Sulphur powder is the 'brimstone' in 'brimstone and treacle' which was one of my mother's many remedies for constipation. It was disgusting. My grandmother almost always smelt of something called 'wintergreen' which was a liniment for her lumbago. May have also been used for horses!

I've got a bottle of 'tincture of arnica' in my medicine cabinet. The bottle looks really old. Someone brought it into work for disposal but I was so fascinated by it I couldn't throw it away. It smells gorgeous [probably the acohol]but big sign on the front says 'external use only'. My mum was always putting bread poultices on me. And, when she had a headache [which seemed to be most of the time] I'm sure she used to put a rag soaked in vinegar on her forehead.

I remember kaolin poultices, my mother used them if we got very deep cuts or grazes to 'draw out the poison'. I also had a poultice of some sort applied, in hospital, to an infected wound after having my appendix removed. That was in 1976.

Gosh fascinating. I have a vague memory of a tin of kaolin poultice I think.
I guess they might help by increasing blood flow to an infected area - this would bring additional immune cells and proteins with it - exaggerating the positive effects of inflammation. So could work with a bacterial infection near the surface of the skin - but probably not with a bad chest - the heat would not penetrate into the lungs!
I wonder if they might be useful for things like cellulitis?
Mystified as to the bread though. Cold wet bread? Or hot wet bread is that it?

Worked in pharmacy most of my early teenage /adult years kaolin poultice boiled as suggested.
Magnesium sulphate paste to draw out whit lows and infections.
kaolin poultices,and capsicum tissue,where common place in my early years.
As where douches and things that are banned now,my innocence was definitely compromised

littlenell I remember capsicum tissue.
Boots used to sell capsicum wadding to put on your chest at night.
Good stuff it was.
Wonder if Boots still sell it.

Jess I can't pretend to know the technicalities of how poultices worked but my impression was that as you say, the warmth increased the blood flow but also the moisture prevented the wounds closing up thereby allowing all sorts of pus to get out. I remember using one on a horse's leg where the wound had started to heal but there was a lot of inflammation and heat. The poultice softened the scab and the pus was drawn out onto the cloth - voila! The leg healed beautifully. Far cheaper than vets' bills.

We used to make Kaolin poultices on the ward in the 60s. My father was prone to bad chests and when he had pleurisy he was prescribed poultices. Muslin nappies were used because there were plenty at home Mum had last baby at 47. We stood the tin of kaolin in boiling water and then spread it on the muslin, added a thicker pad of cotton and then bandaged the lot round the chest. Placebo effect I think, I really don't think it healed anything.

Gargling with sea salt in hot water works wonders for sore throats as does using a "Neti Pot"!! Look it up on Amazon...you can buy these odd little containers very cheaply.

If you get the first signs of a cold, you tip the "NetiPot" (with warm salt water inside it) up your nostrils......and then afterwards gargle with hot as you can bear it, salt water.......works nearly every time in stopping the cold from spreading to your chest. You can watch people using these neti pots on You tube .......they really do flush out the nostrils!!

I use this method on all the family and they all now swear by it!

Ah that makes sense nighowl a bit like fancy dressings for leg ulcers - stop them scabbing in an unhelpful way.
I guess the sad truth was there was nothing you could do for chest infections other than rest and cross your fingers. But the poultices may well have worked on near-the-skin infections so they thought them worth a try on the poor chests.
I wonder if poultices would be good for persistent MRSA infections.
Re arnica - there is a lot of difference between a herbal remedy containing arnica which is reputedly good for bruising. And homeopathic arnica which contains no arnica. Just sugar and hocus pocus.

My mum used to cut a strip of brown paper, soak it in vinegar, and place it on our foreheads if we got a headache. Don't know if it worked, but it left a brown stripe on the forehead!

For any stomach problems we had Dr Collis-Browne's Mixture, consisting of peppermint oil and morphine, it was lovely and soothing and worked every time. I still use it to this day, but they have taken nearly all the morphine out so it's not half so effective lol!

For a sore toe with a fungus infection Vick's Vapour Rub is a surprising remedy, and it really works.

During the war most of us kids got styes, and mum's remedy was to rub it with her wedding ring.....huh???

I remember children seen into their undies for the winter with brown paper and goose grease underneath.
An old sock tied round the throat for a sore throat.

gallywas it wintergreen?

We used to have our wheezy chests covered with Themogene wadding which was like pink cotton wool impregnated with something that smelt like Vick. Nowadays when I have a cold with an irritating cough, my preferred solution is sipping iced water. Rightly or wrongly, I believe that the traditionally prescribed hot liquid, though comforting, actually increases the inflammation in the throat whereas cold water calms it down. Sneer if you like, but try it.

Correction - Thermogene.

My mother used wintergreen for strains and sprains, not chilblains to which I was prone. We used to buy some kind of chilblain ointment, but my aunt swore that the only way to relieve the itching and pain was to soak the affected toes in pee.

My dad used Grasshopper Ointment on splinters. It was a disgusting green goo, but it worked

mashed up grasshoppers?

love this thread! I saw a wintergreen plant in the garden centre yesterday and nearly bought it so I could inflict it on the family when they get ill. The smell reminded me of the tin of Germolene my granny used to carry in her hand bag at all times and was used on everything.
Our two main home remedies these days are mint tea for upset stomachs or gargling with citricidal - grapefruit seed drops - for sore throats.
I used to make the children gargle with cider vinegar in water for sore throats - a tbspn in a glassful, then gargle on the hour every hour for as long as you can stand it. Seems to work.

On the subject of Kaolin, I worked for about a year in Cornwall in the 60s, at the Port of Par, which shipped China Clay (Kaolin) all over the place.

Whenever one of the locals had an upset stomach, they would just gnaw on a lump of the dried clay - it settled things very quickly!

I had pneumonia as a 6-month old baby and ever thereafter was a "chesty child". Antibiotics only became widely prescribed in the late 1940s so I was subjected to most of the home remedies listed here! Including kaolin poultices on my chest and vinegar cloths on my head.

I also had steam kettles for the wheezing and mustard baths -just mustard powder put in the bath water. I never knew what that was supposed to do!

OO - as in kaolin and morphine tummy medicine! Calcium something isnt it.
Yes I have read of mustard baths - in books from pre-war era. Interesting.
Steam for wheezy chests is still a good thing isnt it - loosens the phlegm etc. You can buy plug in humidifiers I think.
Just remembered my nana talking about having earache as a child and having her own wee poured into her ear as an attempted remedy.