Home remedies

@Constance Germolene is still around - it's made by Bayer these days, although they didn't originate it. Lots of senior citizens used to smell of it - I wonder if they were carrying it round like Grandma?

In my youth I seem to recall drinking alot of Galloway's Cough Mixture - mixed with hot water. When my mother playfully asked my young brother (aged about 4 I suppose) if he could remember what breast milk tasted like, he thought for a while and then said, firmly, "Cough mixture"...

I found a tube of Germolene in my dressing table drawer the other day and I have no recollection of having bought it. My mother used to give me cough mixture called Pulmo Bailey mixed with hot water and sugar. It was horrible and when I found it many years later in a chemist's shop I read the ingredients to find that it contained codeine - unsuitable for children, I should have thought.

I still use Germolene! It's better than Savlon because it anaesthetises the area. When I was young I used to get really achey knees, and my mother used to rub wintergreen ointment on them. Dad used to wear a belladonna plaster on his 'bad back' and Mum used to swear by a potion called Indian Brandy for stomach upsets. This could be bought from chemists in England but she found it wasn't available here in Scotland where we came to live in 1960.

Marelli - Your Indian Brandy was something my Mum used, it was very similar to Dr. Collis-Browne mixture. Very soothing to an upset tummy.

Oh - I've never heard of anyone knowing about Indian Brandy, peaches41! Was it a herbal thing? I think it had to be made up at the chemist, didn't it - it wasn't on the shelves, as such?

My mum's medicine cupboard contained Fennings Fever Powders, Indian Brandy, Raspberry Vinegar, olive oil, kaolin and morphine, poultices and clove tincture, along with various bandages, an eyebath and things for removing splinters. It's a miracle we survived!

My father, a GP, did on occasion use leeches!

You can still buy Indian Brandee (as it's spelled on the bottle!) from chemists. DH swears by it for stomach upsets. We also have Kaolin & Morphine mixture for diarrhoea.

Jess bread poultices for boils and splinters (bread cumbs soaked in hot water, squeezed and applied on a clean bandage) I seem to remember.
I also remember going to school grumbling that I smelled like a dinner (goosegrease rubbed in then a layer of Thermogene, which was a Germolene pink colour, Farrow and Ball now have a paint called ointment pink, no coincidence!)
Hot toddies (no lemon) for chesty colds. Neat whisky rubbed on gums for toothache. Whisky was only used for 'medicinal' purposes!

I remember Indian Brandy! And a "Lion" ointment for boils. Why did I get boils? My Nan said it was because my blood was too rich - anyone heard that one? She always hand dried camomile flowers, and senna pods in her medicine cupboard, and Beechams' pills in a little round box.

Funny how one memory leads to another...

A kaolin poultice draws stuff out. I had a really deep and nasty splinter in my thumb. Doctor advised a kaolin poultice, wrapped in Elastoplast, to be reapplied every 24 hours. It took three days but there was the splinter, clean as a whistle, lying in the poultice. And the thumb was healing nicely. This took place 40 years ago but I have always used a kaolin poultice for splinters (and once a whitlow) with complete success. I guess the current cure is to rush off to A&E.

I should add, you heat a small amount of the kaolin in a teaspoon over a steaming kettle spout. It’s hot within seconds and you smear it onto a bit of cloth or lint and slap it on the splinter area.

My Dad - a great believer in natural medicine, long before it became fashionable - had a cure for tickly coughs. This involved cutting an onion in half, covering with brown sugar and leaving overnight. The resultant liquid we had to drink. The smell was horrible, and just smelling that 'cure' fermenting used to help me get better!!!
When I was a young child, if a tickly cough was keeping me awake at night, he would come in with a cup of warm (ionly whole milk those days), milk in which he had put some butter and then spoon feed this to me. Loved the TLC, and now we know that this was a good soother and works.

I can remember as a child my dearly loved godmother always used Vick for everthing. If you had a pain, headache a sore area, cough or cold or what ever she would always say 'put a dab of vick on it' we always use to laugh 'cos we knew what she would say!!! lol

Hot toddies definitely! I'm sure they kill all the known germs!

Genetian violet for chilblains - anyone else remember that?
I am still a great believer and user of germoline/savlon/supermarket own brand - for minor scratches, etc.
As a small child I had warts on my fingers and my Dad tied them off tightly with cotton and they eventually just fell off.

Lavender oil works well on insect bites. DH just loves Germolene. Puts it on most everything !!!

I use a neti pot, it works wonders. Only ever ever use boiled with the salt water or you risk infection in the eyes

my mum always gave us warm milk butter and honey if we were starting a cold

Anyone else get a lump of sugar soaked in vinegar as a cure for hiccups? I loved the sweet/sour taste and it seemed to work. Haven’t tried in recent years as don’t have lump sugar.