What to do in the Absence of a Doctor
Folk Remedies and Cures in 1916
I recently picked up a copy of Library of Health: Complete Guide to Prevention and Cure of Disease. Published by the America Health Society in 1916, it was 20 books compiled into a single volume nearly 1800 pages long. B. Frank Scholl, Ph.G., M.D. edited the reference book with the assistance of two other medical doctors and a slew of medical specialists.
I opened the reference to Book X: What to do in the Absence of a Doctor. The section is subtitled Home Administration of Medicines. This section offers folk remedies and cures when a doctor isn’t available. Here are just a few of the afflictions and the remedies:
Alcoholism. – Remove the cause and give half teaspoonful of compound tincture of cinchona, with about three drops of tincture nux vomica every three hours, or give pill dipsomania.
It’s worth noting nux vomica contains strychnine and brucine, two toxic chemicals.
What action should taken when someone is experiencing chest pain?
Angina Pectoris. – Inhale the fumes of chloroform or ether, or nitrite of amyl tears, one broken in handkerchief and inhale, and give one-twentieth grain of arsenic every three or four hours.
Longshoremen should forego an opioid prescription if turpentine, sweet oil (olive oil) and chloroform liniment are available to mend a bad back.
Backache. – Apply a mixture of one part of turpentine to two parts of sweet oil to the back two or three times a day. Use mixture warm. Chloroform liniment is also recommended.
The earliest form of chemotherapy. Sort of.
Cancer. – Give a teaspoonful of sarsaparilla tea, made with two ounces of sarsaparilla root in a quart of water boiled to pint; and apply to cancer growth with poultice of carrot scraped or mashed cranberries. Consult a physician.
While only a single remedy is recommended for cancer, the reference book offered four treatment options for diabetes. And none of them had anything to do with injecting insulin.
Diabetes. – In this disease there is an excessive flow of yellowish, sweet urine, with frequent calls to void it.
Treatment. – 1. A tea of water-hoarhound, drunk freely, is an excellent remedy. Or, in place of the tea, a teaspoonful of the tincture may be taken four or five times a day.
2. A tea of common chickweed, drunk freely for some time, is also mentioned as an excellent remedy. Salicylate of soda in five-grain doses is most efficacious.
3. A purely milk diet, in copious quantities, has been found to result favorably.
4. One-quarter grain doses of codeine three times a day. No sugar should be used in the diet.
I have difficulty imagining Cindy Crawford hawking this beauty treatment on early morning cable channels.
Freckles. – Treatment. – Freckles are sometimes removable and sometimes not. The following lotions are as good as any:
Rain water 8 ounces
Borax ½ ounce
—Mix and dissolve; wash part twice daily.
Rose water 8 ounces
Alcohol ½ ounce
Hydrochloric acid ½ drachm
—Mix and sponge or rag three times daily. Painting with tincture of iodine is sometimes effective. Generally speaking, it is best to leave the freckles alone.
A drachm is also a dram, a weight of 60 grains.
The book mentioned several types of headaches. A nervous headache involved a lot more effort than the treatment for cancer.
Nervous Headache. – This form of headache denotes a weak, debilitated condition of the nervous system, caused by long-continued illness, loss of blood, unwonted mental excitement, etc. There is more or less stupidity and confusion of ideas, sometimes dimness of vision, and a dull pain in the head.
Treatment. – 1. The treatment is directed to toning up the system. Have the following prescription prepared by an apothecary:
Extract of valerian 15 grains
Sulphate quinine 10 grains
Extract hyoscyamus 15 grains
Cayenne pepper 5 grains
—Make into 15 pills and take one pill three times a day.
2. In addition to this, it is advisable to get:
Tincture of bloodroot 1 ounce
Muriated tincture of iron 1 ounce
—Mix. Take ten drops in a gill of water three times a day. This adds tone and strength to the blood.
Or ten to fifteen grain doses of bromide of potassium in water.
The Valerian plant should not be confused with the Game of Thrones Valyrians.
Heart-Failure. – Aromatic spirits of ammonia; whiskey; hot water bag and mustard plasters to extremities; if they are cold treat as in fainting.
Kidney Disease. – Make decoction of sheep-sorrel, one ounce to pint; boil, strain and cool. Give wineglassful three or four times a day. Or the same quantity of buchu leaves, make in same manner, and dose the same, and apply the spinal ice bag to kidneys. Have urine examined. Spirits of sweet nitre is indicated to promote action.
Save that bacon grease if you choose to not vaccinate your child for measles.
Measles. – Give two drops of tincture of aconite every two hours, after carbonate of ammonia every three hours. Rub hands and feet with fat to remove heat and tightness produced by rash. Keep child in dark room.
This is the first-time I have heard of myrrh that did not involve the three wise men.
Offensive Breath. – Teaspoonful each of powdered myrrh and camphor and put in pint of water; use as a wash for mouth. Look for the trouble in the teeth.
Ring-worm. – Make a strong solution of tobacco leaves, and apply to part until it entirely disappears, or use ointment of oleate of copper.
Small-Pox.– At once give a wineglass of infusion of pitcher-plant, made with one ounce to pint of boiling water, three or four times a day. Consult a physician at once.
There you have it. Folk remedies and cures in 1916 when a doctor is not available.
Mark Hyman is a 35-year military veteran and an Emmy award-winning investigative journalist. Follow him on Twitter (X) at @markhyman.
Mark welcomes all news tips and story ideas in the strictest of confidence. You can reach him at markhyman.tv (at) gmail.com.