Weird / Quack Folk Remedies

gold said:
. . . Heres one... when you hit your thumb with a hammer, put it straight in your mouth to remove the pain :eek!!!!:
Click to expand...
Personally I cant see why sucking a hammer would do any good. It must be based on sympathetic magic like curing a sword wound by treatin the sword :p

I had whooping cough when I was very young (before they thought of a vacine for it) and I was taken to where they were doing road works. The smell of the molten asphalt was supposed to be a sovereign cure. It actually made sense The various acids in the smoke are antiseptic.
 
Toney Hancock... What about when i had hooping cough?..i didnt get flown to Switzerland and pampered. Oh noooo a quick turn round the road menders cart and thats me lot!
 
My mum told me that when she used to have a bad cold or cough as a child her moher used to take her near any road works that were on the go - the smell of the tar was supposed to be beneficial.

Carole
 
When I lived in Norfolk, my neighbour, who was a very, very old lady, told me that a good cure for a cold was to soak an onion in vinegar overnight then wear it round your neck on a string for the next day and night.

It would certainly get rid of some things, such as friends, boyfriend and anyone in the same room, I'm sure.:)
 
A mans sweaty sock, tied or wrapped around the throat, is supposed to cure a sore throat!!!!!:confused:
 
When I was a kid, our mom would put meat tenderizer (msg) on bee/wasp stings. Worked like magic.

I cook a lot of Indian food, and it's been demonstrated that some aspect of the spice tumeric greatly reduces risk of Alzheimer's disease. Chewing on fennel seeds also minimizes flatulence.
 
Tumeric also aids wound healing and is a mild antiseptic. A Sikh woman of my aquaintance told me of how her grandmother would smother any childhood cuts and scrapes with the stuff.

4 years ago there were a spate of articles in New Scientist about traditional medicines where Multi-nationals were tryng to patent these medicines. Tumeric was one of them.
 
Any idea what's in Pulmo Bailey?(sp) My Da swears by it for a congested chest. It has always stuck me as a left over from the days of patented remedies. You have to dilute it with about ten parts water, and even then it still tastes like creosote smells. It is meant to clear your chest but has an odd side effect of making all of your bodily excretions smell strongly of itself. It feels oddly slippery in your mouth as you swallow it. I don't know where he gets it (Victorian times?), but it was recomended by his sister. Thinking about the name it even sounds agro chemical rather than medicinal. Maybe he got the wrong end of the stick.l

My Mam made us eat butter and sugar with a dash of vinigar for sore throats, or alternately made us swallow bacon rind while still holding the end, which was horrible, which stopped us complaining of sore throats I can tell you...
 
My Dad used to make me eat a tablespoon of chopped raw garlic mixed with brown sugar or honey whenever I had a cold or a sore throat...

But then he used to make me take a tablespoon of cod liver oil every day too as well as bran tablets and multivits and minerals....

Dad used to put honey on my cuts and knitbone on my bruises which works!

I used to have comfrey tea with lemon and honey for upset stomachs, made in a special teapot...peppermint and charcoal tablets for indigestion....

Oh yeah and he used to put oats and fresh thyme in my bath when I had chicken pox to calm my skin down....

I was the healthiest kid in the school!
 
Emmy Mallow said:
Oh yeah and he used to put oats and fresh thyme in my bath when I had chicken pox to calm my skin down....
Click to expand...

My ex-boyfriend had really bad psoriasis on his knees and elbows and had tried all sorts of creams and ointments offered by various doctors but to no avail....

I was bemoaning this to another friend at college one day, and she told me to cut one leg off an old pair of my tights, fill it with oats and give it to my boyfriend to put in the bath.. So with a bit of skepticism we tried this (I had to save loads of laddered tights !), and within a few weeks the patches of psoriasis had started to shrink !

It really did work well, but he found the key was to keep putting the oats in the bath regularly or it would come back ...
 
markbrown said:
Any idea what's in Pulmo Bailey?(sp) My Da swears by it for a congested chest.
Click to expand...

I can't believe someone else uses Pulmo Baileys! We have to keep ours in the shed at the bottom of the garden because it smells so strong.
My mother used to use something called Hippowine and Squills (or similar) for some babies complaint. I always loved the name.
 
Minor Drag said:
....Chewing on fennel seeds also minimizes flatulence.
Click to expand...

I must get some Boring Old fennel seeds for some of the guys in my local!
:)
 
My mother's family had a brilliant one which was likely responsible for me avoiding that side of the family all throughout puberty.

Ahem.

The one true cure for acne.

Catch your first urine of the day on a white cloth. Keep the cloth cool throughout the day, then wipe over your face before bed. If it's hard to keep it cool, you can use it immediately, but it's supposedly not as effective.

I never had many pimples when I was at Aunt Sandy's house...but I'm half convinced that they were too afraid to put in an appearance. Cooled urine is not a pleasant substance...
 
Mmm!

It could be El Juno, that the ammonia, possibly present in the urine, at the end of the day acted as an antiseptic?????
 
DerekH said:
I must get some Boring Old fennel seeds for some of the guys in my local!
:)
Click to expand...

Some Indian restaurants serve them after a meal (maybe for the same reason, or to clear the palate?)

Carole
 
Turnip syrup - cures tickly coughs - at any age - magical!

Method:- Peel and slice thinly 3 or 4 small/ish turnips - NOT swedes. Into medium-sized pudding basin put alternate layers of turnip slices and sugar (any). Saucer on top, then weighty object eg jar of coffee on top of saucer. Produces efficacious syrup within a couple of hours - which strangely does not taste of turnips. Sip as required - will be usable for a couple of days.
 
Errrr...

Nobody else seems to have paid any attention to this that Wildman posted:

We use a thing called Radium Weed to rub on skin cancers, it seems to work on all but the very worst cancers
Click to expand...

Errr... what is this about? Is it a joke of some sort? (Probably being very slow here but I am puzzled :confused: :confused:
:confused: )
 
It's probably true you could get it once. Only about 20 years ago you could also buy radioactive watches.
 
Yup Xanatic!!!!

Those were the good old days, when the government told us that atmospheric nuclear testing was safe. After all, the radiation we were getting from the tests was about the same as that of a luminous pocket watch.

Then we discovered that there was a risk from the luminous dials of watches!!!!!!!

:eek:
 
Down 'urr ee can walk all night be the light o' the glowing th' dark granite mate...an we got nuke subs just "upcountry" in Plmouth too... its like hav'in radio baths every day!
 
beakboo said:
My mother used to use something called Hippowine and Squills (or similar) for some babies complaint. I always loved the name.
Click to expand...

Beakboo - :) - I can remember being given Syrup of Squills as a small child for a cough. Could your Hippowine have been ipecacuanha - also for a cough? Both are plants used in 'old' medicine - your name is better though!

Heather.
 
sidecar_jon said:
Down 'urr ee can walk all night be the light o' the glowing th' dark granite mate...an we got nuke subs just "upcountry" in Plmouth too... its like hav'in radio baths every day!
Click to expand...

Upcountry, Plymouth? Upcountry enough for us to have lost the taste for infant flesh anyway.

Squilly
 
weirdest and most silly remedies you have ever heard

my Nola post with the yellow fever thing reminded me of something. back in the 19th century during the yellow fever epidemics, the city of new orleans would blow off their cannons becuz they thought the combination of smoke and loud noise would "neutralise" the old Yellow Jack.

what is the wirdest remedy you've come across?
 
Well, I don't want to sound too patronizing to our forebearers, I'm sure the medicene of today will be looked on with similar amusement in 200 years, but...In 1806 the New York State Legislature voted unanimously to give a Mr. John M. Crous $1000 for the following cure for rabies.

A pill, taken with water, whose ingredients included : the pulverized jawbone of a dog, the dried false tongue of a newly foaled colt, and a pinch of corroded copper taken from an English penny minted in the reign of George I.
 
ya gotta respect the creativity and character of that remedy
 
I've heard of putting fresh cowdung on open wounds. Guaranteed to cause tetanus.

As for folklore contraception....
Jumping up and down (women only) for 10 minutes after sex, anyone?


And here's a good one- putting pus from cowpox sores into open scratches on people's arms to prevent smallpox!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top