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Treating Sickness

Curing What Ails

Library of Health; Complete Guide to Pre...
Receipts and Remedies; Useful Hints for ... (by Flemming, Louis Andrew)
The Modern Be Thesda, Or, The Gift of He... (by Newton, Alonzo Eliot)
French Natural Remedies & Recipes from B... (by Christiane Guise)
'Every Man His Own Physician.'the Vegeta... (by Emmons, Samuel Bulfinch.)
Culpeper's Complete Herbal : Consisting ... (by Culpeper, Nicholas)
Materia Medica Mexicana : A Manual of Me... (by Fernando Altamirano)
Hackin 9 4 2010
Healthy Houses : A Handbook to the Histo... (by William Eassie)

In their 2005 paper “Treating Critical Illness: The Importance of First Doing No Harm,” researchers Mervyn Singer and Paul Glynne report historical records showing that, “Barring the 1919 influenza pandemic, Armstrong et. al. reported an impressive 22-fold fall in crude mortality rates for infectious diseases in the US between 1900 and 1980.” They further attribute the increase in survival as “unlikely to be due to advances in hospital medicine.”

Singer and Glynne further suggest that advances in treating what ails us “have been related more to the recognition and removal of harmful practices than to any novel pharmacological or mechanical interventions.” This leads to the conclusion that effective treatment of infectious disease—which includes the common cold and influenza—may be due more to old-fashioned, natural remedies than to modern science.

Humankind has long understood the connection between a clean environment and the reduction of disease, even if putting that understanding to practical implementation does not always meet with success. Such practices include the disposal of sewage and the flow of fresh air because personal and household hygiene contribute to continued good health, as noted in Healthy Houses: A Handbook to the History, Defects, and Remedies of Drainage, Ventilation, Warming (1872) by William Eassie.

Covering one’s mouth and nose when sneezing and coughing mitigates the spread of germs. Washing hands with soap and warm water also prevents contagion. However, what do you do when preventative methods fail and you still get sick? B. Frank Scholl has a large volume of “simple home remedies” in his Library of Health (1921) that address the treatment of illness and its symptoms.

Healthcare and treatment of ailments often fall under the purview of women in afflicted households, especially regarding the treatment of sick children. Louis Andrew Flemming offers a helpful guide to treating everything from acne to acid burns to ridding the residence of infestations of bed bugs and ants in Receipts and Remedies; Useful Hints for Everyone on Health, Beauty, Clothing, Food (1908). The book addresses cold and cough remedies on pages 62 through 65, and on page 73, respectively.

Without today’s array of chemicals, physicians and housewives relied upon natural and mechanical means to relieve the aches and misery of illness. From herbs to hot water vapor, medicines and treatments could be manufactured in the kitchen. A recognition of the harmful side effects of modern medicines fuels renewed interest in natural remedies and how to make them, which can be found The Modern Bethesda, Or, the Gift of Healing Restored (1879) by “natural healer” Alonzo Eliot Newton. For a more modern handbook on natural remedies, find French Natural Remedies & Recipes from Beautiful Tasmania (2008) by Christiane Guise.

In times past, almost every family owning or renting on a plot of land however small kept a kitchen garden. Housewives knew not only how to season their food with the herbs they grew, but they also learned which aided in healing and relieving the symptoms of illness. Samuel Bulfinch Emmons’ “Every Man His Own Physician.” The Vegetable Family Physician (1836), Nicholas Culpeper’s Culpeper’s Complete Herbal (1900), and Fernando Altamirano’s Materia Medica Mexicana: A Manual of Mexican Medicinal Herbs (1904) offer comprehensive advice on the medicinal qualities and preparation of herbal medicines.

With the arrival of “cold and ’flu season” in the Northern Hemisphere, having some effective, homemade remedies to treat the nasty symptoms of seasonal illness may make the wait for spring much more comfortable. Check your herb garden or grocery store for the medicinal herbs to help relieve the misery of what ails you.

By Karen M. Smith