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Good for the throat: Honey, sugar, butter with a little salt, liquorice, to sup soft eggs, hyssop, a mean [moderate] manner of eating and drinking, and sugar candy. Evil for the throat: Mustard, much lying on the breast, pepper, anger, things roasted, lechery, much working, too much rest, much drink, smoke of incense, old cheese and all sour things are naughty for the throat.
—The Kalendar of Shepheardes, 1604
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Sore throats must have been high on the list of family ailments, because every home medical manual offers several herbal remedies.
- Apply a poultice:
- The pulp of a roasted apple, mixed with an ounce of tobacco, the whole wet with spirits of wine, or any other high spirits, spread on a linen rag, and bound upon the throat at any period of the disorder.
—The American Frugal Housewife, by Mrs. Child, 1833
- Simmer a syrup:
- Take of poplar bark and bethroot [lamb's quarters, Trillium pendulum], each 1 lb.; water, 9 quarters; boil gently in a covered vessel 15 or 20 minutes; strain through a coarse cloth; add 7 lbs. loaf sugar, and simmer till the scum ceases to rise. —Family Hand Book, 1855
- Suck on a candy:
- Horehound lozenges are good for a sore throat. —A Dictionary of Every-Day Wants, by A. E. Youman, M.D. 1878
- Take a snack to bed with you:
- Water-gruel, with three or four onions simmered in it, prepared with a lump of butter, pepper, and salt, eaten just before one goes to bed, is said to be a cure for a hoarse cold. —The American Frugal Housewife, by Mrs. Child, 1833
- If all else fails, try a hot toddy and a cuddle:
- Before retiring soak the feet in mustard water as hot as can be endured . . . . On getting into bed take a hot camphor sling. [A hot toddy made with brandy or rum, honey, and tincture of camphor] Rub the bridge of the nose between the eyes with a little oil. Cuddle in bed and sleep it off. —Healthy Living, 1850-1870, compiled by Katie F. Hamilton
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