Old Wives cures.

Sounds very uncomfortable though, Legs55!

Rub a wart with a piece of steak then bury the steak in the garden.
Or drop on the sap from a dandelion stalk.
Or find a -wart-charmer' and sell her or him the wart.
Put a cold spoon down the back of your neck to stop a nose-bleed.
If you feel as if you're going to sneeze, stare at something bright (eg out of the window or towards, not at, a light)

Not all tried and tested!

For stings:

Vinegar for Vasps
Bi-carb for Bees

Hi I have my burner to wouldn't be without it and I put eucalyptus oil or olibas oil on the stone. Just wish I had a spare stone as it really needs replacing. A friend suggested a pumice stone but can't cut it to fit sadly.

wow this is really interesting - anything that stops snoring by any chance? Unfortunately its me who has the problem and I am driving DH mad x

My Gran covered a large Spanish onion with brown sugar and left it overnight. The "juice" left in the morning was our cough syrup. I swear by chicken soup made with lots of onion if I am unwell.

I've tried the spoonful of sugar one to cure hiccups on my DP,when he was going through a phase of keep getting them. It worked. Also,the pinch of salt on the tongue one for night cramp. I go through phases of getting agonising cramp in the back of my thigh at night. About a year ago,it woke me up and as I was hopping around the room,yelping,my DD came in with the salt cellar. She told me to stick my tongue out,and she shook a small amount of salt onto my tongue. I swallowed it down with a drink of water and unbelievably,after about a minute,the cramp had gone. Coincidence? I don't know,but I have used this trick successfully several times since.

Used corks for years and then they stopped working. I couldn't replenish them as they are now using plastic or screw caps. Mentioned it to a French friend who looked absolutely blank She said in Brittany they used a small tablet of soap... unwrapped. When the cramps strike you just rub it and the cramp goes. sceptical? try it! My informant inherited a 70 yo soap tablet from her grandmother. She thought the essence was wearing out so was going to try corks under the mattress.

Products containing coal tar (which is a kind of tar, derived from coal, as you'd expect) can be antiseptic if used on the skin. It was always a pretty crazy idea to inhale its vapours though. Just like still and inhale some complex hydrocarbon chemicals my pet... Just goes to show that the patent medicines of the past were a bit random. Lots of corner "chemists" invented their own branded medicines. Some were wildly successful. Many were used indiscriminately for all kinds of things they were not designed for. We got given Milk of Magnesia for diarrhoea, vomiting and constipation. Other people used to give it to babies or take it for stomach ulcers and indigestion. It might relieve constipation (magnesium causes diarrhoea) but little justification for some of the other uses. PeptoBismol is another one - more famous in the USA but it is available here and recommended for all kinds of digestive disturbances. A retired gastro surgeon I know told me it did sometimes cure ulcers in the past by killing off helicobacter pylori, but no reason to think it is any good for anything else. He went on to comment in earthy style, about the effect it can have on bowel movements.

If I had a cough when I was a child, my Mum used to chop a raw onion finely and place it in a cup. She then sprinkled it with sugar, cover it and leave it overnight.
In the morning a syrup would have formed which was a 'cough mixture'.
Re: Warts.
My Stepfather, as a boy lived in a village in Suffolk. His Dad was the village 'Wart Charmer". Folk would visit him to have their warts 'charmed away'.

Did anyone else have Kaolin and MORPHINE for stomach upsets? And it was an over the counter remedy too!

Yes, I remember that
and, of course, gripe water for teething babies contained alcohol.

Coal Tar is on the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines

Panic not those who used it for their DC

Jalima I'd forgotten the boozy gripe water! Amazing how we all survived.

I love the smell of coal tar soap.

Kaolin + Morphine was still available a few years back. Kaolin makes you constipated so you can't take much...

I had night cramps and was given a quinine prescription for them, but before I took any, I started wearing bedsocks, and the cramps went!

And I still have the Mandl's Paint that my dad used to use on my sore throats.

You can still buy kaolin and morphine but it's behind the counter now and Boots will try to persuade you to buy something else!

Great for diarrhoea though.

I've not been able to buy kaolin and morphine otc locally, even in Boots, but it's available online. You are only allowed to buy one small bottle though! I wish it was made without the morphine, but that's been discontinued apparently, apart from kaolin tablets at ten times the price!

My ex mil, an Irish lady, was convinced if my dad drank cabbage water it would cure his terminal pancreatic cancer! It didn't work for her sadly ?
I find pressing my tongue on the roof of my mouth stops me crying.
For hiccups I drink through a straw whilst putting pressure on my ear canals with my fingers! Works every time.
Tonic water is meant to work for cramp, the quinine in it is the key.
I used a paste of bicarbonate of soda on chicken pox, it dried the spots up overnight. I seem to remember putting some in the bath too. ?

My ex husband had insomnia which kept me awake too. I found an old cure and made chestnut leaf tea, which he did try but it made no difference. Later I read that chestnut leaves are poisonous
Women still drink raspberry leaf tea during labour and put cabbage leaves on sore breasts.

My grandma had three remedies known as kill or cures depending on the illness.

Anything to do with the stomach got bicarbonate of soda dissolved in water. It either solved the problem or made you vomit. If you got better than obviously it worked and if you vomited you were getting rid of whatever was making you ill.

Anything to do with pain or a sneeze got Beecham's Powders.

If you had cough she'd give you a drag of her cigarette to 'clear your chest'. I have to admit it did clear your chest for a while because one inhalation caused a massive coughing fit.

She also told me the recipe for gripe water. Put a hot cinder from the fire into a bowl of water. When cool remove the cinder and strain out the bits of cinder and dust. Finally add a slosh of gin. Give the baby a teaspoon full and he/she will soon settle and go to sleep.

It might relieve constipation (magnesium causes diarrhoea)
Magnesium is a muscle relaxant that is why is could cause diarrhoea, it could relieve cramps too.
Magnesium may bring down high blood pressure too.

Although you may not get enough magnesium from your diet, it is rare to be deficient in magnesium. However, certain medical conditions can upset the body's magnesium balance. For example, an intestinal virus that causes vomiting or diarrhea can cause a temporary magnesium deficiency.
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency may include nausea and vomiting

so perhaps the 'old wives' had something after all

vq I take bicarb in water sometimes if I get indigestion - it does bring on a session of burping but it does seem to work! (never vomited from it!)

re the cinders and the gin - the baby probably slept because of the gin.

The brown sugar + vegetable one seems popular. When we moved into the village 35 years ago, our daughter came down with whooping cough. The local bobby,yes we had one then, recommended steeping turnip in brown sugar overnight. The juice worked wonders on her cough,