The term folk medicine refers to healing practices and ideas of

body physiology and health preservation known to a limited segment of the population in a culture,

transmitted informally as general knowledge, and practiced or applied by anyone in the culture having

prior experience.

Folk medicine may also be referred to as Traditional medicine, Alternative medicine, Indigenous

medicine, Complementary medicine, Natural medicine. These terms are often considered

interchangeable, even though some authors may prefer one or the other because of certain overtones

they may be willing to highlight. In fact, out of these terms perhaps only Indigenous

medicineand Traditional medicine are the terms well congruent with folk medicine, while others should

be understood rather in modern or modernized context.

History[edit]

3000 BC - 18th century Folk medicine has been traced back as early as ancient Egypt in 3000 BC,

though much of modern medicine stems from Greece. The Greek documents were later translated to

Arabic and medicine had then continued to undergo further study in the Islamic world.

ACNE or pimples

1. Mix wheat-flour with honey and vinegar

(proportions were not given) and put on the

pimples at night before going to bed.

2. Eat two apples the first thing in the morning for

six weeks.

ARTHRITIS (or Rheumatism)

1. Have a cat sit on your knees whenever you

have arthritic pain.

2. Mix turpentine with either vegetable oil, an

egg or animal fat and rub on skin.

3. Put two horse chestnuts in your pants pockets.

4. One large thimble of gunpowder, mix in a

spoonful of milk. After taking that. Drink a good

half-pint of milk separately. Then go to bed with

a lot of warm blankets and sweat a lot.

BAD DREAMS 1. Rub garlic on the soles of the child's feet.

BED WETTING 1. Have the child chew on a cinnamon stick

throughout the day, especially right before bed.

BLACK EYE 1. Rub it with a cold tallow candle as soon as you

can.

BLEEDING 1. Put a spider web on the cut.

BOILS or CARBUNCLES

1. Put a small bottle in a pan and boil it for a few

minutes. With a pot-holder or tongs, pick it up

and dump the water out. Then place the neck of

the bottle over the boil. The suction pops it!

BRONCHITIS

1. Wear a piece of brown paper, pierced with

holes, around your neck at night in bed.

2. Wear the sock you wore all day around your

neck at night to bed, with the foot part near the

throat.

BURNS

1. Take a clean piece of paper from a brown paper

bag, dip it in white vinegar and apply to burn.

2. Put mushroom slices on the burn.

CANKER SORES

1. Take the kernels off an ear of corn. Then cut

the bare cob into pieces and burn them one at a

time. Apply the cob ashes to the canker sore 3 to

5 times a day.

2. Keep a glob of blackstrap molasses in your

mouth on the canker sore several times throughout

the day.

CAVITY PREVENTION

1. Eat a piece of cheddar, Monterey Jack or Swiss

cheese after eating anything that's sugary or

cavity-causing. (The cheese reduces bacterial

acid production.)

CHOKING: Fish bones or Hair 1. Swallow a raw egg.

COLD FEET 1. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper in your socks.

COMMON COLD 1. Eat a roasted Spanish onion before bedtime.

COOLER (Switzel)

This drink is said to cool the body down and

prevent heat cramps when you've been working

outside in the heat:

3 tablespoons ginger

1 cup vinegar

1 gallon water

2 cups sugar (white or brown) or molasses, maple

syrup or honey (Some included oatmeal. Some didn't put in the

vinegar.)

CORNS 1. Take one genuine mother-of-pearl button in a

saucer. Squeeze lemon juice over the button in the

morning and in the evening for a week. The

button turns into a paste. Then spread this paste

over the corn and cover with a bandage. Repeat

daily till corn is gone.

COUGH 1. 1 spoonful of a mixture of chopped raw onions

and honey.

DRUNKENNESS

1. Eat coleslaw before you drink and you won't

get drunk.

2. Eat 10 raw almonds on an empty stomach.

DYSPEPSIA 1. Eat oysters "Oysters are out of season, when there is no R in the month."

Mrs. Theo P. Winning, The Australian Household Manual 1899

EPILEPSY

1. (This was referred to as 'the falling sickness' )

Hang coral around the neck. Or rub coral on your

gums.

EYE - Something in it? 1. Flush it out with a few drops of warm milk.

FEVER

1. Chop up raw onions and put them into a linen

cloth. Tie this to the child's feet. In the morning

the fever should be gone.

FRECKLES

1. Freckles can't be removed. But, the old tradition

was that the more refined sugar you ate, the

darker your freckles got.

HAIR: SHINE & GRAY PREVENTION 1. While standing on your head, massage

your scalp.

HEADACHE

1. Put slices of raw onions on your forehead. Then

over them, wrap a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol

around your head securely.

2. Pick up a knife and make a cross in front of you

with it. Then throw the knife on the floor!

3. Apply very hot water to the back of the neck

with a folded towel at the same time putting your

feet in hot water.

4. Grind really fine the charcoal from your fire

and mix it with a teaspoon of water. Drink it.

HANGOVER CURE

1. When you're done drinking and are ready for

bed, in a glass of orange juice stir in 1 tablespoon

sugar and drink it down.

2. When you wake up in the morning, take a

quarter of a lemon and rub the juicy side on each

armpit.

HICCUPS

1. Hold a penny between any two toes of one foot

and transfer the penny to any two toes of the other

foot, being careful not to touch the floor.

2. Wear nutmeg around your neck.

3. Take something cold that's also made of metal

such as a spoon. Tie this on a string and lower it

down the hiccupping person's back.

INGROWN TOENAIL

1. See-saw a piece of wool yarn under the corner

of the toenail (basically like flossing). Get the

yarn as deep and far down as you can. Snip off

the ends and leave it in. This makes the corner of

the nail grow upwards instead of down into your

skin.

LASHES - longer & thicker

1. Mix 3 tablespoons of castor oil with 1

tablespoon of dark rum and dab this on your

lashes every night.

LEG CRAMPS 1. Take a silver spoon (or stainless steel) and put

it on the cramp.

LUMBAGO 1. Place strips of dried seaweed inside your

mattress.

MEMORY Problems 1. Drink sage tea.

NAILPOLISH Primer 1. Wipe unpolished fingers with vinegar to clean

and prime before polishing.

NAUSEA (Outdoors)

1. You need a black and white newspaper page.

Then sniff the ink.

NOSEBLEEDS

1. Roll up a square piece of brown paper (white

paper won't work) and place it between your teeth

and upper lip.

2. Pack a spiderweb into your nose.

POISON IVY

Note: To test a plant to see if it is poison ivy, grab

the plant with a piece of white paper and crush

the leaves. If it is poison ivy, the juice on the

paper will turn black in 5 minutes.

1. Take a slice of watermelon (rind and meat) and

glide it over the rash-ridden body part(s). Let dry

naturally. Within a day, the rash should improve.

FOR A PERSON'S SICK ROOM 1. Hang a cloth soaked in lime water. This will

keep the air very pure.

SINUS PROBLEMS 1. Put garlic and a little chicken fat in a silk

stocking. Then wrap that stocking around your

neck.

SMALL POX

1. One teaspoon of cream of tartar per half-pint of

hot water.

2. Eat fried mice. (Ewww!)

SOBER UP

1. Slowly eat a small grapefruit.

2. A Siberian recommendation -- Have the

inebriated person lay on their back. Place the

palms of your hands on his ears. Then, rub both

ears briskly and strongly in a circulation motion.

Within minutes he should come around.

SORE THROAT

1. Wrap a dirty sock around your neck.

2. Take a piece of bacon fat (raw) and tie a length

of strong cotton around it. Hold the cotton while

you swallow the bacon fat. Then pull up the

bacon fat using the cotton thread. Then swallow

again. Do this half a dozen times. Then take a

black cashmere stocking that has been worn for a

week, sprinkle the sole with eucalyptus and place

that part against the throat. Wrap the rest of the

stocking around the neck and pin securely. Go to

bed. You will wake up with no sore throat.

(Ewww!)

SUNBURN

1. Put slices of raw potato over the burn. (The

starch in the potatoes comes out on your skin and

leaves a whitish color.)

Feels cool and gives a drawing sensation.

2. Wash with sage tea.

SUNSTROKE (Prevention) 1. Put a cool, wet cabbage leaf inside the crown of

your hat.

TOOTHACHE

1. Dip a small piece of brown paper in whiskey.

Then sprinkle it with pepper. Put this where the

pain is. Then cover with a flannel bandage.

WOUNDS or CUTS

1. A bruised geranium leaf applied to the cut asap

heals it.

2. Powdered rice sprinkled on a cut stops the

bleeding at once.

3. A cut that is festered, put on turpentine.