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.
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