Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 213, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1919 — Quaint Remedies of Past Produced From Weeds Now Most Common in the Field [ARTICLE]

Quaint Remedies of Past Produced From Weeds Now Most Common in the Field

In old-time Philadelphia, says the Philadelphia Ledger, some quaint remedies were used. Thus we find pokeberries used to make plaster for a cancer. Grapevine sap was used for a hair tonic. To produce a sweat, tea was made from magnolia leaves. The berry of this plant was supposed to cure consumption. —For toothache the bayberry root was an accepted remedy. Berries of the cedar tree were supposed to stiffen the spine. A purge was made of alder buds or of elderberries. Goldenrod, the mullein plant and even the lowly burdock were laid under tribute for various maladies. It Is hard to find a common weed that was rejected by the eighteenth century pharmacopoeia. The grandmother of all the Philadelphia quacks was a beldame by the name of Sibylla Masters, who 200 years ago made a fortune by the patent and sale of “Tuscarora rice” for consumption. It was nothing more or less, appirently, than hominy? made from Indian corn. Her husband put up a water mill somewhere near the city to make It She was an Innocent practitioner compared with certain modern proflteers.