Health and Woodland Medicine 309 



Some Wildwood Remedies or Simples 



(In case no standard remedies be at hand.) 



For trees mentioned, but not illustrated here, see Forestry section. 



Antiseptic or wound-wash: Strong, salt brine, as hot as 

 can be borne : a handful of salt in a quart of water. 



Balm for wounds: Balsam Fir. The gum was con- 

 sidered a sovereign remedy for wounds, inside or out; it 

 is still used as healing salve, usually spread on a piece of 

 linen and laid over the wound for a dressing. 



Bleeding, to stop, nose or otherwise: Gather a lot of leaves 

 of witch hazel, dry them, and powder them to snuff. A 

 pinch drawn up the nose or on a wound will stop bleeding. 

 The Indians used a pinch of powder from a puff ball. 



Bowel complaint: Get about a pound of small roots of 

 sassafras, or else two pounds of the bark, smashed up. 

 Boil in a gallon of water till only one pint of the fluid is 

 left. A tablespoonful of this three times a day is a good 

 remedy for bowel trouble. 



Chills and fever: Two pounds of white poplar or white 

 willow bark, smashed up and soaked for twenty-four hours 

 in a gallon of water and boiled down to a pint, make a sure 

 remedy for chills and fever. A dessertspoonful four times 

 a day is the proper dose. 



A tea made of spice bush twigs is a good old remedy for 

 chills and fever. Make it strong, and sip it hot all day. 



Cold or fever cure: A decoction of the poplar bark or 

 roots of flowering dogwood is a good substitute for quinine, 

 as tonic and cold cure, bowel cure, and fever driver. 



Cough remedy: (That is, to soften and soothe a cough:) 

 Slippery elm inner bark boiled, a pound to the gallon, 

 boiled down to a pint, and given a teaspoonful every hour. 



Linseed is used the same way, and is all the better if 

 licorice or sugar of any kind be added. 



