TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 1B7 



friend of mine had chalkstones on his fingers so bad that he might have marke{l 

 half the trees in Windsor Park with them. After consulting almost all the 

 epecialists in Europe he was advised by an old woman (some old women know 

 more than half of us doctors) to try a clove of garlic (a clove of garlic means 

 one small bulb from a cluster) night and morning. He did so, and the chalk- 

 stones totally disappeared. No doubt such a cure involves the social duty of 

 retiring to the summit of an exceedingly high mountain, or going to sea, alone, 

 in a yacht; but it is worth even the penalty of absolute seclusion to get rid of 

 chalkstones." (See next recipe.) 



1. PUBIFYING THE BLOOD-Safesl Way by the Use of 

 Onions. — Sherley Dare, in answering correspondents through the Blade House' 

 Tiold, says to "A. E. W.," of Waterloo: "The safest and quickest prescription 

 for clearing the blood is to eat a raw onion, finely minced, at breakfast; the whole 

 of a common sized onion is enough, and a dose of charcoal or ground coffee, 

 and brushing the teeth, will deodorize the breath. The onion can be taken 

 ■with salt and vinegar as a salad. Consumptives find this of benefit." 



Remarks. — I have much more faith in the onion as an alterative, than I 

 have in the idea that the charcoal or powdered coffee, even with the brushing of 

 the teeth, will remove the odor of onions from the breath; but what of that? 

 let the "bref" smell of garlic; if onions will do what tliey are here credited 

 with, they are certainly more valuable than is generally set down to their credit; 

 but I remember of once being told by a gentleman that a moderate sized onion 

 minced and eaten at each meat, with the salt and vinegar, as above mentioned, 

 would cure dyspepsia. I have no doubt of their utility, both as an alterative 

 upon the blood and as a tonic to the stomach; not one is eaten when ten ought 

 to be. 



2. Roasted Onions— As a Poultice to Boils, Inflammation o^ 

 the Bowels, etc. — A poultice of roasted onions applied to boils, tumors, 

 etc., hastens suppuration, and are often applied as "drafts" to the feet, and I 

 have heard, from the old women, of their being applied in excessive fevers, b> 

 mashing or pounding onions and placing them under the arms and upon the 

 bowels or other parts swollen from extensive inflammation (to be changed 

 often), and they are very valuable indeed. 



3. Onions, Their Value as Pood.— Onions contain 25 to 30%' {i, e., 

 25 to 30 parts in 100) of solid substance, when dried; while potatoes, even, do 

 not average 25^; but from some peculiarity of the onion its nourishing proper- 

 ties more than double those of the potato, and in some cases nearly treble it; 

 hence its value as food may now be the better understood, and without regard 

 to its peculiar flavor, the onion should be much more eaten than it is. If health 

 is desirable, eat onions. 



1. STOMACH BITTEBS, OR ALTEE ATI VE. - Culver's 

 physic, root, and wahoo, bark of the root, each, 1)4, ozs.; prickly ash bark and 

 poke root, each, i^ oz. ; Peruvian bark, the best red unground, wild cherry 

 bark and anise seed, each, 1 oz. ; blue-flag, yellow-dock, dandelion and pleurisy 

 roots, known also as white root (asclepias tuberosa), with our home yellow parilla 



