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 heaHng 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 chiUs 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 f&oer 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. 



