Important: Safety Warning
This page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
In addition, this page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › Liniments › Anodyne Balsam
Anodyne Balsam
Take of ounce; balsam tolu, 2 ounces; extract of drachms; rectified spirit of wine, 9 ounces; liquorice, 2 ounces; alcohol, 2 quarts. Let it digest them together by a gentle heat for 3 stand for 2 weeks, with occasional agitation, days; then strain off the liquor, and add to it and filter the whole through paper. A good 3 drachms of camphor. This balsam is of application for wounds and cuts; and as such service in violent sprains and rheumatic comwas very effectual in the hands of the old plaints, when not attended with inflammafriars. Internally, it is stimulant, expector- tion. It must be rubbed with a warm hand ant, and anti-spasmodic, and is useful in on the part affected, or a linen rag moistened asthma, catarrh, consumption, and lan- with it, and renewed every third hour till guid circulation. Dose, & a drachm on loaf the pain abates. sugar.