Important: Safety Warning
This page recommends preparations containing opium, laudanum, morphine, or similar narcotics — in some cases for children. These substances are dangerously addictive, easily fatal in overdose, and strictly controlled by law today.
In addition, 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 › Medical Receipts › Cough Syrup
Cough Syrup
Tincture of lobelia, 1 ounce; Iceland moss, 2 ounces; white poppy capsules, bruised, 2 ounces; pearl barley, 2 table-spoonfuls; water, 2 quarts; molasses, 2 ounces. strain. Dissolve in it from 4 to 8 ounces of Boil down to 3 pints, and Another simple and efficient mode of exciting the action of the skin consists in wrapping sugar candy. It effectually allays a tickling the undressed patient in a sheet wrung out of cough. A table-spoonful when the cough is warm water, then over this folding two or troublesome. It does not constipate, like three blankets. The patient may remain thus packed for an hour or two, until free perspiration has been excited. laudanum and paregoric.