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 › Medicinal Tinctures › Decoction of Balm of Gilead
Decoction of Balm of Gilead
For the decoction, simmer 1 ounce of the buds in a quart of soft water, down to half a pint. Take a wine-glassful or more, when the cough is troublesome. fluid drachm; equivalent to 10 grains Dover's powder. Used in combination with spirit of Mindererus effervescing draught, and other anti-febrile remedies in liquid form. 4544. Sweet Tincture of Red Bark (Cinchona). Red cinchona bark, in fine powder; 4 troy ounces; strong alcohol and syrup, sufficient quantity; dilute alcohol (alcohol 3 parts to 1 part water), 1½ fluid drachms.
Moisten the cinchona with the dilute alcohol, and pack in a glass funnel, in the neck of which sufficient tow (free from tar) has been placed, to act as a filter; cover the surface