Document text
Accession no.
W 3631
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Wash. Office
Label
Amount 6 p
(0,4q014.14e1
641-1. A.., ct
Wpii,014. C. PROJECT iritert.!.. UNIT
rolt1911L___Collection (or Type)
Pre_g_ttces (..&_"(4 inisx.th w,)
Informant' Chari11,..Amitter
Place of origin Portland.. Oregon- Date_ 5/2.5439...
Project worker Mn1y M Baigiter
Project editor
Remarks
Form C Federal Writers' Pro;!ect
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administra-uion
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Manly M. Banter
2071 S. W. Park AvaQue
Date
Subject Home Medical Practices (2nd interview)
May 25 1 9S9
Name and address of informant Charles E. Banister
Portland
Text:
My mother had all kinds of home remedies she used to use on
the children. I don't remember what particular ailment it was for,
but we took catnip tea, and sassafras tea. Turpentine and sugar
was given for worms, and sometimes people were dosed with straight
turpentine, as in the case of my brother who died of diphtheria.
It was the doctor who doped him, and he gave him too much.
Turpentine and lard rubbed on the chest was wonderful for
colds, and if we had no turpentine we could use coal oil or kero-
sene.
Among the teas were anieseed tea and Oregon Grape root
tea which was used for a tonic. Tansy tea was for women's ail-
ments --for delayed period.
Green Mountain Salve was my mother's awn manufacture. She
compounded the formula and made the salve. It was verdigris in
it that made it green. My sister probably has the formula now,
and I will write to her for it in case you want it.
We also had several kinds of poultices, flax seed poultice,
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
W9631
C. E. Banister -Form C-2
bread and milk poultice, and beefsteak poultice which my mother put
on me whenever I came home with a black eye. But the very best
poultice for sores was the angle worm poultice.. It would draw all
the mart out of even a bad felon. The worms were taken alive,
placed upon the sore, and wrapped around with a bandage.
For earache sometimes mother used laudanum dropped into the
ear with a dropper. There were pain killer pills to be got at the
store, but the usual remedy for headaches was hot or cold packs
applied to the head.
For burns, she made a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water
and spread it over the burned area. Too, as soon as one was burned
it was always best for him to hold the burn as close to the heat as
possible and quickly as possible. This would hurt something dread-
ful but it would draw all the fire out almost at once.
Then for colds we had onion syrup. Onions were boiled to a
concentrated solution and sugar was added to sweeten it.
Form D Federal Writers' Project
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Manley M. Banister
2071 S. W. Park Avenue
,Date may 2E, 193%
Subject
Home Medical Practices (continued)
Name and address of informant same as above)
Comment:
among the foremost of remedies "handed down" in the family is
the tea made of dung. In the case of my grandmother the most effica-
ciously medicinal dung is that of the swine, the mammon sty -pig,
which, when dried and baked in an oven and made into a tea is said to
cure evils of all sorts, from the slightest indisposition to measles
and smallpox. I recall several years ago when I was in Baker, Oregon
that a child took sick with the measles. The grandmother procured
the dung of a sheep, gave it the same treatment in the oven and made
it into tea. This the child drank, being too young to know what the
decoction was.
Tea of tansy is another favorite remedy, as well as teas
made from various roots, barks, herbs, etc. Chittum tea, from the
bark of the chittum tree, is particularly good, and if the first
syllable is pronounced soft, an idea of the sort of action produced
may be gained. There is still a good market for chittum bark on
the drug market.
If I recall rightly, there is also a decoction of rhubarb,
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Banister (continued) Form D-2
of licorice root, of -which I made the acquaintance as a small boy when
visiting my aunt near Newport, Oregon.
Sulphur was always the standard for sore throat. The powdered
variety is obtained, a small amount placed in a paper funnel, and the
small end inserted into the sufferer's oral cavity. The administrator
then blows and forces the fine powder down the victim's throat. If
the patient blows or coughs first, the cure becomes a two-edged sword
which strikes back at the person administering the remedy.
My grandmother used to make in large quantities a potent unguent
which passed under the name of Green. Mountain Salve. This stuff was
green in color and it seems to me the principal ingredient was carbolic
acid. It comes to mind that she sold this preparation and made a good
deal from the sale.
Goose grease and turpentine, rubbed into the chest and back and
covered with warm flannel, was a standard remedy for colds and chills.
I recall hearing it said that my father's two brothers, who died when
very young, were given turpentine straight, just before they died, by
the family doctor.
Sulphur and honey was the prevailing spring tonic. This was
equivalent to the sulphur and molasses of the East and South, only
honey was more easily procured in this western region. The idea of the
sweet was simply to make the concoction taste better.
Plain table salt was another good remedy for toothache, sore
throat, etc. This was mixed with muter, one teaspoonful to a glass
of -water. Vinegar or blue vitriol served to defeat the ravages of
rashes, poison oak, etc.
Banister (continued) Form D-3
Various oils were largely in use. Castor oil is almost too
familiar to bear mention. Then there was sweet oil for earaches.
An earfull of warm sweetoil was well calculated to ease the pain.
Poultices too were common. Chewed tobacco poultice would re-
move the heat from a bee sting in remarkably short order. Also a
mud of spittle and dust was used on occasions of this sort. Then
there was the mustard poultice, the tea -leaf poultice, and a poultice
of gunpowder and milk which was used to combat ringworm. In this
latter case it was sometimes customary to paint the offending "ring"
with ink.
Then there was the still popular remedy of whisky, hot water,
and sugar for colds; hot lemonade for the same purpose --to make the
patient sweat. The idea was and largely still is, if the patient
has a sickness, let him "sweat it out."
Boiled grapefruit has its curative powers for deranged stomachs,
and burns were treated with unsalted lard. Baking soda was also used
for stomach disorders, and still is today, when mixed with water and
drunk warm.
A so-called cure for warts was to place the head of one match
upon the wart and touch it off with another, and so "burn it out."
Another less painful but longer treatment consisted of rubbing the
affected part with castor oil. This has been known to clean up warts
slick as a whistle.
I recall one old man who made hair tonic out of catnip, cooking
down the leaves in a dark, sullen -looking mash, then straining off the
Banister (continued) Form D-4
liquid. He put the stuff up in pint whisky bottles, and my brother
happened to catch sight of it one day and thought it was whisky. As
he was only a boy and had never tasted whisky, he took one of the
bottles and drank about half the contents. "Pretty good stuff," he
said with the wise air of an older boy, and wouldn't let me have any.
A short time later the old gentleman came tearing out of his roam,
wanting to know "who in hell has been drinking my hair -tonic?"
But the favorite physic of all was good old Epsom salts.
Old timers always keep Epsom salts in the medicine cabinet and toss
off a dose on the least provocation. The general idea was to'keep
the bowels clean even if it were necessary to take off half the in-
testinal malls.