This section is from the book "Facts Worth Knowing", by Robert Kemp Philip. Also available from Amazon: Inquire Within for Anything You Want to Know.
Lard, two ounces; sulphuric acid, diluted, two drams; rub .them together, and anoint the head once a day.
This may be restored by melting it in a water bath, with some coarsely powdered animal charcoal (which has been thoroughly sifted from dust), and strained through flannel.
Rub the feet, at going to bed, with spirits mixed with tallow dropped from a lighted candle into the paim of the hand
Mix powdered nux vomica with oatmeal, and lay it in their haunts, observing proper precaution to prevent accidents. Another method is, to mix oatmeal with a little powdered phosphorus.
Rose water, three ounces; sulphate of zinc, one dram. Mix. Wet the face with it, gently dry it, and then touch it over with cold cream, which also dry gently oft;
Olive oil, two pints; otto of roses, one dram; oil of rosemary, one dram. Mix. It may be coloured red by steeping a little alkanet root in the oil (with heat) before scenting it.
1282. Cure for Chapped Hands. Instead of washing the hands with soap employ oatmeal, and after each washing take a little dry oatmeal, and rub over the hands, so as to absorb any moisture.
Soak the wick in strong vinegar, and dry it well before you use it; it will then burn both sweet and pleasant, and give much satisfaction for the trifling trouble taken in preparing it.
Wine of Colehicuin, one ounce; spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce; iodine of potassium, two scruples; dis-tilled water, two ounces. Mix. A tea-spoonful in cammomile tea two or three times a day.
All linen, cotton, muslins, etc., etc.,when dipped in a solution of the pure vegetable alkali at a gravity of from 124 to 130 (taking water at the gravity of 100) become incombustible.
Infusion of calum-ba, six ounces; carbonate of potassa, one drachm; compound tincture of gentian, three drachms. Mix. Dose, two or three tablespoonfuls daily at noon.
Socotrine aloes, powdered rhubarb, of each one drachm; compound powder of cinnamon, one scruple; hard soap, half a drachm; syrup enough to form the mass To be divided into fifty pills, of which two will be sufficient for a dose; to be taken occasionally.
Two ounces of red arsenic, a quarter of a pound of white soap, half an ounce of camphor dissolved in a teaspoonful of spirits rectified, made into a paste of the consistency of cream: place this mixture in the openings and cracks of the bedstead.
Infusion of quassia, one pint; brown sugar, four ounces; ground pepper, two ounces. To be well mixed together, and put in small shallow dishes when required.
Eau de Cologne, two ounces; tincture of cantharides, two drachms; oil of rosemary and oil of lavender; of each, ten drops.
Diluted sulphuric acid, two drams; tincture of myrrh, one dram; spring water, four ounces. Mix. First cleanse with white soap, and then dip the fingers into the wash.
Take two ounces of gum-ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax and six drachms of verdigris, melt them together, and spread the composition on soft leather. Cut away as much of the corn as you can, then apply the plaster, and renew it every fortnight till the corn is away.
Take oil of turpen-pentine, half a drachm; olive oil, two drachms. Mix. Two drops to be in troduced into the ear at bed-time.
Skim-milk and water, with a little bit of glue in it, made scalding hot, will restore old rusty black Italian crape. If clapped and pulled dry, like fine mus lin, it will look as good as new.
Take two parts of common soda, one part of pumice-stone, and one part of finely powdered chalk; sift it through a fine sieve, and mix it with water; then rub it well all over the marble, and the stains will be removed; then wash the marble over with soap and water, and it will be as clean as it was at first.
To get rid of the mell of oil paint plunge a handful of ay into a pailfull of water, and let it tand in the room newly painted.
Melt a little isinglass glue with brandy, and pour it thinly over the medal, etc, so as to cover its whole surface; let it remain on for a day or two, till it has thoroughly dried and hardened, and then take it oft', when it will be fine, clear, and as hard as apiece of Muscovy glass, and will have a very elegant impression of the coin. It will also resist the effects of damp air, which occasions all other kinds of glue to soften and bend if not prepared in this way.
1310. To detect Copper in Pickles or GREEN Tea. Put a few leaves of the tea, or some of the pickle, cut small, into a phial with two or three drachms of liquid ammonia, diluted with one-half the quantity of water. Shake the phial, when, if the most minute portion of copper be present, the liquid will assume a fine blue colour.
 
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