Gardner (Cholera Remedy &c.)

Laudanum, capsicum, camphor and spirits of nitre — two to ten drops for children, every fifteen minutes.

From: The Home Cook Book
Published: 1887
Yikes Scale: Call poison control

Exactly as printed, 1887

FIG PASTE FOR CONSTIPATION. -One-half pound of good figs chopped fine, one-half pint of molasses, two ounces powdered senna leaves, one drachm fine powdered ander seed, one drachm of fine powdered cardamom Put the molasses on the stove and let it come to a boil, then stir in all the rest and bring to a boil again. A teaspoonful once in a while is a dose. It will keep, when covered, for a year. - MRS. GARDNER.

CURE FOR BOILS. - ISAIAH Xxxviii. 21. - Go thou and do likewise.

FOR CANKER SORE MOUTH. - Burn a corn cob and apply the ashes two or three times a day.

The Home Cook Book, 1887. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Laudanum is opium in tincture, and the instruction is to give it to children every fifteen minutes until the symptoms stop. There is no ceiling on that, and opioids stop breathing before they stop diarrhoea.

Cholera kills by dehydration. Oral rehydration — clean water, salt and sugar in the right proportion — is the treatment, and it is one of the great cheap medical advances of the twentieth century.

Notes from the 21st century

The dose range is fivefold. “From two to ten drops” with no guidance on which. For a tincture of opium given to a child, that is an enormous latitude.
Spirits of nitre is ethyl nitrite. A vasodilator that forms methaemoglobin, interfering with the blood's ability to carry oxygen.
Same page, a fig-and-senna paste. The constipation remedy alongside it is figs, molasses and senna — brisk, but entirely reasonable.

Also in this book

Brine That Preserves Butter' a Year — Butter kept twelve months under a salt brine strong enough to float an egg.
Cough Mixture — A lemonade of gum arabic and sugar candy, carrying an ounce of opium tincture.
Ginger Liqueur — Five ounces of bitter almonds, cold-steeped six days in a gallon of whiskey.

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Opium, Laudanum (antidotes)

The antidote table's advice for opium and laudanum — emetic draught, vinegar and water, “dashing cold water on chest and face, walking up and down for two or three hours.”

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906

Meat for Invalids

Raw loin beaten in a marble mortar with sweet and bitter almonds and sugar, into a pulp with “a rosy hue, and a very agreeable taste.” Said to keep “even in summer.”

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The Dixie Cook-Book · 1883

Mercury, Chloride of Calomel

One grain of mercury chloride twice a day as an alterative, four to five as a laxative. The book calls it “a most dangerous medicine” and prints the doses anyway.

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906