The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-30
TO CURE GOVT.
Oid-Time Remedies for the Tricky
and Troublesome Disease.

Louisville Courier Journal.
"Gout is the bane of existence, very
tricksy Ariel among diseases" the old doc
tor said in his slurring Southern voice.
You never know just where it will take
you-it has as many ways of showing itself
as you have fingers and toes-yes, and legs,
arms and muscles generally. l honestly
believe it can set up a separate and individ-
ual ache in every fibre of the human frame.
But even that is not the worst of it. 1t is
so undependable. Pathological idiosyncrasy
counts for so much in it, the cure for one
mans govt is the poison Of another's.
$50 of late l am returning to first prin-
ciples. and treat many of my equity patients
with household remedies. Down South,
where 1 grew up, people swear by the but
terEnilk cure. With good reason, too-lactic
acid, the sour of buttermilk, attacks and
dissolves every sort of earthly deposit in the
blood vessels. Thus it keeps the veins and
arteries so supple and free-running, there
can be no cloging up, hence no deposit of
irritating calcareous matter around the
| joints, nor of poisonous waste in the
muscles. 1t is the stiffening and narrowing
of the blood vessels which bring on senile
decay. Buttermilk, 1 firmly believe, post
! pones the period OF il ten to twenty years.
THE equity diathesis is unquestionably
Hereditary, but the exciting cause OF ac-
tuai govt is sluggish excretion. Butter
milk greatly stimulates all the excretories
Liver, skin and kidneys. 1t does even
more in toning the stomach and furnishing
il the material from which to make rich,
red. healthy blood. AS nutriment, but
termilk is wholly unlike sweet milk. Its
food value may be less, by chemical test,
but in every other way it is very much
more. If you have govt or a equity ten
cency, drink a quart of buttermilk every
twenty-four hours, eat no meat, no sweets,
let alone pastries, spiced things and wine.
but allow yourself all the eggs, game,
fresh fruit and vegetables, especially sal
ads, you can consume, and unless you are
very Unconditional person you will short
~ be amazed at your own Improvement.
L have seen almost hopeless crippleS cured
by six months of ash cake and buttermilk
three times day. the ash cake saturated
with good grass butter and supplemented
with roasted eggs, potatoes and nuts.
Since ash cake is beyond the reacn OF
| city people they must make out as best
| they may with graham crackers, shred
| ded wheat and so on. Hot soda biscuit
occasionally do not hurt provided they are
| light and well-baked. but rolls, flour muf-
| fms, bread of any sort, indeed anything
| belonging TO the tribe of ferments, is best
| let alone. AS to the buttermilk, the quart
| Is the minimum-if you have appetite and
| capacity for three quarts SO much the bet
| ter. In fact, my advice to anybody who
| has creaky Joint, or a swelled and aching
/ one. is drink all the buttermilk you can
| relish, whenever and wherever you can.
| IL must be good buttermilk-fresh-
churned and wholesome. from depend
| able dairy. MIX that has been kept too
| long before churning, or afterward, will
| certainly not do good. and may do harm.
"Buttermilk was lot by any means the
| only remedy my home people used. In
| fact. they had govt cures nearly as va
| rious as the manifestations of govt itself.
| Some few Of them were heroic-the tur-
pentine bandages for example. Soft old
flo oil Until iFit Of tina nc
bound on the affected part end irored with
| hot fiatiron as lorg as the patient could
| stand it. 1t took grit to stand it many
| minutes-tha turpentine vapOriZeG, AMI
| went IN, making a deep painful burn,
| which generally drc-e away the govt. The
| milder rOsin plaster was much affected
| ry the black people. Rosin. either crude
| or commercial, was melted, mixed with
| grease and spread uron thin, soft leather
| often the red morocco top of an old boot
| leg, then ciapped in place sizzling rot and
left I'd wear off. Since it stuck worse than
| porous plaster. the wearing off was te-
| dious. Rosia plasters were commonly sa-
! cred to lame backs and shoulders. A big
| one was a treasure often kept as sort
| of heirloom-it could always be renewed
| Ly spreading on fresh rosin.
CLAY pouitices ran them hard in popu-
lar favor. Ocherous red clay, dirt
| burned In the chimney back, was mixed
| to be very soft mud with apple vinegar
spread an inch thick all around the equity
| spot. and left there twenty-fCur hours
I equity feet were incased in 1T until they
/ looked like the hands of giant prizefight-
| er ready for the ring. For equity ankles
the mud was put into a sock which was
then drawn on, and worn sometimes a
week. Gouty finget joints had the lead
/ bandage, made by hammering a bullet thin
| and fiat, then bending it in place with the
| ends tapping. As the swelling went down
| the ends were Tapped further, thus keep
| ing up the pressure, which was held 20
| cure.
May Apple ointment was sovereign for
! lame backs, sore shoulders and stiff necks
| The fleshy roots were stewed soft. then
mashed uD in lard. and stewed half a day
| longer. 1t was powerful remedy, and
needed to be used with discretion or It
| would take off the skin, and make an ugly
sore. Where there was racking or shoot
| ing pain. hop poultices and hop foot baths
came into play, and certainly did good.
| The hop DOultice was a thin bag half
filled with dry hops wrung out of boiling
water and laid very hot upon the equity
/ spot For the foot bath a bigger bag of
| hops went into the tub, boiling water was
| poured in and the feet steamed until the
| water was cool enough for bathing. Grape
| sap was the cure of cures for spring govt.
| A vigorous wild grape cut off any
| time in March or April and the flowing
| sap caught in a wooden vessel. 1t was an
! article OF faith not TO let ii touch glass
or metal. 1t was drunk from a gourd OF
| else from the rim of the piggin. A healthy
vine would drip enough sap I'm night TO
drink all next day, well as TO wet band
/ ages for the sore spots.
There We're bitters innumerable The
best of them was made of wild cherry
bark. poplar bark, dogwood bark dam
i delion root and hops, each infused sepa-
| rately, the strained liquor mixed and
| added to it's own bulk of honest whisky
| In many cases pokeberries and whisky
/ beat the bitters out of sight Dry poke-
/ berries were better than fresh ones and
/ you had TO drink three filings up from
/ the same bottle of berries. Ii was odd
/ but the pokeberry whisky made no drunk
/ ards. Instead IL seemed 10 destroy a taste
| for whisky where IL already existed"
/ quite Fit.