This should be used frequently (but shaken before using).
For galled breasts, the mother should shave into half a cup of fresh unsalted lard enough white chalk to make a paste.
This could also be used for any other skin irritation.
Or she might place cornstarch in the oven for a short time and then apply this under her breasts.

"Female troubles" of various kinds do not seem to have been common on the frontier;
at least I have only one remedy for anything of this kind in my collection, one for hastening delayed menstruation.
The sufferer drinks tansy tea.

Bruises, burns, cuts, etc., occurred frequently on the frontier, and folk medicine gave the answers to these problems too.
Bruises and black eyes were relieved by application of raw beefsteak.
(Doctors now say that it was not the meat but the coolness of the applications which relieved the pain.
) Salted butter was another cure for bruises.
Many people agreed that burns should be treated with bland oily salves or unsalted butter or lard, but one informant told me that a burn should be bathed in salt water;
the burn oozed watery fluid for many days, and finally the healing was completed by bathing it with epsom salts.
Another swore by vinegar baths for burns, and still another recommended salted butter.
"Butter salve" or "butter ointment" was used for burns, and for bruises as well.
This was made by putting butter in a pan of water and allowing it to boil;
when it was cool, the fat was skimmed off and bottled.
Cow's milk was another cure for burns, and burns covered with gum arabic or plain mucilage healed quickly.
One man, badly burned about the face and eyes by an arc welding torch, was blinded and could not find a doctor at the time.
A sympathetic friend made poultices of raw potato parings, which she said was the best and quickest way to draw out the "heat".
Later the doctor used mineral oil on the burns.
The results were good, but which treatment helped is still not known.

To stop bleeding, cobwebs were applied to cuts and wounds.
One old-timer said to sprinkle sugar on a bleeding cut, even when on a knuckle, if it was made by a rusty tool;
this would stop the flow and also prevent infection.
My lawyer told me that his mother used a similar remedy for cuts and wounds;
she sprinkled common sugar directly on the injury and then bound it loosely with cotton cloth, over which she poured turpentine.
He showed me one of his fingers which had been practically amputated and which his mother had treated;
there is scarcely a scar showing.
Tobacco was common first aid.
A "chaw" of tobacco put on an open wound was both antiseptic and healing.
Or a thin slice of plug tobacco might be laid on the open wound without chewing.
One old man told me that when he was a boy he was kicked in the head by a fractious mule and had his scalp laid back from the entire front of his head.
His brother ran a mile to get the father;
when they reached the boy, the father sliced a new plug of tobacco, put the scalp back in place, and covered the raw edges with the slices.
Then he put a rag around the dressing to keep it in place.
There was no cleaning or further care, but the wound healed in less than two weeks and showed no scar.
Veronica from the herb garden was also used to stop bleeding, and rue was an antiseptic.
Until quite recently, "sterile" maggots could be bought to apply to a wound;
they would feed on its surface, leaving it clean so that it could be medically treated.

Tetanus could be avoided by pouring warm turpentine over a wound.
One family bound wounds with bacon or salt pork strips, or, if these were not handy, plain lard.
Another sprinkled sugar on hot coals and held the wounded foot or hand in the smoke.
Rabies were cured or prevented by "madstones" which the pioneer wore or carried.
In 1872 there were known to be twenty-two in Norton County, and one had been in the family for 200 years.
Another cure for hydrophobia was to suck the wounds, then cauterize them with a hot knife or poker.

While nowadays we recognize the fact that there are many causes for bleeding at the nose, not long ago a nosebleed was simply that, and treatment had little variation.
Since a fall or blow might have caused it, a cold pack was usually first aid.
This might be applied to the top of the nose or the back of the neck, pressed on the upper lip, or inserted into the nostril (cotton was usually used in this last).
Nosebleed could be stopped by wrapping a red woolen string about the patient's neck and tying it in a knot for each year of his life.
Or the victim could chew hard on a piece of paper, meanwhile pressing his fingers tight in his ears.

Old sores could be healed by the constant application of a wash made of equal parts vinegar and water.
Blood blisters could be prevented from forming by rubbing a work blister immediately with any hard nonpoisonous substance.
Felons were cured by taking common salt and drying it in the oven, pounding it fine, and mixing it with equal parts of spirits of turpentine;
this mixture was then spread on a cloth and wrapped around the affected part.
As the cloth dried, more of the mixture was applied, and after twenty-four hours the felon was supposed to be "killed".

Insect bites were cured in many ways.
Many an old-timer swore by the saliva method;
"get a bite, spit on it" was a proverb.
This was used also for bruises.
Yellow clay was used as a poultice for insect bites and also for swellings;
not long ago "Denver Mud" was most popular.
Chiggers were a common pest along streams and where gardens and berries thrived;
so small as to be scarcely visible to the eye, they buried themselves in the victim's flesh.
Bathing the itching parts with kerosene gave relief and also killed the pests.
Ant bites were eased by applying liquid bluing.
For mosquito bites a paste of half a glass of salt and half a glass of soda was made.
For wasp stings onion juice, obtained by scraping an onion, gave quick relief.
A handier remedy was to bathe the painful part in strong soapy water;
mud was sometimes used as well as soap.
Just plain old black dirt was also used as a pack to relieve wasp or bee stings.

Bedbugs were a common pest in pioneer days;
to keep them out of homes, even in the 1900's, was a chore.
Bed slats were washed in alum water, legs of beds were placed in cups of kerosene, and all woodwork was treated liberally with corrosive sublimate, applied with a feather.
Kerosene was very effective in ridding pioneer homes of the pests.
At times pioneer children got lice in their hair.
A kerosene shampoo seems a heroic treatment, but it did the job.

To remove an insect from one's ear warm water should be inserted.
A cinder or other small object could be removed from the eye by placing a flaxseed in the eye.
As the seed swelled its glutinous covering protected the eyeball from irritation, and both the cinder and the seed could soon be washed out.
Another way to remove small objects from the eye was to have the person look cross-eyed;
the particle would then move toward the nose, where it could be wiped out with a wisp of cotton.

Shingles were cured by gentian, an old drug, used in combinations.
For erysipelas a mixture of one dram borax and one ounce glycerine was applied to the afflicted part on linen cloth.
Itching skin, considered "just nerves", was eased by treating with whiskey and salt.
Winter itch was treated by applying strong apple cider in which pulverized bloodroot had been steeped.
To cure fungus growths on mouth or hands people made a strong tea by using a handful of sassafras bark in a quart of water.
They drank half a cup of this morning and night, and they also washed and soaked their hands in the same solution.
Six treatments cured one case which lasted a month and had defied other remedies.
Frostbite was treated by putting the feet and hands in ice water or by rubbing them with snow.
Now one hears that heat and hot water are used instead.
Another remedy was oil of eucalyptus, used as well for chilblains.
Chilblains were also treated with tincture of capsicum or cabbage leaves.

Boils have always been a source of much trouble.
A German informant gave me a sure cure made by combining rye flour and molasses into a poultice.
Another poultice was made from the inner bark of the elm tree, steeped in water until it formed a sticky, gummy solution.
This was also used for sores.
Another frequent pioneer difficulty, caused by wearing rough and heavy shoes and boots, was corns.
One veracious woman tells me she has used thin potato parings for both corns and calluses on her feet and they remove the pain or "fire".
Another common cure was to soak the feet five or ten minutes in warm water, then to apply a solution of equal parts of soda and common brown soap on a kid bandage overnight.
This softened the skin so that in the morning when the bandage was removed the corn could be scraped off and a bit of corn plaster put on.

There were many cures for warts.
One young girl told me how her mother removed a wart from her finger by soaking a copper penny in vinegar for three days and then painting the finger with the liquid several times.
Another wart removal method was to rub each wart with a bean split open and then to bury the bean halves under the drip of the house for seven days.
Saliva gathered in the mouth after a night's sleep was considered poisonous;
wetting a wart with this saliva on wakening the first thing in the morning was supposed to cause it to disappear after only a few treatments, and strangely enough many warts did just that.
One wart cure was to wrap it in a hair from a blonde gypsy.
Another was to soak raw beef in vinegar for twenty-four hours, tie it on the wart, and wear it for a week.
A simpler method was to tie a thread tightly around the wart at its base and wear it this way.
I know this worked.
One person recommended to me washing the wart with sulphur water;
another said it should be rubbed with a cut potato three times daily.
Another common method was to cut an onion in two and place each half on the wart for a moment;
the onion was then fastened together with string and placed beneath a dripping eave.
As the onion decayed, so did the wart.

Sore muscles were relieved by an arnica rub;
sore feet by calf's-foot, an herb from the pioneer's ubiquitous herb garden, or by soaking the feet in a pan of hot water in which two cups of salt had been dissolved.
Leg cramps, one person tells me, were relieved by standing barefoot with the weight of the body on the heel and pressing down hard.
This does give relief, as I can testify.
One doctor prescribed a tablespoon of whiskey or brandy before each meal for leg cramps.
Pains in the back of the leg and in the abdomen were prevented from reaching the upper body by tying a rope about the patient's waist.

For sprains and swellings, one pint of cider vinegar and half a pint of spirits of turpentine added to three well beaten eggs was said to give speedy relief.