Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/185

 Confederate Drug Conditions. 181

<l botts" in horses, and were used to pack with dried fruits to pre- serve them from ravages of insects. A soap was made from the berries, called " Poor Man's Soap."

The ox-eyed daisy was used in place of Persian insect powder an insecticide used as far back as 1857. In the country, fresh elder- berry leaves were laid near the head of a bed-ridden person to keep away flies.

In the households on the farms many interesting expedients were resorted to. The newspapers were full of directions about soap- making and for preparing and obtaining the materials. The Rich- mond Dispatch and Wilmington Journal published minute direc- tions for making soda from sea-weed and corn-cobs, and receipts for making soaps.

Blackberry wine was used almost exclusively as a substitute for foreign wines, and some wine was also made from wild grapes and the berries of the elder bush. All the newspapers published re- cipes for making these wines, and there is scarcely a housewife in the South who does not know how to make them to perfection.

In the Mobile Register I find the following: "To alleviate the suffering and perhaps save the lives of many of our soldiers, when sickness may be traced to the use of unwholesome water in lime- stone regions, blackberry cordial is recommended. The following is a good receipt: Bruise the berries and strain through a bag; to each quart of juice add half a pound of loaf sugar, heaped teaspoon- ful of powdered cinnamon, the same of cloves, and a grated nutmeg; boil twenty minutes, skimming well. When cool add half pint of brandy for each quart, or add good whiskey."

Compound syrup of blackberries was recommended and used as a vehicle for medicines. It was made by adding half ounce each of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, to half a gallon blackberries. These were boiled twenty minutes in a kettle and strained through a piece of flannel. To this was added loaf sugar to make it very sweet, and half pint of cognac brandy to two quarts.

A decoction of the blackberry root and the rind of the pomegran- ate fruit boiled in milk was a common remedy in diarrhoea.

The roots and leaves of the cockleburr were considered service- able in passive hemorrhages, diarrhoea, gonorrhoea, and as a deob- struent in obstructions of the spleen and diseases arising from torpid liver.

One or two ounces of a decoction of Indian physic root (Gillom'a