The American Pictorial Home Book
or Housekeeper's Encyclopedia - online book

A reference manual of household management in Victorian times.

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534
GLYCERINE.
with soap. Be careful not to get it on the skin or clothes, as it makes the face sore, as well as colors it.
Liquid to color the hair black without staining the skin.—One part bay rum, 3 parts of olive oil, and i part of good brandy by measure; wash the hair with it every morning and it will make the hair beautifully black without injuring it; use articles of the best quality; mix in a bottle; shake well before applying.
A Harmless Dye for Coloring the Hair.—(Dr. G.)—Take a piece of unslacked lime (a good article) and reduce it to powder by pouring water on it, then mix it with a portion of litharge, one-fourth to one-third as much litharge as lime; reduce to a fine pow­der and pass through a seive.
A Valuable and Natural Dye for fhe Hair.—(Contributed by Mrs. James de Stephenson,"of Arizona, for the "Housekeeper's Encyclopaedia.")- -Collect the juice of the mesquite tree by making an incision in it; Jhen wash the hair perfectly clean and wipe it dry, then wet it several times with the forementioned juice, and it will not only make the hair soft and kill the vermin, but will make the hair rich and glossy^and also the beard. Note.—This juice is used by the Navajo Indians for dying their hair jet black, and exerts no in­jurious effects.
Grecian Hair Dye.—(Harmless.)—Is made from green walnut hulls (Juglau regia) by extracting with water and evaporating until the regianic acid is precipitated as a black powder.
Tincture for Gray Hair.—To 4 ounces of the finely beaten root of the wild indigo plant, 1 pint of alcohol, and 1 pint of rain water or soft water; let it steep for six or seven days in a closely covered vessel or bottle, then simply wet the scalp with It twice a day night or morning.
GLYCERINE.
Glycerine is the best application known for burns. It is sooth­ing as well as healing; it is invaluable in diphtheria; apply to the throat with a soft brush. It is good in croup ; for dry sores; for painful sores; for blistered skin; head scab, and diarrhoea in chil­dren, used both internally and externally; for chronic pneumonia, given in a teaspoonful dose 3 times a day. It is excellent to mix poultices with to keep them moist, and to make them more healing, and prevent their sticking. It should be in every family.
Glycerine.—This valuable substance was for ages considered of no importance, being derived from the residuum left after the mak­ing of stearine candles and soap. Its medical properties are of the most striking character, and its value beyond computation, not only in pharmacy, but in innumerable things; its antisceptic properties