What Were They Thinking in 1899?

I came across some interesting remedies that gave me pause. Perhaps you will enjoy them as well...

Cure for Baby's Fits

From the London Lancet.
At the annual collective examination held in Natal in a paper on health and temperature the question occurred: "Write out some simple directions to be followed in cases of convulsions i infants." One answer ran thus:
Put the infant quickly into a bath of boiling water up to the neck. Put ice on its head. Then give him a mild epidemic followed by a teaspoonful of castor oil.
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Why Rats Should be Eaten

From the Lahore Tribune.
A Chinaman advocates the use of rats thus. "What a carrot is to a horse's coat a rat is to the human hair. Neither fact can be explained, but every horseman knows that a regimen of carrots will make his stud smooth and lustrous as velvet, and the Chinese, especially the women, know that rats used as food stop the falling out of hair and make the locks soft, silky and beautiful. I have seen it tried many times."

The Pittsburgh Press
Feb, 8, 1899

Ah, genealogy. It's a kick, although this time, I think I'll pass.