The Ladies Book of Useful Information, Anonymous [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

cure and refine a coarse skin, so that it will be clear and white.

It teaches how to have soft, white and attractive hands, even though compelled to do housework. Every lady desires to have nice hands, and all may do so by following the directions of this chapter.

It teaches how to care for the hair so as to improve the growth and to have a beautiful and luxuriant head of hair; how to keep the skin of the scalp healthy; to cure dandruff; to prevent the hair falling, and to have it of a nice color.

It teaches how to have clear and brilliant eyes, with beautiful, long, drooping lashes. Also, how to cure sore and weak eyes.

It teaches how to care for the teeth so as to have them white and sound, telling how to treat those that are decayed, and how to prevent the decay of sound ones.

It teaches how to have beautiful ripe red lips, and how to cure sore and chapped lips.

It teaches how to cure Warts, Corns, Bruises, Sprains, Cold Feet, Bad Breath, etc.

The following formulas for Toilet Preparations are all given in this book. They are vastly superior to the much-advertised cosmetics which flood the market. Your druggist will fill any of these recipes for a very small sum, and you will always have a superior article. Each of these preparations will do exactly what is claimed for it.

The following is a list of what is given in the first chapter: Lotion to remove freckles and tan; To expel freckles; Cleopatra's Freckle Balm; Lemon Cream, for sunburn and freckles; Wash to prevent sunburn; Grape lotion, for sunburn; Pate Axerasive of Bozin, to soften and whiten the skin; To remove red pimples; To remove black specks or flesh-grubs; Preparation for whitening the face and neck (bleaches and whitens the skin); To cure profuse perspiration; Cleopatra's Enamel for whitening the hands and arms; To cure freckles, and parched, rough skin; To purify the breath; To bleach and purify the skin of the face and neck; To permanently remove black specks or flesh-worms; French face-wash (purifies and brightens the complexion); To remove pimples; Kalydor for the complexion—for pimples, freckle-tanned skin, or scurf on the skin; To improve the skin; Wash a la Marie Antoinette (gives a beautiful brilliancy to the complexion); Liquid Rouge (harmless), a perfect imitation of nature; Milk of Roses, a cosmetic; Circassian Cream; Toilet Vinegar; Bloom Rose; Certain cure for eruptions, pimples, etc.; To clear the complexion and reduce the size of the face; To cure and refine a stippled or blotched skin; To cure and prevent wrinkles; Wash for wrinkles; To remove wrinkles; How to have brilliant, beautiful eyes; To cure weak eyes; To improve the eyelashes; To cure weakness of eyes; How to have beautiful eyelashes; To cure watery and inflamed eyes; To strengthen the sight; What to do for nearsightedness; How to have a beautiful mouth and lips; To make lip salve; French lip salve; German lip salve; To care for the teeth; To cure toothache; Premium tooth powder; Feuchtwanger's tooth paste; Fine tooth powder; Rye tooth powder; To cure foul breath; To have white and beautiful teeth; For decayed teeth; To remove yellow color from teeth; Camphor paste; Powerfully cleansing dentifrice; Infallible cure for toothache; Mixture for decayed teeth; To whiten and beautify the teeth.

How to have soft, white and beautiful hands; How to care for the hands; Bleaching lotion for the hands (renders them beautifully white); To remove stains from hands; To make the hands white and delicate; Remedy for chapped hands; To whiten coarse and dark-skinned hands; To cure red hands; Almond paste for the hands; To care for the nails.

To cause the skin to become satin-smooth and to smell like violets.

To cause those who have lost the bloom and fairness of early youth to regain them.

How to care for the hair; How often to wash the hair; To improve the growth and luxuriance of the hair; To make the hair glossy; To impart curliness or waviness to the hair when it is naturally straight; On changing the color of the hair; To have elegant hair; Wild Rose curling fluid; To cause the hair to grow very thick; Lola Montez hair coloring; Hair Restorative; For bald heads; Excellent hair wash; To cure baldness; Stimulants for the hair; The golden hair secret; For keeping the hair crimped or curled in summer; To bleach the hair; For improving the hair; Pomade for preserving the hair; To make the hair grow and to prevent it from falling; To make the hair grow quick; Wash for scald heads, etc.

Powders and their use: Boston Burnet powder for the face; Queen Bess complexion wash.

Chapter II.

Treats of miscellaneous matters: The human temperaments—How many there are—What they are; How to tell to which temperament you belong.

The fortunate and unfortunate days of the month; Days of the week, and their importance at the natal hour.

Important advice to females.

To know whom you will marry.

The signs of a good genius.

Electrical Psychology, or Psychological Fascination.

Mesmerism.

How to make persons at a distance think of you.

How to win the love of the person whom you love.

Chapter III.

A special chapter for young women: On marriage; What young women look forward to; What it is best to do when a prospect of marrying occurs; What a husband looks for; What marriage affords; On making yourself cheap; How to protect yourself; About courtship; Care of your character; How easily men are led astray, and how cautious you should be; What state of life is most honorable; Important points for your consideration; To make a husband happy; Nature of young women; On attracting the attention of young men; Young man's part; Young woman's part; Parents' wishes; How young men act in female company; Modesty; Courtship; On near relations marrying; On dress; What men need wives for; A mother's pleasure at the birth of her first child; How differently girls and boys are constituted; What young people should study before they become engaged.

Chapter IV.

Love and marriage; The attraction of the sexes for each other; What love is; What causes love; Individual loves; Fondness for cousins; Different kinds of love; Flirtation; Monogamy; Polygamy; The special object of marriage; Should marriage be for life.

Chapter V.

When to marry; How to select a partner on right principles; Very early marriages; The best age to marry; When marriages are most happy; The attributes of a handsome couple.

Chapter VI.

Sexual Intercourse—Its laws and conditions—Its use and abuse: A prevalent error; The law of sexual morality; What men expect; How men and women should live; Age of puberty to marriage; The law of marriage; What a man who truly loves a woman will do; A true union; Seduction; How women are protected; The false and the true sense of duty. What is the most powerful restraint from evil.

Chapter VII.

Marriage: What marriage is; How far back the marriage tie has existed; Polygamy—What it is; Monogamy—What it is; Polyandry—What it is; Marriage customs; The basis of a happy marriage.

Chapter VIII.

Pregnancy—Labor—Parturition: The signs of pregnancy; The changes that take place in the appearance; How soon after conception these changes take place; The period of gestation; Changes in the breasts; What causes labor; How labor may be rendered safe and easy; What the diet should consist of; The period of quickening; How to relieve the toothache, cramping of the legs, palpitation of the heart, morning sickness, etc., with which pregnant women are liable to be troubled; Sure test for the detection of pregnancy; Parturient Balm, a very important medicine; Abortion; Premature labor; The cause of abortion; Symptoms of threatened abortion; What to do for a threatened abortion; What to do for miscarriage; To prevent miscarriage.

Chapter IX.

Menstruation: The time of life at which it should appear; Signs of approaching puberty; Duty of mothers; Delayed and obstructed menstruation—What to do for it; Chlorosis, or green sickness—What to do for it—What it is caused by; Too profuse menstruation—How to treat it; Painful menstruation, or menstrual colic—How to treat it; Amenorrhœa, or suppressed menstruation—What causes this, and how to treat it.

Cessation of the menses, or change of life: Very important advice is given as to the way in which the patient should treat herself, which, if followed, will be of great benefit.

Falling of the Womb: What causes it, and how the patient should be treated.

Leucorrhœa—Whites—Flour Albus: What this disease is; What causes it; How to relieve and cure it.

Chapter X.

Collection of valuable Medical Compounds: Magic kidney and liver restorer; Hop bitters; Alterative or liver powders; Anti-dyspeptic pills; Dyspeptic ley (sure cure for dyspepsia); Ague pills; Certain remedy for ague or intermittent fever; Fever powders; Ague drops; Pills for neuralgia; Sick headache pills; Anodyne headache pills; Rheumatic pills; Pills for dysentery; Epileptic pills; Pills for asthma; Hysteric pills; Pills for neuralgia; Cure for bleeding of the lungs; Cure for consumption; Cough syrup; Soothing cough mixture; Expectorant tincture; Sure remedy for bowel complaints; Cordial for summer complaint; Scrofulous syrup; Eyewater; Tincture for rheumatism; Worm elixir; Dr. Jordan's cholera remedy; Pile ointment (sure cure); To cure warts and corns; Cure for deafness; Cure for inverted toe-nail.

Chapter XI.

Things for the Sick Room. Tells how to prepare the following articles for the sick and convalescent: Barley water; Sage tea; Refreshing drink for fevers; Arrowroot jelly; Irish moss jelly; Isinglass jelly; Tapioca jelly; Toast; Rice; Bread jelly; Rice gruel; Water gruel; Arrowroot gruel; Beef liquid; Beef tea; Panado; French milk porridge; Coffee milk; Drink for dysentery; Crust coffee; Cranberry water; Wine whey; Mustard whey; Chicken broth; Calves'-foot jelly; Slippery elm jelly; Nutritive fluids; Gum acacia restorative; Soups for the convalescent; Eggs; Milk for infants; Water gruel.

Chapter XII.

Things Curious and Useful: To get clear of mosquitoes; To get rid of bedbugs; To obtain fresh-blown flowers in winter; To increase the laying of eggs in hens; The art of transferring on to glass; To prevent horses being teased by flies; To prevent flies lighting on windows, pictures, mirrors, etc.; To make leather wear forever; To prepare waterproof boots; To render paper fireproof; To cure drunkenness; To cure laziness; To take leaf photographs; To make lamp wicks indestructible; To make different kinds of perfumes; To write secret letters; To preserve flowers.

Chapter XIII.

Home Decoration: On furnishing a house; How to furnish the Parlor, Library, Dining-room, Hall, Chambers, and Kitchen; Telling the proper way of arranging each room tastefully and economically.

Chapter XIV.

How to Care for House Plants: How to succeed with plants; A good collection of plants; To kill the spider; To start slips; To keep plants without a fire at night; To kill rose-slugs; On watering plants.

To prepare autumn leaves and ferns; To prepare skeleton leaves; Pretty hanging baskets.

Chapter XV.

The Laundry: To make washing fluid; Gall soap; For washing woolens and fine prints; To take out scorch; To make bluing; To make coffee starch; To make flour starch; To make fine starch; Enamel for shirt bosoms; To clean articles made of white zephyr; To clean velvet; To clean ribbons; To take out paint; To remove ink stain; To take out fruit stains; To remove iron rust; To take out mildew; To wash flannels in tepid water.

Chapter XVI.

How to do your own Stamping and make your own Patterns: The articles needed for stamping; To make perforated patterns; To enlarge designs; To stamp; To make blue powder; To do French indelible stamping; To make paint for stamping; The proper brush to use; To make a distributor; To care for patterns.

Chapter XVII.

Bronze Work: What bronze work is; The articles