A Book of Curious Advice: Most Unusual Manners, Morals, and Medicine from Days of Yore

by Ruth Pepper Summers (Editor)

Cigarettes to cure asthma ? Crushed strawberries to remove freckles? Old advice can be peculiar or even downright dangerous, as this eye-opening, enjoyable treasury of misinformation proves. Drawn from such tomes as Ladies' Indispensable Assistant (1852), Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861), and Dr. Chase's Recipes (c. 1884), it offers a sampling of the most alarming remedies, unusual tips, and outdated theories from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries. The unwise guidance covers everything from curing alcoholism to lacing corsets. Complete with revealing information on the popularity of opium, history of bathing, and nineteenth-century version of the Atkins' diet, A Book of Curious Advice provides a rare and hilarious glimpse into our ancestors' heads and homes.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 25, 2005

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting articles but would have liked more information

[Garrett Zecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given to me by a friend, this book is a foray into the absurdities of Pre-industrial living and the ultimate struggles of humanity reflected in the mirror of a world that ultimately had no medical licensing, peer review of published materials, or sensical views on physical health and vitality. It is a book about the complexities of the wholly uncomplex nature of living when books were published readily and inexpensively and both authors and readers were ignorant of anything but ready belief. It is almost like the books being published with health, safety, relationship, and homemaking advice contained the same absurdities found on the Internet today (but before the Internet!). It was a fun bedside read that was quick and is easily read incrementally, and I think my only complaint is that the food chapter was a bit unfair because i think that the author overlooked the canning process in the overboiling of vegetables and also the recipes for squirrel, rook, brains, and tongue are valid even though they are not extremely popular in our culture... I mean, unappetizing to most of us, but surely edible nevertheless, unlike the excerpts of all the ways family members feel better after giving them doses of opiates...

[C. J. Scurria · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual gift I got from a parent of mine many years ago. I would definitely qualify this as a "strange-reference" but is only good for the curious on what people thought were cures or ways to treat different diseases back a few centuries ago. As a list of "old wives' tales" types of processes for ailments it is almost as strange as Kevin Trudeau's book on "cures" (non-sensible rib, hi-yo!). :P

[Robbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

had funny cures and recipe. a book you can dip in and out of