A Malignant Sore Throat is a Danger; a Malignant Throat not Sore, is Worse.

Late winter is sore throat season here in the upper Midwest. For the obsessed reenactor, a sore throat isn't a drawback, but another excuse to try 18th century receipts. To begin treating our sore throats in the more period correct manner we have many choices. They don't all include toxic chemicals either, a particular bonus if we don't want to die in a period correct manner as well!

E. Smith in the 1739 issue of The Compleat Housewife or, Accomplished Gentlewoman's Companion suggests both a stay and a plaster for sore throats. Both of these are very similar to the home remedy that my own mother used: a warm wash cloth safety pinned around a painful throat.

Stay to prevent a fore Throat in the Small Pox. Take rue, fhred it very fine, and give it a bruife, mix with it honey and album-greacum, and work it together; put it over the fire to heat, few it up in a linen stay, and apply it to the throat pretty warm; as it dries, repeat it.

(P. 90)

For a fore Throat. Take a plaifter of Paracelfus four inches broad, and fo long as to come from ear to ear, and apply it warm to the throat; then bruife houfleek, and prefs out the juice; add an equal quantity of honey, and a little burnt alum; mix all together, and let the party often take fome on a liquorice ftick.

(p. 3)

In his 1764 The General Practice of Physic Extracted Chiefly from the Writings of the Most Celebrated Practical Physicians, Richard Brookes suggests the use of black currant for so called "inflammatory distempers of the throat". Even a simple sore throat sounds better when said in 18th century English. Black currant lozenges & teas are commonly used today as natural remedies for throat complaints, proof that our home remedies haven't changed much even in 200 years.

In the Philosophical Tranfations, the Jelly of Black Currants, fwallowed down leifurely in fmall Quantities, is afferted to be a Specific for a quinfcy; and in the Winter, a Decoction of the Leaves or Bark in Milk, when the Jelly cannot be had, ufed as a Gargle, is faid to cure all inflammatory Diftempers of the Throat

(p. 174)

Popular cookbook authoress Hannah Glasse agrees with Mr. Brookes, offering a receipt for black current jelly in The Complete Confectioner, Or, Housekeeper's Guide to a Simple and Speedy Method of Understanding the Whole Art of Confectionary. She goes so far as to specifically mention the jelly is only used for the treatment of sore throats.

To make Black Currant Jelly. Make it the same way as the red currant jelly, only with this difference, make it with the coarsest lump sugar. Note.-- This jelly is never used in a dessert, but is a very good thing for a sore throat.

(p. 90)

The Complete Confectioner offers several options for making currant jelly, both white & unspecified in color. The easiest involves creating a simple juice from the berries & preceding with a standard jelly process. Either hartshorn or isinglass, available from Deborah Peterson's Pantry, could be used when duplicating this soothing jelly or modern unflavored gelatin may be substituted.

To make Currant Jelly. Wash your currants well, put them into a pan and mash them, then put in a little water, boil them to a mummy, strew it on a sieve, and press out all the juice of which make your jelly.

(p. 89)

If the preceding wasn't enough, Francis Penrose offers an entire book on the subject. A Dissertation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat: Also on the Putrid Fever, Together with Their Diagnosticks and Method of Cure, published in 1766, promises to answer just about every possible question regarding the throat, at least from an 18th century physicians perspective.

Here's to our health!

~~~
Works Cited:

Longhi, Pietro. The Apothecary. 1752. Oil on canvas. Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice.

Smith, E. 1739. The Compleat Housewife: or, Accomplished gentlewoman's companion. J. and J. Pemberton.

Brookes, Richard. 1765. The General Practice of Physic: Extracted Chiefly from the Writings of the Most Celebrated Practical Physicians. J. Newbery.

Glasse, Hannah and Maria Wilson. 1800. The Complete Confectioner, Or, Housekeeper's Guide to a Simple and Speedy Method of Understanding the Whole Art of Confectionary. J. W. Meyers, for West and Hughes.

Penrose, Francis. 1766 A Dissertation on the Inflammatory, Gangrenous, and Putrid Sore Throat: Also on the Putrid Fever, Together with Their Diagnosticks and Method of Cure. London. D. Prince; and W. Owen.