Modern theorists now believe that many of these deadly epidemics were devastating forms of influenza which, because people were less well equipped both physically and medically to cope with it, carried off great numbers, particularly children and the elderly, to an untimely death.

To our forefathers, however, even the common cold represented a dire threat for, unable to place their reliance upon a miracle cure from the National Health Service and without sickness benefit to sustain them, a heavy cold meant at best an unpaid absence from work or at worst serious and prolonged illness which could become complicated and lead ultimately to death. Without the benefits, doubtful or otherwise, of central heating, air conditioning and easily available covered transport our great-grandmothers took care to see that adequate precautions were taken with correct and sufficient clothing  and fuel food to sustain the body under the most adverse conditions. Care was essential to prevent the worst from happening but if it did a mustard bath, a hot drink and plenty of warm covering administered with a swift prayer to the Almighty to be merciful were the only immediate solutions.

Care took the form of year-round vigilance combined with the inherited wisdom of knowing and understanding what would ensure continued good health: which fruits to put by for winter use, the barrels of apples stored for daily consumption, the berries and soft fruit full of valuable vitamins, the flowers and leaves with antiseptic and healing qualities which could be drunk, sucked or burned when illness stalked the countryside. Prevention, although not easy, was infinitely better than having to cure.

Apart from ensuring ‘an apple a day’ and a daily intake of fresh fruit and vegetables, how else might we guard against the common cold? The suggestions from time immemorial varied vastly, ranging from dried swallow’s bones wrapped in vine leaves and carried around the neck (presumably if you were in a position to obtain any thing quite so esoteric you were also in a position to follow the live swallow abroad and avoid winter cold) to honeysuckle syrup.

Garlic, a clove a day, has a justifiable reputation as being  a remarkable cold preventative and cure. If you object to the taste and smell, purls and capsules are equally effective and less offensive. I suspect that apart from having extremely potent antiseptic qualities, the chewing of garlic is so antisocial that no one comes close enough to transmit their own germs. If you do not suffer from catarrh, drinking milk in which 2 garlic cloves have been boiled is to be recommended as effective and less pungent. I am constantly amazed that garlic enjoys such a reputation as an aphrodisiac. Presumably the therapeutic qualities of the herb are so stimulating that the libido is provoked to the point where all else can be ignored. My own particular preference for garlic is in salad dressing and I find that when the body is exhausted and at its lowest ebb the finest and most restorative meal that one can enjoy is hot crusty garlic bread accompanying a large bowl of home-made onion soup.

In what other ways might the conscientious wife and mother protect her family against taking a chill? There are within the pages of a good housewife’s manual methods of prevention which would have interested the Spanish Inquisition, ranging from sewing the family into flannel at the end of September and releasing them in May, after which ‘the casting of the clout’ must have required nerves of steel and a strong stomach, to an evil-sounding mustard poultice applied hot upon the chest which would have been so fraught with hazard as to make it impractical.

A last word from the medical profession upon prescribing for the common cold: ‘If I prescribe for a patient a cold will be cleared up within seven days and if I do not it will hang around for about a week.’

Home Remedies for Common Cold

• honey and lemon Once again and in a variety of different ways this famous and already well-recommended cure-all will alleviate the symptoms of a cold and also comfort when misery takes over. Drink it hot and undiluted or with hot water and flavor with cinnamon, cloves, ginger or cayenne or even a mixture of each or some of these. It is also excellent with whisky, brandy or ginger cordial. A very good alcoholic ginger cordial can be made by using the above ‘Granddad Fred’s’ recipe but substituting brandy for the whisky and using a more substantial chunk of root ginger. One of the good home remedies for common cold.
  
  
• Gingered beer Ginger mulled in beer is an old-fashioned remedy which improves sleep and is especially useful for restless fellows.
  
  
• Honey and eucalyptus Mix 1 teaspoon of honey into a small coffee cup of hot water and add 3 drops of essential oil of eucalyptus. Take two or three times a day. Eucalyptus is also first rate when used as an inhalant in hot water. One of the best home remedies for common cold.
• Hot milky drinks These are excellent when children or adults alike are cold, wet and tired and they usually ensure a sound night’s sleep. However milk may aggravate catarrhal conditions. Although I do not advocate trying the old Asian favorite of hot yak milk, grated garlic and ghee there are plenty of other soothing ideas which certainly help small children feel cosseted and comforted, thus winning half the battle, especially if it helps them to sleep without distress. Freshly ground cinnamon or ginger stirred into hot milk is antiseptic and warming but do not boil the milk as this destroys much of its goodness. Hot chocolate sweetened with honey can be substituted for the milk: popped into a blender to give it a frothy head and decorated with one of the previously mentioned spices and a smattering of grated chocolate it will look too good for even the tetchiest child to pass up.
  
  
• Hot milk and onion A large sliced onion simmered in milk is as good for you as onion soup. Some people suggest tripe and onions made with milk while others substitute garlic for the onions. If you do not like milk simmer your onions in water. Many remedies advocate seasoning with cayenne.
• Cayenne Half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper added to 150ml (1/4 pint) of hot milk or water is very warming but it is not appreciated by children. Do make sure that the pepper is well dissolved otherwise it may be a little more warming than intended. One of the popular home remedies for common cold.
• Bread and milk Butter slices of bread and sprinkle them with sugar. Cover with hot milk and eat before going to bed. This delicious ‘milk mess’ will send you to sleep without a qualm when you are tired and cold.

Cold comfort with some another Home Remedies for Common Cold.

One of the first signs of illness is an excessive thirst which becomes worse as the body burns up energy combating infection, and which has the patient demanding coffee, tea and fizzy drinks, none of which are particularly good for them. A century ago none of these would have been easily or economically available and bran or barley waters and herb tea were used, not only to reduce thirst but to prevent dehydration and alleviate the problem with their own healing properties.

Lemon Barley Water

1 large lemon
2 tablespoons pearl barley
1 liter (1.75 pints) boiling water

Pare the rind thinly from the well washed lemon and place it with the barley in a large heatproof jug. Pour on the boiling water, cover and leave to stand overnight. The next day strain off the pale straw – colored liquid and drink by the glass with or without honey. Save the juice from the lemons to make another drink but do not add it to the barley water. This is an inexpensive drink which soothes and nourishes and should be made fresh daily.

Lemonade

2 lemons
1 liter (1.75 pints) water
50g (2oz) sugar

Wash the lemon well and remove the rind using a potato peeper, taking care not to include any of the white pith. Put the rind into a pan with half the water and the sugar and bring gently to the boil, stirring well to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Pour into a jug and leave to get cold. Strain then add the juice from the lemons and the remaining water. Serve as it is.

Ginger Lemon Cordial

6 lemons
4 oranges
150g (4oz) seedless raisins
3 cups clear honey
75g (3oz) ginger root, crushed
4.5 liters (8 pints) water
Wash the lemons and oranges well then grate the rind from them and squeeze the juice, which should be kept in the refrigerator until needed. Put the rinds and remaining ingredients into a large pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for one hour. Skim and leave in jugs overnight to cool. Add the fruit juices the next day. Drink undiluted.

• Apple tea Slice washed but unpeeled apples and place them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover. Simmer for one hour, strain and use hot or cold. This health-giving drink cuts colds to the quick. With honey added and diluted with sparkling mineral water it also makes a very good summertime drink.
• Fruit juices Any fruit juice that has a good sharp flavor and contains vitamin C must improve one’s state of health at the same time as it is refreshing the beleaguered body. Blackcurrant, loganberry, apple, pineapple, lemon and orange all spring instantly to mind although it is now suggested that people who constantly suffer from catarrhal infection should avoid orange juice as it is believed to exacerbate the condition. Both grape juice and pomegranate juice are wonderfully thirst-quenching and apart from being of physical value it is also thought that they bring peace of mind and promote pure thoughts! Grated, dried pomegranate peel soaked in a small cup of boiling water then strained makes an excellent gargle for sore throats. Children who are feeling unwell with a rotten cold will relish eating the raw pomegranate, seed by delicious crystal seed, which will also do them a lot of good. Although all of these fruit juices will cool the patient down, and for that reason give them instant relief, many people believe that it is more rewarding to take all fruit juices hot with honey.

Refreshing Herbal Teas

• Angelica tea This or a few drops of essential oil of angelica in a cup of ho water will clear a stuffy nose and improve the sense of smell. It can also be inhaled. Angelica and nettle tea fortifies and soothes.
• Basil tea Made with either fresh or dried leaves basil tea brings about a mild perspiration and with the addition of a pinch of ground cloves and cinnamon not only reduces fever but has a perfume so heady and redolent of hot Mediterranean heaths that it invokes a dreamy calm. One of the useful home remedies for common cold.
• Spice tea Take 1 stick of cinnamon, 2 cloves and 2 sprigs of fresh or 3 pinches of dried thyme and boil gently in 1 liter (1.75 pints) of water for two minutes. Infuse for three minutes before straining and drinking.
• Tamarind tea Take 1 cup of tamarind pulp to 1 liter (1.75 pints) of boiling water. Cover and leave to infuse for two hours. Strain and drink, ½ a cup at a time and sweetened with a little honey , every four hours. One of the best home remedies for cold.
• Ginger tea Infuse a good chunk of bruised fresh ginger root in hot water or chew on a small piece. If masochism is not part of your make-up sprinkle ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger into a cup of hot water and add 2 teaspoons of honey to make a pleasant drink.

Trying Anything Once

The common cold has defeated scientists for centuries and, despite the money, intelligence and vast pharmaceutical resources poured into researching a cure, will probably continue to defeat us for years to come. Many of the strange and seemingly illogical folk methods of curing, or at least of alleviating, the misery of colds have their basis in strong commonsense and a more than passing knowledge of anatomy. Many of them work surprisingly well and are frequently given an airing by research groups and clinics.

Some of us have found that splashing the face with cold water will relieve the misery of running eyes and nose and sneezes. Hay fever sufferers will have tried sea water, ice bags, sniffing copious snorts of water up each nostril and complete immersion daily. Since civilized man endowed the Eskimos with the common cold they have discovered their own method of curing it by sniffing snow up their noses and there is a very good reason for this and any other ‘cold nose’ cure. The icy cold snow contracts the swollen membranes within the nose and this in turn creates an expulsion of accumulated mucus The mucous membranes are no longer irritated and inflamed and the ‘cold’ disappears.

Without the help of ice and snow you can make your won remedy by taking 2 cups of ice-cold water (place the water in the freezing compartment of your refrigerator for a few minutes) and stirring into it 1 tablespoon of Epsom salts. Stir well and then dip a folded cloth into the solution. Wring out the excess water and place the cloth over the nose and sinuses for as long as it takes for some relief to become apparent. Keep the solution cold and the cloth refreshed.

Other methods of trying to stop the nose streaming and to stop sneezing are to sniff sea water, warm water and lemon juice, neat lemon juice or sage vinegar. Rubbing a sage leaf around the nose was considered useful, probably because the natural oils in sage are antiseptic and healing, and it is certainly less painful than lemon juice or vinegar both of which work on the principle, I believe, of shriveling the mucous membrane with shock. John Wesley was no less gentle in his approach to sneezing and advocated the coiled rind of a thinly pared orange up each nostril. Orris root was also used as a snuff and, although rather more pleasant than the alternative suggestion of cayenne, would have done nothing more than produce the most vigorous attach of sneezing, thus ridding the nasal passages of obstruction but hardly soothing and colling. Most of the best methods suggested for easing sneezing either cool or lubricate these sensitive areas and do not rely upon ‘drying up’ a cold.

A very simple nasal sparay which will case the misery of early – morning sneezing is made by adding 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt and 2 tablespoons of glycerine to 2 cups of water (soft, bottled) . Pour this into a sterilized jar and shake well. Use in an atomizer. I have been told that ladies would carry a small atomizer of eau de Cologne or lavender water in their handbags to use in an emergency.

Cold cures can also work beyond the easily acceptable fact of icy inhalation reaching into the realms of related pain. A friend of mine sits with his toes in a basin of freezing cold water. He had read that the Chinese believe that all areas of the body are directly associated and that freezing one’s big toes causes the swollen membranes in nose, sinuses and throat to contract, which in turn reduces the irritation without harmful after-effects (although he does run the risk of frostbite). I have tried this suggestion and I have to say that it does appear to work but I would not have bowed to John Wesley’s theory which insisted that not only toes but the whole body be subjected to an icy cold bath. More conventional friends recommend 1 tablespoon each of mustard powder and household soda to a bucket of very warm water in which one immerses the feet whilst sitting with blankets wrapped around shoulders and waist. A hot-water bottle on the feet is another old-fashioned suggestion in direct contradiction to the frozen toe theory.

Food and sleep figure strongly and in a contradictory manner: do you feed a fever and starve a cold, or is it vice versa? Should we wrap up warmly and take a long, brisk walk? Or should we take the sensible advice of a writer on the subject of influenza who stated unequivocally, ‘I cannot stress strongly enough the necessity for the patient to stay in bed for a long period of convalescence after this dangerous illness. To arise too soon and to attempt to carry out one’s normal duties can, I fear, lead only to paralysis and insanity.’ Strong words but bearing in mind the at present fashionable belief that M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis) may be the result of flu perhaps we should not scoff.

Delving into the realms of fantasy also provides some entertaining theories. Certain tribes of  North American Indians chewed the leaf of the creosote bush to ward off colds whilst sailors of a century or so ago chewed tarred rope, both of which probably contained some of the constituents of modern-day medicines. Country folk slept with a piece of garlic or liquorices root between teeth and cheek or carried a piece of black sheep’s wool well larded with butter or olive oil and egg around their necks. All of these remedies to keep infection away worked, I am sure, on the principle that you did not smell sufficiently pleasant to get close enough to infect although none could possibly be quite so effective as the Russian solution of tying a hank of dried herring around the throat . Centuries ago, when the threat of plague was close, anyone venturing out into the streets carried posies of strongly aromatic and antiseptic herbs to ward off infection. Within living memory small children were sent to school with a small purse of asafetida or camphor tied beneath their collars, whilst in Mediterranean countries garlic was the chosen herb. All of these smelt equally pungent but were probably no worse than our latter day preference for eucalyptus, winter green and menthol.

Inhalants, rubs and Gargles

The majority of the recipes and remedies to be found under Chest Infections, Coughs and Asthma work equally well on patients suffering from a cold or flu.

• Onions Make a strong brew of onions, the steam of which should be inhaled through mouth and nose. It goes without saying that garlic is also recommended. A good strong sniff of raw onion was also believed to drive a cold away!
•  Olbas oil This may be used as a hot-water inhalant but is much better if applied to handkerchief or tissue. (Always burn tissues, most especially when colds are in evidence.)
• Eucalyptus, chamomile or angelica rub The essential oils of any of these, a few drops at a time, added to 1 tablespoon of almond or sunflower oil, can be used to gently massage the congested areas of face and throat. The two latter herbs are particularly kind and soothing on the sensitive areas around eyes and nose.
• Gargles Gargle with a few drops of iodine in a large glass of warm water. Quinine is reputed to have the same healing effect. A tea cup of barley water with 1 teaspoon each of salt and vinegar stirred in is also a reasonably gentle gargle.

Starve a Cold

It is undoubtedly better for a patient who is suffering from a bad cold or influenza to eat as little as possible and in fact they will probably reject most foods unreservedly. Staunchly old fashioned remedies such as milk, butter, honey and garlic or onion, barley water and cod liver oil, which were designed to both prevent and cure colds, will do nothing to improve that situation. Onions are comforting and warming with many therapeutic qualities and so are garlic and many herbs, all of which can be incorporated into a nourishing broth. Beef tea and chicken soup were great favorites as was blancmange, particularly a savory variety made with carrageen. Fruit sorbet made with orange  or lemon juice or one of the soft fruits high in vitamin C slides down a sore throat without trouble whilst porridge is warm, sustaining, easily digested and a great improvement upon gruel. The best food, though, for sad and sorry people is yoghurt with wheat germ and honey.

Fruit juices have already been mentioned and both grape juice and the juice of carrots are thought to improve the chances of a good recovery. Some sources have also been known to advocate the juice of turnip tops which are very good for you but perhaps better served up as a vegetable with a lemon and oil dressing. However there are plenty of very pleasant and appetizing foods to choose from which will both tempt the patient to eat and also improve their general state of health. More importantly they are excellent nourishment to take when the body is cold and weary and at its most vulnerable.

Onion Soup

4 large onions
1 large clove garlic
5 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon each dried thyme, sage and savory
small piece of bay leaf
1 liter (1.75 pints) good strong chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Peel the onions and cut them into very thin slices and finely chop the garlic. Put the oil into a large saucepan and cook the onions and garlic in this until they are golden brown and transparent. Do not allow them to burn. Stir in the herbs and add the warmed stock a little at a time followed by the lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Cover and simmer very gently for one hour. Children will prefer the soup strained and it should be served hot with garlic and tomato bread. I prefer to give invalids this onion soup rather than the thicker one made with milk which may exacerbate catarrhal infections. Truly strong men will take their soup liberally laced with cayenne pepper for maximum benefit.

• Garlic and tomato bread  Bake thick slices of bread in a hot oven until lightly golden brown. Smear each side with a cut garlic clove, paste well with olive oil and spread with tomato puree.
• Sweet sockets During the prolific summer months fruits and often herbs were made into ‘sockets’ both to preserve them and to provide an easily acceptable source of valuable vitamins for children. Modern mothers will find that these pastilles and candies are a wonderfully healthy alternative to humbugs especially if their nearest and dearest travel on those great breeding grounds of the common cold and flu the school bus and commuter train. Blackcurrants make the best pastilles because not only are they high in vitamin C but they also have a sharply delicious taste. Apples, blackberries and quince can be added to the choice of fruits which will enable you to keep the winter bugs at bay.
• Angelica Candied angelica stems can be chewed to counteract a sore throat and sniffles and also the loss of the sense of smell caused by heavy catarrh. Commercially produced crystallized angelica is expensive so try growing your own magnificently green and shady plant. Avoid taking angelica just before going to bed as it is a mild stimulant.