The skin may be removed
before eating, but care should be taken not to allow a particle of the
potato to adhere to it. The valuable potash salts chiefly lie just under
the skin.
A raw potato scraped or powdered to a pulp is an excellent remedy for
burns and scalds.
Dr. Fernie recommends the following decoction with which to bathe the
swollen and inflamed joints of rheumatic sufferers. Take 1 lb.
potatoes, cut each into four, but do not peel them. Boil in 2 pints of
water until stewed down to 1 pint. Strain, and use the liquid.
Eaten to excess potatoes are apt to cause dullness and laziness.
_Radish._
The radish is commonly cited as indigestible, but for all that it is
commended by old writers as a potent remedy for stone. If not too old,
well masticated, and eaten at the beginning of a meal, I do not think it
is more indigestible than the majority of vegetables.
A syrup made with the juice expressed from pounded radishes and cane
sugar is recommended for rheumatism, bronchial troubles, whooping-cough,
and pustular eruptions.
Dr. Fernie notes that the black radish is especially useful against
whooping-cough, probably by reason of its volatile, sulphureted oil.
"It is employed in Germany for this purpose by cutting off the top, and
then making a hole within the root, which hole is filled with treacle,
or honey, and allowed to stand thus for two or three days; afterwards a
teaspoonful of the medicated liquid is to be given two or three times in
the day, with a dessertspoonful of water, when required.
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