Eucalyptus was used in the form of a decoction of the leaves taken internally. The oil was also put in very hot water and used as an inhalation.
Another remedy involved filling a kettle as full as possible, boiling it, adding a spoonful of carbolic acid and letting the steam fill the room. This was supposed to relieve the symptoms of whooping cough.
A mixture of ground alum and powdered sugar was recommended to be taken by the sufferer several times a day. Another mixture that was used as a remedy consisted of West Indian rum, aniseed oil and lemon juice.
There were some extremely odd old cures for whooping cough. One particularly unpleasant one involved holding a frog or toad for a few moments with its head in the mouth of the sufferer. Sometimes a fish was put into the patient's mouth and then thrown into a river, the idea being that it would take the whooping cough infection into the water with it.
A mixture of crushed wood lice and breast milk from a nursing mother taken every morning for several days was another cure and probably one that did not appeal very much to the person forced to take it. He or she would probably have preferred another cure, which involved passing the patient three times under the belly of a donkey and then passing him or her three times over the back of a donkey.
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