15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, March 13, 1911:  Alas and alack, things are getting so dry in this diary. What I did today was so unimportant that I will not take the time and trouble to write it down.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later: 

I picture Grandma allowing her shoulders to droop dejectedly, while feeling that nothing exciting was happening in her life. . .  Maybe she should have tried to follow the rules in the March 15, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal:

Now girls, a direct word to you—I mean you girls who think you are the only ugly girls in the world, and who grow morbid and sensitive and allow your shoulders to stoop dejectedly . . . Do you not know that if you follow daily half a dozen simple hygienic rules, in six months the effect on you—both mental and physical—will be so great that you will forget that you ever yearned for the impossible and life will seem after all a very pleasant thing?  But you must have the will power to keep them up, and the earnestness to believe in their ultimate good.

Here are the rules:

First: A daily bath in the tub or with a sponge, with a good, brisk rubbing afterward.

Second: Five minutes spent in deep breathing exercises.

Third: Five minutes’ exercises for the liver.

Fourth: Eight glasses of water a day: two when you get up, two during the morning, two during the afternoon and two before you go to sleep.

Fifth: Seven hours of sleep in a room with open windows.

Sixth: Persistent cheerfulness.

“Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911

In case you aren’t familiar with liver exercises, here’s how they are done:

The exercise for the liver are simple enough and soon become habitual. Girls are very incredulous when I tell them that it is an inactive liver which causes many a complexion trouble. There is something very coarse and unromantic to the average girl about this vulgar allusion. With arms hanging at the sides, bend the body sideways, first to the right and then to the left. Repeat six times. Stand with the heels planted firmly together and the arms hanging at the sides; then lift the right leg until it is as nearly as possible at right angles to the body. Practice six times and repeat with the left leg.

 “Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911

15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, March 9, 1911:  I have cold, and a sore nose, but my nose was worse than my cold. I just had to keep rubbing at it all day. It is a beautiful pink now. I didn’t feel very good today. Well who would with a sore nose and a blistered hand.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later: 

Grandma’s just having a bad week. See yesterday’s post  for more details about Grandma’s blistered hand.

A hundred years ago there a basic understanding that germs caused colds—but the focus was on keeping resistance high so that the germs wouldn’t take root and cause the cold.

CATARRH, COLD IN THE HEAD

Cause—There are many causes of catarrh; sudden change of temperature, too light clothing, sitting in a draught, chilly atmosphere, or anything that will cause a cold in the head. Exposure to cold lowers the resistance of the body to infection, and, what is more interesting still, it has been proved that in regard to various diseases which are known to be caused by micro-organisms, and especially in regard to pneumonia, we may carry the organisms about with us and not suffer, and yet that exposure to cold may at once enable the microbes to take root.

Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908)

15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Wednesday, March 8, 1911: I arose with the feeling this morning that things were sure to go wrong today and they certainly did this forenoon. I had the misfortune to scald my left hand this morning. Be told, if you weren’t careful you had to suffer surely enough. Oh how my hand did burn this morning. I was in agony nearly all forenoon, and then we had examinations too, but every day brings some new pleasure in life to balance with the pain.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later: 

I guess that Grandma was a bit of a klutz. This is the second time in five weeks that she burned her hand—the previous time was on February 6 when she burned it on the wood or coal stove at school while horsing around. And, on February 19 she’d cut her finger while doing dishes.

Recommended treatments for burns have changed over the past hundred years. The Compendium of Every Day Wants  recommended:

SCALDS AND BURNS

Treatment No. 1.—A good remedy to apply to burns is a mixture of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water. This is shaken and applied by saturating cloths and placing them over the burned places, and over the cloths place cotton batting or flannel. Secure the whole with a light bandage. The air must be kept from all burns. This is of primary importance and they must also be kept warm.

Treatment No. 2.—Burns may be treated with fresh lard, lard oil, sweet oil, vaseline, cold cream or olive oil. Wrap in cotton batting or flannel.

Treatment No. 3.—Carbonate of soda is the best of all remedies in cases of scalds and burns. It may be used on the surface of the burned place, either dry or wet. When applied promptly the sense of relief is magical. It seems to withdraw the heat, and with it the pain, and the healing process commences.

Treatment No. 4.—A coating of wheat flour or cornstarch can be used if the soda is not handy, but if the skin is open, better use linseed oil, olive oil, or vaseline.

Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908)

15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:

Tuesday, March 7, 1911: Oh pshaw, it’s a hard task to write something, when you have nothing to write. We had onions for supper, and I can taste them yet. I am not very anxious for the morrow, for with it some questions to be answered, but they might be easier than what I think they really are.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

In Grandma’s day onions were considered to be good for the nerves—though they don’t seem to have done much to calm Grandma’s anxiety. The October 1910 issue of National Foods Magazine listed 12 vegetables with medicinal value. (The list suggests that nervousness and constipation were frequent problems a hundred years ago.)

Medicinal Value of Vegetables

Watercress is an excellent blood purifier.

Lettuce has a soothing effect on the nerves and is excellent for sufferers of insomnia.

Tomatoes are good for a torpid liver, but should be avoided by gouty people.

Onions are a tonic for the nerves.

Spinach has great aperient qualities and is far better than medicine for constipation.

Beet root is fattening and is good for people who want to put on flesh. So are potatoes.

Parsnips possess the same virtues as sarsaparilla.

Apples, carrots, and Brazil nuts are excellent for sufferers from constipation.

Celery contains sulphur and helps to ward off rheumatism. It is also a nerve tonic.

Dates are exceedingly nourishing and also prevent constipation.

The juice of grapes is laxative but the skin and seeds are likely to cause constipation.

Bananas are beneficial to sufferers from chest complaints.

National Foods Magazine (October, 1910)

15-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Sunday, February 19, 1911: I went to Sunday school this morning and staid for church. While washing the dishes at noon (that is one of my daily duties) I cut a gash in my finger. It is so excruciatingly sore. It seems as if I am always getting some burns, cuts, or bruises.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later: 

In Grandma’s day many homes had a copy of the Compendium of Every Day Wants: General Information and a Thousand and One Facts (1908). For cuts and wounds the Compendium recommended:

CUTS AND WOUNDS.—There are two kinds of cuts or wounds—incised, which means cut into, or lacerated, which means torn.

The first kind are usually not so dangerous and are treated in proportion to their size and depth. These generally heal of themselves. Clots formed on a cut should not be washed away. If there is not much bleeding, wipe away any impurities and bandage. A small piece of adhesive plaster is all that is necessary for household cuts.

Lacerated wounds have ragged edges, and the soft parts about them often will be found bruised and torn. These are most frequently caused by railway accidents, machinery and falling timbers. Treatment.—Cleanse the wound with warm water, wet a cloth over it and bandage lightly.