A large and potent mixture

To the editor:

I read with interest Greg Olson's article "Plague on the Prairie," in the January-February issue of Illinois Heritage. I grew up in Jacksonville and am the great-granddaughter of Ensley Moore, who was vice-president of the Illinois State Historical Society for a number of years. Both my grandparents were active members of the Society until their deaths in 1929. (See the Journal, ISHS, April 1929, for obituaries of both.) Among their papers is a recipe for a cure for cholera, which reads, as best as I can decipher it:

2 ounces, gum myrrh
2 ounces, tincture of African cayenne pepper
2 ounces, nervine powder

Dissolve the myrrh in one pint of alcohol overnight, add the nervine and cayenne pepper, then stir well into
2 quarts, best brandy
2 quarts, molasses

Mr. Olson's article also mentions brandy and tincture of red pepper as being included in early remedies for cholera. There is no direction for the dosage but I assume this recipe, a rather large and potent mixture, was designed to be administered to a number of patients.

Elizabeth Nelms Moore
Auburn, Alabama

Illinois Heritage 4