Lemon and Pine-apple are the best home remedies we could find for someone afflicted with Diphtheria.

Please read the descriptions below and see if this is the right home remedy for you.

Remember, these home remedies are not meant as a replacement for your family doctor, please consult your doctor before trying any home remedy.

_Lemon._

Lemons are invaluable in cases of gout, malaria, rheumatism, and scurvy.
They are also useful in fevers and liver complaints.

I have found the juice of one lemon taken in a little hot water remove
dizzy feelings in the head, accompanied by specks and lights dancing
before the eyes, consequent upon the liver being out of order, in half
an hour.

The juice of a lemon in hot water may be taken night and morning with
advantage by sufferers from rheumatism. In the “lemon cure” for gout and
rheumatism, the patients begin with one lemon per day and increase the
quantity until they arrive at a dozen or more. But I think this is
carrying it to excess. Dr. Fernie recommends the juice of one lemon
mixed with an equal proportion of hot water, to be taken pretty
frequently, in cases of rheumatic fever.

A prescription for malaria, given in the _Lancet_, is the following:
“Take a full-sized lemon, cut it in thin transverse slices, rind and
all, boil these down in an earthenware jar containing a pint and a half
of water, until the decoction is reduced to half a pint. Let this cool
on the window-sill overnight, and drink it off in the morning.”

A Florentine doctor discovered that fresh lemon juice will alleviate
the pain of cancerous ulceration of the tongue. His patient sucked
slices of lemon.

A German doctor found that fresh lemon juice kills the diptheria
bacillus, and advises a gargle of diluted lemon juice to diptheric
patients. Such a gargle is excellent for sore throat.

Dr. Fernie recommends lemon juice for nervous palpitation of the heart.

Lemon juice rubbed on to corns will eventually do away with them, and if
applied to unbroken chilblains will effect a cure.

Lemon juice is also an old remedy for the removal of freckles and
blackheads from the face. It should be rubbed in at bedtime, after
washing with warm water.

_Pine-apple._

Pine-apple juice is the specific for diphtheria. This seems to have
been first brought to the notice of Europeans by the fact that negroes
living round about the swamps of Louisiana were observed to use it with
great success. A writer who records this says: “The patient should be
forced to swallow the juice. This fluid is of so pungent and corrosive a
nature that it cuts out the diphtheria mucous and causes it to
disappear.”

The above direction looks satisfactory enough on paper, and it is
eminently cheering to read of how the pine-apple juice causes the
diphtheria mucous to disappear, but anyone who knows anything about
diphtheria knows that to “force” a diphtheria patient to swallow is more
easily written about than accomplished. Fortunately I have been able to
obtain the following explicit directions from an experienced nurse and
mother:

The pine-apple should be cut up and well pounded in a mortar. The juice
must then be pressed out and strained through well-scalded muslin. The
patient’s mouth must be washed out with warm water. The juice may now be
given with a silver teaspoon. It is possible that the patient may be
quite unable to swallow any of it. If this be so, the juice will serve
as a mouth and throat wash. It will gradually dissolve the membrane, and
enable it to be scraped gently away with the spoon. The juice should be
given, and the throat scraped as far down as the nurse can reach, as
often as the patient can bear it. The time will come, sooner or later,
when the juice is swallowed. No other food should be given. The nurse
may have to work away for some hours before any juice is swallowed, but
my friend assures me that if the scraping be done gently and skilfully,
even children will bear it patiently. Only a silver or bone spoon should
be used, and, needless to say, it must be well scalded in boiling water
in the intervals of using.

It is a remarkable fact that while pine-apple juice exercises this
remarkable corrosive power upon diseased mucous, its effect upon the
most delicate, healthy membrane is absolutely harmless. I have seen
sweet pine-apple juice given to six-months-old babies as a supplement to
the mother’s milk, with excellent results.

Dr. Hillier, writing in the _Herald of Health_ in 1897, says “Sliced
pine-apples, laid in pure honey for a day or two, when used in
moderation, will relieve the human being from chronic impaction of the
bowels, reestablish peristaltic motion, and induce perfect digestion.”

“A slice of fresh pine-apple,” writes Dr. Fernie, “is about as wise a
thing as one can take by way of dessert after a substantial meal.” This
is because fresh pine-apple juice has been found to act upon animal food
in very much the same way that the gastric juice acts within the
stomach. But vegetarians should eat fresh fruit at the beginning of
meals rather than at the end.

The pine-apple is useful in all ordinary cases of sore-throat.

One pine-apple of average size should yield half a pint of juice.

Tinned or cooked pine-apple is useless for curative purposes.