A simple trapper’s remedy of hot water and cayenne cured a severe chill

Evidence

The cold was truly awful. I had caught a chill in the morning from putting on my clothes before they were dry, and the warmth of the smoky den was most agreeable; but we had a fearful ride back in the dusk, a gale nearly blowing us off our horses, drifting snow nearly blinding us, and the mercury below zero. I felt as if I were going to be laid up with a severe cold, but the men suggested a trapper’s remedya tumbler of hot water, with a pinch of cayenne pepper in itwhich proved a very rapid cure. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 248

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to the friend who swears by folk cold remedies — a genuine 1870s Colorado trapper cure measured against a below-zero ride.
• CANDY: Hot water with a pinch of cayenne as a frontier cold cure, tested on a sub-zero mountain ride.