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Mr. Pecksniff fell on his doorsteps, and got some cranial contusions. These were dressed with vinegar and brown paper.
Remember the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill second verse:
Jack fell down, and broke his crown....and home did trot..
as fast as he could caper...went to bed to mend his head..
with vinegar and brown paper.
Actually considering limited choices at the time, it was a good one. The vinegar is antiseptic, and paper would prevent contamination of wound. I suppose they made some kind of bandage with cloth, which would have been potentially germ-laden and undesirable in contact with the wound, to which it would adhere, and hurt when removed. More sensible than most of the home remedies of the time.
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How would one go about wrapping one's head in brown paper? I've heard of cooking a goose in a brown paper bag. And why would this brown paper have been more sanitary that clean cloth? Interesting to know, however, that vinegar is antiseptic, wwh!! 
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Wine , vinegar, cheese, pickles-- all of these food are made with 'controlled spoilage'-- a bacteria or small plant 'infects the food', changes it, and in the process, makes it an enviroment that is hostile to most other bacteria.
in grape juice, yeast that grows on the skin of the grapes changes the sugar (in the grape juice) into alcohol--eventually there is so much alcohol (12 to 14%) that even the yeast is killed.. and the resulting liquid is pretty stable.. very few bacteria (harmless or harmful!) can live in the alcohol...
of course one can--and it turns the alcohol into an acid-- which is another enviroment that most bacteria can't survive in! and voila--vinegar!--the high acidity make vinegar almost 'spoil proof'--almost no bacteria or other living organizism can live in such a high acid environment--so its natural 'sterile'--
the combo of salt and lactic acid (created by the controlled spoilage of food) is what makes 'pickles pickle'--and the high salt/acid combo preserves the food since it too is a environment that very few bacteria can survive in.
man has interacted with these helpful bacteria for eons.. sometime recognizing them, sometimes not... there is an fungus that sometimes effects grapes-- its called the 'Noble Rot'-- you don't eat the 'fruit of the fungus' (mushrooms) but the fungus changes the fruit acids of the grape, and the result is a very sweet wine.
while you can purchase wine made from 'noble rot grapes' in US-- you can't use grapes with noble rot in US to ferment wine... the grapes are deemed 'unfit for human consumption' by FDA/Dof A-and you are supposed to destroy the crop!
same is somewhat true of 'corn smut' a fungus that grows on the ears of the corn.. native americans consider it a treat, and the mushrooms from corn smut (a kind of puffball, that when fully ripe, explodes in a cloud of fine back spores)to be a deleciacy, but farmers see it as a 'spoiled crop' and very few european american eat 'corn smut'(even the name sound unappatizing!)
with cheap readily available refridgeration, we rarely think about 'natural' ways of preserving foods anymore.. and preserving food was done by storing them in naturally
sterile environments in the past.
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Dear of troy: but remember that smut on grain puts lysergic acid into flour causing grotesque visual illusions, and also an extremely potent vasoconstrictor that caused gangrene of the legs in people who ate bread made from the flour a couple hundred years ago. (In tiny doses, this agent is used in obstetrics. I'm blocking on the name.
PS: Ergot is a name for smut. Ergotamine tartrate was used
as potent uterine muscle stimulant. Very cautiously. Now a
synthetic product methergine is preferred.
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addict
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Ergotamine tartrate was used
as potent uterine muscle stimulant
migraine too
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Dear WW: Imagine how hard it would have been in those days to launder cloth to make it safe for a wound dressing. And cloth was far too valuable to spoil. But I think it probable that a cloth bandage was used to hold the brown paper in place.
P.S. I just remembered seeing a foreign doctor who was very
clever at tying scalp hair to close a scalp wound. I tried it but found it too difficult.
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yes the corn is made inedible, but the fungus fruit (the mushrooms) don't have any of the associated problems--
Ergotamine tartrate was used as potent uterine muscle stimulant. Very cautiously. Now a synthetic product methergine is preferred.--i remember reading about this when i was pregnant (30 some years ago) liberated women objected strenuously to its use, and the use of the synthetic. nowdays woman who 'use drugs' for deliver - ususally just get an 'epidural'-- a shot of pain killer in the lower spine, that relaxes (paralizes) voluntary muscles, and doesn't interfer with uterine contractions. natural deliver is a bit more popular that it was, but i still think only a minority of women chose to go that way.. i did, for my second child, i didn't even have novicane for the epeisiotomy repair.. (deliver was a bit prolonged, and the small shot given to make the cut had long since worn off)
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