Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-08-11
Osueral SntflIIgenfe.
CURATIVE POWERS OF ANIMALS.
Queer Remedies and Popular DeIu-

| A writer in an English magazine, who
! has evidently studied to some purpose in a
! curious field, writes of certain popular de-
| lusions:
In early times the physicians in all the
countries of Europe were generally church
men: their science scarcely ever compre-
hended more than what could be learned
| respecting the diagnOstlcs and treatment
of disease. from Hippocrates, Galen and
| the other ancient writer's. Of anatomy
very little could be accurately known, as
the dissection of the human subject was
not practised; all anatomical demonstra-
tions were made upon beasts. ''Choose an
ape for dissectisn," ran the directions to a
student in the early ages, S'if you have
one; if not, take bear; and If. you have
not a bear, take any animal you can get"
In al probability, neither Aristotle, Galen,
Hippocrates, nor any of the great lumina-
ries, ever dissected the human body, for
their works show great ignorance Of hu-
man anatomy. The cause for this lay,
perhaps, in the feelings of the Greeks re-
specting the sacredness of the dead.
Returning to our own country, we shall
find that until comparatively a recent pc
riod the various systems OF medicine con-
stituted zone vast farrago of empirical alb
surdities, and were all far remote from
| knowledge" In one of the earliest of
English printed books, we are told that
! sswhen one suffereth the cholic the wind
! pine of hare should be hung over him;
and that 'sif the head Of goat be suspend
ed over those who suffer the scrofula, they
shall be by 1t restored unto health" And
| in the ''Gospelles of Distanes," printed by
Wynkyn de Worde. we learn that ''if a wo-
man have the smallpox, it behoveth that
her husband buy her a black lamb of the
same year and afterwards bind her in the
skin; and then let him make his pilgrim
/ age and offering to st. Arragond, and for a
| truth she shall heal"
| five take the prescriptions of Sir Theo-
| dore. de Mayerne, who was physician to
| three of our kings James l., Charles l.,
| and Charles live shall be astounded at
reading that this eminent physician admin
| istered drugs and other denominations that
| would render motern practitioner liable
| to be tried for manslaughter. PulyeriZed
| human bones he prescribed in large guam
! titles His celebrated gout-powder con-
| tanned 'raspirgs of a human skull unbu-
| ried." His sweetest composition, how
| ever, was ssbalsam of bats, into which en-
| tered adders, bats, sucking whelps, earth
worms, hogs grease, the marrow of stag,
| and the thigh bone Of an OK. When the
most eminent physicians grayely wrote
! such prescription, the science OF medicine,
| it must be confessed, has no great mystery.
| The college founded by Henry VIII. had
! its conclave of venerable doctors; but the
| old women of the villages had almost as
much knowledge as the professors of the
metz opolis. And it is a fact that up to a
recent period a large portion of medical
practice was in the hands of women. In the
| sixteenth. seventeenth, and late down into
| the eighteenth century, every lady com
pounded medicines in her still-room, and
extracted from the same books recipes Tor
! cookery and for physic. Such book was
published in the year 1714 entitled "a col
| lection of above Three Hundred Receipts
in Cookery, Physick, and Surgery"
and p11rported to written by per-
sons of ''Great knowledge and
long experience" Among the re-
ceipts we find this '' Almost Infallible
Drink for Weak Children: Put an ounce of
rhubarb, three hundred live woodlice, &C.,
into six quarts of small ale, and drink,
spring and fall no other drink" Also, ga
Powder for Consumption: Take twelve
dozen of the smallest grigs you can get,
wipe them very clean, bake them in we'll
glazed pan all night" sc. Also can Ex-
celIent Snail-wat er in a Consumption Take
peck of large shell snails, lay them on a
hot hearth before the fire let them lie till
they have done kissing and splitting then
wipe them from the troth, and break them
in q mortar have quart of earth-worms,
slit and secured clean, &c, &c.
One William Ellis published curious
book in 1850, in which we find this charm
for the cure of the kings evil: ga girl at
l=GIaddesden, having the evil in her feet
| from her infancy. at eleven years old lost
| one of her toes by it, and was so bad she
! could hardly walk. A beggar woman com
| ING to the door, and hearing Of it, said
| that if they would cut off the hind leg and
fore leg on the contrary side OF that, OF a
| toad, and she wear them in sllken bag
about her neck, it would certainly cure
her; but it was to be observed that on the
toad's losing it's legs, it was to be turned
| loose abroad, and as it pined, wasted and
died, the distemper would likewise waste
| and die; which happened accordingly, for
the girl was entirely cured by it, never
having had the evil afterwards. y =.. --
! In various parts of Scotland the follow
! ing barbarous expedient is even now had
recourse to for children infected with
worms: a quantity of the common garden
worm is collected and tied in a cloth bag,
and then cruelty submitted to a painful
and lingering death by exposure to the in
auence of q slow fire, by which they are
gradually roasted alive. Their decomposed
remains are then applied, as salve, to the
stomach of the child.
A child was suffering from thrush, when
| its nurse, Yorkshire woman, procuring
frog, held it for time to the mouth OF
the child, that the creature might imbibe
the ailment, and leave its own health in
exchange. The same practitioner
had herself occasional attacks of eramp, il
anticipation of which she kept a supply
of spiders in a pill-box, swallowing one
! whenever she was threatened with the
suffering. When the whooping cough at
tackled the children of whom she was in
charge, she feasted them on roast hedge
! hog, imposing it on them as a tender rab-
bit She also borrowed a piebald horse,
and having had it brought into the yard
carried each of the afflicted children out in
succession, wrapped in q blanket, and
passed them thrice under the animals
belly. These attempts being unsuccessful
each child was condemned to wear hairy
caterpiller in bag around its neck.
In Lancashire and some Of the adjoining
counties the following practice is prevalent
for curing warts: steal a piece of meat from
a butchers shop or from his tray, and hav.
inc well rubbed the parts affected with the
purloined meat, bury it under a gateway
or in any secluded place. If this be done
so secretly as TO escape detection, as the
meat decays, so will the warts disappear.
In order to get rid of a ''sty on the eye, il
is customary for the sufferer, on the first
night of the new moon, to procure the tai
of black cat and after pulling from it one
hair, rub the tip nine times over the pus
] tule. In Cheshire, ride upon bear was
e II. I ! T. II
ing cough.
The right fore-foot of hare worn con-
stantly in the pocket is deemed an excel
! lent amulet against ''the rheumatic" A
very common charm resorted to for the
cure of that painful disorder, the cramp.
consists in wearing about the person the
patella ola sheep or lamb, ,popularly known
as the 'scramp bone" 1t is to be worn as
near the skin as possible, and at night it
must be laid under the pillow. In the
/ cOuOtieS of Norfolk Leicester and NOlth