The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-04-25
CURIesITIEs Of MEDICINE.
SMOKING FOR THE PLAGUE.

SMOKING FOR THE PLAGUE.
Thomas Hearne, in his diary, writes
" 1720-'21, January I'd have been
told that, In the last great plague at
London, none that kept tobacconists'
shops had the plague. It is certain that
smoking was looked upon as most ex-
cellent preservative, insomuch that even
children were obliged to smoke. And
I remember that heard formerly Tom
Rogers, who was yeoman-beadle, say
that, when he WAS that year, when the
plague ragged, school-boy at Elton, all
the boys of that school were obliged to
smoke in the school every mornina and
that he was never whipped SO much in
his life as he was one morning for not
smoking"
CURE FOR EPILEPSY.
For the cure of epilepsy, or the fall
ing-sickness, numerous have been the
charms which have been invented, and
marvellously mystical withal. A COM
mon remedy among the lower orders
about London, and especially in Essex,
| is to cut the top of black cats tail, in
order to procure three drops of blood,
which are to be taken in a spoonful of
milk, drawn from the female breast
and this is to be repeated three success
!
the woman from whom the milk is to be
taken must have lain in of a girl and
of boy, if the patient be female;
but if the patient be appraised of the
period when this precious potion was
compounded, it will assuredly lose its
| efficacy. DIR. Lettsom met with three
instances, within fortnight, where this
plan had been strongly recommended.
For similar effect the patient is to
creep, head-foremost, down three pair
of stairs, three times day, for three
successive days. Let us remember that
three is the root of the mystic number
nine, and that it is still depended upon
by Free masons
Sir Thomas Browne ("Vulgar Errors"
book IL, chap. viz discourses of the vir-
tues of mistletoe in "epileptical inten-
tons. Country practice hath added an
other, to provoke the afterbirth, and in
that case the decoction is given unto
COWS. That the berries are poison, as
some conceive, We are so far from aver
ring, that we have safely given them in
wardly, and can confirm the experiment
of Brassavolus, that they have some
purgative quality"
Sir John Colbach, in his dissertation
concerning mistletoe, 1920, strongly re-
commends it as a medicine for epilepsy
and all other convulsive disorders add
ing, that this beautiful plant must have
been designed by the Almighty "for
further and more noble purposes than
barely to feed thrushes, or to be hung
up superstitiously in houses to drive
away evil spirits" He refers to the ven
Grafton in which the Druids were held
to the cures they performed by means
of the mistletOe of the oak, "this tree
being sacRed to them, but none so that
had not the mistletoe upon them" But
Sir John endeavors to show the mistle-
toe of the crab, the lime, the pear, or
any other tree, to be of equal vi tue.
REMEDY FOX YELLOW FEVER.
Mr.. P. W. Nicholl, of Jersey, having
seen the accounts in the papers of the
fearful raviges of the yellow fever at
Bermuda, writes as follows II have
q French work stating that the common
nettle (Urtica di8cia, dried and reduc-
ed to powder, and used as a condiment
for preparing food, is a preserver
against this fearful malady. It is made
into Gqueur and syrup in France, and
is preferable to absinthe. 1 have sue
ceeded in bringing this useful but de-
spised plant into general use here with
great benefit, as acknowledged by sew
eral medical men, both here and in Lon
don. To preserve it, it should be put
IL bottles, or any package which pre-
serves it from damp and mildew. BY
its use man can be his own doctor,
and, if living in the country, without
any expense"
1t is singur ar fact that steel dipped
in the juice of the nettle becomes fex-
| ible. DIR. Thornton, who made the
medical properties of our wild plants
his peculiar study, states that lint dip
ped in nettle-juice, and put up the nos
! tril, has been known to stay the bleed
| ing of the nose, when all other remedies
| had failed and adds that fourteen or
fifteen of the seeds ground into powder,
and taken daily, will cure the swelling
in the neck known by the name of
gottre, without in any way injuring the
| general habit
| GYPsIEs AND THEIR SECRET POIsONs.
| Among other secrets of the Gypsy
race is the art of preparing what they
| term the drei, or "dri, a most dead
J. and insidious destructive agent, and
! for which medical science knows no an
| tidote. Analysis detects ne noxious
properties whatever, and the most care
full examination, microscopical or other
wise, shows it simply to consist of ap-
parently harmless vegetable matter
The I" drei, then, is merely a brown
powder, obtained from a certain species
of fungus forming the nearest connect
ing link between the animal and vege-
table kingdoms, the powder consisting
of an intinity of sporules. These fun
gold spOrules possess the peculiar prop
rxNF1 L., G., i
intimate contact with living animal mat !
ter Gas when swallowed, etc~;) they |
then throw out innumeTable greenish- |
yellow hbres about twelve or eighteen |
inches in length. When the " dreI is |
administered, usually in some warm |
drinks, these sporules are swallowed, |
attach themselves to the mucous mem
brane, terminate, throw out millions of |
these silky fibres, which grow with aw-
full rapidity, first producing symptoms |
Of hectic fever, then cough, eventually |
accompanied by incessant splitting of |
blood, till death finally inevitably |
supervenes, usually in about fortnight |
or three weeks time. A case of this |
description occurred in Italy in 1860. |
Although the patient was attended by
eminent physicians accustomed to deal
with cases of slow poisoning, no sus-
picion of foul play were entertained till
the day after the decease, when an au-
topsy being held revealed the cause of
death. The fbres, the growth of when
had ceased with the cessation of the an
imal life and heat that supported them,
were already partially decomposed had
another day or two elapsed, no trace
would have been left of the foul deed.
If the analysis of the mixture in ques-
ton reveal no deleterious drug, let a
dog or other animal be daily dosed with |
three drops in some warm vehicle. |
The result would show whether the |
brown powder is or is not the worId-fa-
nous and destructive " drei"
COLD BATHING, AND CoLD-wATER CURE.
The Emperor Severus, who died in |
England A. D. 213, practised cold bathing |
for the govt; and Sir Henry Conings- |
by, who lived to the age of eighty |
eight, imputed his long life to forty
years cold bathing. And William Har-
vey Was much and often troubled with |
the govt, and his way of cure was thus:
"He would then sit with his legges