The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1888-11-17
MODERN SUPERSTITION.

The New Orleans Medical and Surgical jour
nal recently published an instructive paper by
Henry Dickson Bruins, NJ. D., on the popular
medical superstitions Of the day, from which
we condense the following interesting alb
stract =
All of you know, / suppose, the belief that
potato carried in the pocket will cure hemor-
rhoids or rheumatism. Perhaps the buckeye"
(sesculua fiava) used in the same manner is
more familiar to you, for in the Southern and
Western States therapeutic properties are also
ascribed to this seed. l have known most in
telligent gentleman wear string of amber
beads about his neck to prevent asthmatic at
tacks, and another necklace of coral to avert
an apoplectic seizure. The negroes of Mary
land, Virginia and District of Columbia assert
that moles foot cut off and hung around
child's neck will help it in teething. In parts
of Pennsylvania superstition prevails that
bleeding from the nose may be arrested by the
recitation of certain words from the Bible by
an occult person.. e., the descendent OF the
seventh son of a seventh son. To relieve the
pangs of toothache a branch is cut from
sweet apple tree during a certain phase of the
moon both ends are sharpened and the occult
person with it pricks the gum until 1t bleeds.-
The chances for health and long life of puny
child are thought to be improved by boring
a hole in a tree, putting lock OF the chllds
hair in the hole and plugging it up, The use
of eyestones, the crystalline lenses of crab and
crawfsh hardened by boiling, and fiaxseed for
removing foreign bodies seem TO me to be
mainly superstitious, though occasionally,
perhaps the offending particle adheres to the
seed and is removed by it.
The common wart, that curious little tumOr,
the microscopical anatomy of which approach
es so closely the malignant type that, while its
clinical behavior is so entirely benign, may 2e
said to be fairly encrusted with superstitions.
l have heard rubbing with pea, piece of
meat stolen or otherwise procured, an apple,
potato, all of which are buried and allowed to
rot away, highly extolled by persons in all
classes of society. Ny Pennsylvania authority
states that in his part of the world the favorite
are rubbing with potato, which is afterward
thrown to the hogs, or tying knot over each
wart with bit of string, which is then buried
at the northeast corner of the house under the
caves. They may be cured by an occult person,
who utters certain words and blows them away.
The Northumbrian cure for warts is to take
small snail, rub the wart with it, and then i'm
pale the snail ON thorn hedge. AS the crea-
ture wastes away the wart will surely disappear.
In the west of England eels blood serves the
same purpose.
In the vicinity of Stanfordham, in North
cumberland, whooping cough is cured by put
ting the head of a live trout into the patients
mouth and letting the trout breathe into the
latter. Or else hairy caterpillar IS put into
small bag and tied around the childs neck
The cough ceases as the insect dies. Another
cure IOT WHOOplIS COuSA 10 OiiO1AiS VI AoAA'
In Sunderland the crown of the head is shaved
and the hair hung upon a bush or tree, with
the full faith that as the birds carry away the
hair, so will the cough vanish.
Spiders are largely concerned in the cure of
ague. In Ireland the sufferer is advised to
swallow live spider. In Somerset and neigh
boring counties he is to shut up large black spi
der in box and leave it to perish. Even in
New England, lingering faith in the supersti-
tions of the mother country leads to manufac-
ture spider-web pills for the cure of ague.
In Devonshire any person bitten by viper
is advised to kill the creature at once and rub
the wound with its fat. 1t is said that this
practice has survived in some portions of the
United States, where the flesh of the rattle
snake is accounted the best cue for its own
bite. Black in his Folk Medicine, states that
the belief in the power of snake skin as cure
for rheumatism exists in New England. Such
belief is probably direct heritage from
Prifoio