The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-16
COUNTRY REMEDIES.
superstidOus Rural Confidence in the
Power of Herbs to Cure.
From the London Daily News.

From the London Daily News.
Mr.. Baring-Gould has contributed to
The Sunday Magazine a curious paper
entitled Country Remedies" from which
we learn that in spite of the revolution
which has taken place in the materia me-
dica of the British pharmacopoeia in mod
ern times in favor of mineral medicines
and other more powerful drugs, village
wise men" and women still "cull sim
pies here and there, and even continue TO
inspire neighbors with faith in their pow
er In healing by divers superstitlous prac-
tees. Nor is the country peoples conf
dence in the village hebalist, in Mr..
Goulds opinion, altogether misplaced. The
old race of these irregular practitioners
were, he believes. endowed with very
considerable and wholesome experience
and they were the repositories of tradi-
tions regarding the properties of certain
herbs in the treatment of certain maladies
which were sometimes far from being
merely fanciful 1t is noteworthy that TO
this day many of our field and wood plants
derive their names from the popular be-
lief in their virtues as specifics for certain
complaints.
Mr. Gould gives remarkable account
OF one Of the last remaining wise wo-
menV who has long been known to him
Judging from certain indications she be-
longs 10 the West country. Her recipe
for sprain will hardly, we fear, receive
respectful consideration. 1t is as fol-
lows: Two ounces oil of turpentine, two
ditto suillowes two ditto earthworms two
ditto nerve, two ditto oppidillidock two
ditto Spanish 1eas." Mr. Gould opines
that the turpentine, opodeldOc and the
Spanish flies (not t1eas) are theavaluable
part of this remarkable prescription "Suil-
loves" is supposed to stand for squills
which Is not of much use as an external
application.
mora difficult to judge but Mr.. Gould as
sures US that it is precisely this decoction
of wriggling worms which impresses the
west country rustic into the sometime
very wonderful, and the oil of nerves
strikes him as reasonable. His nerves are
Sufering therefore, he must decoct the
nerves Of builocks to supply what he
lacks. The rationale of the thing seems
not unlike that of the "oil of crowbars-"
which Mr.. Punch's hair dresser recon-
mended to the customer whose hair was
children had the whooping cough his
coachman's wife entreated Mrs. Gould to
let her doctor them. She brought little
silk bags to be tied round the Sufferers5
necks, each containing some hair crt from,
the cross on a donlxeys back This she
had learned to believe was sovereign
against whooping cough.
For remedies of this class Mr. Gould
has no apology to offer; nor has he anv-
thing to say for the charms and eahaI-
istic formula which are still In some favor
cites certainly do not say much for en-
tghtenment in the west of England Fife
when they are terrible bad" are. in tbe
belief of some, only to be cured by wearing
a silver ring. manufactured from coins
which have come out of seven parishes
Cold, II appears, is not efficacious Mr.
Gould knows parish in which the parish
clerk draws-or did till lately-a revenua
for the cure of children with fits. This is
what he does, or did: He takes the i5f+is
sufferer up TO the church tower. holds n
out at each of the angle pinnacles and
pronounces certain words What ~
words are Mr.. Gould has not learned pro
fitable trade secrets are apt to be ieaionsi,,
guarded; but he knows that for fbese
mysterious practices the parish cierix re1
ceiVes an honorarium n ie