The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-25

NOSTRUMS IN WHICH
OUR FOREFATHERs BELIEVED.
a search In the Past for What Is Now
fccl Treatment Is Vain.


New York Evening Post
II modern science can boast of anything.
it can of the way i'm which ii has rescued
medicine from the realms of imagination.
The wonderful prescriptions of the Magi. as
narrated by the Roman historian Plny. are
examples of what the earliest doctors were.
while even the ''salves'' of our own Eliza
bethans seem. at first sight. not much OF
an Improvement upon those of the Chal-
dean NJ DIS. Let us, says the London
Standard. take a few examples of Magian
healing from a Latin author of which per-
haps the most useful is the following-one
that in modern parlance would run thus:
"A receipt TO make women disclose their
secrets. Take one hen, and. having care
fully extracted its heart. place the same on
the mouth of the patient during sleep. You
will ascertain her exact age the next morn
ing" To do the Old Roman justice. he
stigmatizes this statement ''por-
tentous lie" mo doubt he had tried it,
Others are quite grotesque. Feverfew,
when used incidentally. had to be plucked
by the left hand after the patients name
had been spoken over il. the herbalist TAX
ing good care not to look behind him. A
love charm could be easily obtained from
hyena caught when the moon was in
eel In divination should change their GUS
tomary chop for few moles hearts. 1t is
stipulated that these be fresh. The Ro-
mans themselves, although no mean sur
geons-they made Of the probe and
nippers and instruments for trepanning-
were not less given to prodigies than the
people whose veracity they doubted.
Iney Delleved that eating hare cure
Tor insomnia: and even the sceptic Pliny
m hot th.r,
the superstition that people who had done
so We're good looking for nine days after
wards. A veritable nine days wonder, He
recommended also as cure for Quartan
fever that the dust in which a hawk had
rolled should be put into a bag and the
latter tied around the neck with a piece of
red thread. Other cures for the same were
the longest tooth of black dog, in the
same position. and a wasp caught in the
forehead: Alexander of Tralles, a physician
of the Middle Ages. made use of a no doubt
potent cure for the after effects of unripe
apples and the such like. The sufferer
wore on his finger an octagonal iron ring
upon which was inscribed the following
Flee, flee, no. no, bile. the lark was
slightly alter Gilbert, mo doubt was very
clever. but do not understand it,.
VARIOUS VACCINATIONS
Leaving the Romans and Orientas, We in
vain turn to our own forefathers for a little
more common sense. The Saxon leeches
having no knowledge of instruments or In
dian drugs, fell back on weeds, which they
dignified by the picturesque name OF
'worts.'' charms and incantations and
portions of multilated beasts. To spit in
frogs mouth, and request him to make off
with the toothache, was their idea of dem
tistry. Notes in the eve were very easily
durable The unaffected member was shut.
and the "vexed one touched with the ring
finger and thumb. while the following was
repeated solemnly three times: Il buss the
GorgOnS mouth. By bussing the Gorgon 5
mouth nine times you could get a bone
from your throat. potent charm, An
excrescence on the eye known as hordeolum
| (probably cysD was removed by means
! of nine barley-cornS. First the whole nine
| were held to the eye then two were
and three. and one. while at each applica-
ton the self-healer repeated the words
| Flee flee; barley thee chaseth."' Blood
was stanched by another and highly unin-
teligible charm Stupid. stupid on a
| mountain went, stupid stupid was, Though
| who was stupid, and why he was SO, per-
! haps the AnglO-SaXon who tumbled down a
mountain was alone able to determine
! Brutality was no deterrent to a man who
| was i'm pain. The prescription for cataract
! was one in which a fox was caught alive.
! his tongue cut out, and the animal let
| go; after which the severed organ was put
| in a red rag and suspended, until 1t died,
| round the neck Of the human sufferer. For
! all who are subject to kernels behind the
ears. 1 quote the following: IF a shrew
mouse die in a rut. there. by natural
| fate, he perishes. So wrap him up in a
clay. and with him go three times round
kernels behind the ears. Wondrously quick
| ly wilt thou heal them.
1t will be interesting to note Tor what
diseases some of the more common of our
| wild plants were once made use or Poppy,
as may well be supposed, was the cure FOR
| sleeplessness. though the application was
external. and, to say the least, lengthy
process. One had to take ooze of the wort
| and smear the man with IT,: Soon you
was got rid of with yarrow (Achillea).
| herb which the Saxon leech tells us was
| in order to cure their wounds 1t had to
| be eaten fasting. 1t might be supposed
that the hardy warriors of the time in
| from the Disagreement Of badness. The
| leechbooks of the period. however. are full
| of receipts for this i'll. Loose hair was
| remedied by the common water weed Cal
| licriche IF a mans hair fall off. take
| the wort. pound it with oil. Smear then
| the hair Herewith. 1t soon becometh
| fast" The desperate man, II he has be-
! lief i'm antiquity. might do well in trying
| this.
TREATMENT OF GOVT.
| Govt appears to have been as frequent
| among ancestors 1t is to-day and to
have been by no means introduced by the
heavy drinkers that just becoming ex-
| tinct. however much it was increased by
| them The leechbooks give many remedies
|
a compound Of honey and hymele DIETER
! known as hop, "a wort which," as our au-
thority informs us, lis so excellent that 1t
| is mingled in ordinary drinks" The straw
berry had virtue which must no doubt
have endeared ii to the English soldiers
! of the day. inaSmuch as IL was an antidote
| to inconvenience due to an overdose of any
| OF the aforesaid compounds of hymele
Juice OF the strawberry wort mingled with
honey along with pepper benefited much
| when drunk" The MULLEN. or high taper.
! handsome plant with broad leaves and a
| spike of yellow flowers. had a use which
must have sorely tried the creduilty of
| those for whom ii was prescribed twig
of it,. carried in mans hand. prevented
him from being terrified with awe: neither
would any wild beast haunt him nor any
evil come near. The legend is that it was
given by Mercury to Ulysses, who after
! he had received II. was safeguarded
! against all the wiles of Gree
good deal of folklore appears to have
become mixed up with even the most SER
| ious works Of the heads of the Saxon med
1cal profession Their opinions the man.
drake are bewitchingly infantile. AT night
| this plant was supposed to shine like a
| lamp, and to be endowed with a motion.
| while the method of catching il suggests
| the elaborate Vaccinations of a Thames
| roach-hsher. As soon you sighted the
| twinkle of mandrake plant. you stole up
| softly behind its back. and having inscribed
! IT with an iron ring. lest IL should flee from
| thee. you proceeded Immediately 10 tie In
| hands and feet. This step accomplished
| you called your hound (there Is no men
| ton of special breed of mandra ke