The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-03-31
From the Bedford Inquirer.

| A short time since / visited in the cOun-
try at a house where twin boy baby
| five months old was sick of the whoOping
cough. His little brother twin had lately
died of the disease. and he was an enact
ated skeleton, racked by most distress
ing cough, with apparently but slim
prospect of recovery. But whilst there
is life there is hope, and his mother and
relatives thought he might struggle
through. Speaking of this hope to a
neighboring woman, she said. 'N0, do
not think he can get we'll; both those
babies had the take Off ever since they
were a month old. The whoOping cough
and the take Off together viii be too
much for him." This was a new name 10
me. / did not want 10 display my ignor-
ance and hesitated about making an in
qniry of the good woman, but / have
done so of others since, and the result is
information that is curious and may be
worth narration.
IL is singular what notions about cur
ing diseases have possessed people in all
ages of the world. Sixty years ago blood
letting was prevalent for numerous all
ments, and immense quantities of calO-
mel were given. 40 or 60 grains at dose.
Great harm WAS done by the regularly
graduated physicians of those days if we
believe the modern doctors. 1t is alto
geiher probable that the people of that
generation would have been better of if
they had had no doctors at all. They
killed more than they cured, doctors
now say. Perhaps the next generation
will say the same thing of the doctors of
day. Who knows?
The take orr is a puny condition of
young child. Its food does not nourish
ii. II does not grow but dwindles away
until it looks skeleton-like. 1t is almOst
all head. and its face is almost all eyes.
Its little arms and legs are like pipe
stems, and its pinched features are pitt
able to look at, and the doctors medi-
cine has been tried and does it no good.
The doctor says it has dyspepsia, the old
women say it has the take off,
Well can the take orr be cured?
Why certainly it can-according to the
country side belief Two or three years
=
child from Cumberland TO Bedford, hired
a carriage and took the babe six miles
out TO the Dutch corner TO old Mrs.
Reighard. The Cumberland doctors had
done the child no good. Death seemed
inevitable under their treatment and
Mrs. Reighard cured the child in one day
50 the friends say. How was il done?
Well there's no patent on it. She heated
and old fashioned brick oven such as
used TO be common, and are still here
and there in use, just as il she was going
to bake bread, and then creased the nak
ed babe from the crown of its head to the
soles of its feet, inclusive, with lard, and
wrapped it in and old blanket and put it
in the oven aud closed the Oven-all the
while the old woman mumbled 10 herself
in Pennsylvania German and made mo-
tions with her hands, as if she was con-
juring some evil spirit. She put the
child in three times using the oven peel
and pushing it far back into the oven
p Illed II ont and put it in three times
clos the oven door each time, and all
the while muttering and motioning with
her hands. And then she opened the
blanket and the little fellow lay there as
red as a cooked lobster, and they rubbed
him off and put him to bed and gave
him warm milk and the next day took
him back to Cumberland, and from that
hour he began to mend aud soon became
a healthy child.
The proof of the pudding i the eating
of it. Nothing succeeds like success.
And the people believe in it, some of
them at least. 1t is Pennsylvania Ger
m IN belief. Aubnema is the name for it,
which is translated into the English
words take or of which it is the exact
equivalent, and babes are brought miles
to the old woman to bo operated on the
belief in the efficacy of her treatment is
wide spread. Old Mrs. Reighlrd is dead
now, but she has successor in the same
neighborhood to whom she taught the
art.
With regard to the succession the belief
is, that Il woman can only teach her art
to III m and a man can only commlni-
cate it to a woman. How much of the
virtue lies in the sweating and how much
in the words used and the mystic power
of the operator does not appear.
Medical superstition has been as wide
spread As humanity. There is found to the
farthest period of history and among all
nations down to the present time the
idea of supernatural Intervention in caus-
ing and in curing diseases.
Witchcrait was firmly believed in as a
dogma of religion which il was wicked to
doubt or deny. Pestilences and epidem-
les were ascfi5ed t. the wrath of God or
the malice of the devils, which modern
science has clearly demonstrated were
the results OF improper modes of life and
the violation of the laws of health. Dog
matte Theology attempted for centuries to
thwart scientific Investigation as wicked.
But the world has moved steadily on=
ward and upward. \ part from the
Dutch words and the mystic three inser-
tions of the babe, there remains the
sweating, and old citizens of the Dutch
corner by the score will attest the cures,
WM. NJ. HALL.