The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-18


That Give Good HeaIth-IHs Shifted
to Dogs-CuriOus Remedies for Warts
and Consumption and ToOthache.
The other day an aged dame ap-
peared at London police court in
great distress. She had. walled, lost
a sacrament shilling
The Magistrate was puzzled. I'm
what respect" he asked, Ibid a sacra-
ment shilling differ from any other
shilling?''
Whereupon, says Pearson's Weekly,
the APPLICANT explained that the coin in
question was certain cure for fits.
1t had been given her by her mother,
who had it in turn from her mother,
who had in turn from her mother. who
had got it over 100 years ago from the
clergyman of her parish in exchange
for an ordinary shilling, which had al
ready been first exchanged for twelve
pennies collected from twelve n1aidens.
The coin, is appeared, to be efficacious
had to be worn in a bag hung round
J the patients neck for seven times
seven days.
Similar strange beliefs linger in many
out of. the way corners of Great Bri-
| tain. SsJ
In Devonshire, for instance, the coun-
! try folk still make ''cramp ring" out of
old coffin handles; and bracelets forged
out of nails on which suicides have
hanged themselves are worn by equity
people, and deemed singularly effica-
| cious.
Charmed belts are commonly worn
! in Lancashire for the cure of rheuma-
tism. In Durham a cord round the
| lcins is supposed to ward off toothache.
! Among the peasantry of Roxburgh-
shire women who are nursing babies
wear around their necks small cords of
| blue wool. These are never removed,
/ day or night, until the child is weaned.
BY taking this precaution they mag
inc that they insure good health both
/ to themselves and their offspring dur
4 ing that critical period. The cords are
i handed down from mother to daughter,
and are esteemed in proportion to their
/ Antiquity. E
In suffolk, to prevent nose bleeding
| people wear a skein of scarlet around
i the neck, tied with nine knots down the
4 front. If the patient is a man, it is
/ essential that the thread be put on and
the knots tied by a women, while if the
4 patient is woman, then these serciees
4 must be rendered by a man.
i Many curious prescriptions common
| in folk medicine have for their object
| the transference of the disease from
/ the patient to one of the lower animals.
For example, in Devonshire and in
Scotland alike, when a child has
whooping cough, some hair is cut from
| its head. put between slices of bread
and butter and given to a dog. Then
if the latter in eating it should cough
as naturally he will--the complaint will
4 be transferred to the animal and the
1 child viii recover.
In Cheshire it. is by no means I'M
i common for a young frog to be held
4 for few moments with it's head inside
/ the mouth of a sufferer from thrush. In
Cumberland and Throughout the North
of England generally a live fish is sub
stituted for the frog. .
/ Sometimes. trees take the place of
\ animals. Thus a certain old oak at
/ Berkhamstead was long famous for the
cure of ague. The transference was
simple, but painful. A lock of hair was
begged into the wood, and then by a
/ SUDDEN wrenchd transferred from the
head of the patent to the tree.
i The Welsh peasaatry cure toothache
by scarifying the gums with an iron
nail, which is then driven UP to the
head in an elm tree and there left.
1 They also profess to believe that a