Gilpin observer., 1907-01-10
HAVE ODD BELIEFS
PET suPERsTITloNs FOUND TIL :
WORLD OVER.
Strange Remedies and Means of Warl
ing Off Disease-Mystc Number
Barred From Austro-Hun-
garian Hospitals.

pet superstitions and delusions can
be found in every household. When
there is a case of sickness in the
house and some domestic animal dies
you will find that some think the pa
tient will surely recover. The most
persistent superstions in the world
are those that are based upon the
habits of animals said DR.. J. Dudley
Morgan, of Washington. "If one is
walking at night and spiderweb
brushes the face it is supposed to
mean that ghost is following, but in
daytime it tells that a stranger is
coming. The neigh of a horse is a
portent of death which will come from
the quarter from which his head is
pointing when he neighs.
"The hair of dog, the skin Of a
snake and the pelt of a black cat are
believed to possess medicinal qualities,
while the handling of a toad is said to
give warts. German Canadians are
full of superstition. A white spider
crawling toward one, the bowling of
dog, the sight of snake all forelell
death. The killing of toad or the
growing of a hen foretells rain. If the
cat washes its face it means that Wis
itors are coming. If bee stings kill
it and the wound will not swell The
black tooth of hog and the blood of
black hen hav" curative powers.
IN certain district in Germany the
touch of a corpses hand is still re-
garded as curative of many local ills.
Less grewsome is the remedy for
hernia still applied in the marsh coun-
try. On the night of st. John the Bap-
lists day, June "a, patient must be
dragged through the split of a cleft
ash tree. Three men bearing the
first name of John must perform the
operation and it must be conducted in
dead silence. For erysipelas fire is
lighted and pinch of ashes from it is
rubbed on the skin, to the accompani-
ment of saying to the effect that the
ashes and the sore went over the Red
sea together, the ash came back but
the sore never again.
Recently in Georgetown a police
man was bitten by supposed poison
GUS snake and the old remedy of kill
ing chickens, cutting them open and
applying them to the bite until the
chickens were cold and did not turn
black was tried Twenty-six chickens
were used on the policeman in ex-
tracing the poison. This remedy for
cramps is used to-day in other places
than Georgetown. On going to rest
put your slippers under the bed and
turn the soles upward
"In the wards of Garfield hospital
last fall there was a patient who in
sisted on keeping several apples under
his bed to help the dropsy. The things
that people will carry within their
pockets, wear around their necks or
bodies or put on their fingers are
legion. Have a white potato in each
pocket of your trousers and you will
never be troubled with rheumatism or
If you suffer with cough and cold ex-
change the potato for lump of cam
phor No doubt there are some of us
who now have a horse chestnut in our
pockets or are wearing nickel ring.
Several years ago the writer was in
duced by an intelligent and consid-
crate friend to wear a nutmeg for OBJ
stinate boils.
"In no other western European
country is superstition so prevalent as
In Austria-Hungary. Quite recently
the chamberlain's office changed the
number of box 13 in the Imperial opera
house and the Imperial Court theater
because the public objected to sitting
In box bearing this unlucky number.
But this superstition reaches its height
in medicine. Speaking of the health
exhibition, DIR. Heinrich Grun declared
that in many instances superstition,
and especially local superstition, was
an absolute means to public health. In
the Austrian hospitals one finds no
block or pavilion 13, no ward 10 or
staircase 13. Very few patients will
consent to be operated on on the thir.
teenth. And in that respect Friday,
too. is considered just as unlucky"