New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-14

though | hated 10 see so much good
sunfish bait wasted. Also, ] was there
when the bottle was dug up. three
three weeks later; but happily ! stood
out Of range when the cord which held
in the cork was cut. l don't know that
the paralysis was affected but l do
know that the adjacent landscape cried
to heaven for disinfection!
"A hair Of the dog that bit" was
famous prophylactic for the disease
so grotesquely misnamed hydrophobia
when one Of its chief characteristics Is
a desire for water; and akin to il was
a favorite prescription for the plague.
This was not single hair, but lock
of hair from the patients own head. 1t
was TO be stepped for I. time in glass
of wine, and then the wine was to be.
drunk There was no prohibition
against washing the hair before it was
put into the wine, so that the dose was
not the worst imaginable. Certainly it
was preferable TO a widely prescribed
cure for jaundice, which consisted of
live spider, rolled up in tiny ball or
pill of butter and swallowed. That
ought, of course, TO have been admins
tered TO the proverbial Man with
Live Snake in his Stomach!
Speaking of snakes, they-especially
vipers-were largely used in medicine
long before the virtues OF rattlesnake
poison and the preparation OF anti
venine was discovered. Viper broth,
viper stew and viper dried and pull
verified were used almost as widely as
some of the patent bug juice" OF to-
day; with much less evil effects than
those which proceed from the latter.
La. IN
the very nadir Of loathsomeness, were
preparations from the bodies OF dead
men. One of the supreme horrors OF
Gothic and kindred traditions was Al
boin's use of his slain rivals skull as
a drinking cup, from which he com
PEELED Rosamund, his queen and that
rivals daughter, to drink; for which
atrocity the ruthless king presently
paid penalty with his life. But in so
Der fact the skulls Of hanged criminals
were three centuries ago and less IN
great demand as a supreme part OF the
materia medica The sklll was ground
into powder, and then steeped in spir-
its: and the latter served az one OF the
most precious of prescriptions, espe-
cially. according 10 the Paracelslan
theory. for ailments of the head. No
less q patient than Charles ii OF Eng
land on one occasion took twenty-five
drops of the nauseous decoction for an
attack Of apoplexy, using for his royal
needs the skull of some unnamed gal
lows bird of Tyburn. Skulls were es-
teemed of supreme virtue II. through
long exposure to the elements on the
pibbet. they had become overgrown
with A sort Of "moss" or fungus. Not
only was such a skull greatly priced,
but the foul growth upon II was made
into an ointment for the relef OF cpl
lepsy.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, down to the time OF our
Revolution, the hideous practice pre-
vailed of using whole mummles, GROUND
into powder. for medicinal purposes
and il is said by writers OF those days
that far more mummles were thus used
than ever came out OF Egypt 'Specu-
lation recoils from trying to determine
what material was used Tor the adul-
teration--or substitution-of pulVer-
;1ad nnmmies. Beyond this the quack-
erv Of Ignorance and superstition prob
shiy never went in utter losthsome-
ness. Yet any humane and rational
mind would greatly prefer even such
obscene practice, which IN its efects
was after all neutral and which was
done in benevolent good faith and not
for sordid gain, to the selling under
living pretences OF compounds csieu-
lated greatly 10 aggrsvate the patients
disease. for the sake Of putting un-
clean blood money into the till.
In England in the hfteenth. sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries the prevail
ING ailments appear 70 have geen ague
and dysentery. At any rate. the materis
msdica OF those times was thronged
with prescriptions for their cure; cir
cumstances possibly suggestive OF the
physician who always tried to diagnose
case as fits, because he was hell on
curing fits" There were also numerous
=. r. faiIino hair for gray hair,