Part 18

2. For sore of temples or of the head, take ooze of this same wort, pound with vinegar, and lay upon the sore; it alleviates the sore.

3. For sleeplessness, take ooze of this same wort, smear the man with it, and soon thou sendest the sleep on him.

* * * * *

Many of the herbs named in the Herbarium were employed for other purposes than those for which they were used in later practice. Comfrey is recommended for one “bursten within.” It was to be roasted in hot ashes and mixed with honey; then to be taken fasting. But nothing is said of its bone-setting property. Mullein, subsequently famous as a pectoral medicine, is recommended in the Herbarium as an external application in gout, and to carry about to prevent the attacks of wild beasts. Dill is prescribed as a remedy against local itching; fennel in cough and sore bladder; and madder for broken legs, which it would cure in three days.

To prevent sea-sickness the traveller had to smear himself with a mixture of pennyroyal and wormwood in oil and vinegar. Peony laid over a lunatic would soon cause him to upheave himself whole; and vervain or verbena if carried on the person would ensure a man from being barked at by dogs.

A PROFESSED TRANSLATION.

The next document presented is the Medicina de Quadrupedibus of Sextus Placitus, an unknown personage, who adds to the interest of his narrative by pretending that “a king of the Egyptians, Idpartus he was highten,” sent this treatise to the Emperor Octavius Cæsar, “for,” he said, “I wist thee worthy of this.” Probably this manuscript was not a translation at all; if it was, the pretended authors were almost certainly fictitious. Most of the instructions here given relate to the medicinal uses of animals. The idea that foxes’ lungs will strengthen ours is hardly dead yet. Here it is in this old Saxon document:--

“For oppressive hard drawn breathing, a fox’s lung sodden and put into sweetened wine, and administered, is wonderfully healthy.”

The fox had many other uses. Foxes’ grease would heal many kinds of sores. His sinews soaked in honey would cure a sore throat; his “naturam” wrapped round the head would banish headache; his “coillon” rubbed on warts would break them up and remove them; and dimness of sight could be relieved by his gall mingled with honey. The worst recipe is:

For disease of joints. Take a living fox and seethe him till the bones alone are left. Let the man go down therein frequently, and into another bath. Let him do so very oft. Wonderfully it healeth.

There are scores of cures from parts of animals, some of them very disgusting. A few more specimens of decent ones must suffice.

For oversleeping, a hare’s brain in wine is given for a drink. Wonderfully it amendeth.

To get sleep a goat’s horn laid under the head turneth waking into sleep.

For sleep lay a wolf’s head under the pillow; the unhealthy shall sleep.

Let those who suffer apparitions eat lion’s flesh; they will not after that suffer any apparition.

For any fracture, take a hound’s brain laid upon wool and bind upon the broken place for fourteen days; then will it be firmly amended, and there shall be a need for a firmer binding up.

If thou frequently smearest and touchest children’s gums with bitches’ milk, the teeth wax without sore.

VARIOUS LEECHDOMS.

Some “Fly-Leaf Leechdoms” of unknown authorship follow. In these information concerning the four humours is given, hot and cold, moist and dry remedies are distinguished, and we are told of the forty-five dies caniculares “in which no leech can properly give aid to any sick man.” It is carefully noted that the same disorder may occur from different causes, and quite scientifically the practitioner is advised to vary his treatment accordingly. Thus, for example, dealing with “host” (cough) we are told that “it hath a manifold access, as the spittles are various. Whilom it cometh of immoderate heat, whilom of immoderate cold, whilom of immoderate dryness.” The remedies must depend on the causes of the complaint. The “tokens” of “a diseased maw” of “a half head’s ache” (megrims) and of other distempers are set forth with graphic simplicity, and often sensible advice as to diet and medicine is given. But not infrequently the remedy may not be an easily procurable one. For instance “If one drink a creeping thing in water, let him cut open a sheep instantly and drink the sheep’s blood hot”; and “if a man will eat rind which cometh out of Paradise no venom will damage him.” The writer considerately adds that such rind is “hard gotten.”

The following is apparently adapted from Alexander of Tralles, or some other of the later classical authors.

“Against gout and against the wristdrop; take the wort hermodactylus, by another name titulosa, that is in our own language the great crow leek; take this leek’s heads and dry them thoroughly, and take thereof by weight of two and a half pennies, and pyrethrum and Roman rinds, and cummin, and a fourth part of laurel berries, and of the other worts, of by weight of a halfpenny, and six pepper corns, unweighed, and grind all to dust, and add wine two egg-shells full; this is a true leechcraft. Give it to the man to drink till that he be hole.”

A few other recipes in the Leechbooks may be quoted:--

For headache take a vessel full of leaves of green rue, and a spoonful of mustard seed, rub together, add the white of an egg, a spoonful, that the salve may be thick. Smear with a feather on the side which is not sore.

For ache of half the head (megrim) take the red nettle of one stalk, bruise it, mingle with vinegar and the white of an egg, put all together, anoint therewith.

For mistiness of the eyes take juice of fennel and of rose and of rue, and of dumbledores’ honey; (the dumbledore is apis bombinatrix); and kid’s gall, mixed together. Smear the eyes with this. Again, take live periwinkles burnt to ashes; and let him mix the ashes with dumbledores’ honey.

For sore and ache of ears take juice of henbane, make it lukewarm, and then drip it on the ear; then the sore stilleth. Or, take garlic and onion and goose fat, melt them together, squeeze them on the ear. Or, take emmets’ eggs, crush them, squeeze them on the ear.

For the upper tooth ache:--Take leaves of withewind (convolvulus), wring them on the nose. For the nether tooth ache, slit with the tenaculum till they bleed.

For coughs, mugwort, marrubium, yarrow, red nettle, and other herbs are recommended generally boiled in ale, sometimes in milk.