prescription runs as follows: "take 9 half-prunes and in each 9 capsicum seeds, 99 (sic) capsicum seeds in all"; or, "9 peppercorns, some spice and cloves, all pounded together, and mixed with half a quart of spirits," or, "a corresponding quantity of capsicum powder and white pepper in a quart of wine, and drink the lot, when the intermittent fever begins to torment you";—one cannot help shuddering when contemplating the overpowering effect which the above compounds must produce, and may feel inclined to "prefer the evil to the cure." And what must we think of the use of poisonous plants? There is one recipe which is as follows:—"Put a spoonful of hyosciamus seed into boiling water, cover your head with a table-cloth, and inhale the vapour on to your aching tooth."[1] Or, "make the insane person take in wine a mixture composed of atropa belladonna, ligusticum root, garlic and black excrementa of a pig, for nine consecutive days, bathing the patient in a bath prepared with the same mixture, and fumigate him after each bath with the fumes of the same ingredients!" You will agree with me when I maintain that all these cures are as many attempts against human life!
The number of these "doctors"—"doctoring men or women" or "learned men or women," as they are called—is very considerable per county or even per village.
One of their number is, perhaps, famous for his or her treatment of a certain disease, while another may have a reputation for curing another kind of ailment. Such a qualification constitutes a never-failing source of revenue, and sometimes an heirloom in the family, who naturally keep their knowledge the greatest secret. This very secrecy forms a most serious impediment to the student of folk-medicine. In order to lessen the danger of losing such revenue by the secret being found out, the real fact of the matter is often enveloped in meaningless ceremonies. For instance, the gathering of the roots of the highly-valued atropa belladonna is not of everyday importance. The digging for these roots can only be carried on between the two St. George's days, and then only by the person who does the collecting stripping himself of all his clothes and by using certain charms and mumbling some
- ↑ I have seen this done in Yorkshire.—(W.H.J.)
