Use three Physicians still, First Doctor Quiet,
Next Doctor Merry-man, and Doctor Diet
[less stress, jolly humor and good diet!]
From Regimen Sanitatis Salernitaum, written sometime during the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, translated by Sir John Harrington
Would you put a mixture of hedgehog lard (boiled hedgehog with the fat skimmed off] and verdigris (copper acetate, the greenish scum on a leaded roof) onto a stye in your eye (applied gently with a furry hare’s foot, of course)? That’s what you were told to do in the 17th century! We are used to the concept of traditional and herbal medicines, and how it’s all friendly and nice and healing they are… but stuff like that! Yuck!
So what’s got into Prof today? Well, Vivien and I are in London for a few days, to see the world-famous Royal Chelsea Flower Show 2025. That was very nice. But after the event we had a few time slots available and walked the Thames riverbank path to a glorious old building called Ham House. It’s a massive pile formerly given by King Charles I to William Murray in 1610… but nobody could live in it today! It’s a vast rambling manse, with countless vast (6 ft x 8ft) oil paintings of the mighty and noble on all the walls.
While I was there among the outbuildings, I found myself browsing secondhand books (what Americans would call “previously owned”). I came across a humble beauty with the compelling title HOW SHAKESPEARE CLEANED HIS TEETH AND CROMWELL TREATED HIS WARTS by Katherine Knight! It was an absolute treat for someone like me, who loves words. In a section called “Frets of The Skin” (love it!), I found imposthumes, morphew, felons and “The King’s Evil”! Among numerous remedies and cures I found an electuary, Venice treacle, possets, caudles, the flesh of vipers boiled with dill, salt and white breadcrumbs, or a hare’s foot burned to ash!
To save you going mad with curiosity, let me relieve you by saying that, in Shakespeare’s time there were no toothbrushes as such. The end of a fibrous twig or root was pounded till it resembled a small brush and that was used to apply some kind of paste, made with powder from orris root, pumice, alabaster or other abrasive substance. Less scientific is the suggestion of Sir Hugh Plat (in Delights for Ladies, 1600):
Take a quart of honey, so much vinegar and halfe so much white wine, boyle them together and wash your teeth therewith, now and again.
I doubt the vinegar would do the enamel much good, never mind the honey!
And Oliver Cromwell? He had the most famous set of warts in history! Having his portrait painted, he decided it should show him “warts and all,” and that phrase became part of the English language! Actually, we don’t know if he tried to get rid of them or not. But there were plenty of suggestions for the time. He could for example, have carved his name on an ash tree and, as the bark healed, so would his blemishes! Or he could have thrown bad peas over his shoulder, each representing a wart, and then not looking back, ridden off on his horse, leaving them behind!
But what I found really fascinating and moving was the countless real remedies of the time. Remember the bubonic plague (The “Black Death”) was still around and there were three outbreaks in 1605, 1525 and 1665. They didn’t know what caused it but the Wrath of God was the common explanation. People were advized to pray and repent. They understood somehow that is was contagious and perhaps due to animals. Some sources recommended killing rats (good) but also cats and dogs (not so good!)
The “official” quarantine solution was quite cruel: when a disease was found in a household, the door was sealed and a red cross painted on it. No-one was allowed to leave. Real “social isolation”, as you might say!
Food and drink was to be delivered but often was not (the merchants stole it for themselves). So many households just starved to death. But the worst of it by far is that healthy people were immured along with the sick and thus condemned to share the same horrible death. Not surprisingly, families would try to hide the fact that the plague had broken out in their home!
The times were characterized by an unspeakable dread, that we cannot suppose today.
But remedies there were. No-one knows if they really worked or not because there were no clinical trials, of course. But some of them I bet would work and work well; better than a doctor’s physick!
A very common recommendation, for all kinds of ills, appeared many times:
Rue and a walnut kernel, with bay salt, put into a fig!
This particular remedy has a long, long history, which goes back to Greek physician and pharmacologist Dioscorides, who practiced in Rome at the time of Nero.
Rue (Ruta graveolens), often known as grace herb or herb-of-grace, is a marvelous healing plant. Many of you may have used it as homeopathic ruta grav. It’s good for aches and pains and strained muscles and tendons, great exertion, etc. A great detoxifier and would be good against bacterial toxins. It works to lower fever, an analgesic, anti-inflammatory, an anti-venom (snake bites and insect stings), and YES, it probably would be quite good against The Plague.Â
Rue (ruta graviolens) a valuable herb for any age!
King Mithridates of Pontus, who died 63 BC, was famously unable to be poisoned. His son, who turned against him, tried several times to do so. In the end, he had to have soldiers murder his father. The story has it that Mithridates chewed on several leaves of rue daily, which made him inviolate to poisons! We now have the term “mithridate” which means taking a low-dose toxin regularly, to protect yourself against harm from same.
There were no end of fascinating “receipts” as they were called (meaning recipes or Rx). Some sounded even enticing. Aquamirabilis, for example (magical waters). This occurred in many collections of remedies and cures. It was herbs mixed with copious white wine. Good for the rheume apparently (rheumatism)!
Similar to Today’s Thinking
Some remedies were not a million miles different than today’s thinking. For pain relief, they had discovered poppy juice (morphine) but curiously had not found willow bark, which contains salicylic acid (aspirin).
But they did know cinchona bark, which is a source of quinine, used to treat malaria. In England it was popularly used against the “ague”, another name for malaria.
Poultices were used to “draw” pus from an abscess. Even today we still have “drawing ointments” (like zinc oxide or icthammol) which I have prescribed and used many times!
Downright Awful
How about nestling swallows made into an ointment by boiling in May butter with lavender cotton, strawberries and other herbs?
Or dried chicken dung? Boiled with elder leaves, wormwood, lavender and a pottle of snails (had to be black snails apparently), it made a very effective application for sprains and bruises. Probatum (proven) said the 17th century author who wrote up this recipe!
But the deadliest and most foolish of all was the widespread use of quicksilver (liquid mercury) in remedies for “the pox” (syphilis). The English called it the French disease; the French called it the English disease; sometimes called the Spanish disease… nobody wanted to own it! But it was feared by everyone, everywhere, because of its ultimate deadly outcome.
According to Gervase Markham, quicksilver worked best when killed with fasting spittle, mixed with verdigris, gum arabic, turpentine, olive oil and poplar bud, and used as an ointment. According to Katherine Knight, saliva from a fasting person was believed to have healing properties, going as far back as Pliny The Younger.
But Then…
Wild and challenging cures, you might think. But is today’s pharmacopeia that much better? It’s supposed to be more scientific but there is plenty of nonsense in it, just like in the old days! When doctors believe that blocking your liver’s natural creation of cholesterol is going to be beneficial are simply ignorant (or stupid). Or blocking the uptake of coenzyme Q10 by the heart will enable you to live longer. What about proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or interfering with the metabolism of essential neurotransmitters (SSRIs).
As for scattering a little bit of measles dust or whooping cough dust on the patient, mixed with some mercury or aluminium? Doesn’t make sense, any more than medieval or 17th century “cures” with mercury or verdigris!
Haha!
To your health,
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor
