i72 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



To cure cramp it is only necessary to wear garters of eel-skin, or 

 to invert the sufferer's shoes under his bed at night. Herpes, or 

 shingles, should be rubbed with blood from a black cat's tail or from a 

 black fowl's neck. Treatment should be prompt, as it is thought that 

 the patient will certainly die if the inflammation completely encircles 

 the body. 



Negroes seem especially subject to inflammation of the uvula, an 

 ailment known among them as ' falling palate.' In Orangeburg 

 County the favorite treatment consists in pressing the uvula upward 

 with the back of a silver spoon, at the same time pulling strongly at a 

 tuft of hair on the top of the head. Many negroes cultivate a tuft of 

 hair, for this purpose, over the middle of the forehead. In another 

 mode of treatment the uvula is supposed to be driven up into its proper 

 place by smart blows administered with a stick upon the soles of the feet. 



Warts and corns are everywhere the object of many superstitious 

 practises. In South Carolina the owner of these excrescences may take 

 his choice of several remedies. He may select a broom straw having 

 as many joints as there are warts to be removed, pick the warts until 

 they bleed, and put a drop of blood from each wart upon a joint of the 

 culm, then bury the straw under the eaves of the house. Or he may 

 count the warts and tie in a string the same number of knots, and bury 

 the string. Another method is to rub each wart with a pea, and bury 

 the peas in the same way. Still another is as follows: Tie as many 

 knots in a string as there are warts to be removed ; blindfold the patient 

 and lead him about until he is lost ; then give him the string, which he 

 should bury in the ground, unobserved by any one. As the string 

 decays the warts will disappear. Corns may be removed by rubbing 

 them with a grain of corn and then feeding the grain to the oldest fowl 

 in the yard. This last remedy comes from a very old negro woman, 

 still living, who was brought from Africa in her childhood; but this 

 may not mean that the remedy is African in origin. 



An old lady, whose parents were Scotch-Irish, gives the following 

 remedy for bleeding of the nose : Let the nose bleed on three pieces of 

 cloth, put these in three holes bored into as many different kinds of 

 fruit-bearing trees, and stop the holes. This will result in a permanent 

 cure. A gruesome drink for epilepsy is a tea made of a piece of rope 

 with which some one has been hanged. Equally repulsive is a reputed 

 remedy for chills and fever, consisting of pills made of dried and pul- 

 verized earthworms. Eisings and boils may be cured by the touch of 

 one who has crushed a ground-mole to death in his hands. 



Either from the great number of ailments to which they are sub- 

 ject or from their helplessness, or possibly from both causes combined, 

 infants claim a large share of magical medical practise. When a baby 

 is born an axe is sometimes placed under the mother's couch with the 



