HYDROPHOBIA CURE 



of the ravin''d salt sea shark ; root of hemlock digg'd i' the 

 dark ; . . . gall of goat and slips of yew "" ; and so on. 



Most of their cures were faith-cures, and they were, no 

 doubt, much more likely to be successful when the patient 

 believed he was being treated with some dreadful stew of all 

 sorts of wonderful and horrible materials. 



This explains how it was that the knowledge of medicine 

 became so mixed up with pure charlatanism and swindling 

 that no man could tell which drugs were of real use and which 

 were mere ornaments giving piquancy and flavour to the 

 prescription. It is not possible to say that a snake's head, 

 the brain of a toad, the gall of a crocodile, and the whiskers 

 of a tiger, were all of them absolutely useless. Within the 

 last few years it has been found that an antidote to snake- 

 bite can be obtained from a decoction of part of the snake 

 itself, and it has also been discovered that small quantities 

 of virulent poisons are amongst our most valuable and 

 powerful remedies. 



Whether the savages and their successors the doctors of 

 feudal times even down to the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 

 turies, suspected or believed that this was the case must re- 

 main a rather doubtful hypothesis, but there is no question 

 " that the hair of the dog that bit him "" theory of medicine 

 was very prevalent. 



The following was a cure for hydrophobia of a more 

 elaborate nature : " I learned of a Friend who had tried it 

 effectual to cure the Biting of a Mad Dog ; take the Leaves 

 and Roots of Cowslips, of the leaves of Box and Pennyroyal 

 of each a like quantity ; shred them small to put them into 

 Hot Broth and let it be so taken Three Days Together and 

 apply the herbs to the bitten place with Soap and Hog's 

 suet melted together " (Parkinson). 



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