VULGAR SPECIFICS 89 



Leprosy was an affliction sent as a punishment of God, according to 

 the beliefs of the ancients. Persons suffering from this illness were 

 driven from the community and were compelled to go about masked, 

 and to cry " Unclean, unclean " upon the approach of a non-leprous in- 

 dividual. Undoubtedly much that was called leprosy in the olden times 

 was in reality syphilis. For a dreadful disease, a dreadful remedy was 

 advised, and surely in those days of slavery the remedy was quite feas- 

 ible for any one who was able to afford the several coins that a human 

 life cost. 



It was anciently believed that a bath made of the blood of infants will 

 cure leprosy, and heal the flesh already petrified. 



A sore throat was sometimes treated by a very unpleasant method. 

 The sole of a stocking that had been worn for several days, was taken 

 warm from the foot and tied about the neck of the patient. Sailors who 

 suffer from soreness of the throat, take a raw salt herring with the bone 

 taken out and apply it to the neck, tying a handkerchief over it and 

 keeping it on all night. -^ 



Before the discovery of the healing properties of quinine, malaria 

 had perhaps more victims than the other severe sicknesses. At the pres- 

 ent time, in the less civilized portions of the globe, they still apply to 

 the magician for a cure for the ague. The chips of gallows and places 

 of execution were thought especially efficacious, and lacking these, the 

 branch of a maiden ash freshly cut from the tree or the water from a 

 church font were used. Certain charms were carried about by those who 

 feared an attack of the fever. A handful of groundsel worn on the bare 

 breast, or else an especially blessed amulet with the inscription of the 

 name of God upon it were suspended from the neck of persons who 

 lived in malaria-infested neighborhoods. 



Bring him but a tablet of lead with crosses (and Adonai or Elohim written 

 on it) he thinks it will heal the ague." 



Another charm was prepared after the following directions : Peg a 

 lock of hair into an oak tree and then wrench it out. As internal medi- 

 cation, quacks recommend pills made from pitch, or a pill made by roll- 

 ing up a spider in dough and taking it several times daily ; another usage 

 was to take a spider and rub it up alive in butter and then eat the mix- 

 ture, or else eat while fasting seven sage leaves seven days running. As 

 a barometer, so to speak, of malaria, the people shut up a spider in a box 

 " and as it languishes and dies, so will the ague." ^^ Joubert,^* speak- 

 ing of the ague, said: 



Est il vray que le fievre qtiarte s'en va par exces on yoronguerie et qu'elle 

 ne fait jamais scnner campane; et qu'un home en est plus sain toute la rest de 

 sa vie. 



="A. H. Markham, "A Whaling Cruise to Baflfin's Bay," 1874, p. 253. 



*»T. Lodge, "Wit's Miserie," 1596. 



^Northal, "Folk Phrases of Four Counties," 1894. 



"L. Joubert, "Erreurs populaires," 1579. 



