VULGAR SPECIFICS 93 



given unasked and roceivcd witliout thanks from one of the opposite sex 

 will sometimes stop epistaxis. 



We see that a bone taken out from a carp's bead stauncheth blood, and so 

 will none other part of the fish.'" 



Poisoning had and still has its superstitious treatment. The uni- 

 corn's horn was remedy for all poisons. The horn of a unicorn (the 

 animal is not to be found classified in the modern books on zoology) 

 was worth the price of half a city.^^ It is needless to say that this rem- 

 edy was not witliin the reach of everybody, and less poetic remedies were 

 used by the ordinary people. The quacks, however, made huge profits 

 selling powdered unicorn's horn to the gullible public. It is more than 

 a suspicion that the stuff sold was made from the horns of an ox or a 

 ram. "Plain proof declares one poison to drive out another."^* and 

 they certainly gave dangerous medications to persons that were poi- 

 soned. If the patient did not succumb to the original draught, he had 

 very good chances of dying as a result of the remedy. 



For the bites of animals, many queer remedies were in vogue. A 

 patient bitten by a dog used to eat the hair of this dog. A person stung 

 by an adder was advised to kill the animal and apply some of its fat to 

 the wound, or else to fry the adder and strike the place bitten with the 

 hot flesh, or else to make an ointment from its liver and apply it locally 

 (Xoake). 



'Tis true a scorpion's oil is said 

 To cure the wounds the vermin made. 



The Boston Journal of Chemistry (1879) tells of a druggist from 

 Texas who paid two hundred and fifty dollars for a " mad-stone " which 

 had the powers to cure the bites of animals. A custom, which is prac- 

 tised by the Hottentots also, is to kill a chicken and to thrust the bitten 

 part into the stomach of the bird, and there let it remain till the 

 chicken becomes cold. If the flesh of the fowl becomes dark, a cure was 

 supposed to have been affected ; if not the poison had been absorbed by 

 the person bitten. 



To relieve deafness, they applied eels to the ears. For the cure of 

 dropsy "all-flower water" was recommended. Another method for the 

 treatment of dropsy is the one reported by Joubert : 



Pisser durant neuf matins sur le marrube avant que le soleil L'ait touche 

 et a mesure que la plant e mourra, le ventre se desenflera. 



For the cure of rickets, they suggested sleeping on a bed of green 

 bracken, or passing the child nine times through a holed stone against 

 the sun. In Oxfordshire, they relieved heartache by giving the patient 

 the last nine drops of tea from the tea-pot after the guests liad been 

 served. 



«° Scott, "Diseoverie of Witchcraft," XIII., p. 10. 

 "Dekker, "Gull's Hornbook," II. 

 =^ Grange, "Golden Aphroditis," III. 



