Domestic annals of Scotland : $b from the revolution to the rebellion of 1745Chambers, Robert
History
Domestic annals of Scotland : $b from the revolution to the rebellion of 1745
Chambers, Robert
Scotland -- History -- 1689-1745
In the department of purely illusive recipes, we have for wakefulness or
_coma_, ‘living creatures applied to the head to dissolve the humour;’
for mania, amulets to be worn about the neck; and a girdle of wolf’s
skin certified as a complete preventive of [Sidenote: 1691.] epilepsy.
We are told that ‘ants’ eggs mixed with the juice of an onion, dropped
into the ear, do cure the oldest deafness,’ and that ‘the blood of a
wild goat given to ten drops of carduus-water doth powerfully discuss
the pleurisy.’ It is indicated under measles, that ‘many keep an ewe or
wedder in their chamber or on the bed, because these creatures are
easily infected, and draw the venom to themselves, by which means some
ease may happen to the sick person.’ In like manner, for colic a live
duck, frog, or sucking-dog applied to the part, ‘draweth all the evil to
itself, and dieth.’ The twenty-first article recommended for bleeding at
the nose is hare’s hair and vinegar stuffed in; ‘I myself know this to
be the best of anything known.’ He is equally sure that the flowing
blood of a wound may be repelled by the blood of a cow put into the
wound, or by carrying a jasper in the hand; while for a depraved
appetite nothing is required but the stone _ætites_ bound to the arm.
_Sed jam satis._
In _Analecta Scotica_ is to be found a dream about battles and
ambassadors by Sir J. Moncrieff of Tippermalloch, who at his death in
1714, when eighty-six years of age, believed it was just about to be
fulfilled. The writer, who signs himself William Moncrieff, and dates
from Perth, says of Tippermalloch: ‘The gentleman was, by all who knew
him, esteemed to be eminently pious. He spent much of his time in
reading the Scripture—his delight was in the law of the Lord. The
character of the blessed man did belong to him, for in that he did
meditate day and night, and his conversation was suitable thereto—his
leaf did not wither—he was fat and flourishing in his old age.’[68]
[Sidenote: AUG. 11.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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