Domestic folk-loreThiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
Domestic folk-lore
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Folklore; Superstition
_Measles._--In the quarterly return of the marriages, births, and
deaths registered in the provinces, &c., in Ireland, published in
October, 1878, we find the following extraordinary cure for measles,
administered with what results will be seen:--"Sixty-three cases
of measles appear on the medical relief register for past quarter,
but this does not represent a third of those affected, the medical
officers being only called in when the usual amount of local nostrums
had been tried without effect. Every case seen suffered from violent
diarrhoea, caused by the administration of a noxious compound called
_crooke_. This consists of a mixture of porter, sulphur, and the
excrement of the sheep collected in the fields. Every unfortunate
child that showed any symptom of measles was compelled to drink large
quantities of this mixture. All ordinary remedies failed to stop the
diarrhoea thus produced, in many cases the children nearly dying from
exhaustion." Repulsive as this piece of folk-medicine is, yet it
is only one of a most extensive class of the same kind, many being
most revolting. It is difficult to conceive how either ignorance
or superstition could tolerate any practice of so senseless and
indelicate a nature.
_Paralysis._--One of the popular charms for this disease is the same
as that used in the case of epilepsy, namely, a silver ring made from
money solicited from a certain number of persons. Cowslips, too,
have been esteemed highly efficacious, and have on this account been
termed "Herbæ Paralysis" by medical writers. For the same reason they
are called "Palsyworts" in many country places.
_Rheumatism._--Professors of the healing art have advised the
sufferer to carry about in his pocket the right fore-foot of a
female hare, while others consider a potato equally efficacious. A
Cornish cure is to crawl under a bramble which has formed a second
root in the ground, or to drink water in which a thunder-stone has
been boiled. There is, also, a strong belief that a _galvanic ring_,
as it is called, worn on the finger will serve as an excellent
preservative. "A large number of persons," says Mr. Glyde in his
"Norfolk Garland," "may be seen with a clumsy-looking silver ring,
which has a piece of copper let into the inside, and this, though in
constant contact throughout, is supposed (aided by the moisture of
the hand) to keep up a gentle but continual galvanic current, and so
alleviate rheumatism." A Sussex remedy is to place the bellows in
the sufferer's chair that he may lean against them, and so have his
rheumatism charmed away.
_Spasms._--The belief in the curative powers of the form of the cross
still holds its sway in the popular mind, and in the case of spasms,
or that painful state of the feet in which they are said "to sleep,"
it is used under an impression that it allays the pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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