The medical background of Anglo-Saxon England : a study in history, psychology, and folklore / [Wilfrid Bonser].

  • Bonser, Wilfrid, 1887-1972.
Date:
1963
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The medical background of Anglo-Saxon England : a study in history, psychology, and folklore / [Wilfrid Bonser]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    457/492 (page 417)
    OTHER DISEASES before forty or fifty winters: and of the southern acid potion (siiderne zcyrt-eced-drenc) made with herbs. One and twenty virtues.’ A prescription for preparing the ‘southern acid drink’ is given in the section itself (lix. 12-13): it runs ‘oxumelli, 1 a southern acid drink, a mixture of vinegar, honey and water’— one part vinegar, two of honey, well cleansed, one of water. A radish is to be added and allowed to stand for a night. The particulars of the ‘half-dead disease’ are amplified at the beginning of the section. The condition is described as coming ‘on the right half of the body or on the left, where the sinews get paralysed and are [afflicted] with a viscid and thick humour. The humour must be removed by blood-lettings and drinks and leech- doms. When the disease first comes on the man, then open his mouth, look at his tongue: then it is whiter on that side on which the disease is about to be.’ The treatment is the application of heat, and ‘at intervals lay on and bind on to the sore and swollen sinews goats’ droppings mixed with honey or sodden in vinegar: then the “sleepy” and swollen sinews are reduced’. Other drinks prescribed for hemiplegia are water in which peas have been boiled for a prolonged time—this cleanses the system; or a full bowl of water in which beet with its roots, without salt, has been boiled. (k) Diseases of women Section 60 of the Second Leechbook is missing from the manu script, but the table of contents which precedes it shows that it dealt with the diseases of women. This runs: ‘Remedies for obstruction of the organs of generation ( gecynde ) of women and for all tender nesses of women: if a woman may not bear a child or if a child become dead in a woman’s womb ( innode ) . . . for haemorrhage of women and if a woman be out of her mind ... or if her womb (cwip ) be overgrown, or if she suddenly be silent.’ Section 38 of the Third Leechbook prescribes for menstrual ob struction. ‘If a woman’s menses ( monap-gecynd ) are hindered’ a hot drink in a hot bath is to be given, also a poultice ( clam ) is to be applied to the vulva when she leaves the bath. This is to be done whenever the menses recur. Child-birth has already been dealt with in Chapter XVI. 1 No doubt this is referred to as the southern acid drink since it is the of the Greek physicians.