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

  • Wilfrid Bonser
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.

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    water of St. Columb’s well, which is thereby made holy water’. 1 Water which had been consecrated was considered especially efficacious for curing murrain. The famous Imokilly amulet was known as the murrain-stone. It was a polished ball of brecciated or banded agate, red and green streaked with white lines, and pierced for suspension. It was placed in a vessel containing water, and the water was then used for curing cattle. 2 Two charms for spoilt milk may also be included with charms for cattle. In one case three herbs are to be bound together and laid on the milk-pail: the vessel must not be set down on the earth for seven nights. 3 In the other, four worts are to be hallowed and put into or under the vat, and also under the door. 4 The counterpart of S. Comely in this country was perhaps, St. John of Beverley, who was reputed to be a protector of the cattle and a healer of cattle-plague. We read in the ‘Miracula Sancti Johannis episcopi’: It often happened that pestilence attacked the animals and cattle: but the inhabitants of the surrounding parts were able to obtain protection when they dedicated an animal from their herd to St. John for the libera tion of the rest from such pestilence: the latter were wont to regain their health at once and the pestilence departed from them, the men paying with their offerings to St. John at Beverley. 5 (c) Sheep A recipe to be used ‘if sheep be ailing’—the precise nature of ailment not being specified—requires the practitioner to take ‘a little new ale’, and pour it into the mouth of each of the sheep, and manage to make them swallow it fairly quickly; that will prove of benefit to them. 6 Other charms for diseases in sheep occur in the Lacnunga. One is ‘for a broken-down sheep, and for sudden mortality’. Five worts are to be worked to a dust and put into holy water. ‘Pour into the broken-down sheep, and sprinkle on the others thrice.’ This is followed by a similar recipe ‘for pocks and scab ( poccas and hreofla) 1 W. G. Wood-Martin, Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, 1903, vol. i, pp. 381-2. 2 G. M. Atkinson, Journ. Roy. Hist, and Archaeol. Assoc. Ireland, 1875, 4s. iii. 440-44. 3 Leechbook III, liii. 4 Leechbook I, lxvii. 5 ‘Miracula alia Sancti Johannis episcopi [end]’ in James Rain e,The Historians of the Church of York and its Archbishops, vol. i, 1879, p. 325 (Rolls Series). 6 MS. Cotton Vitellius E. XVIII (quoted by Cockayne, vol. i, p. 388).