Sketches from the history of medicine : ancient and modern.

  • W. Sedgwick Saunders
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sketches from the history of medicine : ancient and modern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    lines long, grown on the skulls of malefactors who have been a long time exposed to the air. This little plant is found chiefly in England and Ireland, where the bodies of men are left hanging in chains for many years after their execution. It is of a volatile astringent nature, good for bleeding of the nose, and of use internally for epilepsy. The writer adds, I have seen in the apothecaries' shops in London these skulls exposed with the Usnea upon them. Then again we have a whole tribe of holy remedies and cabalistic charms, &c. Hiera Picra and Solomon's seal are used to this day. The charm for burns is as follows :— In the name of, &c. There came two angels from the East, one brought fire, the other water; I command them both : out fire ! ! in water !! and so I say Amen.''1 This is mumbled by the charmer, and the sufferer is relieved largely. Hot iron was applied to his head. A loathsome volatile salt, extracted from human skulls, was forced into his mouth. [This volatile salt is thus described in the Dictionares des Drogues: Amsterdam, 1716. L'Usnee humaine contient beau- coup de sel volatil et d'huile; elle ne bouillonne point avec les acides.]