Gruesome medieval remedies revealed in resurfaced manuscripts

[dalton99a]

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/medieval-medical-manuscripts-intl-scli-scn/index.html

Gruesome medieval remedies revealed in resurfaced manuscripts
Updated 18th August 2022

While nowadays you might have some chicken soup to fight a cold, a new project unearthing manuscripts up to 1,000 years old reveals the bizarre medical remedies recommended by those in the medieval era.

Suffering from gout? One medieval treatment involved stuffing a puppy with snails and sage and roasting the animal over a fire. The rendered fat was then used to make an ointment.

An alternative recipe proposed salting an owl and baking it until it could be ground into a powder and mixed with boar's grease to make an ointment to rub onto the sufferer's body.

What about cataracts? One recipe suggested mixing a hare's gall bladder with honey and applying it to the eye with a feather. This was a three-night course of treatment.


Diagram of the human body, showing the veins to be opened for blood-letting, 16th century. Credit: The Master and Fellows of Trinity College; Cambridge


Diagnostic diagram linking a patient's age, temperament, the seasons and the elements, 14th century. Credit: The Master and Fellows of Trinity College; Cambridge

[Farmer-Rick]

1. Maybe if we show it to Alito and Thomas

They may institute it into law. They seem to like to implement ancient supernatural texts. I bet Brett and Amy would recognize a few of those magical ointments.

[GreenWave]

2. The guy seems to be peeing a little red rain cloud.

[pansypoo53219]

3. i can't remember the details, but they tried a medieval remedy + it worked. using a cow's eyeball?

[dalton99a]

4. Maybe cow bile for MRSA

Bald’s eyesalve - garlic, onion, wine and cow bile

[pansypoo53219]

6. i was thinking it was a new plague.

[Harker]

5. Chicken soup fits right in as a gruesome remedy. n/t

[zanana1]

7. I'm so glad I wasn't a medieval puppy.

Ouch.

[wnylib]

8. Throughout history, people have also used

parts of the human body as medicine, from powdered mummy bones, to blood, bone marrow, and body fat. Sometimes they collected the liquids that oozed out of dead bodies to make medicines.

Human body parts and substances were used for treating headaches, seizures, abdominal cramps, and several other ailments.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mumia-the-strange-history-of-human-remains-as-medicine#Mummy-and-other-remains-as-panacea

[ironflange]

9. My BIL suffers from the gout

Perhaps he could give this a try.