John Wesley (1703-91) was an English theologian and religious reformer, best known as the founder of Methodism. Wesley also had an interest in the natural sciences, physics and medicine. In 1744, he penned Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases, a volume of medical receipts and treatments.

Most of Wesley’s medical advice is standard for the time, though there are a few bizarre tips, such as his treatment for insanity:

“Put the madman under a great waterfall, for as long as his strength would bear, or let him eat nothing but apples for a month.”

His advice for consumption (tuberculosis) is no less strange:

“Cut up a little turf of fresh earth and, laying down, breathe into the hole [for] a quarter of an hour. Have known a deep consumption cured thus. In the last stage, suck a healthy woman. This cured my father.”

Source: John Wesley, Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases, 1744. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.