Category Archives: Strange cures

1743: Birthing tips from women in Greenland

In 1743, a Flemish explorer and writer published A Natural History of Greenland, having spent time there some years earlier. Hans Egedius begins with an account of Greenland’s climate, terrain, natural resources and fauna. He then turns his attention to its human inhabitants, mentioning their proclivity for wife-swapping:

“They have riotous assemblies in which it is reckoned good breeding when a man lends his wife to a friend…”

Egedius also records a list of bizarre medical treatments allegedly used in Greenland, such as this response to intestinal worms:

“When their children are troubled with worms, the mother puts her tongue up the [child’s] fundament to kill them.”

And their unique approach to childbirth:

“They hold a piss-pot over the women’s heads whilst in labour, thinking it to promote hasty delivery. They seldom [deliver] twins, but often monsters.”

Source: Hans Egedius, A Natural History of Greenland, &c., 1743. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1724: Cure kidney stones with a turtle pizzle

Cotton Mather was a Puritan minister and writer in early colonial Boston, best remembered for his contribution to the Salem witch trials. Mather’s puritanical religious views also informed his understanding of science and medicine. His unpublished book, The Angel of Bethesda, was an account of how physical and mental illnesses were caused by spiritual ailments, such as gross immorality and demonic possession. But The Angel of Bethesda also included practical hints for dealing with sickness, like this one for kidney stones:

“Take the pizzle [penis] of a green turtle, dry it with a moderate heat and pulverise it. Of this take as much as may lay upon a shilling, in beer, ale or white wine. It works a speedy cure! Yea, the turtle diet will do wonders for the stone.”

Source: Cotton Mather, The Angel of Bethesda, 1724. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

c.2600BC: An ancient Chinese cure for toothache

A Chinese remedy for severe toothache, purportedly written by Huangdi, the ‘Yellow Emperor’, calls for a strange mix of ingredients to be blended and shoved up the nose:

“Roast a piece of garlic then crush it between the teeth. Mix with chopped horseradish seeds then make into a paste with human breast milk. Form this paste into pills and place one into the nostril, on the opposite place to where the pain is located.”

Source: Chinese medical treatise circa 2600BC, cited in P Dabry, La Medecine chez les Chinois, 1863. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1688: Tortoises, lungs and snails – and sugar candy

Theodore Mayerne (1573-1655) was a Swiss-born physician who travelled widely to study, research and work in medicine. By the early 1600s, he was one of several personal doctors to France’s King Henry IV. He also spent time in the royal and aristocratic courts of Denmark and Britain, eventually settling and setting up practice in the latter. Like many physicians of his time, Mayerne believed that illnesses and injuries must be ‘shocked’ out of the body with chemical concoctions. The more foul and disgusting these substances were, the more effective they would be.

For problems with the lungs or breathing, Mayerne recommended a particularly gnarly brew – though it at least contained something a little sweet:

“A syrup made with the flesh of tortoises, snails, the lungs of animals, frogs and crawfish, all boiled in scabrous and coltsfoot water, adding at the last sugar candy.”

Source: Theodore Mayerne, cited in Anne Somerset, Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of James I, 1997. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.