“SAXON LEECHDOMS.”
In “Saxon Leechdoms,” is arranged the medical lore of the early centuries of the Saxon occupancy and conquest of England.
“Alexander of Tralles (A.D. 550) ... guarantees, of his own experience and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung of a wolf with bits of bone in it” for colic.—(“Saxon Leechdoms,” lib. i. c. 18.)
“Bull’s dung was good for dropsical men; cow’s dung for women” (vol. i. c. 12, quoting Pliny, lib. xxviii. c. 68).
Swine-dung was applied to warts (vol. i. p. 101).
“For bite of any serpent, melt goat’s grease and her turd and wax, and mingle together; work it up, so that a man may swallow it whole” (vol. i. p. 355, quoting Sextus Flacitus).
For dropsy, “Let him drink buck’s mie ... best is the mie.... For sore of ears, apply goat’s mie to the ear.... Against churnels, mingle a goat’s turd with honey ... smear therewith.”
“For thigh pains,” “for sore joints,” “for cancer,” “against swellings,” “tugging of sinews,” “carbuncle,” “smear with goat’s dung” (vol. i. pp. 355, 357).
“For every sore ... let one drink bull’s urine in hot water; soon it healeth.... For a breach or fracture ... lay bull’s dung warm on the breach.... For waters burning or fires, burn bull’s dung and shed thereon.” (Idem, p. 369.) The word “shed” as here employed means to urinate, apparently.
“For swerecothe or quinsy,” the Saxons used an external application of the white “thost” or dung of a dog which had been gnawing a bone before defecation (vol. ii. p. 49).
“Against shoulder pains, mingle a tord of an old swine.”—(Idem, p. 63.)
“If a sinew shrank ... take a she-goat’s tord” (p. 69).
“Against swelling, take goat’s treadles sodden in sharp vinegar” (p. 73).
For a leper, boil in urine hornbeam, elder, and other barks and roots.—(Idem, p. 79.)
“A wound salve for lung diseases,”—of this the dung of goose was an important ingredient (p. 93).
“A salve for every wound.... Collect cow-dung, cow-stale, work up a large kettle full into a batter, as a man worketh soap, then take apple-tree rind” and other rinds mentioned, and make a lotion (p. 99).
For felons, leg diseases, and erysipelas, calf and bullock dungs were applied as a fomentation (p. 101).
“For a dew worm, some take warm, thin ordure of man, they bind it on for the space of a night” (vol. ii. p. 125).
“Against a burn, work a salve; take goate turd,” etc.—(Idem, p. 131.)
“For a horse’s leprosy ... take piss, heat it with stones, wash the horse with the piss so hot.”—(Idem, p. 157.)
“If there be mist before the eyes, take a child’s urine and virgin honey; mingle together.... Smear the eyes therewith on the inside” (vol. ii. p. 309).
“For joint pain ... take dove’s dung and a goat’s turd,” externally (vol. ii. p. 323).
“For warts ... take hound’s mie and a mouse’s blood,” externally.—(Idem, p. 323.)
“Against cancer ... take a man’s dung, dry it thoroughly, rub to dust, apply it. If with this thou were not able to cure him, thou mayst never do it by any means.”—(Idem, p. 329.)
“Si muliebra nimis fluunt ... take a fresh horse’s tord, lay it on hot glades, make it reek strongly between the thighs, up under the raiment, that the woman may sweat much.”—(Idem, pp. 332, 333.)
“A smearing for a penetrating worm” was made with “two buckets of bullock’s mie,” among many other ingredients.—(Idem, p. 333.)
“If a thorn or a reed prick a man in the foot, and will not be gone, let him take a fresh goose tord and green yarrow ... paste them on the wound.”—(Idem, p. 337.)
“Against a penetrating worm ... smear with thy spittle ... and bathe with hot cow-stale” (vol. iii. p. 11).
“Against a warty eruption.... Warm and apply the sharn or dung of a calf or of an old ox.”—(Idem, p. 45.)
“An asses tord was recommended to be applied to weak eyes.”—(Idem, p. 99.)