Folk-Lore of West and Mid-Wales

by Jonathan Ceredig Davies

THE CURE OF RICKETS.

The complaint which is called in West Wales “llechau” means rickets, a complaint to which children are subject. It was thought that it could be cured by cutting a slit in the lobe of one of the child’s ears. The practice was once common in Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire and other parts; and Mr. H. W. Williams, of Solva, mentions in “Cambrian Notes and Queries,” for January 11th., 1902, of a man in the Rhondda Valley who had recently cut the rickets. He was a Cardiganshire man.