Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine: Old World and New World Traditions

In nineteenth-century Britain, the hiccups were cured by spitting on the forefinger of the right hand and making a cross on the front of the left shoe while saying the Lord’s prayer backward. In Ireland, a son born after his father’s death was believed to have the power to cure fevers, as was the seventh son of a seventh son. For the first time, Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine compiles in a single source the aliments, remedies, and sometimes outlandish prescriptions that have characterized folk medicine in Britain and North America from the sixteenth century to the present. With in the 220+A-Z entries, readers will discover such fascinating facts as: Mice, burned to a cinder, powdered, and mixed with jam, were given to children in Sussex to cure them of bed-wetting; To avoid “catching” epilepsy, an amulet made from the backbone of a rattlesnake was worn as a precaution in California; In Roman times, the ashes from the burned genital of an ass were mixed with urine and rubbed on the scalp to prevent baldness; Potatoes were carried in the pocket to ward off rheumatism in twentieth-century Norfolk;. Detailed, sometimes unusual discussions of remedies from the animal, vegetable, and mineral worlds identify a surprising number of overlaps between practical medicine, magic, and myth. Accessing the work through both agents used and aliments treated, students, folklorists, anthropologists, and those interested in the history of medicine will deepen their understanding of every aspects of folk medicine.