What the Apothecary Ordered: Questionable Cures Through the Ages
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Caroline Rance
Caroline Rance is studying for an MA in Medicine, Science, and Society at Birkbeck College, University of London and writes the successful blog "The Quack Doctor," which has been shortlisted twice for the Medgadget medical blog awards. Her novel, set in an 18th-century hospital, was published in 2009. She regularly speaks on quacks and quackery and lives in Buckinghamshire.
Related to What the Apothecary Ordered
Related ebooks
Old Wives' Lore: A Book of Old-Fashioned Tips & Remedies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Glad You Asked: Intriguing Names, Facts, and Ideas for the Curious-Minded Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Man's Book of Superstitions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd I Thought I Was Crazy! Quirks, Idiosyncrasies and Meshugaas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madman's Library: The Strangest Books, Manuscripts and Other Literary Curiosities from History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bizarre World: A Collection of the World's Creepiest, Strangest, and Sometimes Most Hilarious Traditions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deceived Wisdom: Why What You Thought Was Right Is Wrong Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A People's History of the Peculiar: A Freak Show of Facts, Random Obsessions and Astounding Truths Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Strange History: Mysterious Artifacts, Macabre Legends, Boneheaded Blunders & Mind-Blowing Facts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Book of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncle John's Lists That Make You Go Hmmm... Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Food Weird-o-Pedia: The Ultimate Book of Surprising, Strange, and Incredibly Bizarre Facts about Food and Drink Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDr. Bizarro's Eclectic Collection of Strange and Obscure Facts Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5All Facts Considered Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5From the Ridiculous to the Sublime Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsmental floss presents Forbidden Knowledge: A Wickedly Smart Guide to History's Naughtiest Bits Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lost States: True Stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and Other States That Never Made It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Histories of the Unexpected: How Everything Has a History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carny Sideshows:: Weird Wonders of The Midway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story Behind: The Extraordinary History Behind Ordinary Objects Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
History For You
The Richest Man in Babylon: The most inspiring book on wealth ever written Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whore Stories: A Revealing History of the World's Oldest Profession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Summary of The War of Art: by Steven Pressfield | Includes Analysis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5100 Things You're Not Supposed to Know: Secrets, Conspiracies, Cover Ups, and Absurdities Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The ZERO Percent: Secrets of the United States, the Power of Trust, Nationality, Banking and ZERO TAXES! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lessons of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wise as Fu*k: Simple Truths to Guide You Through the Sh*tstorms of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And Yet...: Essays Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Awakening: Defeating the Globalists and Launching the Next Great Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for What the Apothecary Ordered
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's a fun quick read! My only complaint is that I wish the pictures had captions, a lot of them make little to no sense without them.
Book preview
What the Apothecary Ordered - Caroline Rance
CHAPTER
I
DESPERATE REMEDIES
Of annoying ailments and deadly diseases
BLEEDING AT THE NOSE
Father Schott the Jesuit says, that to stop a Bleeding at the Nose, you need only to hold to the Nose the Dung of an Ass very hot, wrap’d up in an Handkerchief, upon the plea that the Smell will presently stop it. Wecher did the same with Hogs Dung very hot done up in fine Taffeta, and put into the nose.
– Recreations Mathematical and Physical, 1708
THE ANTI-PESTILENTIAL QUILT
This quilt must be worn at the Pit of the Stomach, next the Skin; which may easily be contrived by hanging it over the Neck with a Ribband or Fillet, and tying it close to the Stomach by another Ribband going round the Body.
Care must be taken to pull off the Quilt every Week, and to dry it gradually by the Fire; not too near, but sufficiently so that the Heat may draw from it all the Moisture which it shall have attracted from the Body by Insensible Perspiration.
It is by this insensible Perspiration, effected by the Quilt, that the Blood purges itself of malignant Humours, the Retention of which often occasions melancholy Diseases, and especially the Small Pox.
– Manner of Wearing the Anti-Pestilential Quilt, c. 1780
SNEEZING
Sneezing, provoked by a feather, relieves heaviness in the head; it is said too, that to touch the nostrils of a mule with the lips, will arrest sneezing and hiccup.
– Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, c. AD 77–79
FOR THE AGUE
A small living spider should be rolled up in a cobweb, then put into a lump of butter and eaten while the fit is on. Pills, also, may be made of the cobwebs in which the eggs remain, and taken daily for three days; after which time it would be dangerous to continue the treatment.
– Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland, 1890