In medieval England, a medical work was badly needed, because one in three babies died within a year, the average life expectancy was 50 years and epidemics regularly killed hundreds of thousands of people.
As usual, John of Gaddesden quoted Greek and Roman philosophers who had written their ideas about the workings of the body more than 1,000 years earlier.
But The medicinal rose also contains practices the author had learned from English colleagues, herbalists and his own experience. For example, John of Gaddesden recommended this cure for a hangover:
“Wash your testicles with salt and vinegar.”
Women had to grease their breasts, and both sexes could eat cabbage and sugar until the hangover eased.
Take a bath in boiled cat
According to John of Gaddesden, more drastic measures were needed if the patient had severe pain in the extremities:
‘Take some young cats, cut them open, take out the entrails and cook them with various spices. Use the water for a bath for the sick.’
Another option was to “boil fat from a cat and a dog and then put the fat in the stomach of a skinned black cat.” Fry the cat and collect the meat juice, then apply it to the sore spots.’
2023-08-12 16:22:23
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