Continuation of 'Old Leonard'

Last time we ended at the point of giving some of Old Leonard’s medicinal remedies. I certainly hope that the delay has not in any way caused any medical emergencies among the readership due to the inaccessibility of a sure-fire cure!

u      u      u

King’s Evil. (Have you ever noticed how many old terms are completely meaningless today? This is true of recipes as well as medical terminology. Here is what the dictionary has to say about King’s Evil: The title reflects the ancient belief that this disease was curable by the touch of a reigning sovereign. The disease is today called scrofula, a constitutional disorder of a tuberculous nature, characterized chiefly by swelling and degeneration of the lymphatic glands, especially in the neck, and by inflammation of the joints.)

King’s Evil — Take a muskrat skin, roll it up, the fur side in, put a wire around it so as to hold it, place it in the fire and burn to a coal, bathe the patient’s neck with vinegar, then sprinkle on the powdered coal; repeat this twice a day.

Sore eyes — Take garden chamomile, sage, shed rose leaves; equal parts, steep them strong; wet a cloth, fold five or six times and bind on the temples, and wash the eyes with urine.

For a weak stomach — Take an oyster shell, wet it in water and heat it at the fire, then put it into a bowl of cold water for common drink. When gone, wet and heat again and again.

Shingles — Bathe the patient in the blood of a black cat, where affected, and bind the skin on, and make a tea of golden seal (2 tablespoons-full of the white root), put into 1 quart of boiling water, for common drink.

(If you are squeamish, just pass over this next one!)

Croup — Take up the white of hen manure, what can be taken up on the point of a pen-knife blade, and mix with honey; one dose is almost always enough to effect a permanent cure.

u      u      u

One of his favorite remedies was frog’s oil. Take green frogs and chop them up, put them into water, simmer slowly for two hours, then set away until cold, then skim off. Another was made from earth worms. Take one-half pint, put in a junk bottle (what’s that?), add 1 pound of loaf sugar, hang in the sun until the worms turn to oil; the oil is used as ointment on the throat in epilepsy and cramp convulsion fits. Dose of half a teaspoon is good for cough and weakness at the stomach, also for callus or stiff joints.

For Red Erysipelas  — (This is defined as an acute febrile infectious disease, caused by a specific streptococcus.) Catch some female or white-bellied frogs, keep them alive; take two of them and hold near enough to the person’s mouth for them to take the person’s breath; hold them there for the space of four or five minutes, then put them into water; repeat the operation every 10 minutes for one hour. Then let the person rest one hour; then repeat the operation the same as before. Continue this treatment for five days or a week.

Piles (hemorrhoids) — For bloody piles, put a shovel-full of coals in a kettle, roll up a ball of sulphur in woolen cloth and put in the fire and let the patient sit over the smoke, and anoint with the universal salve at night (Do you suppose he means Vaseline?) after sitting over the smoke; repeat every night until cured.

u      u      u

“There are many recipes for all the various ills of man and woman, too, made up of herbs and plants, which might be very helpful, if you had the courage to try them. A full description of all the herbs and plants is in the back of the book.�

I haven’t seen this in print anywhere, but right next to the quince bushes still growing in his old backyard are some small, brushy-type trees, sparsely covered with sharp thorns very similar to those of the black locust. This is prickly ash, also called the toothache tree; the bark of their roots contains a strong anesthetic. Chew a small amount of this and your mouth will feel as though you just had a shot of Novocain. I have dug down to the roots (3 or 4 inches) and removed a quarter-inch wide strip of bark an inch long, put it in my mouth next to a cold sore or sore tooth, and the pain almost instantly stopped. It doesn’t address the problem, but the pain goes away.

u      u      u

On the back page, “Doctor Leonard Gillette� writes to the reader: “After many years experience and practice, through the advice of friends, and my own solicitude for the welfare of the human race, I am ready and willing to admit that we have many able and experienced physicians in our country, but I can safely say also that there are very many persons also who are practicing medicine, and style themselves physicians, who know no more about the human system and the diseases it is subject to, than a dog knows how to perform some fine mechanical piece of work.

[Could we perhaps interject here the old adage of “Physician, heal thyself�?]

“Now it certainly must be admitted that it is far better for every man, especially every man with a family, to have within his reach a work that will enable him to combat and repel any disease which may attack himself or his family, than it would be to let the disease run, and by so doing endanger the life and destroy the health and maybe have to employ a quack, and pay tens of hundreds of dollars for which he will receive little if any benefit. And I am certain if any man will follow the advice given in the foregoing pages, he will be able to combat and repel any disease which may attack himself or family, but I will let the work show for itself, which I am certain it will do if thoroughly tested.�

This eccentric old character died many years ago and has been forgotten by all but a very few, but his remedies are occasionally spoken about with ridicule. Many of them were unreasonably fantastic, but others were good and we hope relieved the suffering of some ill person.

Bob Grigg is the town historian in Colebrook.