CULPEPER'S THERAPEUTICS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3222, 27 October 1881, Page 4

CULPEPER'S THERAPEUTICS.

It is not much more than 200 years since old Culpeper was in all his glory, and when perhaps the great majority of Englishmen had the sublimest faith in the quaint recipes to be found in his book and other similar sources of information and guidance. Cul- j peper was but a prominent professor of the J most popular medical system of his day, and his book, no doubt, affords an accurate idea of the general proficiency in the art of healing. Some of his prescriptions are very curious reading. For instance, here is 'an excellent cure for the gout,' which may be commended to the attention of those among us who are sometimes tempted to sneer at tho impotency of modern medical science. ' Take a young puppy, all of one colour, if you can get such a one, and cut him in two pieces through the back alive, and lay one side hot to the grieved place ; the inner side I mean.' Again, 'bleeding ut the nose,' says the ' School of Physick,' * will be speedily stopped if you write in the patient's forehead with his own blood these words, Consummatum est.' ' Cantharides wrapped in a spider's web, and hanged over one that hath a quartano ague, perfectly cures them.' Culpeper is not one of those narrow-minded men who never can see an inch before their profession, and if he has a useful recipe for a purpose not strictly within the field of medical science he never hesitates to communicate it. He will tell you how to improve your complexion and make your heart light and merry, oi* wake your voice more musical. He gives o*io recipe which might possibly be found eerricr-able to gentlemen who will by and by be going partridge shooting without, ifc may b«, having put nil their little bills as straight "* as impatient tradesmen could wish ttem. 4lf you aniioitifc your temples where the arteries pass oucu a month with the gnil of a partridge, ifc mightily strengthen* the memory.' Socio, perchance would .find ifc move conducive to enjoyment if memory of such matters were not quite so strong as ifc is sometimes found to be. Culpeper can prescribe for them too. * The soles of the feel; rubbed with good mustard," .he says, 'help- 1 forgetfulness.'—&lobe. '