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Tickle with a feather
Abstract
Support the hanging body and cut through the rope gently. Until the arrival of a medical man apply leeches to the temple and take blood with cupping glasses. These were the serious instructions given to the reader in 1870 by the well-known publisher Samuel Beeton (husband of Mrs Beeton of cookery fame) and may be found in his book of 365 pages, All About Everything, sold in those days for 2/- (two shillings), or 2/6d with cloth gilt. In our age of antibiotics you will find its advice on medicines, health and general topics curious, but some may still be successful ... Do you suffer from ague? Well, here's the cure - it's a favourite and considered most efficacious, and I bet granddad enjoyed it: beat up a new-laid egg in a glass of brandy and take on going to bed. Equally popular was 3 grams of snake root, 40 grams of wormwood, and '/2 oz of best powdered Jesuit bark - taken in a half pint of port wine.
SAMJ Volume 85 No.6 June 1995
SAMJ Volume 85 No.6 June 1995