Weird / Quack Folk Remedies

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carole

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There is a sister thread about unusual medical contraptions, which set me thinking about unusual remedies.

Like the smelly sock tied around the throat to cure a sore throat.

And I read about dead pigeons being tied to the feet of a plague-sufferer.

What's the most bizarre folk/quack remedy you've ever come across (or indeed been subjected to:) )

Carole
 
When I was young I knew a woman who would "buy warts" from people.
I never understood it but of course many people claimed it worked.

She would give the sufferer a few pence and buy the wart from them and it would go away. She didn't get the wart so I dunno where it was supposed to go, or what was in it for her as it cost her money.
All v strange.
 
I can remember my Grandmother would go down to the horsey
woman in our street to beg a tail-hair of her white horse for the
purpose of removing a wart.

The method wasn't very occult, though - she just tied it around the
wart and tightened it until the blemish was removed. This was
probably not a good idea, as in later years my Grannie's face
came to resemble a giant wart. So I begged a whole horse-tail and
. . . no not really. I got carried away. :p
 
My mother's patent remedy for a bump/bruise was to smear butter on it. I can remember having a huge bump on my forehead and the butter running down the side of my face :cross eye

Carole
 
the best way to get rid on a stye (infection of the folicale (sp?) of the eyelash)
is to rub it with a piece of gold.

This is an old wives tale but it does work.

So if you get one try that for a couple of days and it should go. I've done it before and it works!!!!
 
there was a load crash fron our kitchen the ohter day and i rushed in to find the wife rubbing the babys cheek with an egg. Ive been married for some time so i left it for a few hours to ask what the hell she was up to... Aparently Harry had fallen flat on his face and the egg was a Chinese babysitters cure for bruseing (when young she was bought up in Singapor)... he developed a small bruse on his cheek and she claimed it was a bit she missed....
 
When I was little and had an eye infection(that stuff where some yellow stuff covers your eyes.) my mother bathed it in camille tea. I know others do as well. Sounds quite quack to me. Like when people put aspirins in wounds to remove the pain.
 
I heard an old country remedy for sore throats was to put slugs in a muslin bag and let them crawl around until it was totally covered in slime. Then remove the slugs and droppings and let it dry. This could be stored until someone had a sore throat whereupon it was boiled up into an infusion and given to the person.

Apparently it actually does work, because slug slime is pretty much a solution of sugars and antiseptic. Not sure I'd want to try it, mind.
 
from the south of italy:

for constipated babies:

a stem of parsley up the baby's b*tt!!!
 
Theres an old Salford remedy for babies suffering from teething, simply rub a bit of smack on baby's gums and the he will sleep peacefully for hours.
 
Until quite late in the nineteenth century, harassed mums could
buy Laudanum (ie Opium) based mixtures with names like
"Mother's Friend" for the quietening of babies.

Gin isn't nearly as good but if you don't believe in smacking
up your babes . . . :eek:
 
My Grandfather suffered from a bad chest infection. My grandmother's cure was to rub goose fat into his back. After that he went down hill quickly:D

Then there was my Aunt Marge - she was ill so long we can't believe she's not better.....

I'll get my coat.
 
When our Harry had gungy eyes the midwife told us to bath his eyes with cold tea. Makes sense boiled water and light antiseptic... worked too... she also said if it didnt clear up squirt some brest milk on his eye..we didnt but a friend from Skipton said she did when she had a baby and it worked...
 
remids me ... watching one of them vets progs they dropped a couple of drops of the dogs own blood into an infected eye to stimulate healing...i wonder if the milk works the same?
 
A cure for whooping cough: take a nest of baby mice & put them in a cloth bag & tie it round the neck of the sufferer.

As the mice die the whooping cough gets better!!!!!!!

Or so I am told......
 
Nice thread Carole..
Re: Liz.23 and" buying warts " this was for a penny, and old remedy was to rub the wart with said penny, the copper in the penny reacting chemically and sometimes helping the wart to diminish.
Re: Liveinabin and" gold on a stye " the ring had to be from a newly wed person, the ring being the most obvious thing ( also new ) was rubbed on the stye, and as in lizard.23, the chemicals react again.
Heres one... when you hit your thumb with a hammer, put it straight in your mouth to remove the pain :eek!!!!:
 
My mum told me that when she had her first child, the midwife, who apparently was pretty old, told her if the baby wouldn t stop crying to just wave it over the gas tap (old "stick yer head in a gas oven" taps of course)

BTW, did anyone else think that FT article on using mummies and bits of dead people in medicine was one of the most gross things they'd ever read. It took me about a week to read it, I had to keep going outsde for fresh air :eek!!!!:
 
Erm... I can't get my hammer in my mouth.


BTW, folk remedies frequently work - an old 'folk' painkiller was to chew willow bark, which was later found to contain salyclic (?) acid, the active ingredient in aspirin.

Re: Buying warts - I recall reading somewhere that it actually works by stimulating the body's own defence systems - 'mind over matter'

Personally, I think acupuncture is wonderful - someone comes to you complaining of something, and you stick pins in them until they stop complaining! :)
 
Just for your information

sticky eye thing = conjunctavitus
 
DerekH said:
Personally, I think acupuncture is wonderful - someone comes to you complaining of something, and you stick pins in them until they stop complaining! :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like the pain relief given to me when I had a vasectomy 2 years ago; just stick a needle in each testicle and pump chemicals in!
I could've done with pain relief for the pain relief!
(yes I know, what a wuss!) :)
 
Originally posted by liveinabin
the best way to get rid on a stye (infection of the folicale (sp?) of the eyelash)
is to rub it with a piece of gold.

The way I understood it a gold ring was used to extricate the puss from the stye because it was a non ferrous metal, makes sense really, btw, why dont we see kids with styes so much these days?
Click to expand...
 
James Whitehead said:
Until quite late in the nineteenth century, harassed mums could
buy Laudanum (ie Opium) based mixtures with names like
"Mother's Friend" for the quietening of babies.

Gin isn't nearly as good but if you don't believe in smacking
up your babes . . . :eek:
Click to expand...

Sounds like something from Mr Cholemondley-Warner: "Mother, won't your baby sleep? Give it gin!"

Carole
 
Originally posted by p.younger
The way I understood it a gold ring was used to extricate the puss from the stye because it was a non ferrous metal, makes sense really
Click to expand...

No, that's used for cleaning cat's eyes!

Carole
 
My husband's aunt (who comes from Haslemere) swears by a nutmeg for back pain. No doubt if you try to sleep with a damned great nutmeg strapped to your back, you're bound to forget abut the actual back pain . . .

Carole
 
carole said:
Sounds like something from Mr Cholemondley-Warner: "Mother, won't your baby sleep? Give it gin!"

Carole
Click to expand...

"Gripe Water" was available until the late 60's/early70's as a means of quieting teething babies. Apparently, I went through gallons of the stuff.

It's almost straight alcohol.

(That's my excuse for my beer consumption .... I was trained from an early age to sleep better with booze!:cool: )
 
DerekH said:
"Gripe Water" was available until the late 60's/early70's as a means of quieting teething babies. Apparently, I went through gallons of the stuff.

It's almost straight alcohol.

(That's my excuse for my beer consumption .... I was trained from an early age to sleep better with booze!:cool: )
Click to expand...

I wonder if you can still get it? Might be useful when mother runs out of gin . . .

Carole
 
Try: "Dr Colis Brown's Elixir", (just ask for a botttle of "Colis Brown's" in Boot's), last time I read the contents it still had 1mg of Tinture of opium for every five millilitres other of content. I don't know how they are still able to sell the stuff!!!

It was once sold as a cold cure, it doesn't cure the cold, but you're so smashed you don't notice you've still got the cold!!!!!

NOW, it's sold as a treatment for diarrhoea and it does work, it paralyses the bowls dead!!!!!!
 
oh i remeber Sara first time i saw her whe was drinking settled Kaolim and morphine through a straw....... gripe water is no long what it once was and Silicone stuff is used for windy babies... and i rmeber a description of drinking Colis Brown by a now ex-H adict.. it was hilariouse... ther ei was rolling about the wheel house (boat) Colis running down me chin like dracula trying to get it down. trying no to throw up and trying to swallow at the same time.... he called its efect a "holiday from yourself"....urrrggg
 
old wives cures

We use a thing called Radium Weed to rub on skin cancers, it seems to work on all but the very worst cancers.
 
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