folio 49_a_)]

In the treatment of disease we find that the material remedies, by
which I mean remedies devoid of any mystic meaning, are with few
exceptions entirely herbal. The herb drinks were made up with ale,
milk or vinegar, many of the potions were made of herbs mixed with
honey, and ointments were made of herbs worked up with butter. The
most scientific prescription is that for a vapour bath,[22] and there
are suggestions for what may become fashionable once more--herb baths.
The majority of the prescriptions are for common ailments, and one
cannot help being struck by the number there are for broken heads,
bleeding noses and bites of mad dogs. However ignorant one may be of
medicine, it is impossible to read these old prescriptions without
realising that our ancestors were an uncommonly hardy race, for the
majority of the remedies would kill any of us modern weaklings,
even if in robust health when they were administered. At times one
cannot help wondering whether in those days, as not infrequently
happens now, the bulletin was issued that "the operation was quite
successful, but the patient died of shock!" And, as further evidence
of the old truth that there is nothing new under the sun, it is
pleasant to find that doctors, even in Saxon days, prescribed
"carriage exercise," and moreover endeavoured to sweeten it by
allowing the patient to "lap up honey" first. This prescription runs
thus:--

"Against want of appetite. Let them, after the night's fast,
lap up honey, and let them seek for themselves fatigue in
riding on horseback or in a wain or such conveyance as they
may endure."--_Leech Book_, II. 7.

In the later herbals, "beauty" recipes are, as is well known, a
conspicuous feature, but they find a place also in these old
manuscripts. In the third book (the oldest part) of the _Leech Book_
there is a prescription for sunburn which runs thus:--

"For sunburn boil in butter tender ivy twigs, smear
therewith."--_Leech Book_, III. 29.

And in _Leech Book_ II. we find this prescription:--

"That all the body may be of a clean and glad and bright
hue, take oil and dregs of old wine equally much, put them
into a mortar, mingle well together and smear the body with
this in the sun."--_Leech Book_, II. 65.

Prescriptions for hair falling off are fairly numerous, and there are
even two--somewhat drastic--prescriptions for hair which is too thick.
Sowbread and waterc