I guess we have all heard about the Bubonic Plague - caused by Yersinia Pestis , and mainly transferred from human to human by fleas .......
The thought of escaping death by a cure is probably as old as mankind itself .... even today many people try alternative medicine for cancer , when the established medical sector gives up .....
Here are some medieval cures and preventive measures for the plague, compiled from many books :
1) Some medieval people thought , that even thinking of plague could cause it :
so dance, drink , tell merry stories - do NOT think of the plague .....
2) Plague is a scourge from God for your evil deeds - by scourging yourself with a whip like a flaggellant , then God has no reason for scourging you with plague - go whip yourself .....
2a) a combination of 1 and 2 : the dance of death : mass dancing is described in Paris 1348 ... and in Germany dancefever reached new heights in the medieval time ..... hundreds of people would dance for hours .... then suddenly " all fall down " and other townspeople were allowed to trample on them and scourge them ..... so dance untill you fall .....
3) lance the buboes, after that you have 3 choices :
a) let a dove drink of the blood
b) stick a feather into the wound
c) apply a mixture of tree resin, roots of white lillies and human excrements ....
4) Kill the Jews
Many believed the Jews to have poisoned the wells - thereby causing the plague - in a 3 digit number of cities in Europe , the Jews were killed .... often burned alive ......
5) Bathing should be avoided , lest the pores of your skin should open up and allow the polluted air / miasma to enter ......
6) Bathing should not be avoided .... and be done with vinegar and rosewater ......... alternatively in your own urine
7) Drink the puss of lanced buboes ..... ( I wonder if this could work as a vaccine ) .....
8) Sit between 2 fires ( the Pope did it - and it worked - due to the special temperature sensitivity of fleas) - fleas will often leave hosts with high temperature ( high fever) - and also leave hosts with low temperature ( dead bodies ) and seek new hosts ..... rodent hosts are NOT really needed ...
9) Quarantine people for 40 days ( quarantine comes from latin for 40 ) - first done by Venice in 1348 ...... it works ..... Venice started with 30 days later extended to 40 ....
10) Leave your home and go to other towns without the plague ...... ( a sure way to spread the plague ) .....
11) If inhabitants of a home get the plague , then lock up the home untill all are dead inside ( or have survived the plague ) .... I guess this is a sort of quarantine as well ....
12) Place a live hen close to the swellings to draw out the pestilence from your body, to aid recovery , you should drink a glass of your own urine twice a day ......
13) Wear a plague charm - if blessed by a priest, it will be even more efficient ....
14) Grind up an emerald and drink it in wine ..... according to a lecturer in medicine at Padua University, this would cure it .... he swore to this cure, but unfortunately he died of plague himself in 1348 .....
Other recommandations were snakeskin, bone from the heart of a stag, Armenian clay , precious metals .... also aloe, myrrh and saffron ....
Or this recipe : roast the shells of newly laid eggs , and grind them to a powder - add Marigold flowers and treacle - drink in warm beer every morning and night ....
15) Wear a gas mask - the docs of those days wore a mask shaped like a beak - filled with herbs and sweet smelling flowers ....probably good for the stench of dead bodies ......... many other people also used smelling flowers and herbs , since it was believed that plague could spread through bad air (miasma) .........
16) The harmony of the human body consists of the amount of blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile .... you could change the amounts by vomiting and bloodletting ... and thereby be cured for plague .....
17) Retreat from human habitation .... or lock up yourself in solitude or with friends .... again quarantine......
18) Avoid violent exercise - especially of the sexual kind ....
19) Avoid spicy or smelly food ( could be the miasma theory again ) but wine is beneficial ....
20) Repent, repent, repent ...... and donate money to the church .....
If any of you have more cures , then I would love to hear them .....
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