Tudor Cures

To cure a head ache press a hang man’s rope to your head.

To cure gout – boil a red-haired dog alive in oil until it falls apart. Then add worms, hog’s marrow and herbs. Apply the mixtures to the affected parts.

A barber surgeon would hold your urine sample to the light and examine its colour, then he would smell it and dip his finger in it to taste. This would allow him to work out what was wrong with his patient.

A Tudor doctor attached leeches to your skin – to suck out the ‘bad blood’ believed to cause disease.

To cure whooping cough, find a ferret give it milk to drink and then feed what is left to the sick child.

To cure the plague, hold a live chicken against the plague sores until the bird dies.