Cambridge University Unravels Trove Of Peculiar Medieval Medical Cures

Cambridge University has published some medical remedies from medieval times that will make you thankful for modern medicine.

The list comprises 8,000 intricate drawings and recipes from 180 different manuscripts, most of which were from the 14th and 15th centuries. These findings have given us an interesting insight into how people used to live during the medieval period. 

One drawing of a human body showed where blood could be extracted from.  Other images include urine vials for different ailments.

And in one case, a picture of a woman performing cupping on a man is even spotted. 

While that seems normal, it takes a departure from the usual and into the unusual pretty quickly. 

A remedy to cure gout saw a puppy being stuffed with sage and snails and roasting it, before its fat was collected and turned into a salve. Another treatment involved mixing the gall bladder of a hare with honey and using a feather specifically to add it to their eye. 

These strange, witchlike—and borderline abusive—treatments of the animals teach us about the mindset of the time while also demonstrating how dangerous life was back then.

There were remedies for skull injuries caused by weapon-induced trauma, as well as solutions to place bones back into the correct position and how to stop bleeding. 

The lack of access to in-depth knowledge of the human body had driven doctors to use a wild range of animals, herbs, and other oddities to try and save the people of a distant time.  

However, many remedies were for things that we still suffer from today such as headaches, diarrhea, toothaches, and limb cramps.   

All of these were contributed by a dozen Cambridge colleges, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and the University Library. Full copies of these will soon be uploaded on the Cambridge University Library website.  

[via Sky News and Independent UK, cover image via Trinity College, Cambridge]