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Introduction

The past few months have brought the public interest in medicine and the way that science informs our understanding of how the body works into sharp focus. This has been on the mind of Lorna Webb, an assistant archaeologist at ASE who is studying for a MA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at 香港六合彩中特网. As part of her studies she has been thinking about how the peoples of the past dealt with healing the sick, especially considering the knowledge that microscopic organisms can cause illness has only been around since the industrial revolution. Lorna is particularly interested in the manuscript evidence for cures used by the Anglo Saxons. In this lockdown-born blog post, she looks at medical practitioners and advice in the past and wonders, without the benefit of scientific advancement, how (successfully) did people treat those who were ill?

Medicine before the Middle Ages

The understanding of illness and what makes people sick in the past was patchy at best. There isn鈥檛 any written evidence in Britain of medical procedure before the early medieval period, though archaeologically there are glimpses of communities having 鈥渄octors鈥� or 鈥渉ealers鈥� in them, and osteoarchaeological evidence of people who must have received medical attention. One example comes from a burial near Colchester where a Late Iron Age (c.AD30) individual was buried with items that resemble a surgeon鈥檚 tool kit, dubbed the 鈥渄octor鈥檚 grave鈥� (Crummy et al. 2007). A later Roman example comes from Hadrian鈥檚 wall where a tomb stone recognises a man called Anicius Ingenuus聽 as 鈥榤edicus ordinar鈥�, or a medical officer (Allason-Jones 1999). Though there was some medical progress through the Roman period it is likely that the work medical officers did was more of a 鈥榝irst aid鈥� type of help for external matters such as wounds from battles.

Written manuscripts such as the fourth century , a book containing descriptions and the medical uses of plants, tried to understand what made people ill through magic, the phases of the moon and (of course) the idea that you occasionally had too much blood in your body. These ailments often had cures which used herbs, charms and, most famously, leeches.

Early Medieval Medical Texts

This thinking followed through from the Roman period in Britain (from AD43) into the early medieval period (AD 410 鈥� 1066; Oosthuizen 2019). This is evident in an important manuscript called (BL Royal 12 D. XVII), a rare example of an early medieval medical text, now housed in the British Library (Voigts 1979). This manuscript is also important as it shows progress from a Latin medical text written in Latin (i.e. the Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius), the language of the church, to a medical text written in Old English, the language of common people living in England (Cameron 1993). This in turn gives clues to possible local knowledge of how to cure the sick opposed to information borrowed from antiquity.

Medieval but not 鈥渕edieval鈥�

We must address the misconception surrounding medieval medicine of which the Old English Leechbook is part of. The term medieval has come to be associated with negative connotations which deem works unskilled, uncultured, and primitive. This negative bias can be traced through the literature surrounding the translation and publishing of Old English manuscripts which was prolific in the nineteenth century (Van Arsdall 2007). These attitudes towards the period meant that the translations of the Old English medical texts read like folklore references instead of serious medical texts. Our reading of these texts is, therefore, separated from the serious nature of the subjects and makes it hard to believe that the methods could actually be used in practice. By changing the approach to these medical books is it possible to see some scientific basis to the cures?

Bald鈥檚 Leechbook

"Gif 镁u mid 镁ys ne meaht gelacnian ne meaht 镁u him 忙fre naht.鈥� If you cannot heal him with this you will never do so. (Leechdoms ii, p. 328)

Written sometime in the 9th to early 10th century, the Leechbook, so named after the Old English word for medical doctor and book 鈥渓牵ce + b艒c鈥�, is a collection of remedies for a range of illnesses and disorders. Bald is mentioned in the text as the person who commissioned the manuscript to be made. More information on the Leechbook can be found on the

The manuscript is structured into three books each with its own contents page. It follows a set pattern which starts at the head and works downwards ending with remedies for the feet. The remedies then turn to inward ailments and then things such as spider bites, snake bites and, naturally, being cursed by the devil. Leechbook i and ii follow patterns and remedies closely related to their Latin equivalates, but Leechbook iii gives us an intriguing insight into the local preconquest population鈥檚 mind where it comes to illness and how to cure them (Cameron 1993).

Grow your own Medicine

Remedies in Bald鈥檚 Leechbook are reliant on one main factor: herbs, lots of herbs. In fact, in Leechbook iii alone 137 different plants are named and many of them have multiple uses in different remedies. The most common are herbs we still use today and are found in herb gardens including betony, dill, fennel, rosemary, sage, thyme and yarrow.

Other plants commonly found include apple, blackberry, garlic, marshmallow, plum and strawberry. In the manuscript the instructions tell the reader how to treat these plants and herbs, whether this involves bruising them, or just using parts of the plant such as the leaves or the berries, and then how much and what to mix them in. These details have led academics to question whether the cures have some medical or scientific value.

A Selection of Cures

Some of these remedies are unusual, please do not try them at home 鈥� some are straight out lethal! Let鈥檚 look at how a preconquest medical textbook would instruct your doctor to cure you for a selection of ailments that are still common today.

Coughs and Colds

鈥淓ft genium hofan gear镁an reade netelan 镁yl on meolce.鈥� Again, take hove, yarrow, red nettle and boil them in milk. (Leechdoms ii, p. 58)

Many remedies from the Leechbook use plants that can be found in hedgerows and are common in British climates. Yarrow, which comes from the old English word 鈥済earwe鈥�, has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. In the Leechbook it is the go-to plant for a wide range of ailments, and can be found in remedies for headaches, heartburn, digestion, snake bites and toothache (Watkins et al. 2011)!

鈥淓ft genim marubian 镁yl on eala镁 do pipor on.鈥� Again, take marrubium, boil in ale and add pepper. (Leechdoms ii, p. 58)

This remedy uses a plant called Marrubium, commonly known as white horehound. This plant is an edible plant which can still be found in teas and syrups. It is found in all parts of the Leechbook and used in a range of remedies includes ones for poisonings and dog bites. In today鈥檚 medicine, Marrubium is used for bronchitis and asthma (Watkins et al. 2011).

Toothache

鈥溍瀒镁 to镁 ece ceo镁 pipor gelome mid 镁am to镁um him bi镁 soma sel. Eft seo镁 beolenan moran on ftangum ecede o镁镁e on 镁ine sete on 镁one sanan to镁 and h镁ilum ceopre mi镁 镁y sanan to镁e he bi镁 hal.鈥� For toothache; chew pepper frequently, it will soon be well then. Again, seethe henbane roots in strong vinegar or in wine, set this into the sore tooth and then chew with the sore tooth. (Leechdom ii, p. 310)

This remedy gives us a look at the use of poisonous plants in a medicinal setting. Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger L.) is a flowering plant also known as nightshade (Cappers and Bekker 2013). The plant has anaesthetic and psychoactive properties, however if used in large qualities this could prove fatal. In this remedy these anaesthetic properties are put to good use as tooth ache in preconquest Britain would probably mean that the tooth was going to be pulled out!

Eye Pain

Today the most common advice for eye injuries is to wash out your eye with water and to take some paracetamol if you are in pain (). As you can see from the below, the preconquest remedy is slightly different. But does it have any scientific grounding? Let us look at the components this lengthy remedy mentions.

鈥淲yrc eagsealfe wi镁 w忙nne: genim cropleac y garleac begea emfela, gecnuwa wel tosomne, genim win y fearres geallan begean emfela, gemeng wi镁 镁y leaces, do 镁onne on arf忙t, l忙t standan nigon niht on 镁忙m arf忙t, awring 镁urh cla镁 y hlyttre wel, do on horn y ymb niht do mid fe镁ere on eage; se betsta l忙cedom.鈥�

Work eye salve for the pain, take crop leek and garlic of equal quantities, beat them well together, take wine and ox gall of equal quantities and mix with leek, put this then into a brass vessel, let it stand nine days in the brass vessel, wring out through a cloth and clear it well. Put it in a (drinking) horn and when night-time comes apply with a feather to the eye; the best leechdom. (Leechdom ii, p. 34)

Onion and garlics are known to have anti-bacterial effects which would be beneficial against infections (Brennessel et al. 2005). The ox gall is a type of bile found in an ox or a cow which also has antimicrobial properties, as does wine. So individually the components of this recipe are scientifically proven to hold anti-bacteria properties.

There have been studies which have tried to prove whether this recipe would work in practice which have yielded mixed results. A study by Brennessel et al. (2005) concluded that the recipe did not work on bacteria but does say that the translation and the actual types of plants specified are unknown. A study by Harrison et al. in 2015 however did show promising results with the same remedy when the remedy was tested against the hospital superbug MRSA.

Conclusions

In the modern world it is always a comfort that when we feel ill, we can just go into the bathroom cupboard and a non-descript white pill will take away some of the pain. But it is interesting to note that most drugs started life as a plant which has been looked at and scientifically dissected to provide the necessary ingredients that will make us feel better. An example of this is aspirin which is synthesised from willow bark, which does appear in Bald鈥檚 Leechbook! The remedies may be slightly unorthodox but have some scientific grounding, and give us an insight into the nature of Anglo-Saxon medicine.

Further Reading

English Heritage. This is a fantastic guide to monastic herb gardens and even has a handy 鈥榞row your own鈥� section.
The British Library. This blog post explores the other scientific manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon world.

Bibliography

Allason-Jones, L., 1999. Health Care in the Roman North. Britannia, 30,聽 pp. 133-146.
Brennessel, B., Drout, M.D. and Gravel, R., 2005. A reassessment of the efficacy of Anglo-Saxon medicine. Anglo-Saxon England, 34, pp.183-195.
Cameron, M., 1993. Anglo-Saxon Medicine (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England: 7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cappers, R. T. J., and Bekker, R.M., 2013. A Manual for the Identification of Plant Seeds and Fruits, Barkhuis Publishing.
Cockayne O., 1865. Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England. Vol. II., London.
Crummy, N., Shimmin, D., Crummy, P., Rigby, V. and Benfield, S. F., 2007. Stanway: an Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum. Malet Street: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies.
Harrison, F., Roberts, A.E., Gabrilska, R., Rumbaugh, K.P., Lee, C. and Diggle, S.P., 2015. A 1,000-year-old antimicrobial remedy with antistaphylococcal activity. MBio, 6(4), pp. e01129-15.
Oosthuizen, S., 2019. The Emergence of the English. Arc Humanities Press.
Van Arsdall, A., 2010. Rehabilitating Medieval Medicine. In Harris, S. and Grigsby, B.L. (eds) Misconceptions About the Middle Ages, pp. 145-151. Routledge.
Voigts, L.E., 1979. Anglo-Saxon plant remedies and the Anglo-Saxons. Isis, 70(2), pp. 250-268.
Watkins, F., Pendry, B., Corcoran, O and Sanchez-Medina, A., 2011. Anglo Saxon pharmacopoeia revisted: a potential treasure in drug discovery. Drug Discovery Today, 16 (23-24), pp. 1069-1075.