What was rhubarb and treacle used for

If you want to know what matters to people, you have only to listen to their children. In towns across England in , a new nursery rhyme was heard in school playgrounds. Britain and the rest of Europe had suffered a gruelling war and after four years of struggle, the nation was looking forward to peace.

But for the young, far from distant battlefields, there was something else on their minds, something whose effects they witnessed.

As they skipped rope they sang:. As the Great War was ending, a threat emerged that was even more lethal than the fighting that had brutally cut down so many young men. The influenza pandemic of claimed the lives of between 20 and 40 million people around the world, at least three times the number killed in the war.

More died in a single year than were killed in the four years of the Black Death from Today, as the world prepares for the next influenza pandemic which England's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, says is now inevitable, there are clues from the earlier catastrophe that demonstrate what we may face. Although the world has changed beyond recognition in 85 years, and people are stronger, better nourished and better housed, with better-equipped hospitals and drugs to fight the coming infection, and if the pandemic is as serious as experts say it could be, we will still rely heavily on many of the measures used then for our survival.

In the spring of , the disease emerged in pockets across the globe and at first seemed as benign as the common cold. Soldiers in the trenches in France became ill with what was known as la grippe. They complained of sore throats, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although the illness was highly infectious, and the primitive, crowded conditions made rapid spread inevitable, recovery was swift and doctors at first called it "three-day fever".

But they swiftly realised this was no ordinary flu. Glasgow was the first British city to be affected, in May , and within weeks the illness had spread south, reaching London by June. During the next few months, , people died in Britain. About a fifth of those infected developed pneumonia or septicaemia. Often this progressed to heliotrope cyanosis, a lavender hue of the skin that signalled shortage of oxygen and imminent death. Onset was devastatingly quick. Those hale and hearty at breakfast could be dead by tea-time.

In , a Ministry of Health report noted that unlike ordinary seasonal flu, which was worst in the elderly, weak and sick, the new illness disproportionately struck those aged 20 to Young adults with the strongest immune systems were, unexpectedly, the most vulnerable. In a letter dated 29 September , published in the British Medical Journal in , Professor Roy Grist, a Glasgow physician, described the deadly impact of the infection.

When brought to the hospital, [patients] very rapidly develop the most vicious type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. Two hours after admission, they have mahogany spots over the cheek bones, and a few hours later you can begin to see the cyanosis [blueness due to lack of oxygen] extending from their ears and spreading all over the face.

It is only a matter of a few hours then until death comes and it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate. It is horrible. London, like other British cities, was ill-equipped to cope with the epidemic.

The war had cost the country most of its fortune, industry was disrupted, there was damage to public services and millions were dead, missing or wounded. And ships were bringing soldiers back from the front carrying the virus to their homes and communities. The manuscript contains numerous recipes for more mundane problems: burns, wounds, toothaches, nosebleeds, constipation, deafness and weak stomachs.

A large number of recipes are for pregnant women including multiple recipes to prevent miscarriage , women in labor to help ease pain, speed delivery or expel the afterbirth , and nursing women including numerous different salves for sore nipples.

The health of children was clearly a concern. For more digitized recipe books at the Wellcome Library, see their collection Recipe Books. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. December 24, January 24, teachhistmed. Kathleen Crowther One of my favorite assignments for introducing undergraduates to early modern medicine is a recipe transcription project.

Four humors. Wikimedia Commons. I have two main goals with this assignment: First, I want students to have some idea of the diseases people suffered from in the past, and how they coped.

Paleography I have students take portions of an on-line paleography course set up by Cambridge University: English Handwriting , working on this in class in small groups so they can help each other out. Picking recipes Each student picks one page of the manuscript to transcribe, and every student must pick a different page. Analysis Once they have transcribed their recipes they begin investigating them more closely. All recipe images in this blog are from Wellcome MS a. Share this: Twitter Facebook.

Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. Recommended Dose Join 60 other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. But it is worth noting that the rhubarb used by Annie in her reconstruction, the happy pink and green stalks that we commonly cover in custard after Sunday lunch, is not actually the same variety as that used in seventeenth-century medical remedies.

It was a particularly strong astringent and aperient, which was renowned for its ability to swiftly produce a stool! Even in the Lancet journal was reporting that small doses of powdered rhubarb were strong enough to treat dystentry! Some of the extremely powerful ingredients used in early modern medicine, not least rhubarb and mercury!

In fact, creating medical remedies was extremely scientific. Ingredients were carefully weighed, measured and concocted. They then underwent a process of experimentation and use. It makes us think again about how we view the techniques and effects of medicines in the past.

It might also be worth mentioning that the rhubarb used in medicine is the root and rhizome of the plant, NOT the stem, which is what we eat. This was, and still is, a major plant in commerce with, probably, hundreds of peer-reviewed articles published focusing on its medicinal actions. In my opinion your framing of the medicine from this period is a bit sensationalistic and offers a skewed picture for the reader. The volumes written on medically valid uses of plants and some mineral, insects, etc.

A major component of bird faeces is uric acid. Uric acid has antioxidant properties and occurs naturally in the eye, where it appears to have a protective effect. You make an interesting point about uric acid. Recipes were transmitted through several sources, which means that even in cases where an early version had specified a particular part, that bit of knowledge might get lost along the way. And although an author wrote down a recipe, that did not mean the author necessarily understood how it worked or was supposed to work.

Remedies using feces or urine were fairly common in manuscript remedy collections. The recipe to which Alun refers was one used by Robert Boyle himself see the link in my other comment. Various types of dung and their particular efficacies were also recorded in the official pharmacopoeias across Europe. But a skewed idea of what medicine looked like at the time? Not necessarily.

Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Skip to content By Dr. Annie Gray and Dr. Herewith my thoughts: The ale No one seems to produce a proper replica ale I. A cure for vomiting. Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Efficacy Cinnamon has been used medicinally for centuries. English recipe book, 17th century. Image credit: Wellcome Library, London.

A cure for scurvy More of a challenge! Hedgerow and field scouring required, along with a bit of research into 17th century vernacular names for hedgerow plants… Scabious — a rather gorgeous flower, often grown in gardens as its bee crack.

Image from Wikipedia creative commons Elderberries — I had to buy dried. Not inauthentic. I would have thought that ginger beer would be the best remedy against vomiting.