Friday 5 August 2016

An Addictive Resource - Joan Lennon

All I wanted to do was have a quick look at the National Library of Scotland's online resource of Chapbooks Printed in Scotland, just to see if I thought it would be of interest to History Girl readers.  And it is.  Fascinating historical chapbooks, printed in the 18th and 19th centuries, in 42 categories (from Accidents and Apparitions to War and Wit and Humour) are reproduced page for page.  But then I made a terrible mistake - I clicked on Diseases, and then on Tayler's Ready Doctor (published 1776) - and time passed ...



For a Greedy Appetite
Pottage of Wheat and a little Whale Oil boiled therewith; repeat this once a day for three days; or, apply Gum Arabic to the Belly.  If none of these will cure, the Patient's Case must be desperate indeed.

For Beardiness
... if you want to be free of a Beard altogether, the Blood of a Batt, once applied, will do the turn.

For Grief
Drink heartily of Balm and Mint Juice ...

For the Hickup
... Stop both your fingers in your ears, until you count to Fifty and Five regularly ...

Do you have an addictive nature?  Then perhaps you had better stay away from this site.  Think you're hard core enough to handle it?  Good luck and see you later.  Much, much later ...



Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Silver Skin.

6 comments:

Lindsey Fraser said...

Brilliant. I'm going in...

Susan Price said...

Yeah. See you both over there...

Katherine Langrish said...

The blood of a bat?!!! Good heavens!

Joan Lennon said...

I guess bats don't grow beards?

Gillian Polack said...

I love those chapbooks! (And, as an aside, I've seen bat's blood recommended in similar ways in a much earlier Necronomicon. It was a magical usage, not a medicinal one!)

Gill Arbuthnott said...

And surely the cure for grief is halfway to being a mojito?