I've spent the past week endlessly coughing and once I start there's no stopping me (crossed legs as well ~ if you know what I mean). Went to the doc; I have viral bronchitis ~ great! I used to suffer with asthma, but haven't had an attack in years; now this coughing has aggravated it and I've got to take a blooming inhaler for a while. Took me ages to ween myself off the things!
As I mentioned illness I picked my favourite thing as a lovely little book I discovered a few years ago in a secondhand book shop. It's called 'Primitive Psychic' and was published in 1824. It has gorgeous olde handwriting inside the cover and I can just imagine it being carried in the pocket of a doctor in the regency period ~ flicking through the well-thumbed pages in search of a treatment or remedy.
Some of the treatments listed in the book are quite peculiar and it's hard to believe that this was a serious book written by John Wesley and originally published in 1747.
Some of the suggestions for treating a cough are chewing Peruvian bark (?), a slice of turnip spread with sugar and drinking a pint of water while lying down. Interesting though, it has a honey and lemon remedy to ~ so not so strange!
One of my personal favourites though is one for a deep cut ~ bind on toasted cheese! Interesting!
Love these old books though, they really fire the imagination!
