The New Murrey and Blue blog

“….A 1,000-year-old treatment for eye infections could hold the key to killing antibiotic-resistant superbugs, experts have said….”

From the safe distance of our later centuries we are often inclined to laugh (or shudder) at the medicinal remedies and treatments our medieval ancestors had to endure. Let’s face it, some of them are truly disgusting. But at the same time, some were effective and are still used today. For example, the use of willow (and ash) bark for pain worked because of containing aspirin. And using scarlet cloth and curtains etc. for someone suffering from smallpox….it has now been found that infra-red light prevents smallpox scars. We also know that spiders’ webs are useful for dressing wounds, and camomile oil is effective for earache. So these old remedies weren’t all a load of sometimes dangerous nonsense.

Anyway, in tests it has been found that a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon remedy for eye infections (using onion, garlic and cow bile), “….almost completely wiped out methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA….” The remedy was found in  Bald’s Leechbook – an old English manuscript held in the British Library containing instructions on various treatments.

To read more about it, go here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32117815. And to see Bald’s Leechbook on line, courtesy of the British Library, go here: https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2016/01/balds-leechbook-now-online.html

by viscountessw