Barbara Ludman
HONEY, MUD, MAGGOTS AND OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS by Robert and Michele Root- Bernstein (Macmillan)
Gout reached epidemic proportions in 18th-century England among those wealthy enough to over-indulge in port. But it wasn’t the port itself that was poisoning them; it was the lead it was picking up from the casks it was stored in and the pewter it was decanted into.
The cure of choice was spa therapy – soaking in warm-water pools for up to three hours at a time, several times a week, and drinking a lot of water. Recent tests have shown how much lead is soaked out of the body during that sort of ordeal.
It’s always nice to read about cures that owe more to old wives than to laboratory animals – although maggots and leeches have been hauled back into service, according to the Root-Bernsteins. Their book examines a range of ancient cures revived in the late 20th-century and found efficacious, from urotherapy (apparently useful when treating herpes simplex) and clay (an ingredient in many diarrhoea remedies) to honey or maggots (for healing sores).
IT’S A PITY THE WRITING IS SO PEDESTRIAN.