Since the birth of the National Health Service in 1948, we have come to expect unlimited access to doctors and hospitals and free or inexpensive medicines For our ancestors, doctors and the remedies they prescribed were way beyond the means of most people. Little wonder then that many looked to the herbs and flowers that grew around them and to the everyday contents of the kitchen cupboard to cure their ailments. For this book Dulcie Lewis has collected long ago medical memories, the details of home cures and ancient health superstitions. Taking common illness, medical herbs, trees and flowers one at a time in alphabetical order she faithfully reports on the remedies she has discovered and their sources. The rich were almost more disadvantaged than the poor for they could afford medical treatment. Doctors, money signs over every rich sick bed, would spare their patient nothing: bleeding, purging, leeches, and enemas. The aim of this book, in a light-hearted and amusing way, is to open up and give a glimpse into that part of everyday life with which our ancestors coped daily - how to keep well. Meanings to names, medicines and ingredients which have long fallen from use are given and there are simple explanations of the illnesses that were feared.

A complete guide to our ancestors' ailments, explaining their meaning and describing their cures - some highly effective, some highly dangerous