Folk Medicine
(From notes written by Mario Gramegna)
Many wonder why folk medicine has long influenced life, sometimes being given more credit than official medicine.
To give a convincing answer, one might say that while today the ratio between doctors and the population is one to one hundred seventy-three, in the distant past, it was extremely rare to have a doctor in small villages before the establishment of medical districts, which sometimes covered multiple municipalities. Before the institution of hospitals, people had to make do with public infirmaries.
In villages, in cases of illness, people turned to the "magician," the specialist in domestic medicine, who claimed to heal using concoctions and mixtures he invented. Sometimes, due to the natural resilience of the patient, these were considered effective. The magician’s fame grew, but if his mysterious remedies no longer resulted in cures, he fell out of favor.
Only then was a doctor called, but by then it was too late to remedy the illness, now incurable. In such cases, the blame was still placed on the doctor.
In short, more trust was placed in domestic medicine, considering the near-total ignorance of the population, which could never understand the difference between science and uncontrolled empirical practices. It is worth remembering that Francesco Redi, once called to consult for a woman with chest pain, advised her to use doctors and medicines sparingly.
This references greater reliance on herbalism, which also played a significant role in folk medicine, especially when practiced by educated individuals rather than ignorant quacks.
One can, however, affirm that just as the people invented proverbs, they also, in many cases, invented herbal remedies based on proven experience.
When children fell ill, it was almost always due to worms (the "vermenàra"), a frequent ailment caused by the near-total lack of hygienic conditions. The recipe was simple: garlic and rue, with the latter remembered in the proverb "a ruta ogni male stuta" (rue extinguishes every ailment).
Secret recipes abounded: some families recommended concoctions, infusions, and decoctions but did not reveal the composition, which was only passed down to direct heirs.
In short, for every ailment, there was a possible remedy. For example, "mumps" (parotitis) was treated by marking the affected and painful area with black ink.
The Molisan scholar, Don Salvatore Moffa, who provided much of this information, recounts that once, in a farmer's house, he was shown a bottle kept under the chimney hood, containing a concoction of linseed oil, pounded bats, chicken blood, and other ingredients. If someone got injured, they would treat the wound with this liquid and cover it with a spider web. The result? Either a chance recovery or, more frequently, an infection requiring another prescription.
From an ancient manuscript from Riccia, Don Salvatore Moffa shares these recipes: "Secret for Maternal Pain in Women. Take the white part of a chicken's stomach, wash it well, let it dry in the shade, then pound it finely, put the powder in a glass with a little strong wine, give it to the patient two or three times, and she will recover immediately, a remarkable and proven remedy. "For warts. Take celandine milk, apply it to the wart, or take willow juice and particularly apply it when the wart is spreading, but continue for five days or more, always applying it around the wart, or pound vetches and apply the juice until the wart falls off. "Scalanzia. Linseed oil, well-pounded walnuts, onion roasted in ashes and pounded well, mix everything together, make a plaster, spread it on a piece of linen and apply it warm to the painful area. "To prevent hair or beard from falling. Wash your head and beard with lye in which pigeon droppings have been boiled four or five times, and the hair and beard will not fall out, then mix an ounce of barley and walnuts well together and use it to grease your head and beard; washing afterward with the mentioned lye will make hair and beard grow. "For eye watering. Saffron mixed with woman's milk, applied to the eyes, heals. "For women's breasts. One pound of common oil, ten peeled garlic heads boiled together until they become carbon, then add two ounces of wax, two ounces of rosin, one ounce of bone marrow (probably from the femur of an ox?), melt everything together, and then remove from heat and add two ounces of Botte resin." "Remedy for cracked heels. Castrated mutton suet, elder marrow, virgin wax, make an ointment and use it warm."
Empirical folk remedies persisted, such as using a freshly gutted black hen placed on the patient's head to treat sunstroke or meningitis. For sore eyes, they were to be washed with water drunk by animals and rubbed with gold rings (or an earring).
For contusions, a simple remedy was a poultice of bread crumbs cooked in cow's milk; for rheumatic pains, once much more frequent than today, mustard plant in boiling water was used, with the steam applied to the painful area for fifteen minutes a day.
Gastro-intestinal catarrh ("pellinia") was treated with year-old, smoked lard, rubbed all over the body for seven, nine, or thirteen evenings. This recipe was especially applied to children.
Pleurisy and pneumonia ("pentùra") were frequently treated with hare's blood potions, which, coagulated and dried, was kept and dissolved in warm water when needed.
Some remedies are still used today, such as grated potato poultices for burns, dried fig decoction for coughs, and couch grass decoction for liver ailments.
If the virtues of garlic are still praised today to the point that official medicine uses it scientifically, recognizing its therapeutic value for many ailments, the origins of certain folk medicine recipes, certainly derived from forms of superstition and magic, are not as easily explained.
For instance, how could the heart be treated by applying a freshly gutted, still-warm rabbit to the patient's chest over the organ? What explanation could be given for recommending this therapeutic treatment?
Additionally, for chronic stomach or intestinal catarrh, the patient was advised to eat well-aged lard for many days. Perhaps here lies an answer, as even today, lard is considered a "refreshing" food!