Scalded skin? Try sheep dung and goose grease
Wed Mar 2, 2005 7:01 PM GMT



LONDON (Reuters) - Take two puppies, cut off their heads and collect the blood, reads the 17th century instructions -- not for some voodoo rite but to cure pimples among the middle class.

Weird health and beauty recipes have been around for a long time. Now two old manuscripts, found at a British stately home and coming up for auction, suggest some truly odd cures for everyday ailments.

The 300-year-old cookery, medical and household recipe books, lavishly illustrated and with elaborate script, give advice on almost everything, from treating burns to getting rid of freckles, said manuscript specialist Luke Batterham.

"These books are a very direct insight into what people were interested in the late 17th century," Batterham told Reuters on Wednesday. "People seem to go a very long way for beauty, now and then."

One recipe advises to take "2 Puppies before they can see, chopp of their heads & hang them up by the heels to bleed", then mix with white wine to rid the patient of unsightly pimples.

Scalds and burns, another says, are best treated with a mixture of sheep's dung and fresh goose grease, while four-day-old lemon juice rubbed on the face is guaranteed to eradicate unwanted freckles.

The two books are expected to fetch a total or more than 2,000 pounds when they go for auction at Bonhams in London on March 15.



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© Reuters 2005.