Folk Medicine

irelandseye.com recommends Firefox for browsing. Click this link for a non-affiliated click-thru to get Firefox.

The Practice of Folk Medicine

INOCULATION AGAINST SMALL POX
The practice of inoculation against small pox began in western Europe early in the eighteenth century and continued to be a subject of controversy until a much safer practice - vaccination was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1798. In inoculation, pus from a mild case of small pox was used to infect healthy patients, in the hope that the disease would also be mild and that those inoculated would acquire resistance to the disease. In vaccination the virus of cow pox, closely related to the virus of small pox, is used and as this is a much safer procedure and the degree of immunity conferred is satisfactory. The inoculation of small pox was made illegal about the year 1840. Despite this, a man called Ambrose Donleavy and his son Jimmy Ambrose continued to act as inoculators in County Donegal for a further twenty years at least. As the process was illegal, the inoculator wore a mask so that he could not be identified and those inoculated slept out for some time until their arms had healed. It was believed that the protection against small pox given by the doctors' vaccination only lasted for seven years but that the protection given by the Donleavy's inoculation lasted for life. The Donleavys were presumably members of the famous native Irish medical family, some of whom practised medicine in Counties Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries. One of these, probably Paul Ultach who died in 1939, is referred to in a contemporary poem:

Mac Dhuinnshléibi liaigh na sgol
Na bia féin is biaidh a bladh.
(Donleavy Physician of the Schools,
he will not survive but his fame will survive.)

AN FEAR GORTACH (The Hungry Grass)
Many people in County Leitrim believe in the hungry grass. The condition is likely to occur after a long day on the mountains rounding up sheep, or more likely shooting. The sufferer feels faint and weak and in severe cases may lose consciousness. After he has rested for some time, usually less than a quarter of an hour, the attack will pass off and he will be able to make his way home. The folk explanation for this dramatic occurrence is that the sufferer happened to walk on hungry grass which caused him to get weak with hunger. There is no doubt that such attacks occur; I have not myself seen one, but many reliable people have told me about them. The attacks may be prevented or cut short by bringing a cake of oaten bread and eating it when the attack begins. The condition appears to be due to a drop in the blood sugar and probably could be treated more quickly with sugar. The reason for the use of the oaten bread is that it is slowly absorbed and has a more prolonged action in raising the blood sugar and keeping it raised.

FOXGLOVE (Fairy Fingers)
This striking flower can be found growing everywhere in Ireland. People were slightly afraid of the foxglove and in County Leitrim it was used as a protection against the fairies or against any disease they might cause. Along with barley meal and some other herbs, it was included in a preparation used to treat epilepsy, but I have not been able to learn any more details of the prescription. K'eogh agrees about the epilepsy. He says: It is good for any obstruction of the lungs as also for epilepsy.

K'eogh also says that the leaves have an emetic action. They have. On 22nd February 1685 this entry can be found in the Minutes of the Dublin Philosophical Society:

An account was given how the infusion of foxglove (digitalis flora purpurea), prescribed to a woman above 40 years of age, gave her a violent vomit, without convulsions, which lasted for above two days. She likewise had a palpitation of the heart.

This might be described, in modern language, as 'a near miss', and it would seem that the patient was suffering from digitalis poisoning. It was a pity that the patient was not suffering from congestive heart failure, because if she had the results would have been so dramatic that the honour of the discovery of the uses of digitalis would have gone to the Dublin Philosophical Society.

From Irish Folk Medicine by Patrick Logan.
Click here for more information on the book.

[ Back to top ]

[ Home | Features | Culture | History | Travel ]