Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/424

 388 Miscellanea.

than a cure practised on children often, i.e. common sah rubbed on a scald or burn, to heal.

In Queen's County and Tipperary, after a child has cut its first tooth, if a bunch of grass be rubbed over the gums it acts as a preventive against his or her being troubled by those which come later.

There is the root of one plant, an official remedy in the British Pharmacopoeia as a demulcent in coughs, but which I have not heard of before being used as an aid for a weak stomach, and that is liquorice root (root of Glycerrhiza glabra), yet this is a Lancashire treatment.

Believe me, also, the Irishman trusts in a potato in his trousers- pocket as a guard against rheumatism ; and also in some parts of Ireland we find a poultice is sometimes made from chickweed {Ahine media) for drawing boils.

In King's County, the two following remedies are made use of : ivy leaves heated till they become hot and soft, and placed and kept on continually, in the event of scalds ; this I know to be recommended as a good cure.

Two or three ivy berries taken internally are still used for pains and aches in the above county, and also in the neighbouring ones.

In Tipperary, a poultice of onions is a well-known remedy for a sore throat.

The cough mixture of an old King's County family contains heather ; and the leaves of the houseleek {Sempervivuvi) rubbed into sore eyes are believed remedial (Tipperary).

In Tipperary also, the leaves of a plant popularly known as the " Rose Noble," or " Stinking Roger," boiled, yield a splendid tonic.

Among the moor-folk of E. Riding, Yorkshire, an herb termed " Harb sanctuary," really the Red Centaury {Erythrcea centaurea), of the gentianecB is used as a stomachic ; the same folk also use "Blue Peter" {Aconitum napellus) for inflammation; we know it in one form as an ointment used in neuralgia and rheumatism.

Ranunculus acris, the leaves and flowers beaten to a pulp, and applied to suppurating tuberculosis, is remedial in Fermanagh, Tyrone, Donegal.

Senecio j acobcea leaves boiled or soaked in boiling water are often used as a poultice for abscess round the nipple (Fermanagh).