Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/388

374 otherwise inflamed surface of the cuticle, but warm water would always do all that saliva could do.

One very queer notion which I have found in parts of Pennsylvania, northern Ohio, central Maine, and in Dorchester, Ontario, is that a pain or "stitch" in the side, induced by running or rapid walking, may be cured by lifting a stone, spitting on its under surface, and replacing it. In Chelsea, Mass., children who bring on pain in the side by running say that it may be cured by picking up a small pebble and placing it for a time under the tongue. In Cambridge, school-children in racing or in playing romping games may often be seen to stoop, pick up a pebble, and insert it either under the tongue or under the upper lip to prevent pain in the side. An eleven-year-old boy belonging to a cultivated family, and attending one of the best public schools in Cambridge, assures me that he believes a person could run all day without weariness or pain by adopting this simple precaution. The above-mentioned charm-cures become more interesting when compared with two Swabian beliefs recorded by Dr. Buck. One of these is that palpitation of the heart may be relieved by secretly lifting a stone from the ground, spitting on it three times, and replacing it; while a Swabian cure for toothache is to have the sufferer spit on the under side of a silicious stone.

In eastern Massachusetts and in parts of New Hampshire a very common practice, when one's foot is "asleep," is to cross the top of the benumbed foot with the tip of the fore-finger moistened with saliva. An Italian fruit-vender tells me that this usage is very common among the peasant class in Italy. In Lawrence, Mass., the same thing is done to the hand if it be "asleep." From northern Ohio a variation of the practice is sent me: if the foot or leg be "asleep," to spit on your hand or finger and rub under the knee on the hamstring is said to give quick relief from the unpleasant pricking sensation. An Irish servant-girl in Brooklyn, N. Y., recommended the same remedy. Among the people comprising a small Gaelic community on Cape Breton is found another variation of this remedy—the saliva-charm there used to relieve the discomfort of a foot "asleep" being, if the right foot is the one troubled, to wet the right fore-finger with spittle and rub the right eyebrow; if the left foot be "asleep," to moisten the left fore-finger and rub the left eyebrow. Pliny quotes from Salpe the statement that when any part of the body is "asleep" the numbness may be relieved by spitting into the lap or by touching the upper eyelid with spittle. Pliny also states that a "crick" in the neck may be cured by putting fasting spittle on the right knee with the right hand and on the left knee with the left hand.