A NOVEL IRISH CURE FOR WHOOPING COUGH AND CHICKEN POX (1898)

Abstract

No disease has had as many supposed cures as whooping cough. The following Irish cure is surely a novel one. I have not been able to discover whether or not it proved effective.

There are many curious customs and superstitions existing even in this enlightened age, and among the most peculiar are some practised by the peasants of Ireland for the cure of various complaints. In certain districts of that country whooping-cough is treated in quite a unique manner. A few months ago much amusement was caused by a case which came before the Coroner's Court in Belfast, in which whooping-cough was treated in a child by passing the sufferer three times under a donkey. Mr. W. R. Le Fann, in his amusing book on Irish life, relates several other instances of a like nature, and draws attention to the fact that nearly all the most popular remedies are for the relief of whooping-cough or chicken-pox. Some donkeys are believed to be possessed of curative virtues in a much higher degree than are others. A man living in County Cork owned an animal which could boast of more than a local reputation. This man used to lead his donkey through the streets of the City of Cork, crying out: "Will any one come under my ass for the chin-cough?" [A name given to whooping-cough in the rural parts of Ireland.] In County Down the charms in vogue were more various. Two kinds of food obtained from two first cousins who are married, and soup made from the tails of mice is there regarded as a panacea for chicken-pox.