A few old, foolish and cruel superstitions still survive in
these out-of-the-way districts. A recent sufferer from warts asked for no caustic chemical from the doctor, but dabbed the place with a black snail, which was then transfixed with a thorn, in the belief (alleged to have been justified) that as the snail withered, so the warts would vanish. In a much more populous place, close to London, a fond mother recently imprisoned a spider in a nut shell and hung it round her child's neck to cure it of scarlet fever. The efficacy of the treatment was proved for the child recovered ! It is to be conceded in favour of the older countryman that he knew more of herbal remedies than his successors. One of the feiv herbal recipes that survive is the treatment—again of warts—with the juice of the greater celandine.
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