Simple Solutions of the Past

In these days of pills and potions for just about everything, it's worth remembering that simple solutions of food and drink seemed to do pretty well for our ancestors. For instance, a cracker and a glass of hot milk seemed to do quite nicely for getting you off to sleep.

Robert and Michelle Root-Bernstein, authors of Honey Mud Maggots (Houghton Mifflin, 1998), say eating lettuce before bedtime, or taking a tepid bath before turning in, also seemed to do the trick. And, if you were troubled by cramps during the night, simply rubbing the affected area with a piece of cork was the recommended cure in many a household.

For children, sulfur was a favorite remedy. They were given a lump of the yellow substance, and if they awoke during the night with a "charleyhorse" in the leg, they placed their foot on the sulfur to ease the pain.

Other so-called folk remedies that may have seemed bizarre actually had some basis in fact, the Root-Bernsteins say. Maggots, for instance, have been used for years to treat open sores, to the laughter of many a medic. Now, however, some doctors are using the little creatures to clean deep wounds, with often spectacular results.