Memory, Wisdom And Healing

This vivid and detailed picture of the use of domestic remedies in Britain from c. 1700 to the present recaptures a lost world of folk knowledge. Its fresh, readable style, with extensive use of oral history, letters, diaries and personal answers such provacative questions on the use of healing plants and alternative medicine as: Was this domestic medicine a mixture of myth and magic, or was it simply an empirical first-aid system? Was it largely self-treatment or were local experts involved, and if so, did money change hands? What was the interaction between "official" medicine and domestic medicine, and were the same plants used in both? Memory, Superstition and Healing draws on oral history and manuscript sources to record for posterity this neglected aspect of our heritage. Much of the information has never been published before.