SURVIVING CURES
These treatments have stood the test of time
THE MRSA KILLER 10 TH CENTURY
TREPANNING PREHISTORIC
Reading more like a medieval recipe for soup, an Anglo-Saxon remedy found in a volume of Bald’s Leechbook in the British Library, originally designed to cure eye infections, has proven to be highly effective at wiping out MRSA (methicillinresistant staphylococcus aureus). The recipe includes bile from the stomach of a cow, onion or leek, garlic and wine and is to be brewed in a brass container and left for nine days before straining. A team from AncientBiotics tested the mixture and discovered that it killed 90 per cent of MRSA bacteria in wounds.