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It’s easy to see pre-modern cures as bogus, especially with ingredients like ~dragon’s blood~ But most are real (not mythical) ingredients that are a) used differently now or b) known by different names.
Dragons blood is a red resin from the dragon-tree!
#EarlyModernPeriod
1/5
Dragons blood is a red resin from the dragon-tree!
#EarlyModernPeriod
1/5
As John Gerard wrote, the “body of the tree is couered with a rough barke, very thin, and easie to be opened or wounded with any small toole or instrument, which being so wounded in the Dog daies, bruised or bored, doth yeeld Sanguis Draconis, Dragons bloud” 2/5
Of all the early mod dragony cures, dragons blood (by my guess) appears the most frequently in 17th c. midwifery handbooks. This is probably because it was used to stop bleeding - something you definitely don’t want during pregnancy 3/5
As an astringent & antiseptic, dragons blood is recommended for drying up the navil [umbilical cord], hemerroids, stopping immoderate fluxes [vaginal bleeding/menstruation], healing genital contusions, haemorrhages, sudden frights, swelling, ulcers, fear of abortion [miscarriage]
I am mostly certain that no fire breathing serpents were harmed in the making of these early mod cures. If you’re bleeding out & need a quick fix, reach for powdered dragons blood*!
*not real dragon’s blood, that’s cruel 5/5
*not real dragon’s blood, that’s cruel 5/5
