All You Need Is a Pick Me Up Trivia Quiz

Answer: In a coffin with a corpse

The theory behind this was that the poultice would contain the essence of the boil, which would leave you and pass to the dead person where it couldn't do any harm. Obviously you couldn't go around digging up graves in the dead of night to do this, so for it to work you needed to know where there was an unburied coffin complete with corpse.

Then you needed the permission of the relatives to inflict boils on their dear departed. Overall this cure for boils is not recommended. I'll stick to the antibiotic ointment.

Answer: Socks

Another old English remedy. If you have a sore throat wrap a dirty sock around it. The main point here is that it has to be your sock, not one belonging to someone else. This remedy was widely used up to the end of the 1900s. Rather than a remedy there is a thought that, as sore throats were often the sign of a deadly disease like diphtheria, the sock was more a warning signal to keep away rather than a cure.

Another English remedy was to wrap bacon round a sore throat, which is rather better than the Irish one of applying salted herring to the soles of the feet.

Answer: Rattlesnake

First you have to catch and kill a rattlesnake. Not necessarily that easy if your movements are impeded by rheumatism. You then skin it and dry it before putting the remains into a bottle of corn whiskey, which you then drink. Seems it would be easier to just drink the whiskey to start with.

There may however be a degree of truth to this one. Israeli studies have shown that snake venom contains peptides that can turn off pain signals.

Answer: Cold sores

A blob of earwax placed on a cold sore is supposed to cure it. I suppose that the thinking is that earwax is water proof and fairly soft so will protect the cold sore from the elements, possibly sooth it and give it a chance to heal. There is no scientific or medical evidence to support this, and I don't think most people would want to try it.

Answer: Bruises

Peel the egg, put the coin into it so that the edge is level with the top edge of the egg. Apply the warm (not too hot) egg to the bruise and leave it there for half an hour. This is supposed to ease the discolouration and pain immediately. Really this is just an early version of a heat pad and probably would ease the pain in a bruised area. Whether or not it would help with the colour of the bruise is open to conjecture.

Answer: Call of a cuckoo

In North Carolina you roll over when you hear the whip-poor-will, in England when you hear the cuckoo. The rolling will stretch the back muscles, which should give some relief. Lying and rolling around on damp grass with a bad back may not be such a good idea though. You can achieve the same effect by rolling on the floor indoors without having to put up with your bad back until a certain bird sings.

Answer: Earache

In North America they thought that putting a wad of moist chewing tobacco inside the ear would cure earache. In England they thought that blowing cigarette smoke into the ear would cure it. Ignoring the bad effects of tobacco and cigarette smoke for a moment, in both cases the warmth imparted would probably help the earache. There are better ways of providing it though.

Answer: Spiders webs

Another one that started in Britain. It was thought that spiders webs taken in compressed tablet form would cure malaria. They were also used to wrap wounds in the belief that they would prevent infection. There were various other "cures" for malaria. African people had various herbal teas that were used, and research has proved that some of these are effective. Blood letting was once widely used, but the good old tradition of an afternoon gin and tonic proved most effective, thanks to the quinine contained in the tonic.

Answer: Bathe the face in urine

If American settlers suffered an acne outbreak they used to bathe their faces in urine. Presumably their own, not that of someone else. In fact urine has been used as a remedy for various ills. Many yogis and other mystics believe that drinking your own urine on a daily basis helps prevent illness. High born Chinese ladies used to use babies urine to clean their teeth and sweeten their breath.

Answer: Chicken Soup

The cure all remedy of thousands of mothers everywhere, chicken soup, has been used for centuries. Especially beneficial for colds, it is now accepted that it does have some medical benefits, although no-one is quite sure why. It is certainly a comfort food, so perhaps it is the mental well being a bowl of home made chicken soup brings that does the good rather than the actual ingredients.