Bald's Leechbook

Both of the books of ''Bald's Leechbook'' are organised in a head-to-foot order; the first book deals with external maladies and the second with internal disorders. Cameron notes, "this separation of external and internal diseases may be unique in medieval medical texts". Cameron notes, "in Bald's Leechbook is the only plastic surgery mentioned in Anglo-Saxon records". ==Cures==

One cure for headache was to bind a stalk of crosswort to the head with a red kerchief. Chilblains were treated with a mix of eggs, wine, and fennel root. Agrimony was cited as a cure for male impotencewhen boiled in milk, it could excite a man who was "insufficiently virile"; when boiled in Welsh beer, it would have the opposite effect. The remedy for shingles comprised a potion using the bark of 15 trees: aspen, apple, maple, elder, willow, sallow, myrtle, wych elm, oak, blackthorn, birch, olive, dogwood, ash, and quickbeam. A remedy for aching feet called for leaves of elder, waybroad and mugwort to be pounded together, applied to the feet, then the feet bound. Modern applications In March 2015 it was reported that Bald's eyesalve recipe – garlic, leek, wine, and the bile from a cow's stomach left in a brass bowl for nine days – was tested in vitro and in vivo and found to be as effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as vancomycin, the antibiotic used for MRSA. The ingredients separately were not effective, but the combination was. It has been suggested that a lot can be learned from medieval medicine because wounds must have been ubiquitous in agrarian societies: "If you cut yourself with a scythe, it was highly likely that you'd get an infection." In particular, leeches and maggots are returning to medical use in the 21st century. ==Contents and provenance of the manuscript==

''Bald's Leechbook and Leechbook III survive only in one manuscript, Royal 12 D. xvii'', in the British Library, London and viewable online. • ff. 1–6v Table of Contents to Leechbook i; pr. Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 2–16 • ff. 6v–58v Leechbook i; pr. Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 18–156 • ff. 58v–65 Table of Contents to Leechbook ii; pr Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 158–174 • ff. 65–109 Leechbook ii; 68 recipes. pr Cockayne 176–298. Cockayne provides missing chapter between 56 and 64 from London, BL, Harley 55. Chapter 64 is glossed as having been sent along with exotic medicines from Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem to Alfred the Great, which is the basis for the book's association with the Alfredian court. • f. 109 A metrical Latin colophon naming Bald as the owner of the book, and Cild as the compiler. • ff. 109–127v "Leechbook iii." A collection of 73 medicinal recipes not associated with Bald due to its location after the metrical colophon. • ff. 127v–end De urinis ? ==References==