Old wives' tales

The concept of oral tradition is well known by historians, and I have learned over the years that to dismiss such evidence as merely unsubstantiated rumours can lose threads of important research. A little lateral thinking, using the oral tradition as a base, can lead to some fascinating findings that have written and pictorial evidence to support the theory.

The study of the history of medicine has more than its fair share of ‘old wives’ tales', many of which can be found in our own families and are often clung to like heirlooms. No doubt these beliefs have been a source of irritation over the centuries to highly qualified physicians when they learn that their diagnosis and treatment has been overturned by a potion from Grandma, who “swears by it”.

As one might expect, conditions that involve private parts of the body are more likely to have quack medicine associated with them, as people could be just too embarrassed to consult a doctor then, as indeed many people still are today.

There can be some surprising results from analysing these ideas and treatments. ‘Old wives’ tales' can produce evidence of medical philosophies passed from generation to generation for hundreds and even thousands of years. The oral tradition can remain unbroken while the written version fell by the wayside many years before, and it is that continuity of ideas that I will address in this article.

In the late 1970s, I heard two women in a gynaecological ward discussing the removal of an ovary booked as a procedure the next day for one …