ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF SUPERSTITIONS (269 pp.)E. and M. A. RadfordPhilosophical Library ($6).
Some Britons once firmly believed that a man could cure a cough by pulling a hair from his head, putting it between two pieces of buttered bread, and feeding it to a dog with the words: "Good luck, you bound. May you be sick and I be sound." Expected result: the dog trotted off coughing, the man recovered.
Breath-taking remedies for every dis-:ase abounded in Britain a couple of centuries ago. Part of the cure for consumption was to catch the tops of nine waves in a dish, then dump the contents...