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Coughs come and go, and nearly all of us will get one at some point during the annual cold and flu season. Whether dry, chesty, persistent or just a bit tickly, they make us feel under the weather, leave us short of breath, and sometimes even affect our sleep. But coughs do not only afflict us humans – they also affect our animals. We humans share cold viruses and bacteria with animals that historically live in close quarters with us – such as dogs, cows, pigs, sheep and particularly horses. This blog article takes a closer look at the shared history of coughs and other ailments and explores the medieval chapter of this shared history of human and animal disease and health.

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One book, many recipes

If you had a cough in the late Middle Ages, the recommended remedy was to take cherry stones, crush them, and mix them with wine. This potion was thought not only to relieve an irritating cough, but also to help with ‘closed-heartedness’. Meanwhile, if you had a particularly dry cough, the book recommended slicing comfrey root, laying the slices on an ember and inhaling the steam until you began to sweat. Inhalation, steaming and cough syrups were therefore already well-known remedies in the Middle Ages, made from ingredients found at home or in the garden. The recipes from these early medical handbooks feature in many late medieval collections. One such example is the somewhat inconspicuous-looking medical manuscript from the 1460s, which is in Solothurn’s central library. It contains several cough remedies on page 149r. If we look closely, we can see a reference to coughs (‘V huosten’) in the top right-hand corner of the page, presumably intended to help the late medieval reader find what they were looking for more quickly.

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It may come as a surprise to the modern-day reader, but the cough remedies for humans in this manuscript could also be administered to horses. The only indications of a differentiation are the new paragraph and the fact that the first letter of the note “below are many effective remedies for horses” is highlighted in red. According to the manual, for example, horses with asthma or a cough were to be given a drink made of vinegar, wine and salt. If, on the other hand, the horse was suffering from urinary problems, it was to be fed common bugloss (Anchusa officinalis). This plant was used as a remedy for humans and animals up until modern times. While it is now considered toxic, some of its active components have a proven expulsive effect and induce vomiting. The many equine medical manuscripts that still exist in Swiss libraries and archives are testament to the fact that medieval horse owners were aware of the many diseases and ailments that could affect their animals and were interested in rapid remedies. These manuscripts were not specialised reference books as we know from veterinary medicine today, but very often empirical texts of broad and practical interest on handling horses as well as a compendium of information on human and animal health.

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Once the worm is inside, only divine providence can help

If the worm is inside, however, the home remedies no longer work. But for the Christian societies of the late Middle Ages, there was literally a miracle cure: divine providence. Probably the earliest surviving texts in Old High German – known as the Merseburg Incantations – dating from the 9th century, contain a healing spell for a dislocated horse’s foot. In this increasingly Christian world, the view took hold that as God had created all beings, He could also influence their bodies and decide whether they were healthy or sick. For example, a prayer book from the convent in Hermetschwil contains a blessing against worms.

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But no herb could fight the parasitic worms that settled primarily in the stomachs and intestines of their hosts. The worm blessing of the Hermetschwil nuns promised to eliminate them, provided the very precise instructions were followed. First, magic words had to be written on a long strip of paper. They were composed of a mixture of unintelligible pseudo-Latin made-up words (“Iob thonsa an nubya”), fragments of real Latin prayers (“sanctte deus qui est trinus et unus”), their translations (Holy God, one in Trinity, and trinity in unity), and several crosses. All of these words were written in long lines, intended to create a worm-shaped document, which was then stuck to the infected body part. The instructions end with a note stating that this worm blessing is effective for all beings, whether animal or human.

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A shared health history

For people in the Middle Ages, distinguishing between human and veterinary medicine as we do today made little sense, as according to medieval notions – at least in Europe – there was no clear distinction between humans and animals. This is because medical and empirical knowledge was based on the creationist view that macrocosmic forces (planets and celestial bodies) have an effect on the microcosm of the body. These divine macrocosmic forces had an effect on all bodies – both human and animal. Medicines and other remedies therefore used similar, and sometimes identical means, to have the desired effect. If, for example, we look at the substances used to concoct the remedies, it is noticeable that they very often contain everyday ingredients, such as vinegar, wine, salt, garlic, garden plants or similar. As well as plant-based ingredients, metals such as mercury or verdigris were also used, as were animal substances. Honey was mixed in to some recipes, while others included dead snails or toads. In this sense medieval medicine very much reflects the shared history of human and animal health, and one that also combined earthly remedies with celestial beliefs.

Isabelle Schürch

Shared ailments, common cures: human and animal health in the Middle Ages