Anglo Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA

monotonic

The Living Force
My question is, how did the creators arrive at this remedy such a long time ago? What was their science and their methods?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27263-anglo-saxon-remedy-kills-hospital-superbug-mrsa.html#.VRnsUM21X94
 
The first thing that comes to mind is that in older times the environment forced people to work out practical solutions to problems via trial and error. 'X does this, Y does that, let's put them together and see if the combination will work.' Even without a taxonomic science they would, over time, have developed a rudimentary system of knowledge. Which isn't to suggest that the publicly-available body of knowledge is better in our era ('exhibit A' being the fact that an ancient remedy can defeat a bug that is the result of our 'highly-developed' medicine).
 
Main problem here is how to get hold of cow bile. Would ox bile supplement work??
 
If you read the article, they did use a bile supplement. Because they didn't have a bronze vessel they instead use a sheet of bronze in a glass vessel.
 
So I see. I didn't read the NS article. Don't think they list the quantities anywhere though.
 
Quote:
Historical series

The first major bacteria watched Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1683 using first microscope of his own design. Long after its discovery was only investigated the morphology of these microorganisms, but not their effect in living nature. Name of bacteria much later (1828) by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, from Gk. bacterium which means "wand, stick". The founders of scientific and experimental bacteriology as Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and Robert Koch (1843-1910).
Quote from your link:
If the 9th Century recipe does lead to new drugs, they might be useful against MRSA skin infections such as those that cause foot ulcers in people with diabetes. "These are usually antibiotic-resistant....


It seems that people in the past have developed some studies long before they discovered bacteria,but how did they menaged to see without microscope?
 
Back
Top Bottom