Fasting spittle

Fasting spittle – saliva produced first thing in the morning, before breakfast – was a treatment used in folk medicine. Spittle was thought to cure many diseases. Spittle cures were usually considered to be more effective if fasting spittle was used.^[1]

An early recorded use of spittle as a cure comes from the Gospel of St Mark, believed to have been written in about 70 AD:

And they bring unto him [Jesus] one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech ... And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. Mark 7:32–5

Writing at about the same time as Mark, the Roman natural philosopher Pliny commented in his Natural History that fasting spittle was efficacious in the treatment of ophthalmia, and that the fasting spittle of a woman was particularly beneficial for treating bloodshot eyes.^[2]

References

Citations

1. Roud (2006), wart cures: fasting spittle
2. Opie, Iona; Tatem, Moira, eds. (1996), "SPITTLE cures (usually 'fasting spittle')", A Dictionary of Superstitions (online ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-282916-0, retrieved 12 December 2012 (subscription required)

Bibliography

• Roud, Steve (2006), The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, Penguin, ISBN 978-0-14-051512-1