In 1686, a patient named Anne Dormer was given the king’s drops to cure her restlessness and generally meek disposition. The recipe for the king’s drops called for cooking pieces of a skull in a glass container over several months, resulting in a distilled liquid that could cure all matter of ailments, with specific benefit believed for the treatment of gout, heart failure, swelling, and epilepsy. Following their purchase by Charles II, the elixir became referred to instead as the “king’s drops.” Originally termed “Goddard’s drops,” the recipe was believed to brew a panacea when consumed by those who could afford it. In the 17th century, King Charles II of England, who fancied himself a chemist in his own right, bought a recipe for “spirit of skull” from the chemist Jonathan Goddard. The fact that wadded up tissue would also accomplish the same purpose did not seem to be of particular importance at the time. Chemists would then sell this skull moss to patients, who would stuff it up their nose to stop nosebleeds. Sebastian used as drinking vessels for wine were believed to cure falling fits and fevers.ĭuring the 17th through 19th centuries, skulls were also hung within chemists’ shops so that they would grow “skull moss,” which was a fluffy, greenish moss that grows on the top of the skull when exposed to the elements over extended periods of time. Specifically, the bejeweled and silver-encrusted skulls of St. One such royal was Christian IV of Denmark, who was the king of Denmark and Norway during the early 17th century Christian IV would consume powdered skull to treat his own mental ailments.īelieved to hold particular healing capacity, skulls were also shaved for consumption or used as a vessel for drinking alcohol in order to cure sickness. First started by the ancient Greeks, who would consume pills containing the brains of dead men, the tradition was then carried on for centuries by European royalty. Horse dung aside, the consumption of human brain to cure common ailments had existed in Europe for millennia. Then put as much of the spirit of wine as will cover it… digest it half a year in horse dung.” One such recipe for the treatment of epilepsy called “Essence of Man’s Brains,” written by John French in 1651, explained that physicians must “take the brains of a young man that has died a violent death, together with the membranes, arteries, and veins, nerves…and bruise these in a stone mortar until they become a kind of pap. Thought to have the potential to cure epilepsy in particular, feasting on human brains of the recently deceased was believed to work wonders on the brains of the living. It is less common in the 21st century and more used by the older generation than the young.Similar to the concept of “like cures like” found in homeopathic medicine, the consumption of human brain emerged in the 17th century as a cure to ailments of the mind. The expression became so well used that it was often shortened to 'a penny for them' or even just 'penny', as in H. (A rough paraphrase of the above is "when people notice that someone appears disengaged and wish them to rejoin the conversation they ask 'a penny for your thoughts'.") In such wise yt not wtoute som note & reproch of suche vagaraunte mind, other folk sodainly say to them: a peny for your thought. ![]() The first known use of it is by Sir Thomas More in A Treatyce upon the last thynges, circa 1535: ![]() ![]() ![]() 'A penny for your thoughts' is one of the few that is neither of the above but which is of the same vintage. What's the origin of the phrase 'A penny for your thoughts'?Īlong with Biblical expressions, proverbs form the bulk of the very earliest phrases that have existed in English since the language was first recorded on paper. Pennies What's the meaning of the phrase 'A penny for your thoughts'?Īn invitation to a person lost in thought to share his or her preoccupation.
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