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In the Middle Ages, only the very, very rich had a doctor. If you were ill, you
went to the apothecary. Apothecaries were like today’s pharmacists. They not
only told you what was wrong with you—they prepared their own medicines.
PLUCKED OWLS AND
ROAST KITTENS
Secret Recipes
Apothecary shops were packed with all kinds of mysterious jars and
weird ingredients. Apothecaries liked to keep recipes secret, so some
ingredients may have been deliberately misleading. All the same, you
might find plucked and boiled owl (for gout), hedgehog grease (for a
throat infection), snail slime (for burns), and roast kittens (for jaundice).
