1 00:00:01,080 --> 00:00:06,030 Officially we Britons have been Christian for more than 1,500 years, 2 00:00:07,988 --> 00:00:11,186 but scratch the surface and you'll find our ancestors 3 00:00:11,195 --> 00:00:13,960 believed in far more than Christ and the cross. 4 00:00:20,414 --> 00:00:24,284 Pagan gods, witches, demons, evil spirits, 5 00:00:24,956 --> 00:00:28,230 were all proclaimed as terrifying fact. 6 00:00:28,879 --> 00:00:33,070 Now I want to uncover what beliefs and fears really built Britain. 7 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,350 This week, along with a team of top historians, 8 00:00:38,470 --> 00:00:40,644 I'm discovering why our ancestors 9 00:00:40,964 --> 00:00:44,255 were so convinced disease had supernatural causes, 10 00:00:44,941 --> 00:00:47,502 and what magic treatments they thought would cure them. 11 00:00:48,785 --> 00:00:52,883 Why were evil spirits behind our first attempts at brain surgery? 12 00:00:53,316 --> 00:00:56,618 Epilepsy would have been seen to be possession by evil spirit. 13 00:00:56,847 --> 00:01:00,764 What did shooting pains have to do with elves and sprites? 14 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,448 And in Celtic times, what did it take to make you strong as an ox? 15 00:01:06,809 --> 00:01:09,990 Oh, God! I tell you what, this suit's leaking. 16 00:01:19,757 --> 00:01:21,880 Come on, I need your help now. 17 00:01:22,197 --> 00:01:24,760 Nowadays, if you've got a serious medical issue, 18 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:27,679 a quick phone call will get a well-trained team 19 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:29,621 who will normally know what the problem is 20 00:01:29,741 --> 00:01:31,508 and how to deal with it. 21 00:01:33,557 --> 00:01:35,917 But you don't have to go back too far in time 22 00:01:36,037 --> 00:01:38,950 to find a world where disease wasn't biological - 23 00:01:39,531 --> 00:01:41,306 it was supernatural, 24 00:01:41,426 --> 00:01:45,586 and instead of bacteria and viruses and dodgy genes, 25 00:01:45,970 --> 00:01:51,430 our ancestors blamed sprites, demons, even God himself. 26 00:01:55,106 --> 00:01:57,004 Just a few hundred years ago, 27 00:01:57,217 --> 00:02:00,136 our ancestors still believed the world was inhabited 28 00:02:00,158 --> 00:02:03,438 by a whole host of supernatural creatures 29 00:02:03,475 --> 00:02:05,347 out to do them harm. 30 00:02:08,552 --> 00:02:10,113 They came in many forms, 31 00:02:10,121 --> 00:02:13,703 from evil spirits to demons, and even elves. 32 00:02:15,298 --> 00:02:16,402 If they attacked you, 33 00:02:16,570 --> 00:02:18,442 it was thought terrible diseases 34 00:02:18,456 --> 00:02:20,756 and illnesses would follow. 35 00:02:22,850 --> 00:02:25,628 But why were our forefathers so convinced 36 00:02:25,748 --> 00:02:29,250 these paranormal entities were behind their ailments, 37 00:02:29,953 --> 00:02:32,125 and what sort of treatments could you use 38 00:02:32,245 --> 00:02:34,872 to fight their diabolic diseases? 39 00:02:36,215 --> 00:02:39,990 I'm going to enter our ancestors' world of magic medicine 40 00:02:40,110 --> 00:02:41,230 to find out. 41 00:02:44,961 --> 00:02:48,182 Surprisingly, around 1,500 years ago, 42 00:02:48,302 --> 00:02:50,054 one of the creatures it was believed 43 00:02:50,062 --> 00:02:52,630 could send you to the doctors was... 44 00:02:52,811 --> 00:02:53,968 ..an elf. 45 00:02:55,575 --> 00:02:57,448 Back in Anglo-Saxon Britain, 46 00:02:57,654 --> 00:03:01,311 many people from royalty to peasants believed in elves. 47 00:03:01,606 --> 00:03:05,550 They feared their invisible disease-laden spears and arrows 48 00:03:05,810 --> 00:03:08,350 were what caused sudden sharp pains. 49 00:03:10,378 --> 00:03:12,549 I'm meeting up with Dr Alaric Hall, 50 00:03:12,669 --> 00:03:16,070 to find out more about the phenomenon called elf shot. 51 00:03:22,897 --> 00:03:24,030 What was an elf? 52 00:03:24,408 --> 00:03:26,188 They looked a lot like normal people, 53 00:03:26,199 --> 00:03:28,296 if you ever saw one, which would be a bit unlikely. 54 00:03:32,225 --> 00:03:35,177 You could just meet one and not know that you'd met an elf, 55 00:03:36,511 --> 00:03:39,711 until you went away and looked round and couldn't see them any more. 56 00:03:40,860 --> 00:03:44,251 The idea of being made ill by external forces 57 00:03:44,265 --> 00:03:48,774 and entities attacking the body was so widespread among our ancestors 58 00:03:48,894 --> 00:03:51,753 it's had a lasting effect on medical terminology. 59 00:03:55,549 --> 00:03:58,150 In English we might talk about a stabbing pain, 60 00:03:58,336 --> 00:03:59,830 or a shooting pain 61 00:03:59,950 --> 00:04:01,990 and this kind of idea comes from... 62 00:04:02,110 --> 00:04:04,791 from the sense that you might have been stabbed or shot. 63 00:04:05,102 --> 00:04:06,680 We also know people who've had a stroke. 64 00:04:06,702 --> 00:04:08,449 It means they've been struck by something, 65 00:04:08,478 --> 00:04:09,879 that's where the word comes from. 66 00:04:12,311 --> 00:04:15,310 But why would our ancestors think they were being shot at 67 00:04:15,317 --> 00:04:16,806 by supernatural creatures? 68 00:04:18,082 --> 00:04:21,777 Well, some experts have argued that arrowheads from the Stone Age 69 00:04:22,507 --> 00:04:26,511 may have reinforced this fantastical idea in their minds. 70 00:04:27,513 --> 00:04:32,140 The Anglo-Saxons had little or no knowledge of their Neolithic forefathers 71 00:04:32,260 --> 00:04:35,960 and probably thought all man-made arrowheads were metal. 72 00:04:36,387 --> 00:04:38,641 People were looking at arrowheads like this, 73 00:04:38,761 --> 00:04:41,884 a Stone-Age arrowhead before the Bronze Age, before the Iron Age, 74 00:04:42,004 --> 00:04:44,350 before the Romans, before the Anglo-Saxons, 75 00:04:44,610 --> 00:04:47,123 People in England were kind of picking these up, round here, 76 00:04:47,138 --> 00:04:50,057 round West Stow - you can actually just delve into the sand 77 00:04:50,072 --> 00:04:51,281 and find these lying about. 78 00:04:51,303 --> 00:04:54,060 Now the interesting thing about it, is that it really... 79 00:04:54,082 --> 00:04:56,836 it looks quite delicate and mystical, doesn't it? 80 00:04:56,844 --> 00:05:00,006 It seems natural it would be associated with supernatural beings, 81 00:05:00,050 --> 00:05:03,750 your kind of neighbours that you never see, uh, the elves. 82 00:05:07,158 --> 00:05:09,979 Although these arrowheads were made of stone, 83 00:05:10,099 --> 00:05:14,992 our ancestors thought these weapons were invisible when used by elves. 84 00:05:16,004 --> 00:05:20,870 Being hit by one meant disease and illness would definitely follow. 85 00:05:21,406 --> 00:05:24,271 What kind of illnesses did they think were caused by elves? 86 00:05:24,546 --> 00:05:27,568 The most mild-sounding seems to be skin ailments, 87 00:05:27,598 --> 00:05:29,173 we don't know quite what, rashes maybe. 88 00:05:29,755 --> 00:05:33,750 We know that they caused sort of sharp violent, internal pains 89 00:05:33,905 --> 00:05:35,829 and elves were associated with causing things 90 00:05:35,843 --> 00:05:37,782 that kind of messed with your state of mind. 91 00:05:37,902 --> 00:05:40,033 Um, fever, malaria... 92 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:43,792 Just anything that would be associated with what we might call madness. 93 00:05:46,225 --> 00:05:48,710 Once you believed your body had been pierced 94 00:05:48,890 --> 00:05:52,288 by the disease-laden arrowhead or spear of an elf, 95 00:05:52,538 --> 00:05:55,398 the best cure was to try and get it out. 96 00:05:55,870 --> 00:05:58,667 And one way to do this could have been a spell 97 00:05:58,689 --> 00:06:02,411 that would enable a knife to perform supernatural surgery. 98 00:06:03,510 --> 00:06:08,150 CHANTING IN ANCIENT TONGUE 99 00:06:08,832 --> 00:06:11,860 "Out little spear, if it should be here within... 100 00:06:11,980 --> 00:06:14,589 "I will send another back... 101 00:06:15,409 --> 00:06:17,750 CHANTING IN ANCIENT TONGUE 102 00:06:18,468 --> 00:06:19,905 "Take the knife! 103 00:06:19,949 --> 00:06:22,390 "Put it in the liquid..." 104 00:06:25,058 --> 00:06:28,121 We don't know for sure how this spell was supposed to work, 105 00:06:28,167 --> 00:06:30,172 but our best guess is a knife 106 00:06:30,497 --> 00:06:34,777 became magical to remove the elf's invisible weapon from the patient's body, 107 00:06:34,897 --> 00:06:36,554 without penetrating the flesh. 108 00:06:38,014 --> 00:06:39,113 Thankfully you didn't cut me. 109 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:41,692 There's good old knifey feel about that as it goes on. 110 00:06:41,714 --> 00:06:44,790 It's actually quite an experience, it's a bit like an exorcism. 111 00:06:45,050 --> 00:06:47,353 It's just like, "Out, demons, out!" isn't it? 112 00:06:47,375 --> 00:06:48,767 It is, that's right. 113 00:06:48,887 --> 00:06:52,337 It's showing that you can actually engage with the forces 114 00:06:52,344 --> 00:06:53,546 that are against you. 115 00:06:53,568 --> 00:06:57,318 These aren't just something that's out there and completely unassailable, 116 00:06:57,438 --> 00:06:59,790 you can actually do something about this threat. 117 00:07:03,512 --> 00:07:05,021 From a scientific point of view 118 00:07:05,141 --> 00:07:07,505 there's no clinical benefit to this treatment, 119 00:07:07,625 --> 00:07:09,891 but offering people a reason for their illness 120 00:07:10,011 --> 00:07:12,080 and then appearing to do something about it 121 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:15,431 would at least have given patients some relief and hope. 122 00:07:15,731 --> 00:07:19,507 Belief was by far the strongest and most potent ingredient 123 00:07:19,627 --> 00:07:21,791 in much of our ancestors' medicine. 124 00:07:22,103 --> 00:07:25,550 Healers were promoting mind over matter. 125 00:07:26,700 --> 00:07:29,398 But while elves would attack you from afar, 126 00:07:29,943 --> 00:07:34,292 there were other supernatural creatures our ancestors feared far more. 127 00:07:36,730 --> 00:07:40,096 Ones that could physically enter your body like a parasite 128 00:07:40,216 --> 00:07:42,506 to spread disease from within, 129 00:07:42,626 --> 00:07:44,266 evil spirits. 130 00:07:46,035 --> 00:07:50,095 These malicious entities were believed to take residence in the head 131 00:07:50,215 --> 00:07:53,255 and around 2,000 years ago, in Roman Britain, 132 00:07:53,307 --> 00:07:56,417 they were blamed for cerebral problems, such as epilepsy. 133 00:07:58,341 --> 00:08:00,025 But what were you supposed to do 134 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,581 to get these spirits out 135 00:08:01,625 --> 00:08:04,110 once they'd taken up residence? 136 00:08:07,396 --> 00:08:09,267 Here at the Royal College of Surgeons 137 00:08:09,731 --> 00:08:13,510 there's evidence our ancestors found a very disturbing solution... 138 00:08:15,392 --> 00:08:18,267 They believed if you cut a hole in the skull, 139 00:08:18,746 --> 00:08:21,428 these spirits would fly out. 140 00:08:24,274 --> 00:08:26,193 Professor Miranda Aldhouse-Green 141 00:08:26,194 --> 00:08:28,898 has tracked down the skull of a 20-year-old woman, 142 00:08:28,899 --> 00:08:31,995 from the Roman period, in the second century AD, 143 00:08:32,179 --> 00:08:36,623 which bears the characteristic hallmarks of this surgical exorcism. 144 00:08:37,471 --> 00:08:39,590 This person possibly had 145 00:08:39,787 --> 00:08:42,230 a disease that was caused by an evil spirit. 146 00:08:42,645 --> 00:08:44,959 Something that invaded that space, 147 00:08:45,187 --> 00:08:47,870 and you have to have a hole to get it out. 148 00:08:47,990 --> 00:08:49,964 That was done quite deliberately. 149 00:08:49,971 --> 00:08:51,992 You've got quite a regular hole, 150 00:08:51,991 --> 00:08:54,303 which was cut using a surgical knife. 151 00:08:54,423 --> 00:08:57,870 Surgical - why couldn't that be a spear or an accident? 152 00:08:58,021 --> 00:09:01,032 It's too regular, it looks as though it's deliberately done 153 00:09:01,058 --> 00:09:03,070 using a fairly fine-bladed instrument. 154 00:09:03,638 --> 00:09:05,893 Somebody who knew exactly what they were doing 155 00:09:05,945 --> 00:09:07,372 and what they were trying to achieve. 156 00:09:08,426 --> 00:09:10,380 They were trying to get out, 157 00:09:10,395 --> 00:09:13,232 to drill out almost, a section of the skull. 158 00:09:13,352 --> 00:09:16,473 And the idea then would be that the evil spirit would escape, 159 00:09:16,593 --> 00:09:18,792 or be driven out of the hole. 160 00:09:18,837 --> 00:09:22,588 My inference is that she suffered from something like epilepsy, 161 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:24,792 or a brain tumour, or something, 162 00:09:24,822 --> 00:09:26,738 which would have caused her to behave in an odd way. 163 00:09:27,387 --> 00:09:31,205 Epilepsy, more than any other ailment involving the brain, 164 00:09:31,325 --> 00:09:32,631 would have been something, 165 00:09:32,645 --> 00:09:35,790 which it would have been seen to be possession by an evil spirit. 166 00:09:37,090 --> 00:09:39,375 It would have been terrifying. 167 00:09:40,989 --> 00:09:42,478 There's archaeological evidence 168 00:09:42,699 --> 00:09:45,582 that the Romans weren't the first to do this operation in Britain. 169 00:09:46,731 --> 00:09:50,594 Incredibly, this was attempted by our Neolithic ancestors, 170 00:09:50,714 --> 00:09:52,830 more than six thousand years ago. 171 00:09:53,616 --> 00:09:55,724 But how would they have performed a procedure 172 00:09:55,751 --> 00:09:57,486 that is so dangerous for the patient? 173 00:09:58,393 --> 00:10:01,724 Flint-napper extraordinaire John Lord is going to show me 174 00:10:01,739 --> 00:10:04,430 what tools would've been used for the job. 175 00:10:05,215 --> 00:10:09,274 What you need to do is put your finger where you can see it 176 00:10:09,394 --> 00:10:11,363 and hit it, and also hit the flint. 177 00:10:11,665 --> 00:10:13,701 It won't hurt your finger, you'll just knock it out the way. 178 00:10:13,890 --> 00:10:15,003 And away... 179 00:10:15,123 --> 00:10:16,468 Really, flick of the wrist. 180 00:10:17,486 --> 00:10:19,179 - You've done it. - Wa-ay! 181 00:10:21,230 --> 00:10:23,198 I've got two little blades here, haven't I? 182 00:10:23,220 --> 00:10:24,351 That's a beauty. 183 00:10:24,551 --> 00:10:26,390 That's a beauty. Look at that! 184 00:10:28,231 --> 00:10:31,673 Neolithic people were the first farmers in Britain. 185 00:10:32,170 --> 00:10:33,716 Even six thousand years ago 186 00:10:33,836 --> 00:10:36,694 they were skilled manufacturers of farming tools, 187 00:10:36,891 --> 00:10:39,194 and it seems surgical equipment. 188 00:10:40,595 --> 00:10:44,921 We're actually making a mechanised implement here. 189 00:10:45,958 --> 00:10:49,272 One of the first machines of the past. 190 00:10:52,425 --> 00:10:55,871 With our flint blade sharpened, it's time to meet the patient. 191 00:10:56,177 --> 00:10:58,467 Today we're using a pig's head. 192 00:10:58,587 --> 00:11:02,705 Thousands of years ago this would have been an un-anaesthetised person 193 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:04,845 who would have been convulsing with epilepsy 194 00:11:05,346 --> 00:11:07,550 or another cerebral condition. 195 00:11:08,412 --> 00:11:11,951 The first stage in this operation to force out evil spirits 196 00:11:12,071 --> 00:11:16,230 would be to gain access to the skull by removing the skin. 197 00:11:16,436 --> 00:11:19,390 It had never occurred to me you would create a flap 198 00:11:19,510 --> 00:11:21,881 so you could put the flap back afterwards. 199 00:11:22,001 --> 00:11:24,710 - Yeah. Yeah. - Easily stitched up and repaired. 200 00:11:25,871 --> 00:11:27,536 Once the skin was lifted, 201 00:11:27,537 --> 00:11:30,088 the flint tools could get to work on human bone. 202 00:11:33,191 --> 00:11:36,510 This would be the most unpleasant part of the operation. 203 00:11:36,654 --> 00:11:39,896 Imagine how terrified the person must have been, 204 00:11:40,016 --> 00:11:41,615 while all this was going on. 205 00:11:43,502 --> 00:11:45,434 'And with razor-sharp blades, 206 00:11:45,736 --> 00:11:49,192 'it's shocking how quickly we're through the skull and beyond.' 207 00:11:50,365 --> 00:11:52,141 - You're actually through... - Am I through? 208 00:11:52,156 --> 00:11:54,110 You are actually through the skull. 209 00:11:57,476 --> 00:12:00,672 Once they pierced the skull with the tip of the blade. 210 00:12:01,714 --> 00:12:04,629 Neolithic surgeons then wanted to make the hole big enough 211 00:12:04,749 --> 00:12:07,550 for the malevolent spirits to escape... 212 00:12:11,734 --> 00:12:15,821 ..but the bigger the hole, the more likely the chance of brain damage. 213 00:12:16,846 --> 00:12:19,971 It would be an absolute nightmare, wouldn't it? 214 00:12:21,843 --> 00:12:23,745 Our operation is over. 215 00:12:24,165 --> 00:12:27,334 John and I have no way of knowing whether our particular patient 216 00:12:27,349 --> 00:12:31,099 would have survived this brutal and traumatic procedure, 217 00:12:31,219 --> 00:12:34,598 but how did Miranda's Roman woman fare in the second century? 218 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:39,129 Can we tell from that skull whether she survived the operation? 219 00:12:39,249 --> 00:12:40,921 Sadly, this person didn't survive. 220 00:12:40,936 --> 00:12:43,300 We can tell that because there's no healing. 221 00:12:43,420 --> 00:12:47,978 But there are other instances of heads with trepanning or trephining 222 00:12:48,098 --> 00:12:52,670 where bone growth is present and that means they actually survived. 223 00:12:55,005 --> 00:12:58,301 What we now know is that some cerebral conditions 224 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,006 can be triggered by swelling in the brain 225 00:13:01,272 --> 00:13:03,962 and cutting a hole in the skull to allow it to expand, 226 00:13:04,082 --> 00:13:05,839 can provide real help. 227 00:13:06,885 --> 00:13:10,215 So although our ancestors were doing this for very different reasons, 228 00:13:10,335 --> 00:13:13,350 they weren't necessarily wrong to attempt this treatment. 229 00:13:21,621 --> 00:13:23,742 More than a millennium later, 230 00:13:23,862 --> 00:13:25,406 Britain was firmly Christian, 231 00:13:26,328 --> 00:13:28,561 evil spirits were still being blamed 232 00:13:28,812 --> 00:13:31,154 for many mental and physical health problems 233 00:13:31,207 --> 00:13:35,829 but they were now associated with the devil, and known as demons. 234 00:13:38,431 --> 00:13:40,967 Demons were thought to be hugely powerful 235 00:13:41,087 --> 00:13:44,623 and in the 17th century when the plague returned to London 236 00:13:44,660 --> 00:13:46,169 killing thousands, 237 00:13:46,289 --> 00:13:50,469 some people feared the devil and his demons could be behind it. 238 00:13:55,459 --> 00:13:57,484 I'm about to find out for myself, 239 00:13:57,604 --> 00:14:01,312 why there were attempts to fight this diabolic disease head on. 240 00:14:02,875 --> 00:14:04,224 Not with surgery or medicines... 241 00:14:06,214 --> 00:14:07,651 but with smells. 242 00:14:10,690 --> 00:14:14,230 I'm investigating the magical medical world of our ancestors, 243 00:14:14,490 --> 00:14:17,101 where disease wasn't spread by germs and viruses, 244 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:21,524 but by malevolent supernatural creatures out to do us harm. 245 00:14:23,168 --> 00:14:25,018 I've seen how disease could be caused 246 00:14:25,210 --> 00:14:27,465 by elves and stone age spirits, 247 00:14:28,183 --> 00:14:29,764 but now I'm going to discover 248 00:14:29,775 --> 00:14:33,523 what some of our ancestors did when they feared demons 249 00:14:33,524 --> 00:14:36,910 could be behind the worst disease ever known to man - 250 00:14:37,102 --> 00:14:38,950 the plague. 251 00:14:44,841 --> 00:14:46,921 In the 16th and 17th centuries, 252 00:14:47,164 --> 00:14:50,481 our forefathers lived in terror of demons 253 00:14:50,488 --> 00:14:52,825 entering the body like parasites 254 00:14:52,847 --> 00:14:54,321 to take their souls 255 00:14:54,373 --> 00:14:57,364 and cause mental and physical health problems. 256 00:15:01,361 --> 00:15:03,499 Demons were thought to get into the body 257 00:15:03,521 --> 00:15:05,462 by morphing into different forms. 258 00:15:05,777 --> 00:15:08,843 From food to smoke, and even liquids. 259 00:15:10,782 --> 00:15:13,819 Once inside, their aim was to cause corruption 260 00:15:13,826 --> 00:15:16,045 and ill health in their host. 261 00:15:21,103 --> 00:15:24,329 When the plague returned to London in 1665, 262 00:15:24,449 --> 00:15:26,470 killing tens of thousands of people, 263 00:15:26,730 --> 00:15:29,823 foul odours were one of the suspected causes. 264 00:15:30,604 --> 00:15:33,268 While some saw this as a scientific theory, 265 00:15:33,290 --> 00:15:35,096 others were more superstitious 266 00:15:35,444 --> 00:15:39,310 and associated pungent smells with the devil and his demons, 267 00:15:39,674 --> 00:15:43,107 as if these odours had come straight from hell. 268 00:15:43,523 --> 00:15:46,741 The superstition that disease is spread by smells 269 00:15:46,962 --> 00:15:48,952 is known as "miasma", 270 00:15:50,632 --> 00:15:52,121 and professor Justin Champion, 271 00:15:52,558 --> 00:15:54,983 is going to show me how it was thought to work. 272 00:15:57,990 --> 00:15:59,855 - Justin. - Welcome to the 17th century. 273 00:16:00,128 --> 00:16:01,514 This is the plague world. 274 00:16:01,634 --> 00:16:05,246 This is the world where people actually thought that smells 275 00:16:05,366 --> 00:16:06,790 could bring on the plague? 276 00:16:06,980 --> 00:16:07,907 Absolutely. 277 00:16:08,027 --> 00:16:11,676 This evil wicked disease is taking away one in four people. 278 00:16:12,355 --> 00:16:15,908 The dominant explanation for what the plague was was this theory of miasma, 279 00:16:16,028 --> 00:16:19,239 that infected air, from bad smells, from bad objects, 280 00:16:19,254 --> 00:16:22,950 comes into your body and starts corrupting your body from the inside. 281 00:16:25,729 --> 00:16:26,990 In common folklore, 282 00:16:27,550 --> 00:16:30,390 food was sometimes thought to rot and stink 283 00:16:30,510 --> 00:16:33,364 because the devil or a demon had touched it. 284 00:16:33,484 --> 00:16:36,910 And while cleanliness and sweet smells were godly, 285 00:16:37,123 --> 00:16:40,241 filth and stench were the devil's work. 286 00:16:43,364 --> 00:16:45,460 This is the smell of rotting flesh. 287 00:16:45,717 --> 00:16:47,973 Oh, it's got things crawling all over it! 288 00:16:50,848 --> 00:16:53,427 I don't want to breath in too hard one might go up my nose. 289 00:16:55,734 --> 00:16:57,014 (RETCHING) 290 00:16:57,223 --> 00:16:59,183 - What the early... - Sorry. 291 00:17:00,407 --> 00:17:02,681 In the 17th century, you're a dead man now. 292 00:17:02,801 --> 00:17:04,439 You've sniffed infected... 293 00:17:04,452 --> 00:17:06,390 In the 21st century, I'm a dead man now! 294 00:17:08,751 --> 00:17:12,481 'If you believed foul demonic odours could give you the plague, 295 00:17:12,601 --> 00:17:14,095 'the best way to protect yourself 296 00:17:14,552 --> 00:17:17,430 'was with fresh, healthy, God-given smells.' 297 00:17:18,570 --> 00:17:20,670 Times of plague, the price of rosemary goes up 298 00:17:20,943 --> 00:17:23,850 from 12p a bundle to 12 shillings a bundle. 299 00:17:23,970 --> 00:17:25,103 So this is used a lot. 300 00:17:25,118 --> 00:17:28,339 This is soothing, actually, after smelling those dreadful things. 301 00:17:29,474 --> 00:17:31,771 Such was the conviction that good smells 302 00:17:31,786 --> 00:17:33,777 could protect you from this evil disease, 303 00:17:33,970 --> 00:17:36,253 that one doctor, Nathaniel Hodges, 304 00:17:36,373 --> 00:17:38,376 experimented with a way to use them 305 00:17:38,390 --> 00:17:41,350 to keep himself safe in plague zones. 306 00:17:41,934 --> 00:17:44,030 He adapted a traditional costume 307 00:17:44,211 --> 00:17:48,131 so that it could carry large amounts of sweet smelling substances. 308 00:17:48,251 --> 00:17:50,030 Why the bird's head? 309 00:17:50,211 --> 00:17:53,946 It's not really a bird's head. This is designed to hold this. 310 00:17:54,226 --> 00:17:58,910 You pack that up with herbs and a variety of some of the other spices. 311 00:17:59,170 --> 00:18:02,351 So you're breathing in sweet smells all the time. 312 00:18:02,697 --> 00:18:05,950 The main point is obviously to protect you. 313 00:18:10,763 --> 00:18:13,630 Let's just road test whether it works. 314 00:18:14,595 --> 00:18:16,600 Get your beak into that meat. 315 00:18:17,244 --> 00:18:18,190 Nice? 316 00:18:19,083 --> 00:18:21,677 I can actually inhale without gagging 317 00:18:21,683 --> 00:18:25,149 because I've got this great wall of rosemary and thyme. 318 00:18:25,804 --> 00:18:27,990 Much, much better. 319 00:18:35,627 --> 00:18:36,821 Nathaniel Hodges 320 00:18:36,873 --> 00:18:40,084 believed it was the perfume packed beak that would keep him safe, 321 00:18:40,131 --> 00:18:42,099 but it was actually the other parts of the costume 322 00:18:42,444 --> 00:18:44,185 that would have offered more protection 323 00:18:44,192 --> 00:18:46,606 from the real causes of the disease - 324 00:18:46,726 --> 00:18:48,515 fleas living on rats 325 00:18:48,714 --> 00:18:53,137 and a contagious viral infection spread by coughs and sneezes. 326 00:18:55,576 --> 00:18:57,504 With his sweet-smelling bird suit, 327 00:18:57,624 --> 00:18:59,382 plague doctors like Hodges 328 00:18:59,502 --> 00:19:03,851 tried to help others by eliminating demonic odours from their homes. 329 00:19:06,180 --> 00:19:09,270 This was often done in houses where everyone had died, 330 00:19:09,390 --> 00:19:11,218 before the new occupants moved in. 331 00:19:13,812 --> 00:19:16,827 So isn't there still miasma all over this house? 332 00:19:16,886 --> 00:19:18,526 Absolutely, we've got to do something about it. 333 00:19:19,750 --> 00:19:23,350 You can imagine the stench once that door had been broken open. 334 00:19:23,610 --> 00:19:25,514 Maybe the dead bodies had been taken out, 335 00:19:25,529 --> 00:19:27,990 but that house would have rotted, it would have stank. 336 00:19:30,136 --> 00:19:31,830 To get rid of one set of bad odours, 337 00:19:31,831 --> 00:19:33,548 you have to use even more powerful ones. 338 00:19:34,919 --> 00:19:36,512 Vinegar. Bit of vinegar. 339 00:19:37,131 --> 00:19:38,832 Draping great sheets. 340 00:19:40,837 --> 00:19:44,710 Bit of air, bit of brutal perfume cleaning it all out. 341 00:19:44,964 --> 00:19:46,586 Phoaw. Smell of vinegar! 342 00:19:46,594 --> 00:19:47,523 It's pretty grim! 343 00:19:48,842 --> 00:19:52,977 If vinegar wasn't enough to eradicate diabolic foul smells, 344 00:19:53,097 --> 00:19:57,270 some doctors would try an even more powerful deodoriser - 345 00:19:57,530 --> 00:19:58,640 gunpowder. 346 00:19:58,970 --> 00:20:00,159 They used explosives? 347 00:20:00,172 --> 00:20:01,292 They used explosives, 348 00:20:01,293 --> 00:20:04,020 and we're going to rather delicately have a go. 349 00:20:04,035 --> 00:20:07,219 I'm a historian remember, but I think I know what I'm doing. 350 00:20:09,259 --> 00:20:12,311 'But it wasn't just any explosive people were after, 351 00:20:13,439 --> 00:20:15,910 'what was needed was an olfactory offensive, 352 00:20:16,556 --> 00:20:17,888 'a true scent bomb.' 353 00:20:19,001 --> 00:20:21,190 And the objective is that that stink, 354 00:20:21,310 --> 00:20:24,043 that smell, stays in the house for quite a while. 355 00:20:24,044 --> 00:20:25,427 - Ready? - Yep. 356 00:20:30,752 --> 00:20:32,064 Oh, it's like a firework, isn't it? 357 00:20:32,444 --> 00:20:34,461 You see how thick this stuff is though? 358 00:20:34,497 --> 00:20:36,390 I maen, already... it's astringent. 359 00:20:36,414 --> 00:20:37,144 Yeah, yeah. 360 00:20:37,350 --> 00:20:38,353 So, 361 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:40,770 to the early modern mind, this was very effective, 362 00:20:40,778 --> 00:20:43,874 you can see the smoke already gathering. 363 00:20:44,132 --> 00:20:46,394 Completely transformed the whole smell of the room 364 00:20:46,409 --> 00:20:48,430 in about seven seconds. 365 00:20:50,522 --> 00:20:55,324 In 1665, more than 100,000 people died of the plague. 366 00:20:55,755 --> 00:20:58,615 Nathaniel Hodges, however, survived. 367 00:20:59,279 --> 00:21:02,293 But it certainly wouldn't have been his sweet smells that saved him. 368 00:21:10,763 --> 00:21:12,325 So, in the world of our ancestors, 369 00:21:12,490 --> 00:21:16,764 elves, demons and smells could all make you ill. 370 00:21:17,086 --> 00:21:20,393 But there was one other major player in the health arena. 371 00:21:20,513 --> 00:21:24,404 A supernatural being more powerful than anything else, 372 00:21:24,524 --> 00:21:27,449 an entity that could make you mortally ill, 373 00:21:27,569 --> 00:21:30,147 or grant miraculous cures. 374 00:21:30,484 --> 00:21:34,724 In the Middle Ages, if you woke up with some suspicious symptoms, 375 00:21:34,916 --> 00:21:39,681 you first needed to ask yourself if you'd incurred the wrath of God. 376 00:21:49,527 --> 00:21:53,139 Disease was seen as a punishment because you'd sinned 377 00:21:53,404 --> 00:21:57,691 and the most obvious example of this was a sexually transmitted disease. 378 00:21:58,952 --> 00:22:02,989 If I were a medieval man and I suspected I had such an illness, 379 00:22:03,109 --> 00:22:06,604 my first port of call might well have been the church. 380 00:22:10,324 --> 00:22:14,206 'So I've come to see professor Helen King for some divine insight.' 381 00:22:14,326 --> 00:22:15,930 Uh, I've got a bit of a problem. 382 00:22:15,945 --> 00:22:18,989 I've got pimples, I'm itching like crazy 383 00:22:19,004 --> 00:22:22,667 and the worst thing is that down below, 384 00:22:22,787 --> 00:22:25,824 I've got this really bad discharge. 385 00:22:26,185 --> 00:22:27,163 Oh, my goodness. 386 00:22:27,164 --> 00:22:29,044 It's horrible, what do I do about it? 387 00:22:29,082 --> 00:22:31,751 It's not nice. That's gonorrhoea by the sound of it. 388 00:22:32,937 --> 00:22:35,750 But the question is why have you got this now? 389 00:22:38,373 --> 00:22:39,030 Uh... 390 00:22:40,231 --> 00:22:43,190 well there was the taverner's wife. 391 00:22:43,795 --> 00:22:45,365 So what you're saying is adultery? 392 00:22:45,485 --> 00:22:46,537 I suppose so, yeah. 393 00:22:46,884 --> 00:22:49,412 I see. This is sin. 394 00:22:54,468 --> 00:22:55,906 Back in the Middle Ages, 395 00:22:56,026 --> 00:22:58,722 it was thought that God struck you with a disease, 396 00:22:58,744 --> 00:23:00,393 not just as punishment, 397 00:23:00,754 --> 00:23:02,659 but as a warning to make you change your ways. 398 00:23:05,342 --> 00:23:07,085 So it would seem that my soul is a bit of a mess? 399 00:23:07,100 --> 00:23:10,190 Your soul is a mess and the only answer for you is repentance. 400 00:23:12,247 --> 00:23:16,754 Repentance required aspiring to the self-control of angels 401 00:23:17,381 --> 00:23:21,350 and resisting the base animalistic tendencies of beasts. 402 00:23:23,723 --> 00:23:25,830 The angels are totally unlike the beasts. 403 00:23:26,090 --> 00:23:29,767 Angels don't do sex. Angels don't do eating and drinking. 404 00:23:29,782 --> 00:23:33,009 Angels don't do sleeping. Angels are above the physical, 405 00:23:33,033 --> 00:23:34,898 all of those things that we share with the beasts. 406 00:23:37,168 --> 00:23:41,590 This angelic self-control meant fasting and all-night prayer vigils. 407 00:23:43,209 --> 00:23:46,470 Actions that, ironically, could make a sick body even weaker. 408 00:23:48,291 --> 00:23:51,055 But there were even more extreme measures you could take 409 00:23:51,070 --> 00:23:52,574 against your sinning flesh. 410 00:23:54,508 --> 00:23:57,372 You need... to control that body. 411 00:23:57,685 --> 00:23:59,284 So what do I do with it? 412 00:23:59,404 --> 00:24:01,524 You've got to hit your flesh with it. 413 00:24:01,644 --> 00:24:04,030 All right, let's have a go. 414 00:24:04,938 --> 00:24:08,030 In the 14th century, when the Black Death struck, 415 00:24:08,173 --> 00:24:10,414 processions of flagellants whipped themselves 416 00:24:10,429 --> 00:24:12,485 as they marched through London. 417 00:24:13,856 --> 00:24:16,598 Flogging the body that had physically committed the sin 418 00:24:16,613 --> 00:24:19,070 should atone for moral transgressions. 419 00:24:19,304 --> 00:24:20,884 As the sin was removed, 420 00:24:20,899 --> 00:24:23,663 hopefully, God would take the disease away too. 421 00:24:24,275 --> 00:24:27,788 You're telling your flesh that your soul is in control of your body 422 00:24:27,908 --> 00:24:30,825 and, therefore, you're nearer to the angels than you are to the animals. 423 00:24:40,649 --> 00:24:43,835 But if people in the Middle Ages thought they had sinned too much 424 00:24:43,964 --> 00:24:45,923 and God had given up on them, 425 00:24:45,924 --> 00:24:48,910 there was one other place they could look for a cure. 426 00:24:49,030 --> 00:24:51,504 They could turn to magic... 427 00:24:51,777 --> 00:24:55,079 ..and some of the most dangerous and bizarre treatments 428 00:24:55,131 --> 00:24:56,705 ever known to man. 429 00:24:59,638 --> 00:25:04,164 I'm about to find out just what was involved with medieval magical cures 430 00:25:05,366 --> 00:25:08,800 and how the sick thought they could use supernatural powers 431 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,417 to give their symptoms to the dead. 432 00:25:13,502 --> 00:25:16,657 I've been finding out what malicious paranormal entities 433 00:25:16,908 --> 00:25:19,436 our forefathers thought made them ill, 434 00:25:19,465 --> 00:25:21,942 before science gave them the answers. 435 00:25:22,134 --> 00:25:25,499 And now I want to discover what magic cures were on offer 436 00:25:25,749 --> 00:25:27,865 to treat their supernatural symptoms. 437 00:25:29,487 --> 00:25:33,601 To appreciate what magic medicine had to offer our ancestors, 438 00:25:33,721 --> 00:25:35,369 I first need to understand 439 00:25:35,394 --> 00:25:38,483 how disease was thought to spread back in the Middle Ages. 440 00:25:40,886 --> 00:25:45,135 In medieval times, when nothing was known about germs and bacteria, 441 00:25:45,529 --> 00:25:48,467 people had a very different idea of how disease spread 442 00:25:48,806 --> 00:25:52,470 and what happened to you if you gave your illness to someone else. 443 00:25:54,483 --> 00:25:56,127 Helping me understand this idea 444 00:25:56,488 --> 00:25:58,301 are Professor Owen Davis 445 00:25:58,559 --> 00:26:00,430 and Doctor Pixie McKenna. 446 00:26:01,788 --> 00:26:06,074 First Pixie recaps how we know disease is spread today. 447 00:26:06,292 --> 00:26:07,589 Look at this chap here. 448 00:26:07,604 --> 00:26:09,196 Imagine he's got the disease. 449 00:26:09,218 --> 00:26:10,655 The ball is the disease. 450 00:26:10,670 --> 00:26:13,102 He passes that on to one of his mates. 451 00:26:13,397 --> 00:26:15,489 All right, he's coughed on this chap, 452 00:26:15,609 --> 00:26:18,844 he's given him the disease, but he still has the disease. 453 00:26:19,574 --> 00:26:23,068 He then passes it on to another friend, 454 00:26:23,188 --> 00:26:25,470 but he still has the disease. 455 00:26:25,872 --> 00:26:29,384 In the modern day we believe you keep the disease yourself, 456 00:26:29,504 --> 00:26:31,853 but you pass it on to another person as well, 457 00:26:31,860 --> 00:26:33,688 so it keeps going round, 458 00:26:33,689 --> 00:26:34,813 and round, and round. 459 00:26:36,339 --> 00:26:39,656 'But our medieval ancestors had a very different idea' 460 00:26:39,671 --> 00:26:41,624 of how disease could spread. 461 00:26:41,668 --> 00:26:45,213 It was called transference, and grasping this concept 462 00:26:45,333 --> 00:26:49,522 is key to understanding how they thought magic cures could work. 463 00:26:52,544 --> 00:26:53,929 Right, so this is disease. 464 00:26:53,970 --> 00:26:56,986 Disease is limited, the idea is that it's not contagion. 465 00:26:57,106 --> 00:27:00,369 If I've got this, I've got the disease, if I get better... 466 00:27:01,009 --> 00:27:02,128 ..he gets worse. 467 00:27:02,129 --> 00:27:04,010 So I've lost the disease, but it goes to him, I'm fine. 468 00:27:04,313 --> 00:27:08,550 Yeah. So if he passes the disease on to somebody, 469 00:27:08,565 --> 00:27:09,766 the disease is transferred. 470 00:27:09,886 --> 00:27:11,292 This is the idea of transference. 471 00:27:11,322 --> 00:27:13,680 - So he hasn't got the disease? - No, just the one person, 472 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:14,911 and so it goes on. 473 00:27:14,941 --> 00:27:16,808 And if this guy passes it on? 474 00:27:17,156 --> 00:27:18,602 He's got the disease. So it goes on... 475 00:27:18,623 --> 00:27:19,728 So always one person has got it? 476 00:27:19,729 --> 00:27:21,474 It never disappears - it's always in the system. 477 00:27:21,488 --> 00:27:22,950 Yeah. 478 00:27:25,754 --> 00:27:28,968 So transference was the idea that when you transferred 479 00:27:28,975 --> 00:27:30,295 your disease to someone else, 480 00:27:30,744 --> 00:27:34,401 it would physically pass out of your body and into theirs. 481 00:27:34,521 --> 00:27:35,725 They would be ill 482 00:27:35,845 --> 00:27:38,689 and you would be as right as rain. 483 00:27:40,850 --> 00:27:43,341 And there were a whole host of treatments that exploited 484 00:27:43,562 --> 00:27:45,796 this concept of transference. 485 00:27:46,533 --> 00:27:50,409 Pixie and Owen are going to demonstrate medieval magic medicine 486 00:27:50,615 --> 00:27:53,150 on the ailments and public of today. 487 00:27:55,539 --> 00:27:58,009 So William, where, where is this, uh, cyst? 488 00:27:58,501 --> 00:27:59,474 It's just over here. 489 00:27:59,497 --> 00:28:01,309 Can I have, can I have a look? 490 00:28:01,516 --> 00:28:04,359 So how would you have dealt with it in the Middle Ages? 491 00:28:04,479 --> 00:28:06,328 Well, one of the extraordinary cures 492 00:28:06,329 --> 00:28:10,030 was to actually be stroked by the hand of a recently executed criminal, 493 00:28:10,729 --> 00:28:13,508 but we don't have an executed criminal, but we do have 494 00:28:13,848 --> 00:28:15,191 a pig's trotter 495 00:28:15,311 --> 00:28:18,083 to represent a cold clammy hand, 496 00:28:19,169 --> 00:28:21,990 and people would queue up after the person 497 00:28:22,012 --> 00:28:26,209 had been executed, bringing them, and they would ask the executioner 498 00:28:26,229 --> 00:28:28,781 to have the hand touched on the back, 499 00:28:28,980 --> 00:28:31,270 on the neck like that on top of there. 500 00:28:31,428 --> 00:28:33,128 Stroking it with a cold clammy hand. 501 00:28:33,129 --> 00:28:34,206 Yeah, very cold. 502 00:28:36,580 --> 00:28:40,233 The idea was that the cyst would in time pass 503 00:28:40,353 --> 00:28:43,734 from your back into the hand of the dead man. 504 00:28:43,854 --> 00:28:46,705 He would then take it with him to hell. 505 00:28:49,421 --> 00:28:51,006 How does that feel, William? 506 00:28:51,021 --> 00:28:53,576 If I, if I didn't know what it was, 507 00:28:53,576 --> 00:28:55,368 I think maybe people would pay money to do this 508 00:28:55,382 --> 00:28:57,785 in a massage parlour of some sort. 509 00:28:58,781 --> 00:29:01,688 But now that I know what it is, uh yes, uh. 510 00:29:01,689 --> 00:29:02,568 A bit creepy? 511 00:29:02,569 --> 00:29:03,373 It is. 512 00:29:04,609 --> 00:29:06,608 Another option for the unscrupulous 513 00:29:06,609 --> 00:29:09,737 was to pass their ailment or affliction on to the living. 514 00:29:09,774 --> 00:29:10,983 Hello, boys. 515 00:29:11,103 --> 00:29:13,328 - Can I borrow you for a second? - Yeah, sure. 516 00:29:13,448 --> 00:29:17,329 Come and sit down here on our consulting couch. 517 00:29:17,340 --> 00:29:19,846 My God, there's lots of you. Skateboards and everything. 518 00:29:22,487 --> 00:29:24,197 Well, this is a biggy, isn't it? 519 00:29:24,219 --> 00:29:27,030 Have you done anything to try and get rid of your wart? 520 00:29:27,329 --> 00:29:29,137 Uh, pull them off, stab it with a pen. 521 00:29:29,182 --> 00:29:30,888 Pull them off and stab it with a pen. 522 00:29:30,889 --> 00:29:32,742 Stabbing, OK. Pulling it off. 523 00:29:32,749 --> 00:29:33,768 How about you? 524 00:29:33,769 --> 00:29:34,768 Uh, sand paper. 525 00:29:34,769 --> 00:29:36,636 Sand... oh, that's disgusting. 526 00:29:36,648 --> 00:29:38,248 That's a new one. 527 00:29:38,249 --> 00:29:41,390 Their modern methods already seem pretty unsavoury, 528 00:29:42,172 --> 00:29:43,536 but back in the Middle Ages 529 00:29:43,536 --> 00:29:46,129 the gross factor would have been even higher, 530 00:29:46,249 --> 00:29:50,249 with a magical transference treatment involving snails. 531 00:29:52,804 --> 00:29:54,931 If I give that to you, and what you've got to do 532 00:29:54,940 --> 00:29:56,848 is rub it on your wart. 533 00:29:56,849 --> 00:29:57,968 Uh, yeah. 534 00:29:57,969 --> 00:30:00,469 Do it a few times, so it gets nice and sticky. 535 00:30:00,528 --> 00:30:03,528 This is transferring again, the wart to the snail, 536 00:30:04,126 --> 00:30:05,563 but then for the cure to work 537 00:30:05,563 --> 00:30:07,155 we have to do something to the snail. 538 00:30:07,192 --> 00:30:08,529 Put it in the bag. 539 00:30:08,541 --> 00:30:10,163 Put it in this bag. 540 00:30:12,649 --> 00:30:16,310 The idea was to transfer the warts on to a snail 541 00:30:16,782 --> 00:30:20,202 and then pass them on to an unsuspecting passer-by. 542 00:30:22,565 --> 00:30:24,364 Right, so come with me, 543 00:30:24,747 --> 00:30:26,214 this way. 544 00:30:28,101 --> 00:30:30,629 Now you just put it down somewhere. 545 00:30:37,905 --> 00:30:39,519 Whoever picked up the bag 546 00:30:39,534 --> 00:30:42,790 would supposedly end up with much more than just the snail. 547 00:30:43,513 --> 00:30:46,631 The warts should be transferred on to them as well. 548 00:30:47,195 --> 00:30:49,968 And as new warts grew on the person with the bag, 549 00:30:50,180 --> 00:30:53,755 the original patient's skin should become wart-free. 550 00:30:54,374 --> 00:30:55,973 Well, that was the theory. 551 00:30:57,868 --> 00:31:00,499 But transference wasn't a one-way street. 552 00:31:00,619 --> 00:31:04,168 Our ancestors not only believed they could transfer disease 553 00:31:04,169 --> 00:31:06,928 out of their own bodies into someone else, 554 00:31:07,048 --> 00:31:10,357 they also thought they could transfer the health and vitality 555 00:31:10,364 --> 00:31:12,830 of fit people into themselves. 556 00:31:18,169 --> 00:31:20,586 The most extreme case of transferring 557 00:31:20,594 --> 00:31:24,471 the vitality or life force of another creature into a human 558 00:31:24,591 --> 00:31:27,750 is recorded in an epic Celtic oral tale, 559 00:31:27,870 --> 00:31:29,320 that's over 2,000 years old. 560 00:31:31,952 --> 00:31:34,627 Medical historian Bob Arnott is going to use this source 561 00:31:35,197 --> 00:31:39,522 to recreate what was an attempt to magically pass the strength of animals 562 00:31:39,642 --> 00:31:41,928 into a badly injured warrior. 563 00:31:42,170 --> 00:31:42,905 Bob, 564 00:31:43,025 --> 00:31:45,049 what's the significance of this text? 565 00:31:45,075 --> 00:31:48,803 This text tells us about Ceithern, son of Fintan, 566 00:31:48,923 --> 00:31:52,826 who went on a raid to his neighbours, to rustle their cattle. 567 00:31:52,946 --> 00:31:54,510 It's called the Cooley's raid. 568 00:31:54,987 --> 00:31:56,826 Here's the text and... 569 00:31:56,833 --> 00:31:59,900 ..this explains his, the story of him. 570 00:32:00,020 --> 00:32:01,852 He was badly injured on his chariot. 571 00:32:05,036 --> 00:32:08,462 Ceithern was trying to use his chariot to round up the cattle 572 00:32:08,582 --> 00:32:11,849 when he was speared by a member of the tribe that owned them. 573 00:32:12,130 --> 00:32:13,910 'His wounds were horrific.' 574 00:32:14,170 --> 00:32:16,066 - Right, yeah? - Yeah, yeah. 575 00:32:16,186 --> 00:32:18,988 - And if you can imagine, this is at speed of course. - Yeah. Yeah. 576 00:32:19,003 --> 00:32:22,048 Because you've got potentially two clashing chariots, or even maybe 577 00:32:22,049 --> 00:32:24,022 - ..a foot soldier thrusting upwards. - Yeah. 578 00:32:24,142 --> 00:32:27,826 But if you can imagine some force whacking in there. 579 00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:35,101 Let's have a look and see what we've got. 580 00:32:36,110 --> 00:32:38,049 Oh!... It's a bit of an effort to get it out. 581 00:32:38,249 --> 00:32:40,791 It's a very deep wound and you could imagine. 582 00:32:40,808 --> 00:32:42,472 Yeah, look how far it goes. 583 00:32:42,494 --> 00:32:46,155 If you think of the organ damage, to the guts and the liver, 584 00:32:46,275 --> 00:32:48,408 or possibly the kidneys. Depends where it hit. 585 00:32:48,453 --> 00:32:51,008 For anybody who was perhaps weaker or smaller, 586 00:32:51,009 --> 00:32:52,419 that would have killed them outright. 587 00:32:52,689 --> 00:32:55,000 But of course the text tells us 588 00:32:55,030 --> 00:32:57,270 that he survived that, 589 00:32:57,484 --> 00:32:59,430 but needed healing from his doctor. 590 00:33:02,629 --> 00:33:05,448 Ceithern was losing strength fast, 591 00:33:05,568 --> 00:33:07,606 so what the doctor prescribed 592 00:33:07,726 --> 00:33:09,937 was to give him the power and vitality 593 00:33:09,952 --> 00:33:12,436 of a whole herd of cows and bulls. 594 00:33:12,849 --> 00:33:14,710 Surely this would save him? 595 00:33:15,930 --> 00:33:20,186 But this transference was going to be a very bloody business indeed 596 00:33:20,982 --> 00:33:24,670 and all Ceithern's entourage would have to help. 597 00:33:24,930 --> 00:33:26,392 His followers 598 00:33:26,512 --> 00:33:30,350 slaughtered a whole herd of cows and bulls 599 00:33:30,470 --> 00:33:33,105 and they made a mixture of their blood, 600 00:33:33,225 --> 00:33:37,230 the meat and the marrow you get from inside the bones here. 601 00:33:39,436 --> 00:33:41,795 The meat we're using today in this experiment 602 00:33:41,817 --> 00:33:44,154 is meat that isn't fit for human consumption, 603 00:33:44,183 --> 00:33:47,689 but of course back 2,000 years ago it was quite a different story. 604 00:33:47,876 --> 00:33:50,213 To slaughter a whole herd 605 00:33:50,333 --> 00:33:53,412 which was a vital part of the wealth of the community, 606 00:33:53,434 --> 00:33:56,329 in order to save the life of this one individual, 607 00:33:56,358 --> 00:33:58,119 it would be like bathing in champagne, 608 00:33:58,127 --> 00:34:00,009 it would be like bathing in caviar. 609 00:34:00,021 --> 00:34:02,448 This was a vital part of their economy, 610 00:34:02,449 --> 00:34:05,670 and they did everything they could to heal their leader. 611 00:34:06,235 --> 00:34:08,230 Chuck it in, then. 612 00:34:12,482 --> 00:34:14,856 'The gory mess they were preparing 613 00:34:14,863 --> 00:34:16,979 wasn't a blood transfusion, as we know it today. 614 00:34:18,151 --> 00:34:20,808 'It's thought it was an attempt to transfer a magical 615 00:34:20,826 --> 00:34:25,073 'strength and power from slaughtered animals into a weak human.' 616 00:34:26,466 --> 00:34:30,579 Of course the most important thing is the magic behind it. 617 00:34:31,021 --> 00:34:32,459 They believed it worked. 618 00:34:36,644 --> 00:34:38,626 'For the transference to take place, 619 00:34:38,685 --> 00:34:41,698 'Ceithern would have to lie in the bloody mixture 620 00:34:41,818 --> 00:34:44,103 'for three days and three nights. 621 00:34:44,369 --> 00:34:47,376 'What that would have felt like I can hardly imagine. 622 00:34:48,297 --> 00:34:50,560 'Unfortunately, Bob can.' 623 00:34:50,680 --> 00:34:52,230 What we're going to do, Tony, 624 00:34:52,692 --> 00:34:57,299 is take experimental archaeology to a new height. 625 00:34:58,103 --> 00:35:01,689 And in here we've got a mixture of blood and meat... 626 00:35:02,088 --> 00:35:03,865 ..and more blood. 627 00:35:06,732 --> 00:35:08,609 You want me to get in that? 628 00:35:08,612 --> 00:35:10,230 I do indeed. 629 00:35:10,838 --> 00:35:13,691 - It is quite disgusting! - It really is. 630 00:35:14,648 --> 00:35:18,190 The things we do to take forward the frontiers of knowledge. 631 00:35:18,449 --> 00:35:20,425 More blood. More blood. 632 00:35:22,275 --> 00:35:24,443 'I'm about to experience for myself 633 00:35:24,610 --> 00:35:26,558 'just what a strong stomach you needed 634 00:35:26,602 --> 00:35:28,976 'for ancient medical cures, 635 00:35:29,887 --> 00:35:32,378 'and I'll also be revealing the astonishing truth 636 00:35:33,145 --> 00:35:35,732 'about why these mystical medicines 637 00:35:35,983 --> 00:35:38,091 'may make far more rational sense 638 00:35:38,211 --> 00:35:39,749 'than you might think.' 639 00:35:41,809 --> 00:35:45,642 I'm discovering what our ancestors thought caused disease 640 00:35:45,762 --> 00:35:48,236 before science came up with the answers, 641 00:35:48,295 --> 00:35:51,924 and what bizarre treatments they believed could cure them. 642 00:35:55,116 --> 00:35:57,018 Now I'm going to experience 643 00:35:57,035 --> 00:35:59,630 the magical medicine of the Celts for myself. 644 00:36:00,114 --> 00:36:03,493 And see how a stomach-churning mix of blood and guts 645 00:36:03,770 --> 00:36:06,368 was supposed to transfer the vitality and strength 646 00:36:06,488 --> 00:36:09,073 of cows and bulls into Ceithern, 647 00:36:09,316 --> 00:36:11,422 one of their wounded warriors. 648 00:36:14,574 --> 00:36:16,085 Shall I go in now? 649 00:36:16,675 --> 00:36:18,127 No, not yet, not yet. 650 00:36:18,127 --> 00:36:20,256 I'm going to tie your chariot board to you. 651 00:36:20,958 --> 00:36:22,739 'I'm donning a piece of wood, 652 00:36:22,859 --> 00:36:24,166 'like the one that was used to keep 653 00:36:24,286 --> 00:36:26,738 'Ceithern's disembowelled entrails in place. 654 00:36:28,839 --> 00:36:30,390 'Oh, and he was naked. 655 00:36:30,650 --> 00:36:33,805 'I, on the other hand, am wearing a nice protective suit, 656 00:36:33,925 --> 00:36:37,461 'because, well, I don't want to die just yet.' 657 00:36:43,365 --> 00:36:45,230 (LAUGHS) 658 00:36:47,896 --> 00:36:51,383 Oh, I tell you what, those bones on the bottom are not great. 659 00:36:52,503 --> 00:36:53,572 Let's top you up. 660 00:36:53,692 --> 00:36:56,416 - Let's get the full mixture going. - Yeah, I don't want it on my face. 661 00:36:56,430 --> 00:36:57,350 No. 662 00:36:58,843 --> 00:37:00,000 Oh, sorry. 663 00:37:00,951 --> 00:37:04,303 Oh, God. I tell you what, this suit's leaking. 664 00:37:04,423 --> 00:37:08,023 - Is it? - Yeah, all around my stomach. Oh... 665 00:37:09,821 --> 00:37:12,550 Oh, I can feel it creeping all the way around me. 666 00:37:13,359 --> 00:37:14,288 Oh! 667 00:37:16,890 --> 00:37:20,259 OK, so I might find the cold, clotting liquid deeply revolting, 668 00:37:21,256 --> 00:37:24,335 but our warrior would have felt this was magic. 669 00:37:24,976 --> 00:37:29,310 A magic transference of the strength and vitality of powerful beasts 670 00:37:29,536 --> 00:37:31,656 slowly soaking into him. 671 00:37:31,776 --> 00:37:34,376 - And one final bucketful. - Oh! 672 00:37:34,496 --> 00:37:38,270 'I'm hoping the text will help me feel some of that magic too.' 673 00:37:39,813 --> 00:37:42,110 That he was set in the tub of marrow 674 00:37:43,167 --> 00:37:46,609 and he began to soak in the tub full of marrow 675 00:37:46,729 --> 00:37:49,774 and the tub full of marrow went into him, 676 00:37:50,180 --> 00:37:53,015 through his wounds and his gashes 677 00:37:53,135 --> 00:37:57,853 and his lacerations and in his many cuts. 678 00:37:59,775 --> 00:38:01,662 It's certainly doing that. 679 00:38:02,174 --> 00:38:04,095 It's getting right inside me. 680 00:38:04,456 --> 00:38:05,679 It's doing you good. 681 00:38:05,694 --> 00:38:08,630 It's the blood of life coming to heal you. 682 00:38:09,095 --> 00:38:11,830 To bring you back to life to heal your wounds. 683 00:38:12,090 --> 00:38:14,950 It clearly wouldn't have done you any good, in our terms, 684 00:38:15,070 --> 00:38:16,203 but in their terms, 685 00:38:16,262 --> 00:38:17,982 the power of those cattle, 686 00:38:18,026 --> 00:38:21,872 and the honour that our hero gained 687 00:38:21,888 --> 00:38:25,183 from being treated by his compatriots, 688 00:38:25,603 --> 00:38:27,414 was quite, quite incredible. 689 00:38:27,415 --> 00:38:30,895 So I'd have been feeling like a hero being brought back to life again? 690 00:38:30,924 --> 00:38:32,730 That's exactly what it was. 691 00:38:33,751 --> 00:38:35,026 I don't. 692 00:38:35,146 --> 00:38:36,310 You don't. 693 00:38:39,559 --> 00:38:41,446 'Scientifically, this mixture 694 00:38:41,483 --> 00:38:43,930 'could only have made the injured warrior even worse, 695 00:38:45,237 --> 00:38:46,549 'but it's just possible 696 00:38:46,557 --> 00:38:49,695 'that our ancestors' belief in magical transference 697 00:38:49,815 --> 00:38:53,413 'may have worked as an extreme form of placebo.' 698 00:38:56,295 --> 00:38:59,215 Indeed, every treatment that I've encountered on my journey, 699 00:38:59,256 --> 00:39:01,467 no matter how bizarre or disturbing, 700 00:39:01,587 --> 00:39:05,670 may have had some medical benefit if the patient believed in it. 701 00:39:06,959 --> 00:39:10,295 To demonstrate how effective this power of belief can be 702 00:39:10,415 --> 00:39:12,507 even in today's scientific world, 703 00:39:12,627 --> 00:39:16,372 Doctor Pixie McKenna is going to play the role of a medieval healer, 704 00:39:16,401 --> 00:39:18,173 with things like an ordinary cream 705 00:39:18,195 --> 00:39:21,030 she will claim is a powerful pain killer. 706 00:39:21,150 --> 00:39:23,782 I'm going to test your response to pain. 707 00:39:23,819 --> 00:39:26,863 So rather cleverly, we've got two devices here, 708 00:39:26,885 --> 00:39:29,675 which can give you a stimulus of pain, just into your finger, 709 00:39:29,795 --> 00:39:31,016 but before you do that 710 00:39:31,024 --> 00:39:33,924 we're going to give you pain relief on one 711 00:39:34,044 --> 00:39:35,497 and not on the other. 712 00:39:35,617 --> 00:39:37,204 Now you have the option of 713 00:39:37,226 --> 00:39:40,410 having a cream rubbed onto the area that's going to be painful - 714 00:39:40,425 --> 00:39:42,460 so that would be an anaesthetic pain-killing cream - 715 00:39:42,580 --> 00:39:45,150 or you can even have an injection into the area. 716 00:39:45,270 --> 00:39:46,189 Uh, cream. 717 00:39:46,219 --> 00:39:47,715 Cream? OK. Now... 718 00:39:48,290 --> 00:39:50,546 The cream is just a moisturiser 719 00:39:50,672 --> 00:39:52,952 and the injection people can also choose 720 00:39:53,072 --> 00:39:55,952 is nothing more than a blast of fresh air. 721 00:39:56,072 --> 00:39:58,930 But the pain from the metal bar pressing on their fingers 722 00:39:59,050 --> 00:39:59,971 is very real. 723 00:40:00,170 --> 00:40:02,551 The same with the finger on this side. 724 00:40:02,671 --> 00:40:05,030 Both hands will experience pain. 725 00:40:05,232 --> 00:40:06,753 - It just feels odd... - Yeah. 726 00:40:06,761 --> 00:40:08,912 - ..it's pushing the bone down. - Yeah. 727 00:40:09,304 --> 00:40:13,032 But will the belief that the hand nearest to Pixie, has been treated, 728 00:40:13,152 --> 00:40:15,390 be enough to make a difference? 729 00:40:15,711 --> 00:40:19,071 If ten was the worst pain, how bad would you describe the pain? 730 00:40:19,072 --> 00:40:22,671 I'd say that was probably moving towards a seven, eight. 731 00:40:22,672 --> 00:40:24,590 OK, and what about the one on my side? 732 00:40:24,792 --> 00:40:26,791 That one's more like a five still. 733 00:40:26,792 --> 00:40:29,527 OK, this finger in comparison to this finger? 734 00:40:29,551 --> 00:40:31,953 Actually now that you're saying that, this one, 735 00:40:31,968 --> 00:40:34,467 it's not as painful and this one is slightly more painful. 736 00:40:34,587 --> 00:40:37,070 And the power of our belief in science is such 737 00:40:37,272 --> 00:40:41,491 that the needle-free fake injection works even better than the cream. 738 00:40:42,618 --> 00:40:44,872 The needle-free probably, was better. 739 00:40:44,890 --> 00:40:45,672 Was better? 740 00:40:46,084 --> 00:40:47,582 It worked better for me. 741 00:40:47,605 --> 00:40:48,992 - It worked better for you? - Yeah. 742 00:40:49,750 --> 00:40:51,392 Ever heard of a thing called placebo? 743 00:40:51,902 --> 00:40:54,790 - Is it a placebo? - It certainly is. 744 00:40:55,050 --> 00:40:56,551 - Is it like nothing? - Yeah. 745 00:40:56,604 --> 00:40:58,528 - It's just a cream? - It's just a cream... 746 00:40:59,744 --> 00:41:02,630 'So perhaps some of our ancestors' magic medicine 747 00:41:02,832 --> 00:41:05,312 'wasn't as naive as it might first appear.' 748 00:41:05,432 --> 00:41:08,072 What we use hand-in-hand with modern medicine 749 00:41:08,192 --> 00:41:12,352 is something from the medieval days and that's the placebo effect. 750 00:41:12,832 --> 00:41:16,105 In years gone by, it would have been called hocus-pocus, 751 00:41:16,432 --> 00:41:19,509 but actually, we actively employ the placebo effect 752 00:41:19,629 --> 00:41:21,192 every single day in our clinics. 753 00:41:21,561 --> 00:41:24,654 And the power of belief is still effective - 754 00:41:24,774 --> 00:41:27,028 the more a patient believes in a cure 755 00:41:27,148 --> 00:41:30,750 the more effective it's going to be. Trust me. 756 00:41:32,617 --> 00:41:36,752 But amazingly, the efficacy of some of these superstitious treatments 757 00:41:36,952 --> 00:41:39,590 wasn't necessarily all in the mind. 758 00:41:40,755 --> 00:41:42,561 The very first surgery 759 00:41:42,681 --> 00:41:45,900 performed to release demons trapped inside the skull 760 00:41:46,020 --> 00:41:48,312 paved the way for a hi-tech procedure 761 00:41:48,686 --> 00:41:50,964 used to treat cerebral conditions today. 762 00:41:54,269 --> 00:41:57,299 22-year-old Samantha has a brain tumour 763 00:41:57,313 --> 00:42:00,030 that's causing severe epileptic seizures, 764 00:42:01,220 --> 00:42:03,871 so doctors are going to remove part of her skull, 765 00:42:03,991 --> 00:42:05,432 not to release demons 766 00:42:05,610 --> 00:42:07,485 but to cut out the tumour. 767 00:42:10,603 --> 00:42:14,045 I've come to the National Hospital For Neurology And Neurosurgery 768 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:18,590 to meet Andy McEvoy and see the operation for myself. 769 00:42:19,610 --> 00:42:22,182 - Tony, would you like to come and join us? - Thanks, Andy. 770 00:42:23,405 --> 00:42:26,997 Do you ever get a sense that what you're doing is really a continuum 771 00:42:27,233 --> 00:42:30,329 from what medical people have been doing for thousands of years. 772 00:42:30,449 --> 00:42:33,414 Absolutely right, it's amazing the parallels you could draw 773 00:42:33,428 --> 00:42:36,959 and how they used to do trepanations for people with epilepsy 774 00:42:36,966 --> 00:42:39,062 thinking they were possessed and with spirits. 775 00:42:39,335 --> 00:42:42,575 So you're not expecting any evil spirits to come flying out today? 776 00:42:42,626 --> 00:42:44,395 I don't think there'll be any escaping today, 777 00:42:44,403 --> 00:42:46,395 but I hope there's a big brain tumour about to escape, 778 00:42:46,395 --> 00:42:48,805 that would be my hope today anyway. 779 00:42:53,512 --> 00:42:58,967 Samantha has to be kept awake at all times to monitor cognition. 780 00:43:06,891 --> 00:43:11,250 The reasons for the operation may have changed beyond recognition, 781 00:43:11,852 --> 00:43:13,127 but in different forms, 782 00:43:13,134 --> 00:43:16,927 this procedure has been carried out since the Stone Age. 783 00:43:18,710 --> 00:43:20,140 Ow, ow, ow. 784 00:43:20,523 --> 00:43:23,036 OK, I'll put a bit more local in for you. 785 00:43:26,450 --> 00:43:28,550 Yeah, it's me. 786 00:43:32,858 --> 00:43:36,148 No, if you do that I'll kick you off your trolley! 787 00:43:36,163 --> 00:43:38,736 (THEY LAUGH) 788 00:43:40,690 --> 00:43:44,009 Luckily, Andrew isn't using flint blades, 789 00:43:44,129 --> 00:43:45,375 the equipment he's got 790 00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:48,640 has been specially developed so it won't damage the brain. 791 00:43:48,928 --> 00:43:52,653 His aim though, is the same - to remove a small section of skull. 792 00:43:58,319 --> 00:44:01,043 Tony, one of the advantages of this is that when it goes through the bone 793 00:44:01,050 --> 00:44:04,601 it automatically cuts out when it hits the dura on the other side. 794 00:44:04,654 --> 00:44:07,588 One of the great complications was people plunged into the brain with it 795 00:44:07,770 --> 00:44:09,610 when it went through on the other side, 796 00:44:09,611 --> 00:44:12,381 but we don't have those problems any more, thank goodness. 797 00:44:14,017 --> 00:44:17,155 'After a gruelling eight hours of surgery, 798 00:44:17,275 --> 00:44:20,505 'Samantha's operation is a complete success.' 799 00:44:20,625 --> 00:44:21,891 What a privilege 800 00:44:22,229 --> 00:44:24,088 to be here in the 21st century 801 00:44:24,103 --> 00:44:27,147 when this miraculous operation takes place. 802 00:44:27,267 --> 00:44:29,387 And isn't it extraordinary 803 00:44:29,507 --> 00:44:33,389 that that should be a direct descendant 804 00:44:33,624 --> 00:44:38,201 of procedures that were going on 2,000, even more years ago? 805 00:44:43,531 --> 00:44:47,260 'Today, mainstream medicine is very much a science. 806 00:44:47,380 --> 00:44:48,852 'With many diseases, 807 00:44:48,852 --> 00:44:50,393 'there's no doubt what causes them 808 00:44:50,843 --> 00:44:53,556 'and treatments are based on proven clinical results.' 809 00:44:57,519 --> 00:44:59,919 But this is all relatively new. 810 00:45:00,102 --> 00:45:01,532 Before the 18th century, 811 00:45:01,558 --> 00:45:04,598 very little was known about the true mechanics of illness 812 00:45:04,718 --> 00:45:06,790 and the workings of the human body. 813 00:45:07,281 --> 00:45:09,655 The vast majority of our ancestors 814 00:45:09,979 --> 00:45:12,350 had to take a very different approach. 815 00:45:19,872 --> 00:45:23,838 In the days before vaccines and antibiotics and x-rays, 816 00:45:24,295 --> 00:45:27,236 there simply weren't many ways to diagnose illnesses 817 00:45:27,479 --> 00:45:29,033 let alone cure them. 818 00:45:29,269 --> 00:45:32,691 Superstition was often the best medicine on offer, 819 00:45:32,811 --> 00:45:35,993 because at least it offered you a cause for your illness 820 00:45:36,113 --> 00:45:38,936 and if you had a cause, however far-fetched, 821 00:45:39,128 --> 00:45:41,575 you could try and find a solution. 822 00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:43,585 And when you're ill, 823 00:45:43,705 --> 00:45:45,639 or looking death in the face, 824 00:45:45,759 --> 00:45:49,030 who wouldn't want to do something rather than nothing? 825 00:45:58,422 --> 00:46:00,558 Next week - witches. 826 00:46:00,888 --> 00:46:01,899 I'll be finding out 827 00:46:01,916 --> 00:46:05,251 why our ancestors were convinced black magic was very real. 828 00:46:06,099 --> 00:46:07,990 They were a very feared set of people. 829 00:46:08,238 --> 00:46:11,006 But who was thought to be practising the dark arts? 830 00:46:11,126 --> 00:46:12,903 The woman next door to you could be a witch. 831 00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:15,726 The woman in your own house could be a witch. 832 00:46:16,050 --> 00:46:19,426 And what happened if you were accused of being in league 833 00:46:19,441 --> 00:46:20,798 with the devil? 834 00:46:21,118 --> 00:46:23,190 You'd be able to hear yourself burning. 835 00:46:44,501 --> 00:46:50,213 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd