Did you know that coffee was recommended as protection against the bubonic plague in the seventeenth century? Or that tea was believed to make men "unfit to do their business" and blamed for women becoming unattractive? On the other hand, a cup of ch...

How did German intelligence agents in the First World War use dead fish to pass on vital information to their operatives? What did an advertisement for a dog in "The Times" have to do with the movement of British troops into Egypt? And why did Britis...

What common condition can be treated with cow dung? How do crushed oystershells ease heartburn? Can eels cure deafness? And how do you stop a stubborn case of the hiccups? If someone was struck down by illness or injury in the late eighteenth century...