8. Advice for The Ages

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During the 11th and 12th Centuries a 3-volume text known as the Trotula became a leading source of medical advice for practitioners. Among its authors was a woman who was named Trotula, an Italian physician who had some unusual ideas with regard to treating women’s health problems, particularly those related to reproduction. If a woman was deemed too fat to have children, Trotula advised that she apply to her body a cream made from cow dung and a very good wine. She was then advised to sit in a hot sauna until she turned green. Where these matters were concerned, Trotula had advice for men as well. They were to be covered with the same body cream and then buried in the sand next to the ocean.