A few weeks ago, I finished reading "The Allegheny Frontier." It dedicated a whole chapter to remedies and doctoring. Here are some of the more humorous ones: PAIN IN THE FEET: Turn your shoes bottom side up before going to bed. CHAPPED LIPS: Kiss the middle rail of a five rail fence. SKIN ERRUPTIONS: "The treatment of erysipelas, or St. Anthony's fire, which resulted from a hemalytic strptococcic infection, required the blood of a black cat. Consequently, in many areas it was difficult to find a black cat with both its ears and its tail, since most of them had sacrificed those appendages to the cause of medicine." SNAKEBITE: "One method consisted of capturing the snake, cutting it into pieces about two inches long, placing the pieces on the wound to draw out the poison, and then burning them to ashes as a kind of revenge." My grandmother raised seven children, and was often out too far away from the doctor for minor things such as cuts that required stitches. So, she'd do it herself. When she had rambunctious grandchildren and was afraid we'd get hurt "if we didn't quit tearing around," she'd threaten that she'd have to sew us up with PURPLE THREAD. We knew she didn't mean it, because she always delivered the threat with a smile. Today, she is still threatening the great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. Cheers, Sharon