i'm reading "old english leechcraft", borrowed off dan donoghue (who seems to have every book you could possibly want - i showed him my syllabus for history of science and he whipped the very book off his shelf!) it's amazing that the work ever came to light, as the first paragraph of this essay in the old english newsletter briefly, though not completely,recounts. because of this strange history, when i look at the index, i see, not without amusement, but also with some slight protective anger: "charm and incantation, methods of healing by" followed immediately by "chemicals, "wellcome" brand," "hazeline products" coming just before "helias, letter from, to king alfred," "horehound, properties" next to "hypodermic apparatus," or "splints known and used by anglo-saxons" before "suppositories, enule brand." i think i begin to understand why e-ching identified with, and was fiercely protective of, the old english.