A Nottinghamshire cure for Whooping cough
Some hair
Bread and butter
A dog being taken for a walk
Take some Hair, Bread and Butter, and a dog.....
According to a tradition recorded by the Victorian historian of Notts, John Potter Briscoe, it was a popular 19th century belief in the county that the unlikely combination of hair, bread and butter, and a dog could effect a cure for whooping cough. He writes:-
"Cut some hairs from the back of the head of the child having hooping cough, place them between two pieces of buttered bread, and give them to the first dog you meet.
"If the dog eats it an immediate cure is effected, so it is believed.
"This belief is still current in Nottingham".
Quoted from the book Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictions by John Potter Briscoe, published in 1870.