Fasting spittle and a cat’s tail

A mock prescription in the Yea and Nay Almanack of 1678, which Hone reprinted, takes for granted two familiar cures for sore eyes: rubbing them first thing in the morning with fasting spittle, that is spittle before eating, or with a cat’s tail. In their place it advised rubbing the eyes on rising with a hundred broad pieces of one’s own gold, which would do the eyes good and the purse too. Hone printed it, he said, because the remedy had been tried and approved.