Talk:Flying ointment

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Can anybody find a source for the practice of applying the ointment vaginally with a phallic stick? Seems awfully sensationalist to me.

Is there any record of anyone actually trying this recipe? It seems like it should be fairly toxic, though maybe the dose given is low enough for it to work... (No, I'm not volunteering.)

That's the problem with some of these substances: the effective dose is dangerously close to the lethal dose. That's why you're probably wise to refrain from trying them. I've refrained from trying any of the myriad "flying ointment" recipes around for the same reason.

Septegram 13:00, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

In "Drawing Down the Moon," there is an account of a young pagan woman making a flying paste of belladonna and nearly poisoning herself, having to be sent to the ER to be saved. (Yes, this *is* potentially poisonous even when applied transdermally, though the entry seems to imply that it isn't!) As of yet I have not seen any *medieval* source indicating that flying ointment was actually used, let alone vaginally with broomsticks. It may be true, but since I've never seen a medieval source describe it, I remain somewhat skeptical.

Concerning records on someone trying a medieval recipe, have a look at: Erwin Richter, "Der nacherlebte Hexensabbat - Zu Will-Erich Peuckerts Selbstversuch mit Hexensalben", in: Forschungsfragen unserer Zeit, Jg. 7, Lief. 3, p. 97 - 100, 1960 (German). Denisoliver 13:47, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Too much to hope there's an edition in English, I suppose?

Septegram 16:31, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Signatures

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Septegram 13:04, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Standard anaesthesia

This ointment should be evaluated with the recognition that the combination of opium and tropane alkaloids was a routine anaesthetic from ancient Greece until the 19th century.[1] (please note that by "routine" I do not mean "safe" - but if you were having cataract surgery done in the first century B.C. what would you choose?) The irony here is that the description of this "flying ointment" dates from a two-century interval during which this treatment was taboo in Europe (see Opium). Mike Serfas 04:43, 5 May 2007 (UTC)