leechbook

English

Etymology

From Middle English leche (“blood-sucking worm”), from Old English lǣċe (“medical doctor”) + boc (“book”).

Noun

leechbook (plural leechbooks)

1. A medical text of the Anglo-Saxon era; a compilation of medicinal cures and remedies used by leeches.
   • 1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 257:

     One of the old Leech Books gives the formula for a salve against the "elfin race and nocturnal goblin visitors." Fourteen herbs, including wormwood, viper's bugloss and fennel, were first gathered.

   • 2004, J. P. Griffin Venetian treacle and the foundation of medicines regulation

     The first was directly from Byzantine or other eastern sources, for example a Saxon leechbook of the 11th century records that Abel the Patriarch of Jerusalem sent Mithridatium or theriac to King Alfred the Great, who died on 26 October 899

See also

• Bald's Leechbook on Wikipedia.Wikipedia