Exhibition reveals cures were worse than the ailments

If you think today’s health service is bad, try curing eye ailments with powdered human dung; piles and convulsions with earthworms; and ulcers with mashed millipedes.

He may be one of the founders of modern chemistry, but it seems Robert Boyle was a bit of a hypochondriac, even issuing a book prescribing some of his very own cures for common ailments of the time.

The book, along with some other science related gems, went on display yesterday as part of the Particles of the Past exhibition in the National Library in Dublin.