Medical superstition

Gloucestershire Echo, Wednesday 23rd July 1924.
Welsh Poultice Superstition.
Miner's wife who believed it.

A South Wales superstition was mentioned in the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, when the Craigola Merthyr Company, Ltd., of Swansea, appealed from a decision that compensation was payable to Mrs. Phoebe Williams, of Pontardulais, for the death of her husband, Thomas Williams.

For the employers it was said that Williams was certified as suffering from knee trouble due to his work. Some well-meaning friend apparently advised the wife that a poultice of cow dung afforded the best treatment for such a trouble, there being a superstition that such a poultice had herbal virtues.

The employers' doctor saw the man with this poultice on, and in consequence of his disapproval the poultice was removed. Two days later the man's own doctor, who had no knowledge of the wife's mistaken treatment, lanced the knee to reduce the swelling. The result was that the germs of tetanus got into the wound and the man died. The question was whether in these circumstances it was possible to hold that the accident was due to the scheduled disease.

Their lordships decided for the widow, and dismissed the appeal with costs.