"Frogs appear frequently in medieval medical writings as useful ingredients. Dinkova-Bruun traces their presence in De medicamentis liber, a fifth-century collection of remedies by the Gallo-Roman physician Marcellus Empiricus. His manual catalogues hundreds of treatments from head to toe, combining herbs, animal parts, and ritual actions in equal measure. Among the many creatures pressed into service, the frog features in eleven recipes, often for ailments that were both common and mysterious: earache, ulcers, dysentery, and toothache."
"When the moon is waning on the day of Mars or on the day of Jupiter, say these words seven times: ARGIDAM MARGIDAM STVRGIDAM. You will eliminate the pain when, while standing in the open air, on fresh ground and wearing shoes, you grasp the head of a frog, open its mouth, spit in it, and ask it to take the toothache away with it. Then release the living [frog] and do so on a good day and at a good hour."
Frogs occupied ambivalent roles in medieval culture, feared as unclean and associated with plague and sin while also proving medically useful. Medical manuals incorporated frogs into numerous remedies, treating earache, ulcers, dysentery, toothache, and more. Remedies combined herbal knowledge, animal parts, poultices, and ritual procedures, ranging from applying crushed frogs to using frog bile or blood. Charms and performance accompanied physical treatments, such as a toothache charm instructing ritual words, spitting into a frog, and releasing it alive. The frog’s amphibious nature lent it symbolic weight as a figure of transformation and moral meaning alongside physical utility.
Read at Medievalists.net
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