
Data-mining medieval text reveals medically bioactive ingredients - _Microft
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611751/data-mining-medieval-text-reveals-medically-bioactive-ingredients/
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_Microft
_It implies that the conventional view of medieval medicine as little more
than hocus pocus needs to be rethought._

Is that a common opinion on medival medicine? I never thought that it was all
hocus pocus but only that their explanations were totally wrong most of the
time.

An example is the medival idea that bad smells transfer diseases. It's not the
smell itself but since it is a byproduct of rotting and decay, avoiding the
smell made people also avoid the source of some infections. So it's easy to
come to this conclusion.

That is why I think that having a closer look at old medical recipes is a
great _starting point_ \- not the solution but a thing worth looking at.

