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Finding the right words for a 16th Century public health crisis

A 450-year-old book reveals what ordinary Scots were told about the plague.

In a time before daily televised press conferences and social media sharing, spreading the word about public health had to be done via a different route.

As new documentary Rebel Tongue reveals, when an outbreak of plague hit the country in the mid-1560s, one physician found that the best way to reach as many people as possible was to publish medical advice in the Scots language.

Medical advice in Scots

A publication from 1568 reveals the era's medical advice for contagious diseases.

Publishing the advice in common Scots as it was spoken on the street meant that it could be understood by ordinary men and women across the country.

We may not recognise some words or use the same spellings today, much of it can be easily deciphered.

The following excerpts highlight author for identifying signs of the plague:

"First gif the exterior partis of the bodie be caulde, and the interior partis of the bodie vehement hait."

The patient will display a "greit dolour of heid with heavynes, sollicitude and sadnes of mynd".

Then,"last of all and maiste certane, gif with constant fever, by the earis, under the oxstaris, or by the secrete membres maist frequentlie apperis a postumis callit Bubones, whithout ony other manifest cause or gif the charbunkil apperis hastelie in ony other part".

We know now that in those days there was no cure for the plague, but Skeyne advised his readers to treat symptoms of the disease with a variety of plant-based tinctures and, most importantly, a "returne to God".