for the toothache?

_Leonato._ Where is but a humour, or a worm."

This notion was, some years ago, prevalent in Derbyshire,[632] where
there was an odd way of extracting, as it was thought, the worm. A small
quantity of a mixture, consisting of dry and powdered herbs, was placed
in some small vessel, into which a live coal from the fire was dropped.
The patient then held his or her open mouth over the vessel, and inhaled
the smoke as long as it could be borne. The cup was then taken away, and
in its place a glass of water was put before the patient. Into this
glass the person breathed hard for a few moments, when it was supposed
the grub or worm could be seen in the water. In Orkney, too, toothache
goes by the name of "the worm," and, as a remedy, the following charm,
called "wormy lines," is written on a piece of paper, and worn as an
amulet, by the person affected, in some part of his dress:

"Peter sat on a marble stone weeping;
Christ came past, and said, 'What aileth thee, Peter?'
'O my Lord, my God, my tooth doth ache.'
'Arise, O Peter! go thy way; thy tooth shall ache no more.'"

[632] See "English Folk-Lore," p. 156.

This notion is still current in Germany, and is mentioned by Thorpe, in
his "Northern Mythology" (vol. iii. p. 167), who quotes a North German
incantation, beginning,

"Pear tree, I complain to thee;
Three worms sting me."

It is found, too, even in China and New Zealand,[633] the following
charm being used in the latter country:

"An eel, a spiny back
True indeed, indeed: true in sooth, in sooth.
You must eat the head
Of said spiny back."

[633] See Shortland's "Traditions and Superstitions of the
New-Zealanders," 1856, p. 131.

A writer in the _Athenaeum_ (Jan. 28, 1860), speaking of the Rev. R. H.
Cobbold's "Pictures of the Chinese, Drawn by Themselves," says: "The
first portrait is that of a quack doctress, who pretends to cure
toothache by extracting a maggot--the cause of the disorder. This is
done--or, rather, pretended to be done--by simply placing a bright steel
pin on the part affected, and tapping the pin with a piece of wood. Mr.
Cobbold compares the operation to procuring worms for fishing by working
a spade backwards and forwards in the ground. He and a friend submitted
to the process, but in a very short time compelled the doctress to
desist, by the excessive precautions they took against imposition." We
may furt