He had the juice of a crayfish rubbed on his tongue. The physician, Dr. Roger Pickering, administered a drink made of eggs and fennel and rum, and gave him nutmeg and cardamom to try and ease the pain. Then he bled and cupped William. And when William began to bleed from inside his nose, the physician tied up spiders and toads in a rag and insisted the ailing patient inhale the fumes. After the toads had been boiled and dried and ground into dust, the healer took the fine powder and with a length of straw thrust it up William’s nostrils.
