folk medicine

It’s part of a belief in folk medicine, curing charms and faith healers that is still a way of life for many in Ireland, if a fading one.

“It’s the whole community-based element of folk medicine that is so important,” said Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, an associate professor of Irish folklore at University College Dublin.

“Folk medicine can attract charlatans and chancers of all kinds,” Dr. Ní Fhloinn said.

Throughout the world, at least 284 reptile species are used in traditional folk medicine, and of these, 182 are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, an indication that they are threatened with extinction.

Soviet interest in animal-based folk medicine and the USSR's own practice of farming deer for medicinal ingredients soon "provided modern and scientific sanction for the Chinese fascination with faunal drugs," Chee writes.