FACT: abracadabra was once a prescribed cure for fever

So let’s say you had a fever and, for some crazy reason, you wanted to be rid of it. Perhaps you thought it would be nice if you could make it disappear with magic. Ta-da, you’re healed! Well once upon the time, that was the number one over-the-counter prescription.

The wise doctor was Serenus Sammonicus working in the second century as the top physician for the Roman empire. If you came to him with hay fever, or a runny nose, he’d probably offer up his most famous cure… Abracadabra! No really… the word abracadabra was the cure. You couldn’t just say it, though. You needed an amulet with the word engraved across the top. It would be written again on the next line, but missing the last letter. The third line again, missing two letters, and so on. It would go from ABRACADABRA all the way down to just A in a triangle shape.

Nowadays, the word Abracadabra is more likely to cause sneezing than cure it, since the word is often said immediately before the appearance of furry, allergy-inducing bunny rabbits. Ta-da-choo!

Hopefully, you realize that using a magic incantation or amulet is a ridiculously ridiculous idea for any medical doctor, but at the time (200 AD) Sammonicus was among the top scholars of the world. Fortunately knowledge marches on. It’s important to keep in mind that just because an idea comes from the top, it doesn’t make it right.

• Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abracadabra

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