boiled in Welsh beer, it would have the opposite effect. The remedy for shingles comprised a potion using the bark of 15 trees: aspen, apple, maple, elder, willow, sallow, myrtle, wych elm, oak, blackthorn, birch, olive, dogwood, ash, and quickbeam. A remedy for aching feet called for leaves of elder, waybroad and mugwort to be pounded together, applied to the feet, then the feet bound. In another, after offering a ritualistic cure for a horse in pain requiring the words "Bless all the works of the Lord of lords" to be inscribed on the handle of a dagger, the author adds that the pain may have been caused by an elf. Modern applications In March 2015 it was reported that Bald's eyesalve recipe – garlic, leeks, wine, and the bile from a cow's stomach left in a brass bowl for nine days – was tested in vitro and found to be as effective against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as vancomycin, the antibiotic used for MRSA. The ingredients separately were not effective, but the combination was. It has been suggested that we can learn a lot from mediaeval medicine because wounds must have been ubiquitous in agrarian societies: "If you cut yourself with a scythe, it was highly likely that you'd get an infection." In particular, the use of leeches and maggots is coming into re-use in the 21st century. Contents and provenance of the manuscriptBald's Leechbook and Leechbook III survive only in one manuscript, Royal 12 D. xvii, in the British Library, London and viewable online. The manuscript was written by the scribe who entered the batch of annals for 925–55 into the Parker Chronicle. This suggests that Royal 12 D. xvii is also from the mid-10th century. Since the annals were probably produced in Winchester, Royal 12 D. xvii was presumably produced there too.N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957, reprint with addenda 1990) 332–3 [no. 264]. ff. 1-6v Table of Contents to Leechbook i; pr. Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 2–16 ff. 6v-58v Leechbook i; pr. Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 18–156 ff. 58v-65 Table of Contents to Leechbook ii; pr Cockayne vol. 2, pp. 158–174 ff. 65-109 Leechbook ii; 68 recipes. pr Cockayne 176-298. Cockayne provides missing chapter between 56 and 64 from London, BL, Harley 55. Chapter 64 is glossed as having been sent along with exotic medicines from Patriarch Elias of Jerusalem