Are you looking for a good cure for cramp?

I am very sorry to have missed an exhibition called Charmed Life which has recently closed at the Wellcome Collection in London. On display was a selection of amulets from the collection of Edward Lovett, 1852-1933, an amateur folklorist who collected many hundreds of amulets in his lifetime from around the world. The full collection is now in the care of the Pitt Rivers museum at Oxford.

Amulets are objects that people hope will protect and keep them safe or, if the worst happens, will help cure them of some dread illness or injury. You can see a few of the wide range of objects that were, and still are, used as amulets on the Wellcome Collection website.

Many amulets were suggestive of an afflicted body part it was meant to heal, for example moles' feet. As Edward Lovett wrote, "The front feet of a mole are permanently curved for digging, and this curved appearance is so suggestive of cramp that these feet are carried as a cure for cramp."

Maximum efficacy will be assured with zoomification.

The feet were either hacked off a mole or bought from a shop. As an amulet against toothache, moles' feet have a much longer and wider tradition, being recommended by the Roman writer Pliny in the first century CE.