ALL THE BEST TREATMENTS COME FROM BALD’S LEECHBOOK: 1000-year-old Anglo Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA. “The potion was tested on scraps of skin taken from mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. This is an antibiotic-resistant version of the bacteria that causes styes, more commonly known as the hospital superbug MRSA. The potion killed 90 per cent of the bacteria. Vancomycin, the antibiotic generally used for MRSA, killed about the same proportion when it was added to the skin scraps.”

Plus: “A side effect was that it made the lab smell of garlic. ‘It was not unpleasant,’ says Harrison. ‘It’s all edible stuff. Everyone thought we were making lunch.'”