Fasting spittle

Fasting spittle – saliva produced first thing in the morning, before breakfast – was a treatment used in folk medicine in the ancient Mediterranean.

[1] An early reference to the alleged medicinal benefits comes from the Roman author Varro, who mentions it as a cure for epilepsy and snake bites among other ailments.

[4][5] And they bring unto him [Jesus] one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech ... And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

John 9:6Suetonius, Tacitus and Cassius Dio mention Roman Emperor Vespasian treating blindness in a similar fashion.

Tacitus also gives a natural, medical explanation for the healing, unlike Suetonius and Cassius Dio who ascribe a more supernatural aura to the restoration of the blind man's sight.