Some historians have suggested that the disease referred to may be chicken pox or dropsy (oedema).
Gif mon biþ on wæterælfadle, þonne beoþ him þa hand- næglas wonne and þa eagan tearige and wile locian niþer.
Sing þis manegum siþum: Eorþe þe onbere eallum hire mihtum and mægenum.
[7] If someone comes down with the “water-elf-disease,” then his finger-nails will become black and his eyes teary and will wish to look downwards.Do this for them as a remedy: take from below carline thistle, cassock,yewberry, lupine, elecampane, marshmallow sprout,fen-mint, dill, lily, cock's-spur, pennyroyal, marrabulum, sorrel, elder,felterry, wormwood, strawberry leaf, and comfrey.
Soak them withale, then mix them with holy water, and sing this charm over it three times: I have composed the best battle-company for this wound, so that the wound will neither burn nor burst, neither hurry forwards nor multiply, neither throb in pain nor the wound grow, nor the pain deepen—yet he may hold the hallows himself nor shall it grow any greater, like the earth grows with ears.