An example of an alternative conception,
"Our guides assured us gravely, that, to cure an asthma, it is sufficient to drink out of the bony drum of the hyoidal bone of the araguato. This animal having so extraordinary a volume of voice, it is supposed that its larynx must necessarily impart to the water poured into it the virtue of curing affections of the lungs."
Alexander von Humboldt & Aimé Bonpland.(1907) Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America (Volume 2) (Thomasina Ross, Ed. & transl., 2012) Project Gutenberg eBook
This is an example of folk wisdom collected by naturalist Alexander von Humboldt on his travels in the Americas.
It is also an example of the notion of 'sympathy' that was common in the folk knowledge of Europe (plants that resembled body parts were assumed to have medicinal effects on those specific body parts).
Read about the nature of alternative conceptions
Read about some examples of science misconceptions
Read about historical scientific conceptions
