Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
Saliva of a fasting man; scorpions (land); secundines (afterbirth)
of a woman; sexual parts of bull, cock, horse, and stag; silk (raw);
silkworms’ cocoons. Inner skin of a hen’s stomach; skinks; skull of
a man who has met with a violent death, and moss from that skull;
sparrows (house and hedge); spermaceti; spleen of ox; sponge; spiders’
webs; cast-off snake’s skin; sea-shells (various kinds named);
swallows’ nests; stone from the heads of carp and perch, from ox-gall,
from human bladders (see also bezoar stones and crabs’ eyes); suet of
badger, calf, cow, goat, ox, sheep, stag.
Teeth of elephants (ivory), wild boar, sea-horse, tench, toads.
Urine of boar, bull, dog, he-goat, man. In the last-named case the
urine of a child not arrived at the age of puberty, and of an adult
man, are separately indicated.
Vipers’ flesh.
Wagtails; wax (white, red, and yellow); whelks; whey; woodlice.
In contrast with the list quoted above, representing the animal
pharmacy of the seventeenth century may be placed the following
fifteen articles which cover the zoology of the British Pharmacopœia
of 1898:--Cantharides, cod-liver oil, cochineal, honey, lard, leeches,
musk, ox-bile, pepsin, spermaceti, mutton, suet, sugar of milk, thyroid
gland, wax, wool fat.
HOMO: MAN AS A MEDICINE.
Man being the microcosm of the universe (the macrocosm) medicines of
human origin figured very prominently in old pharmacopœias. In Lemery’s
“Dictionnaire Universelle des Drogues Simples,” which was a standard
authority all over Europe, at least until the end of the eighteenth
century, the author presents a summary of the medicinal uses to which
the various parts of “Homo” were applied. I quote (but slightly
abbreviate) from the edition of Lemery’s Dictionary of 1759:--
“All parts of man, his excrescences and excrements, contain oil and
sal volatile, combined with phlegm and earth. Skull, brain, and
calculus are employed in medicine, and are referred to in their proper
places. Burning hair, smelt by patients, will counteract the vapours.
Moss of the human skull, human blood, and human urine all have their
uses in medicine. The saliva of a robust young man, taken fasting, is
an antidote against the bites of serpents and mad dogs. Wax from the
ears is good against whitlows. Nails from the fingers and toes, given
internally either in substance or infused in wine, make a good emetic.
Women’s milk is pectoral, good in phthisis, and useful to apply to
inflamed eyes. Fresh urine, two or three glasses drunk in the morning
fasting, is good against gout, hysterical vapours, and obstructions.
It may also be applied externally in gout and in skin complaints.
Excrement of man can be applied to anthrax, plague bubos, and quinsies.
Dried and powdered, it is recommended in epilepsy and intermittent
fevers. Dose, one scruple to one drachm.”
Bechler, in “Parnassus Medicinalis,” 1663, quoted in Peter’s “History
of Pharmacy,” says:--
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