Drugs from the Colonies: |
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Even the armadillo and the manatee were not spared in the quest for cures in the American natural landscape. Most remedies, however, came from the plant world, including balms, fever-reducers, and poison antidotes. Although many other native drugs were identified and studied over the course of the sixteenth century, it was probably the adoption of cinchona by Spanish colonial physicians in Lima in the 1630s that had the greatest impact in print over the succeeding century. Jesuits brought the bark to Rome about 1631 for treatment of malaria. Through their agency it came to be called Jesuits’ bark or Peruvian bark. The rival name of cinchona was introduced when the Condesa de Chinchón, wife of the Peruvian Viceroy, was herself cured of malaria in 1638. Physicians required some time to research the proper dosage and course of treatment, as well as eliminating the various species that were unhelpful. Many medical dissertations focused on some small aspect of this quest, and the vital agent quinine would not be isolated until 1820. |
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ARMADILLOS FOR EARACHE Juan Eusebio Nieremberg (1595-1658). Historia naturæ. Antwerp: Plantin Office, by Balthasaris Moretus, 1635. Nieremberg’s guide to natural history presents three versions of the armadillo. Beginning in 1574 Nicolas Monardes had disseminated information about the benefits of a powdered medication made from the tail of the armadillo, which were said to heal deafness, tinnitus, and earache. |
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MANATEE PARTS FOR SPASMS Georg Ernst Stahl (1660-1734), praeses; Leopold Albert Labach (b. 1675), respondent. Dissertatio inauguralis medica de lapide manati. Halle: Christian Henckel, 1699. This dissertation addresses the tusks of the manatee, as well as four small bones found in the head of the aquatic mammal. The author cites de Laet, Boot, Ole Worm, Clusius, Jonstonus, Tabernaemontanus, and others. Included are frequent references to the West Indies, Iceland, and Greenland, where the manatee (or what the author thought were related species) can be found and a long citation in German from Tabernaemontanus on a "Meer-Ross" (sea horse). Examples of manatee tusks in private collections are also cited; e.g. Ole Worm's Museum Wormianum. There are comparisons to elephant, hippo, rhino, and whale horns. The second part of the text deals with medical uses of the substance, which figured in a variety of potions. Applications included alleviating spasms and epileptic seizures, relieving colic, and dispersing stones in the kidneys and bladder. The paper was prepared by Labach under the guidance of the eminent professor Georg Ernst Stahl, a key figure in medicine and chemistry. |
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ALOE and OPUNTIA Pietro Andrea Mattioli (1500-1577). Herbár aneb Bylinár Wysocevceného a wznesseného P. Doktora Petra Ondrege Mathiola. [Prague] : [Danyele Adama z Weleslawjna], 1596. Portrayed here on facing pages (229-230) are but two examples of the many American cacti. On the left is Opuntia, the host plant for cochineal, the insects long valuable in the production of dyes. Opuntia also serves as a food and has a variety of medical applications. In addition to traditional usage for wounds and inflammations of the urinary and digestive tracts, some species have shown promise in treating diabetes and alcoholic hangovers. On the right page, European and American aloes are shown. Aloe vera’s traditional herbal applications were familiar to ancient writers such as Dioscorides and Pliny. Still familiar as a helpful skin moisturizer and first aid drug, its medical value has come under greater scientific scrutiny. Agave americana is no longer considered an aloe, but has a similar long tradition in indigenous herbal medicine. It is used for food and made into alcoholic beverages, and is used in Mexico as a diuretic and for treating constipation, gas, and arthritic joints. Mattioli’s herbal was translated into Czech by Adam Huber during the brief reign of the Protestant Reformation in Bohemia, when printing in Czech rather than Latin or German was in vogue. Mattioli’s work was originally published in 1554 as Commentarii …in sex libros Dioscoridis. The book was substantially revised in German by Joachim Camerarius (1500-1574). |
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ALOE This is an academic disputation on the cultivation of the aloe plant which was presented by Gottfried Beier under the direction of J.A. Friderici, professor of medicine and botany at the University of Jena. The work provides an account of the origins in Arabia and Indian Ocean regions, the varieties, the nature of its extracts and their uses. The greater part deals with the plant’s cultivation and the climate necessary for it to thrive, and includes a number of references to a variety cultivated in the Americas (i.e., Agave). |
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ALOE Johann Heinrich Schulze (1687-1744), praeses; Christian Jacobi, respondent. Dissertatio historico-medica de Aloe quam... submittunt praeses Jo. Henr. Schulze,... et respondens Christianus Jacobi. Altdorf: Typis J. G. Kohl, 1723. This rare dissertation on the medicinal uses of aloe includes a chapter on American aloe (Agave; chapter VI, pp. 10-12). The praeses was Johann Heinrich Schulze, who was professor of medicine at the University of Halle and author of a number of works on pharmacology and botanicals. |
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BALMS: COPAIBA Nikolaus Joseph, Freiherr von Jacquin (1727-1817). Selectarum stirpium Americanarum historia. Vienna: Krauss, 1763. Copaiba, designated as Copaifera officinalis, is not a true balsam, but a resinous tree found chiefly in the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, and Brazil. The resin is collected by tapping, as with maple trees. It has been used for centuries to treat bronchitis, dysentery, gonorrhea, hemorrhoids, and wounds. Count Jacquin described it on Martinique while exploring the West Indies under a commission from Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and co-regent of Austria with his wife, Maria Theresa. Jacquin’s success in assessing the botanical riches of the Caribbean earned him a professorship of botany and the directorship of the botanical garden in Vienna. |
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BALSAM OF PERU This botanical dissertation on balsam explains its characteristics, varieties, and uses. It includes several references (p. 18, 25) to the balsam of Peru. The work also includes at the end an article by Slevogt which includes his opinions on Peruvian bark (cinchona). Johann Adrian Slevogt, dissertation supervisor, lectured on chemistry at Jena from 1698, was professor of anatomy, surgery, and botany from 1695, of chemistry from 1722; he gave practical instruction in his laboratory and taught many chemical preparations. |
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BALSAM OF PERU Friedrich Hoffmann, the younger (1660-1742), praeses; Johann Wilhelmi, respondent. Disputatio inauguralis medica de terebinthina. Halle: Christian Henckel, 1699. This dissertation addresses the use of turpentine oil as a medium such as for applying Peruvian balsam in treatment of various diseases and conditions. The work relates how to make the balsam infusion and its application. The afflictions it could assist with included scabies, worms, kidney disease, gonorrhoeia, and conditions of the digestive and urinary tracts. The work was prepared by Wilhelm under the supervision of the noted German physician and chemist, Frederick Hoffmann the younger, who was professor of medicine at the University of Halle. The uses of Peruvian balsam are a recurring topic of Hoffmann's projects. |
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FEBRIFUGES: CINCHONA -- FIRST AID FOR FEVER Andreas Ottomar Goelicke (1671-1744), praeses; Johann Christoph Möller, respondent. Disputatio inauguralis medica de impostura corticis Peruviani ... Subjicit Joh. Christophorus Möller. Frankfurt a.d.O.: Tobias Schwarz, 1727. This dissertation concerns the use of cinchona bark in treating fevers. The medicinally active bark, which is dried and powdered, includes alkaloids that are closely related to the anti-malarial compound quinine: the alkaloids in cinchona bark interfere with the reproduction of the malaria plasmodium. As a medicinal herb, cinchona bark is also known as Jesuits’ bark or Peruvian bark. The plants are cultivated in their native South America, and also in other tropical regions. The noted German physician A. O. Goelicke was professor of medicine at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder. |
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CINCHONA Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742), praeses. Propempticon inaugurale de chinae chinae modo operandi, usu et abusu. Halle: Widow of Salfeld, 1694. This is the announcement and invitation to the formal academic disputation on the medicinal uses of the South American cinchona plant from which quinine is an extract. Included is a biography of the respondent, Johannes Balthasar Schondorff. Note the actual disputation, the next item. |
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CINCHONA Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742), praeses; Johannes Balthasar Schondorff, respondent. Disputatio inauguralis medica de chinæ chinæ modo operandi, usu et abusu. Halle: Widow of Salfeld, 1694. This treatise concerns the important medicinal uses of the bark of the cinchona plant which is native to tropical South America. The public presentation was announced in advance by the publication listed above. The anti-malarial compound quinine interferes with the reproduction of malaria-causing protozoa, and another compound, quinidine, provides an antiarrhythmic. |
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DELIMITING CINCHONA Francesco Torti (1658-1741). Therapeutice specialis ad febres periodicas perniciosas. Frankfurt & Leipzig: Fleischer Press, 1756. Seventeenth-century Europe was frequently in the grip of malaria, transmitted from tropical climes. Before the identification of cinchona in Peru in the 1630s, bloodletting was the accepted treatment. Antonio de la Calancha reported in 1639 that cinchona was used by indigenous healers against fevers, but some historians have argued that malaria was unknown in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans, and that cinchona bark was absent from Inca pharmacopoeias translated by the Spanish. However, the possibility remains that indigenous healers responded to malaria in early colonial times, experimenting with familiar resources. |
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FEVERBARK FROM GEORGIA Michaux, François André (1770-1855). Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale. Paris: L. Haussmann & Hautel; Philadelphia: Samuel Bradford and Inskeep, 1810-1813. A remedy for fever was identified even within the southeastern United States. The Georgia bark tree (Pinckneya pubens) is shown with its flowers, fruit, and pit or seed. Items are numbered for identification in text. The tree was also known as Pinckneya bracteata, bitter-bark, or “fevertree,” due to the use of its bark to control fevers. It is native to the coastal and swampy areas of that region, and is related to cinchona. André Michaux and his son François André were sent in 1785 by the French government to study the forest resources of North America; the French hoped to reforest their own country. François André returned a few years later, also with a commission from the French government, and produced the multivolume series bearing this and many other illustrations. |
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SNAKEROOT AS A FEBRIFUGE John Tennant (ca. 1700-ca. 1760). Physical enquiries … discovering an error of the College of Physicians in recommending vinegar to His Majesty’s fleet in the West-Indies. London: T. Gardner; sold by Andrew Millar & John Millar, 1742. How do Northern people do in the steamy south? Dr. Tennant opposed the use of vinegar as a prophylaxis against malignant fevers in the West Indies, countering that many lives had been lost by this practice. Tennant proposed instead a pattern of bloodletting, followed by a dose every other night of powdered Seneca snake root. The plant was a native of eastern North America and is endangered in some places. After the seventh dose, Tennant induced vomiting with ipecacuanha, and warned against the use of Peruvian cortex for such patients. |
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FEBRIFUGES: QUASSIA – SIMARUBA John Gabriel Stedman (1744-1797). Viaggio al Surinam e nell' interno della Guiana. Milan: Giambattista Sonzogno, 1818. Portrayed here is the African-born healer Graman Quacy, originally engraved by William Blake from a drawing by Stedman, who had asked the healer to pose for him. The present engraving was reworked by another artisan (V. Ramieri) for the Italian edition. The text was based on the French edition of 1798. The 76-year-old healer achieved in his practice a unique blend of European, African, and Native American medical culture. The “Great Man,” as his title translates, was also one of the very first African-American healers to be portrayed visually. Quacy was born in West Africa around 1690 and transported to Suriname in childhood. He became familiar with the similarly-named (Dutch) quassiehout (Quassia amara), in 1730 and promoted its use, becoming the leading medicine man in the Suriname colony, consulted by the inhabitants without regard to color or station. He was freed from slavery and became a planter. He is dressed in ceremonial attire presented to him by the Prince of Orange. Stedman credits him with discovering the febrifuge Quassia bitter, which had the effect of “strengthening the stomach and restoring the appetite.” An account of the drug was delivered to Linnaeus in 1761, allowing him to describe it formally. However, it seems that Quassia may have been identified as early as 1530 as a kind of Simaruba; it is understood to have received its specific name in honor of Quacy, who was a specialist in its application. |
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POISONS AND THEIR CURES: BEZOAR (A UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE) Old World bezoar stones were familiar to the Arab physicians who transmitted the medical knowledge of the ancients. Western bezoar stones are found in the gut of various Peruvian animals, such as guanacos, alpacas, vicunas, and tarugas, as well as a kind of wild goat. All of those animals are ruminants and graze at upper levels. The Indians believed that the llamas and other animals ate particular herbs that protected them from other poisons in the grass and water as the stones developed. With the use of the stone as a medication, humans were similarly understood to be protected from poisons and the after-effects of poisons. José de Acosta wrote that bezoar had also been used to cure the spotted fever in Spain and Italy, though not so well in Peru. They were used as well for heart disease, melancholy, pestilential fevers, and other ailments when ground to powder and ingested as mixed into a liquid. |
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BEZOAR Johann Adrian Slevogt (1653-1726), praeses; Johann David Ehrhard, respondent. Praelusio inauguralis de lapide bezoar. Jena: Litteris Krebsianis, 1698. This is an invitation to an academic disputation on bezoar. A bezoar stone is a mass of both mineral and organic content found trapped in the gut of various South American and Far Eastern animals which was believed to have certain powers such as being a universal antidote to poisons. Slevogt, the project supervisor, lectured on chemistry at Jena from 1698, was professor of anatomy, surgery, and botany from 1695, of chemistry from 1722; he gave practical instruction in his laboratory and taught many chemical preparations. |
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POISONS: TOAD VENOM Thomas Gage (1603?-1656). Neue merckwürdige Reise-Beschreibung nach Neü Spanien. Leipzig: Johann Herbordt Kloss, 1693. The first German edition of this English Dominican friar’s English-American his travail by sea and land provides a symbolic representation of the gifts offered the Church by Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans. Of special interest are the sugar canes produced by African labor and fluid harvested from a toad by another African in the foreground. Gage reported that the Pokoman Maya of Guatemala gave a special potency to their fermented ritual drink chichi by adding poisonous toads. The cane toad, Bufo marinus, produces bufotenine, a psychotropic drug, in its skin glands. |
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POISONS AND VENOM Bernhardus Albinus (1653-1721), praeses; Johannes Christianus Mentzelius, respondent. Dissertatio de venenis. Frankfurt a.d.O: Christoph Zeitler, 1682. Poisons and venom are the focus of this medical dissertation. The work includes American references with sections on tobacco and the Brazilian viper. The natural history works of John Jonstonus are frequently cited. The respondent Johannes Christianus Mentzelius dedicates the work to the physician and natural history author, Christian Mentzel, possibly his father. The praeses for this dissertation was Bernhard Albinus, who was professor of medicine at the University of Frankfurt on the Oder and father of the famous anatomist and physician Bernard Siegfried Albinus. |
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POISONS AND THEIR MIMICRY Jean-Baptiste Ricord-Madianna. Recherchez et expériences sur les poisons d’Amérique. Bordeaux: Charles Lawalle, 1826. This volume on poisons impressively offers a comprehensive system of toxicology for the American continent and the Antilles. In addition, it carefully examines illnesses that mimic poisonings, ills of the salt marsh, and a stomach ailment that is common to Africans. The illustration presents the “antidote vine” (Fevillea cordifolia), described here as nhandiroba, a Brazilian designation that is one of several names used in the Caribbean and the mainland. It was understood to be an antidote for many kinds of poisonings, but also functioned as a purgative and in treatment for various diseases. The author was born in Martinique, escaped from the French revolution, and attained the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Columbia University in 1817. The work is framed in the controversy over a seventeenth-century Frenchwoman who was famous as a serial poisoner (Madame de Brinvilliers). |