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The Pills of Pope Alexander 107
taken as an assurance that so many simples would probably not all be in
vain for at least some of the complex aids of soul and body which the
was vaunted to afford.
pilule
Written probably at a considerably later date than the Glasgow Registrum
is a miscellany volume in my possession consisting of expositions of theology
and canon law, on 187 folios of paper, 8^ inches by 5^ inches, ascribed by
1
a former owner to the fourteenth
century, and probably
derived
originally
from a German monastery. Prefixed is a fly-leaf, which, like the chief part
of the first leaf, is filled with things which can scarcely be reckoned
theology, and have nothing to do with canon law. With the fly-leaf alone,
and only with a part of that, am I at present concerned. Its first item is a
prescription for a most comprehensive antidote powder : Puluis optimus ad
omnes malos humores consumendos paulatime et successive. Next comes another
powder against flatulence and gross and phlegmatic humours,
to warm the
stomach and aid digestion. Item the third is the business of this paper, and
here it is :
Pilule gloriosissimi regis Cycilie quibus utebatur singulis diebus eis
etiam utebatur papa Alexander pre omnibus visum clarificant auditum
corroborant spiritualia confortant singulas superfluities expellunt sanitatem
custodiunt humanum corpus ante omnia regunt accipiantur -vij uel
ix de tercio in tercium uel de quarto in quartum quibus faciend[is]
omnem mutare dietam ter uel quater ducunt. Recipe Calami aromatici
cynamonis cubebe nucis muscate spice nardi macis carpobalsami
epythimi viole asari
garifiali masticis oum z omnium mirabolanorum
an a
3 turbit
ij
coloquintidis an a
3 sene reu barbari
iij agarici ana
3 ss aloes epatici uel citrioni ad pondus omnium. Confice ad modum
pise cum oximelle uel ut melius seruetur etiam si volueris in magdalione.
It will be at once apparent that the famous pills of Pope Alexander in
the Glasgow Registrum and those he shared with the most glorious King of
Sicily in my codex are the same. Yet the time-honoured privilege of
doctors to disagree is pleasantly illustrated by the fact that the authority in
the Registrum allowed it as a moot point whether the diet of the patient
should be changed, whereas is my prescription definite that it should.
Fortified by the kind advice of a distinguished member of the Medical
Council, I am enabled to state that the pilule is, in modern medical judgment,
'a perfectly good pill.' The profusion of such active drugs as
colocynth, senna, rhubarb (reubarbarum) and aloes must have guaranteed
efficiency, while the mixture with oxymel no doubt helped to make the
*
pea-like pilule or, if '
you like, pastille palatable. It is right to confess
that the process of editing this prescription has not been carried out with
the scientific severity of actual experiment on the humanum corpus of the
expositor.
a
My own opinion
century.
is that the work more probably belongs to the fifteenth
I
2 This word is expuncted by being underlined.
have extended the contractions, and that two or
It is proper to state that
three words have given me
difficulty and are uncertain.