Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

time of his death in 1534 in three parts between 1530 and 1536.
1491 ‘The Fasciculus Medicinae’ [The handbook of medicine] of Johannes
de Ketham. Translated by Luke Demaitre, Section XVI: ‘Hellebore
(Helleborus niger) is dangerous to those who possess rigid fibres
because it produces convulsions. ’Section V: ‘Convulsions produced
by hellebore are fatal.’ Section VII-XXV: ‘Convulsions after a
purgative are fatal.’ (Demaitre,1988).
‘Hortus Sanitatis’ or ‘Ortus sanitatis’ [The origin of health], printed by
Peter Schöeffer in Mainz, and went into several reprints and was also
translated. It was of paramount importance to the development of the
herbal in German speaking countries. It had 8 sections, the first on
herbs and plants and the last ‘Tabula medicinalis cum directorio
generali per omnes tractus’ [A medicinal catalogue with a general
listing of every work]. The Hortus sanitatis is a greatly expanded Latin
version of the ‘Gart der Gesundheit’ [Garden of health], which is
sometimes attributed to Johann von Cube. However, it should be
regarded as a separate work as it covered nearly a hundred more
medicinal plants than the ‘Gart der Gesundheit’ and also included
extensive sections on animals, birds, fish and minerals, as well as a
treatise on urine. The authorship of this lavishly illustrated herbal is
unknown but it is generally believed to have been compiled by its
printer, Jacob Meydenbach. It was first printed in 1491 in Mainz and is
therefore the last major medical work to cover medicines from the Old
World only.
1493 Mercury was introduced for the treatment of syphilis. ‘Now none, I
think, will deny, that the French disease is new, seeing it was never
heard of in Europe, before the year 1493. but then brought by
Christopher Columbus, and his associates, from India to Italy, and
there communicated to the Italian women, who bringing victual 46 to
the French soldiers in the Neapolitan siege, with their bodies
communicated their disease to the men; which the men retaining
after conquest, gave also to other Italian women: from whom their
returning husbands, persolving the debt of matrimony, catch’d it of
their own wives, who had got it of the Frenchmen, the French of
Italian women, and they of Columbus his soldiers.’ (Renodæus,
1657). On the expedition with Columbus there were two brothers
(Pinzon) from Palos de la Frontera, Spain: Martin Alonso, the elder,
commanded the ‘Pinta’ and died at his home from syphilis in Palos a
few weeks after his return from the West Indies (Haiti). On the return
journey across the Atlantic, early in 1493, the ‘Pinta’ separated from