Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

smell opium, camphor, Henbane, basil, saffron or wax mingled with
rose water, afterwarde anoint the ears, eyes and nodle with myrrh,
storax, castoreum, or wash, the head, with Henbane or smalage 87
that have been soaked in sweet wine.’
Mercury: ‘Against the French Pox, take of brimstone. {dram} ii. of
nesyng 88 powder, quicksilver, & cumin, of each {dram} i. of
staphisagre 89 {dram}. And a half and incorporate there with .{dram}
vi. of stale hog’s grease, by this means every evil disease or
sickness is for a surety healed, except it be of glandules or kernels 90
which must be cured after an other means.’
Willow: ‘The juice of sallow or willow root mixed with oil of roses is
wonderful good for the hot gout.’ (Galen).
1554 A celebrated herbal ’Cruyderoek’ by Rembert Dodoens (1517–1585)
was printed in the Lowlands in 1554 (see 1586 and 1619).
1564 The ‘Horti Germani’ [German Gardens] of Konrad Gesner, a Swiss
naturalist, was printed in 1561. ‘Epistolarum medicinalium’ [About
accounts of medicines], a collection of Gesner’s scientific
correspondence published with the first monograph on aconites and
hellebores in 1557. He had also published a ‘Historia Plantarum
‘[History of plants], 1541, ‘Of Mercurie precipitate, which serves and
is a remedy against all sicknesses and diseases, caused of the
rottenness of humours.’ Chapter LXXXX.
1564 Gabrielle Fallopius (1523–62) used mercury for syphilis, but
preferred guaiacum, China root and sarsaparilla (Waugh, 1982).
1566 The Paris Faculty of Physicians forbade antimony use by physicians
charging that antimony in any form was a dangerous poison that
should not be taken internally. This would seem to be the first official
withdrawal of a drug from the market. The ban was lifted 100 years
later after it had been given the credit for saving the King’s life. This
was a result of a long and bitter controversy.
1568 William Turner ‘The first and second parts of the Herbal of William
Turner, Doctor in Phisick, lately overseen, corrected and enlarged
with the third parte.’ (Cologne, 1568).
87 Smallage = Apium graveolens, which acts as a diuretic
88 Nesyng = sneezing
89 Staphisagre = Delphinium staphisagre, a species of larkspur, also known as lousewort. The seeds contain
diterpene, an alkaloid which is a powerful emetic and cathartic
90 Kernels = testicles