Category Archives: 17th century

1661: Ease swollen testes with butter-fried horse dung

Johann Jacob Wecker was a Swiss physician, naturalist and alchemist of the mid-16th century. Wecker authored several popular tracts on alchemy and medicine. He is perhaps best known for his account of genital malformations, including the first documented case of a double penis, discovered on a corpse in Bologna.

In the mid 1600s, an English physician named Read collated Wecker’s medical and surgical receipts into an eighteen-book collection, Secrets of Art and Nature. The 1661 edition contained hundreds of suggested medical treatments for all manner of complaints – including several cures for “pains of the belly”:

“The heart of a lark bound to the thigh… and some have eaten it raw with very good success.”

“I know one who drank dry ox dung in broth and it presently cured him of the colic… Some do not drink the dung but the juice pressed from it, which is far better.”

“Any bone of a man hanged, so that it may touch the flesh [may] cure pains of the belly.”

“Apply a living duck to your belly, the disease will pass into the duck.”

For excessive bleeding, Wecker suggests a trip to the pigpen:

“To staunch blood… Blood running immoderately out of any part of the body will be presently stopped if hog’s dung [still] hot be wrapped up in fine thin cotton linen and put into the nostrils, women’s privities or any other place that runs with blood. I write this for country people rather than for courtiers, being a remedy fit for their turn…”

Wecker also provides handy beauty tips. He offers recipes for dying the hair numerous colours, including silver, yellow, red, green and several shades of black. There are also remedies for encouraging hair growth and removing unwanted hair, both of which involve rodent excreta:

“To diminish the hair… cat’s dung dried and powdered and mingled to a pap with strong vinegar will do it. With this you must rub the hairy place often in a day, and in a short time it will grow bald… The piss of mice or rats will [also] make a hairy part bald.”

“That hair may grow again quickly, the ashes of burnt bees [mixed] with mice dung, if you anoint this with oil of roses, will make hair grow in the palm of your hand.”

Lastly, for “swollen codds [testicles], Wecker suggests breaking out the frypan:

“Take new horse dung, mix the same with vinegar and fresh butter, fry it in a pan and, as hot as the patient may endure, lay it to the grieved place.”

Source: Johann Wecker and Dr R. Read, Secrets of Art and Nature, 1661 ed. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1631: Italian lord grows new nose – on his slave’s arm

nose
An early modern artificial nose… not quite the same as growing your own

Robert Fludd (1574-1637) was an English physician and medical researcher of the early 17th century. The son of a royal minister to Elizabeth I, Fludd was educated at Oxford before taking further studies in France and Italy. He returned to Oxford in 1604 and completed a medical degree. He started a successful London practice and wrote on medicine, philosophy, alchemy, cosmology and other subjects.

A follower of the unconventional Paracelsus, Fludd’s theories and treatments combined conventional medical treatments with mysticism and superstition. In a 1631 essay Fludd defended the validity of the ‘weapon salve’, an ointment applied not to a wound but the object that caused it.

Like many Paracelsians, Fludd also believed that human body parts could be regrown or replaced. In support of this idea he cited the case of an Italian nobleman, who:

“…lost his nose in a fight or combate [duel]. This party was counselled by his physicians to take one of his slaves and make a wound in his arm, and immediately join his wounded nose to the wounded arm of the slave, and to bind it fast for a season, until the flesh of the one was united and assimilated to the other. The noble gentleman got one of his slaves to consent, for a large promise of liberty and reward… the double flesh was made all one and a collop or gobbet of flesh was cut out of the slave’s arm, and fashioned like a nose unto the lord [so that] it served for a natural nose.”

The third-party nose job worked for a time, until the slave – released as promised by his master – caught ill and died. According to Fludd’s account this caused the replacement nose to “gangrenate and rot”, requiring its removal. The noseless lord then repeated the process, this time using his own arm as a host. A second replacement nose was grown and transplanted, and remained with the nobleman until his death.

Source: Robert Fludd, Doctor Fludd’s Answer unto M. Foster &c., 1631. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1641: “Bedew not thy face of those thou speakest with”

Youths Behaviour, or Decency in Conversation amongst Men, is a mid 17th-century guide to etiquette and manners, first published in 1641. Its author was Francis Hawkins, a lad of just ten years old. In reality Youths Behaviour was an example of parental vanity publishing, printed at the request of Hawkins’ father: its frontispiece featured an engraved image of the author, promoting him as a child prodigy.

Despite Hawkins’ tender age, Youths Behaviour became a best seller, going through numerous print runs and at least 12 editions over the next three decades. Much of its advice was not original but was translated and adapted by Hawkins from earlier works, such as Desiderius Erasmus’ De Civilitate Morum Puerilium.

Topics covered by Hawkins included personal conduct, bearing, manners and methods of speaking. There was also a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ when dining out. When at the house of another, Hawkins cautions against eating too much – and warns not to sniff the fare:

“Take not thy repast like a glutton… Eat not with cheeks full and with full mouth… Smell not to thy meat, and if thou do hold thy nose to it, set it not afterwards before another [diner]…”

He also warns against spreading thy germs by double-dipping:

“If thou soakest thy bread or meat in the sauce, soak it not again after thou hast bitten it. Dip therein at each time a reasonable morsel which may be eaten at one mouthful.”

Hawkins also gave advice on conversation. He suggested respecting the personal space of others, lest you drench them with spit:

“Neither shake thy head, feet or legs. Roll not thine eyes. Lift not one of thine eyebrows higher than thine other. Wry not thy mouth. Take heed that thy spittle [doth] not bedew his face with whom thou speakest. To that end, approach not too nigh him.”

On reaching adulthood, Francis Hawkins joined the Jesuits. He studied theology and, according to some sources, medicine. Hawkins was later responsible for training novices in Scotland and on the continent. He died in Liege, Belgium in 1681.

Source: Francis Hawkins, Youths Behaviour, or Decency in Conversation amongst Men, 1641. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1647: Grow your own poisonous snake with pubic hair

While ancient writers scarcely understood the process of menstruation, they were hysterically afraid of its product. Most considered menstrual blood a deadly poison, potent enough to exterminate or retard most forms of plant and animal life.

According to Pliny the Elder, the mere presence of a menstruating woman could turn wine sour, drive away bees and spoil fruit. Farmers could rid their crops of grubs, wrote Pliny, by having a menstruating woman walk around their fields, naked from the waist down. Menstruation was not only dangerous to others, it also heightened the fertility of a woman’s entire body.

One common claim, attributed to Albertus Magnus and cited in a 1647 text, is that a menstruating woman’s pubic hair could be used to grow a snake:

“Albertus does say that if the [pubic] hair of a woman in the time of her flowers [menstruation] be put into dung, a venomous serpent is engendered of it.”

Sources: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, c.79AD; RW, The Problems of Aristotle, with other Philosophers and Physicians, 1647. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1691: Bursting a genital boil claims Benjamin Franklin’s uncle

Josiah Franklin (1657-1745) was the father of Benjamin Franklin, pre-revolutionary British America’s most famous citizen. In 1717, Franklin Senior penned a short essay about his family. He focused mainly on his father, Thomas, and his six older brothers. Josiah wrote most affectionately about one of his brothers, John.

Going by Josiah’s account, John Franklin was an intelligent and charming conversationalist, a generous philanthropist and quite popular with the ladies. He was also a mentor to Josiah, taking him in as an apprentice in 1666 and acting “as a father to me and helping me through my troubles”.

According to Josiah, John Franklin met an unfortunate end in June 1691:

“The cause of his death was a boil or swelling which came by a hurt he got while mounting a horse… It being in his privities, and thinking to keep it secret, he opened it with a needle before it was ripe, which caused gangrene up into his body. It killed him in three day’s time.”

Josiah Franklin emigrated to New England in 1683 and heard about his brother’s unfortunate demise by mail. Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706, 15 years after a gangrenous boil ended his uncle’s life.

Source: Josiah Franklin, “A Short Account of the Family of Thomas Franklin of Ecton”, June 21st 1717. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1691: Cure your horse with an “angry red onion” in his fundament

The Experienc’d Farrier was a late 17th century guide to breeding, raising, feeding and caring for horses. It was published anonymously by “E.R.” and was reprinted several times between 1681 and the early 1800s.

Much of The Experienc’d Farrier’s tips on good horsemanship are practical and sound – however its veterinary advice is more dubious. It lists numerous treatments for colic or “fretting of the guts by wind”, including giving your horse beer laced with “the powder of a dried stag’s pizzle [penis]”.

Another suggested measure is to “give him a pipe of tobacco at his fundament”. And if your horse is constipated:

“Strip up your shirt as high as your elbow [and] anoint your hand and arm with oil, butter or hog’s grease and put it into his fundament. Draw forth as much of his hard and baked dung as you can get. Take a good big angry red onion, peel it and jag it crossways with your knife. Roll it well in salt and flour and cover it all over with fresh butter and put it up into his body as far as you can thrust it… then walk or ride him about a quarter of an hour.”

Source: E. R., The Experienc’d Farrier, or Farring Compleated, 1691. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1633: An “outrage to decency” as a man attends a lying-in

In late 1633, the Anglican archdeaconry in Oxford ordered an investigation into an incident in Great Tew. According to informants, a male servant named Thomas Salmon committed an “outrage to decency” by entering the bedroom of a Mrs Rymel, just six hours after she had given birth. Salmon reportedly gained access to the room by wearing women’s clothing.

Several persons were ordered before an archdeacon’s court, including the attending midwife, Francis Fletcher. She testified that:

“Thomas Salmon, a servant, did come to the labour of the said Rymel’s wife… disguised in women’s apparel… she confesseth he did come into her chamber some six hours after she had been delivered so disguised, but she sayeth at his first coming that she knew him not… and was no way privy to his coming or to his disguise.”

Testimony from other witnesses revealed that Salmon was a young servant employed by Elizabeth Fletcher, daughter-in-law of the midwife. According to Salmon’s own testimony, his mistress had encouraged him to cross-dress and attend Mrs Rymel’s lying-in, suggesting there would be food, drinking and “good cheer”. After outfitting him in women’s clothing, Fletcher took him to the Rymel house and told other women he was “Mrs Garrett’s maid”.

Salmon admitted staying only briefly in Mrs Rymel’s bedroom – but he remained in women’s clothes for another two hours. His testimony was confirmed by Elizabeth Fletcher, who admitted helping Salmon enter the room as “a jest”. The archdeacon’s court absolved the midwife of any blame, ordered Elizabeth Fletcher to apologise, and handed Salmon a strong talking-to and a formal penance.

Source: Oxford Archdeaconry Archives, 1633, fol.75, 151. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1652: Coffee prevents gout, scury and “miscarryings”

In 1652 Pasqua Rosee, a London coffee house, published what is probably history’s first advertisement for coffee. According to the Rosee’s handbill, coffee is best taken mid-afternoon; the user should avoid food for an hour before and after. It should be drunk in half-pint servings, “as hot as can possibly be endured” without “fetching the skin off the mouth or raising any blisters”.

Among the claims made about the medicinal qualities of coffee:

“It forecloses the orifice of the stomach.. it is very good to help digestion… it quickens the spirits and makes the heart lightsome. It is good against sore eyes… good against the headache… deflexion of rheumas… consumptions and cough of the lungs. It is excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout, and scurvy… It is very good to prevent miscarryings in child-bearing women. It is a most excellent remedy against the spleen, hypochondriac winds or the like. It will prevent drowsiness and make one fit for business… for it will hinder sleep for three or four hours.

Source: Pasqua Rosee handbill, Cornhill, 1652. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1656: Treat piles with an “old white dog’s turd” in salad oil

The Skilful Physician was an anonymously written medical guide, published in London in 1656. While The Skilful Physician drew much of its content from existing works, it was intended for ordinary folk rather than doctors so was written in a more simple vernacular. Much of The Skilful Physician’s content is concerned with prevention, suggesting lifestyle choices, eating habits and natural prophylactics to ward off common illnesses and ailments. But it also lists more than 700 recipes, natural cures or treatments, such as this one for epilepsy:

“Take young feathered ravens… before they touch any ground. Remove the skin and feathers until clean and pull out all the guts and entrails… then put into an oven and dry so that you can make a powder thereof, then beat flesh and bones together thereof… let the patient drink it with ale or wine when the fit begins, and by God’s grace it will help.”

For problems with eyesight, such as cataracts, The Skilful Physician suggests mashing up a handful of wood lice with three different herbs, then taking this with beer. And for those painful haemorrhoids, take out the salad dressing and find some nice aged dog dung:

“Take a very old and hard white dog’s turd, which will be [found] on top of the molehills, and boil it in salad oil [until] very thick, and put it up the piles therewith, and it will help very quickly.”

Source: Anon, The Skilful Physician, containing Directions for the Preservation of a Healthful Condition and Approved Remedies for All Diseases, London, 1656. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1632: French omnivore has trouble with live mice

In 1632, two prominent German doctors, Sennert and Nesterus, learned of a man named Claudius, a noted glutton and omnivore. Nesterus travelled to Claudius’ village in Lorraine and attended one of his regular ‘performances’. According to Nesterus’ report to Sennert, Claudius swallowed and held down a variety of objects on demand, including:

“…chalk, coals, ashes… nasty objects, of gross excrements of animals and urine mixed with wine and ale, bones, hares’ feet [still] clothed with skin and flux; and chewed with his teeth pewter platters, leaden bullets and other metals, and afterward swallowed them down his gullet.”

According to others in the village Claudius once “ate a whole calf raw, with the skin and hair, in the space of a few days” and followed this by consuming “two tallow candles burning”. Claudius occasionally swallowed live animals, particularly fish, however he did this reluctantly following a nasty experience:

“[He] once swallowed down whole two live mice, which frisked up and down his stomach, often biting it, for a quarter of an hour.”

Several years later Nesterus made inquiries after Claudius, to find out if he was still alive and still eating all manner of things. The answer was yes to both, however Claudius’ teeth were “now blunted, so he did it less frequently”.

Sources: Daniel Sennert, Hypnomnemata Phyiscae, 1636; Samuel Collins, A Systeme of Anatomy, 1685. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.