Theodore Mayerne (1573-1655) was a Swiss-born physician who traveled widely to study, research and work in medicine. By the early 1600s, he was one of several personal doctors to the French king, Henry IV. He also spent time in the royal and aristocratic courts of Denmark and Britain, eventually settling and setting up practice in the latter.

Like many physicians of his time, Mayerne believed that illnesses and injuries must be ‘shocked’ out of the body with chemical concoctions. The more foul and disgusting these substances were, the more effective they would be.

For problems with the lungs or breathing, Mayerne recommended a particularly gnarly brew – though it at least contained something a little sweet:

“A syrup made with the flesh of tortoises, snails, the lungs of animals, frogs and crawfish, all boiled in scabrous and coltsfoot water, adding at the last sugar candy.”

Source: Theodore Mayerne, cited in Anne Somerset, Unnatural Murder: Poison at the Court of James I, 1997. 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.