ISHP Research Grant 2023/24

Hygiene Series 2:

A Remedy against Catarrh, Germany 1675

from "Arzneibuch", MS 990, f. 229v, Wellcome Library, London

Steam inhalation, still in common use today, was long a popular and effective method of relieving coughs and catarrh.

As shown in this drawing, it consisted of inhaling relatively hot volatile substances obtained either by dissolving medicines in hot water and then inhaling the steak of it or, more rarely, by burning substances that had the power to dissolve catarrh.

The formation of catarrh is a natural defence of the organism and it occurs in abundance when the respiratory tract is exposed to prolonged interaction with micropowder and other allergic or toxic substances. It was a fairly common affliction, given the intense work schedules of pre-modern man.

The image is taken from the Arznaybuch Ms 990, a compendium of popular medicine and surgery, written in German and compiled for the use of a house of the Franciscan order, probably in Austria or southern Germany.

The manuscript contains a large number of watercolour illustrations, 15 of which are almost full-page, depicting operations, laboratories, pharmacies, medical and surgical instruments, chemical apparatus, including over 300 smaller pictures showing anatomical subjects, pathological conditions, injuries, etc.

In almost all the illustrations, the doctors and surgeons are dressed in the habit of the Franciscan Order: in a few cases, the patients are either monks or nuns, also dressed in the same habit.

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