In the “Complete English Dispensatory” of John Quincy, London, 1730, p. 307, under the head “Distillation of Urine,” it is alleged that the salts obtained from the urine “of a sound young man, newly made,” was beneficial in rheumatism and arthritis. “Urina hominis,—urine of a man. Some have got a notion of this being good for the scurvy, and drink their own water for that end, but I cannot see with what reason. Some commend it boiled into the consistence of honey, for rheumatic pain, rubbing it onto the part affected; in which case it may do good, because it cannot but be very penetrating.... Urina vaccæ,—cow piss. Some drink this as a purge. It will operate violently, but it is practised only among the ordinary people, and has nothing in its virtues to prefer it to more convenient and cleanly medicines, any more than the former” (pp. 248, 249).
Father Du Halde says of camel’s dung: “When it is dried and reduced to a powder, it will stop bleeding of the nose by being blown into it.”—(Chinese recipes given in Du Halde’s “History of China,” London, 1736, vol. iv. p. 34.)
“The dung (of sheep) is a prevalent medicine against the jaundice, dropsy, cholick, pleurisy, spleen, stone, gravel, scurvy, etc., taken either in powder, tincture, or decoction. The dung, made into a cataplasm with camphire, sal armoniack, and a little wine, opens, digests, attenuates and eases pain. It is excellent in abscesses about the ears and other emunctories, swellings in women’s breasts, pain of the spleen, and gout.”—(Pomet, “History of Drugs,” English translation, London, 1738, p. 256.)
The rare and erudite pamphlet of Samuel Augustus Flemming, “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Erfurt, 1738, although containing not more than thirty-two pages, is filled with a mass of curious information upon subjects generally disregarded. Flemming remarks that those who could use urine, calculi, and things of that kind in medical practice, should not shrink from the employment of ordure as well. “And it is truly wonderful,” he says, “that a substance, the very aspect and odor of which are sufficient to induce an inevitable nausea, should be regarded not merely as a matter of curiosity and study, but held in the highest repute as a unique and most precious treasure for the preservation of health.”
Yet Paracelsus, and others of his school, knowing the natural repugnance to the acceptance of such medicines, prepared it under the name of “Zibethum Occidentalis,” and administered it in doses of from one to two drams, given in honey or wine, to ward off attacks of fever; by others, it was employed as a plaster in cases of throat-inflammation, being then called “Aureum.” Others again were of the opinion, from an examination of its chemical nature, that it was fairly entitled to a place in the Materia Medica. An oil and water were distilled from it, and used in ocular sores, corrosive ulcers, and all sorts of fistulas; for affections of the scalp, for the ulcers of erysipelas, for ring-worm and tetter, and especially the pains of gout. Finally, it was believed by many to be of exceptional efficacy in the cure of the plague, being taken internally.
“Qui urina, calculi et aliis delectantur, non a stercore ipso abhorrebunt,” etc. The full citation in Latin need not be repeated, as it is expressed in much the same manner as the views of Schurig, Paullini, Etmuller, Beckherius, and others on the same subject. He cites Zacutus Lusitanus Poterus and Johannes Anglicanus, neither of whose writings are to be found in America.
Speaking of human urine, Flemming says that physicians boasted not only of their ability to diagnose disease from urine, but to use the fluid itself in the treatment of disease. It was employed in two ways: either in the raw state, as emitted from the person in due course of nature, or in chemical preparations extracted from it. It was often administered with beneficial results in dropsy as an enema. In difficult labor, a draught of the husband’s urine taken warm brought easy and safe delivery.
A drink of the patient’s own urine was highly commended in hysteria. As an external application for the eradication of dandruff, scab, and other scalp troubles, it was held in high esteem among the common people.
A salt and a spirit were prepared from urine by distillation, and highly spoken of in the treatment of frenzy, mania, and kindred mental infirmities of a grave type.
Flemming quotes from Beckherius, whose writings have already been presented, and from Quercetanus, in “Pharmac. dogmat.,” p. 119.