Geographical expansion and the reconfiguration of medical authority: Garcia de Orta's Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India (1563)

The Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India (1563) were conceived and published at a sensitive moment, both in terms of the history of print culture and of European geographical expansion. They represented the culmination of a life-time project for their author Garcia de Orta who had lived for almost thirty years in Portuguese Goa. Although the importance of the work in sixteenth-century natural history and medicine has been generally acknowledged in Portuguese and international historiography, there are very few recent, detailed studies of the book informed by new approaches. This paper presents an integrated analysis of Orta's Colloquies as a literary, medical and cultural text. It aims to reveal not only the rich and subtle dynamics of the work but also to contribute to a better understanding of Orta's legitimation strategies as an author in a sixteenth-century world reconfigured by the new opportunities of the printing press, geographical expansion and increased material and cultural mobility.

[The properties of simple medicines according to Avicenna (980-1037): analysis of some sections of the Canon]

Avicenna spoke on pharmacology in several works, and this article considers his discussions in the Canon, a vast synthesis of the greco-arabian medicine of his time. More precisely, it focuses on book II, which treats simple medicines. This text makes evident that the Persian physician's central preoccupation was the efficacy of the treatment, since it concentrates on the properties of medicines. In this context, the article examines their different classifications and related topics, such as the notion of temperament, central to Avicenna's thought, and the concrete effects medicines have on the body. Yet, these theoretical notions only have sense in practical application. For Avicenna, medicine is both a theoretical and a practical science. For this reason, the second book of the Canon ends with an imposing pharmacopoeia, where the properties described theoretically at the beginning of the book appear in the list of simple medicines, so that the physician can select them according to the intended treatment's goals. The article analyzes a plant from this pharmacopoeia as an example of this practical application, making evident the logic Avicenna uses in detailing the different properties of each simple medicine.

[Evidential research on the first formulas for preparing qiushi (autumn mineral)]

Qiushi is a kind of elixir or medicine. This article examines the books which recorded the formulas for preparing Qiushi. It is found that Liang Fang (Valuable Prescriptions) written by Shen Kuo and Zheng Lei Ben Cao (recognized pharmacopoeia) written by Tang Shengwei recorded the first three formulas. Shen kuo, who recorded two kinds of methods to prepare Qiushi, was neglected by other medical books. The aim of the method to prepare Renzhongbai (natural sediment of urine) was actually to prepare Qiushi.

[Behind the naming of herbal section as the decoction section in Treasured Mirror Of Eastern Medicine]

Heo Jun, who is the main compiler of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, states to applicate Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica, Rihuazi's annotations and Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng's opinion to arrange materia medica on the introductory notes of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. While Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica and Rihuazi's annotations are both conventional texts dealing with materia medica, Li Gao and Zhu Zhenheng are just clinical practitioners. Not only Li Gao has no authorship on materia medica, but also Zhu Zhenheng's Supplement to the Elucidation of Materia Medica is assessed to have no distinctive achievements. Nevertheless, Heo Jun shows positive considerations for their achievements of materia medica. Specifically, on the Decoction Section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine, theories of lift, lower, float, sink and Channel Entry, both representative achievements of Yishui school-including Li Gao-are adopted as it is, and Zhu Zhenheng's expressions are frequently utilized for conclusive remarks of medicinal effect. Furthermore, applications of both clinicians can be found within nature & flavour which is one of the principal terms of understanding materia medica. While being based on the conventional materia medica text Classified Emergency Materia Medica, the Decoction section in Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine is not restrained by the intricate traditional compositions and shows a new aspect of depiction by adding clinical information. And I think it is a important meaning of the Decoction section, which is the herbal chapter of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine.

[The translation and its meanings of Materia Medica Part. I in the Jejungwon]

For more systematic medical education, Dr. O. R. Avison translated medical textbooks into Korean since he took charge of Jejungwon in 1893. The first book he chose was Anatomy of the Human Body. He, however, failed to see it published after losing its manuscript twice. Instead, Materia Medica Part. I was brought into the world first in 1905, for which he translated Materia Medica and Therapeutics written by John Mitchell Bruce from the U. K. At that time, this book was in widespread use in the English-speaking world as a textbook for pharmacology. It is also assumed that Avison used it as a textbook for his classes in Canada before coming to Korea. For the publication of Materia Medica Part. I, Avison did not translate Bruce's original text in full, but translated only the selected passages. He followed a principle of using Korean alphabets (Hangeul) only, but in combination with Chinese characters, if necessary. He put pharmacological terms into existing Korean equivalents or newly coined words, but also borrowed many from Japanese terms. That's because Japan moved faster to introduce Western medicine than Korea did, so that many pharmacological terms could be defined and arranged more systematically in Japanese. Moreover, Japan took such a favorable stance in the state of international affairs that many of Japanese-style terms could be introduced into Korea in most fields including medicine. By translating Materia Medica Part. I in cooperation with his disciple KIM Pilsoon after Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, Avison tried to lay groundwork for providing medical education in Korea based on the British-American medicine. It is assumed that he took an independent stance in selecting and translating Western medical textbooks on his own rather than simply accepting the existing Chinese translation of Western medical textbooks. Despite all his efforts, he might find it difficult to translate all the Western medical terms into Korean within a short period of time. Therefore, he seems to have had no choice but to accept Japanese medical terms as a complementary measure.

From rustics to savants: indigenous materia medica in eighteenth-century Mexico

This essay explores how indigenous knowledge about plant and animal remedies was gathered, classified, tested, and circulated across wide networks of exchange for natural knowledge between Europe and the Americas. There has been much recent interest in the "bioprospecting" of local natural resources-medical and otherwise-by Europeans in the early modern world and the strategies employed by European travellers, missionaries, or naturalists have been well documented. By contrast, less is known about the role played by indigenous and Creole intermediaries in this process. And yet, the transmission of knowledge between indigenous communities and the European cabinet was neither transparent nor natural, and often involved epistemological, linguistic, and religious obstacles. Drawing on printed and manuscript collections of indigenous remedies, written in colonial Mexico between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, I focus on how local intermediaries, like creoles scholars, sought to overcome such obstacles by observing indigenous uses of remedies, by studying indigenous languages and by producing natural histories and pharmacopoeias in indigenous languages. Ultimately, behind the Creole participation in the transmission of indigenous remedies, one can point to political and cultural interests and to inclusive definitions of knowledge, which cut across oppositions between science and superstition, cabinet and field, centre and periphery.

[The opinion of Herman Boerhaave on medicines, through a non-authorized book]

The treatise of the Virtue of medicines - Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) was a well known physician from Leiden, who was essentially known in France for the syndrome that received his name and for three of his books, which had been translated in French, and had much success during the 18th century, Elements of Chemistry, Aphorisms and Materia Medica. There was also a fourth book, The Treatise of the Virtue of Medicines, redacted by his students from notes taken during his lessons, which was translated in French in 1729. This volume, in in-8e format, of 471 pages, did not have the same success as his other books. It is anyway very interesting, because it shows that Boerhaave, even if he were Professor of Chemistry was not at all an iatrochemist but behaved as an iatromechanic.

[The introduction of compendium of materia medica and praxis in the late Joseon dynasty]

Sakae Miki said Classified Emergency Materia Medica had been the dominant standard of herbology throughout Joseon Dynasty, and that Compendium of Materia Medica had only been accepted so lately that a few books used herbological result of it in the late Joseon Dynasty. But according to Visiting Old Beijing Diary written by Munjoong Seo in 1690, Compendium of Materia Medica was in fact introduced before the year 1712, the year Miki Sakae argued to be the year Compendium of Materia Medica was accepted to Joseon officially. Now, we can assume that the introducing year of Compendium of Materia Medica was faster than Miki Sakae's opinion by the following reasons; the effort of Joseon government and intellectuals to buy new books of Ming & Ching; the publishing year of the book for living in countryside regarded as the first citing literature of Compendium of Materia Medica. And the True Records of the Joseon Dynasty and many collections written by intellectuals in the 18th century show that the herbological knowledge from Compendium of Materia Medica had already spread to the corners of Joseon Dynasty. Thus we can make the following assumption: Classified Emergency Materia Medica and Compendium of Materia Medica had coexisted in the late Joseon Dynasty. Sakae Miki suggested 6 examples which used Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty. I reviewed two of them in this paper, Essentials of Materia Medica & Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica. Essentials of Materia Medica quoted Compendium of Materia Medica briefly focusing clinical use, and Handbook of Prescriptions from Materia Medica also re-compiled Compendium of Materia Medica to practical use according to the form of Treasured Mirror of Eastern Medicine. It means that the results of Compendium of Materia Medica have been used positively, based on the herbology of materia medica from countryside. From this point of view, the hyphothesis there weren't any herbological progress after accepting Compendium of Materia Medica in the late Joseon Dynasty by Sakae Miki can be denied.

Archibald Menzies on Albemarle Island, Galápagos archipelago, 7 February 1795

Menzies made the earliest extant botanical collections in the Galápagos; five sheets, representing three endemic species, are known. Menzies's own account of the visit is also extant and is transcribed here from his manuscript journal.

[Manuscript "Many different remedies for headache treatment" from the archives of Sinj Friary]

Manuscripts containing collections of folk recipes for treatment of deseases were written mostly by Catholic priests especially Franciscians in Croatia in the past centuries. They were used as manuals for preparation of remedies and gave directions for their use. These writtings provide valuble data for etnographers and historians of ethnomedicine. The paper describes the manuscript "Many different remedies for headache treatment" written by unknown author probably in 18. century in Sinj, Dalmatia. The manuscript was found in the archives of Sinj Friary. The collection contains 16 recipes for headache treatment. Materia medica of the manuscript is composed of drugs of plant origin. Valuable information is given about the folk names for medicinal plants as well as descriptions of the ways of preparing remedies. Latin as well as contemporaly croatian names are attributed to the plants species mentioned in the manuscript. Use of the plants for treatment of the specific deseases were compared with their use in modern fitotherapy.

European materia medica in historical texts: longevity of a tradition and implications for future use

AIM OF THE STUDY

This study uses historical texts in order to obtain information on the natural products used in traditional medicines in European/Mediterranean therapeutics over the last two millennia. The information obtained may lead to new directions in the area of drug discovery, as recent research has demonstrated the continued promise of looking to natural products for bioactive compounds. Researchers have increasingly turned to traditional medicines to provide clues as to which natural products to investigate, but the oral traditions on which much of this medical knowledge rests are often unstable. Thus researchers have been prompted to use historical medical texts, as this study does, to find potential sources of new drugs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study uses twelve Mediterranean/European medical texts from the 5th century BC to the 19th century AD to compile a list of the most commonly used "simples"--or single action drugs substances--used in therapeutics in traditional European medicine. This list was then compared to present-day herbal pharmacopoeia as represented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

RESULTS

This study finds that traditional European materia medica was based on a Dioscoridean tradition that lasted through the 19th century with remarkably little variation, but is significantly different from the present-day herbal pharmacopoeia according to the NIH.

CONCLUSIONS

The most prominent simples in the European/Mediterranean medical tradition can provide clues to further bioactive compounds that have not as of yet been fully exploited for their potential, but were clearly of great use in the past.

[The theriac Diatessaron; oligopharmacy against polypharmacy]

The theriac of Andromachus was the symbol of polypharmacy and the theriac Diatessaron was a product of oligopharmacy. The four substances that entered in its composition were gentian roots, aritolochia roots, sweet bays and myrrh. The excipient, honey, was sometimes replaced by peppermint syrup. It was possible to add juniper berries extract. Symbolic interest of number four was confirmed by a reference to the four elements of Empedocles. The pharmacological activity, which was attributed to the diaressaron, was not very different from those of the great theriac. Since the end of 18th century, this theriac began to loose its prestige.

[Debate about the theriac in Arabic treatises]

The Greek treatises about antidotes of Andromaque and Galen, have been the subject of various translations in Arabic language. Thus, numerous highly interested arab-muslim physicians discovered, used and then spread the formulae of the Great Theriac. Two attitudes can be distinguished at first: they either copied and used as before their literary sources or they adapted them by changing the proportions of the components which compose the electuary or by changing even some of them. These different approaches involve comments and criticisms and bring about the third attitude: a rich debate of ideas. The article proposes to recall through quotations of arab-muslim physicians the evolution of the matter.

[At the origin of the theriac: the receipt of Andromachus]

The Greek physician Galen of Pergamum (129-c. 210) has preserved in his two tracts De antidotis and De theriaca ad Pisonem the original recipe of the theriac under the name of Andromachus. Galen specifies that Andromachus was the first to add flesh of vipers in this pharmacological preparation. This paper intends to study the real originality of Andromachus compared with his predecessors and to examine in which sense he can really be considered as the inventor of the theriac.

[Theriac in modern period (XVIIth-XXth centuries)]

After centuries of fluctuant usages, the theriac, this kind of universal drug to cure everything, was popular again starting from the XVIIth century and it will remain at the official french pharmacopea up to 1908. Viper was one of the key components, which was an opportunity for several authors to discuss about its real therapeutic value. Amont the tens of constituants of theriac, opium, in large quantities, was also an important part of this "électuaire". Its success was at the origin of many formulations (such as poors' theriac and celestial theriac), and falsifications, the most famous being the "Orvietan", driving pharmacists to produce it themselves. Counterfeiting being frequent, it became usual to prepare theriac publicly up to the french Revolution. Very much criticized, as a symbol of polypharmacy more and more rejected, theriac will progressively disappear during the XIXth century, sometime replaced nowadays by new universal drugs outside the pharmaceutical network.

[What was Montpellier's theriac]

The long-lasting fame of Montpellier's theriac does not come from the originality of its composition. In the Middle Ages, its formula followed Antidotarium Nicolai's while, in the modern period, it copied Galen's. This fame is explained by the reputation of the medical University, by the dynamism of its apothecaries and by the strength of Montpellier's trade networks.

[Theriacs in charity books, during the 17th and the 18th centuries]

"Charity books" were books containing formulas of remedies, which were easy to prepare and not too expensive. Their purpose was to cure poor people who had not enough money to have access to official Medicine or who lived too far away from medicine doctors and apothecaries. They were then useful for charitable people such as country priests or charitable Ladies. Great Theriacs were very expensive and too difficult to prepare to be described in this kind of books for non-professional people. Simplified formulas were then proposed. They contained much less products and were quite cheaper. Some of these medicines are described in this article.

[Study on processing adjuvant medicines in Lei Gong's treatise on preparation and broiling of materia medica (Leigong Paozhi Lun)]

There were 268 kinds of medicines recorded in the book of Lei Gong's Treatise on preparation and broiling of materia medica (Leigong Paozhi Lun). Among these medicines, 178 medicines were prepared with adjuvant medicines, including general and special compatible adjuvant medicines. These adjuvant medicines used in this book can be explained by the theory of "seven-relation compatibility". The author tried to explain the usage and their compatibility of these adjuvant medicines and put forward that attention should be paid to the changes in functions of medicines and the influences of society should be paid attention.

[Textual study of ginseng in Wupu Bencao]

In the study of materia medica literature, we found of ginseng in Wupu Bencao that "Leaf is a little sharp, root is black and stem is pilous" had been ignored by its subsequent literatures. In this study, the variety of ginseng in Wupu Bencao was researched. We believed the remaining records of ginseng in Wupu Bencao referred to Oplopanax elatus instead of Panax ginseng. The origin of this species was in Handan during the period of three-kingdom dynasty, but distributed in the area of Changbai mountain nowadays.

[Research on Zhang's collated edition of Lei gong pao zhi lun (Master Lei's Discourse on Processing of Chinese Materia Medica)]

Lei gong pao zhi lun (Master Lei's Discourse on Processing of Chinese Materia Medica) collated by Zhang Ji, and printed by Zhang's Yisheng Tang in Chengdu in 1932 was the first collated edition. Its original edition was not Jing shi zheng lei bei ji ben cao (Classified Materia Medica from Historical Classics for Emergency) of the Song Dynasty, but was Xiu shi zhi nan (Instruction for Drug Processing) and Lei gong pao zhi yao xing jie (Explanation on Master Lei's Properties of Drugs Processing) of the Qing Dynasty. The contents of this collated edition was far from Lei gong pao zhi lun with many mistakes, and was not the best edition to study Lei gong pao zhi lun.