PERS-05 | Traité élémentaire de matière médicale
Traité élémentaire de matière médicale
1890, 19th century
Paper
PERS-05
This artefact belongs to : Private collection
Description
Keywords: Book (26)
Keys to History
In 19th-century Quebec hospital dispensaries, medicines were often prepared by nursing sisters called "apothecary nuns". Each summer, according to a long-standing tradition, they grew gardens of medicinal herbs that served as their ingredients.
The medical book pictured here contains the formulas for the preparations used in daily patient care. The apothecary nuns also consulted it in filling doctors' prescriptions.
It classifies most of the remedies then in use, describes the procedures for making them and gives the dosage and formulas. It also presents the principal illnesses and their specific treatments.
Like many religious communities, the Sisters of Charity of the Institute of Providence had a nose for business and offered patent medicines for sale. Several of their secret remedies were distributed on the North American market, including a tonic, a purgative tea, a stomachic wine and a spruce gum syrup.
Source : Cures and Quackery: The Rise of Patent Medicines [Web tour], by Denis Goulet, Université de Sherbrooke (see Links)
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What
A practical guide to remedy preparation. In addition to medicinal formulas from European and American books, it contains secret recipes for remedies made by the Sisters of Charity.
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Where
Published in Montreal, it was used mainly by the Sisters of Charity in Quebec hospital dispensaries and asylums. It was also used in some French-Canadian families.
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When
First published in 1869, it was reprinted without change the following year. The copy seen here is a revised and corrected version published in 1890.
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Who
Dedicated to Msgr. Bourget, under whose auspices the Sisters of Charity of Providence community was founded, this guide was written in part by the nuns in cooperation with several Montreal professors of medicine. Many of the texts were simply translated from British or American publications.
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