Aqua Omnium Florum on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Aqua omnium florum'' or all-flower water was water distilled from cow-dung in May, when the cows ate fresh grass with meadow flowers. It was also known less euphemistically as ''aqua stercoris vaccini stillatitia'' (distilled water of cow dung). This was used as a medicine to treat a variety of ailments including
''Aqua omnium florum'' or all-flower water was water distilled from cow-dung in May, when the cows ate fresh grass with meadow flowers. It was also known less euphemistically as ''aqua stercoris vaccini stillatitia'' (distilled water of cow dung). This was used as a medicine to treat a variety of ailments including gout
Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot and swollen joint, caused by deposition of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals. Pain typically comes on rapidly, reaching maximal intensit ...
, rheumatism
Rheumatism or rheumatic disorders are conditions causing chronic, often intermittent pain affecting the joints or connective tissue. Rheumatism does not designate any specific disorder, but covers at least 200 different conditions, including art ...
and tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
.
The 17th century court physician George Bate
George Bate (1608–1668) was an English court physician.
Bate graduated with an M.D. from St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1637. Three years later he treated Charles I in Oxford. He was physician to Oliver Cromwell and his family, physician to Charles ...
favoured it and it appeared in the ''Pharmacopœia Bateana'' — ''Bate's Dispensatory''. Recipes included:
The latter prescription was used as a panacea
In Greek mythology, Panacea (Greek ''Πανάκεια'', Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art:
* Panacea (the goddess of universal ...
by a female doctor in Bate's time. Many incurable cases were brought to her which she treated in this way and she made a great fortune of £20,000 from this practice.
''Urina vaccina''
Cow tea or ''urina vaccina'' ( cow's urine) was sometimes called ''aqua omnium florum'' too. This was used as a purgative for which the dosage would be "half a pint drank warm from the cow". It was drunk by women in May to clear their complexion.Indian traditional medicine
Cow dung, urine and other bovine products are still used extensively in the traditional Hindu medicine,Ayurveda
Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...
.
See also
*Compost tea
Compost is a mixture of ingredients used as plant fertilizer and to improve soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant, food waste, recycling organic materials and manure. The resulting m ...
* Beef tea
*''Mycobacterium vaccae
''Mycobacterium vaccae'' is a nonpathogenic species of the Mycobacteriaceae family of bacteria that lives naturally in soil. Its generic name originates from the Latin word, ''vacca'' (cow), since the first ''Mycobacterium'' strain was cultured ...
''
* Stool transplant
References
Cattle Traditional medicine {{pharmacology-stub