Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Early Chemical and Medical Applications of Alcohol

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Quest for Aqua Vitae

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science ((BRIESFHISTCHEM))

Abstract

Alcohol had a profound influence on the art of the apothecary or pharmaceutical chemist [1], as well as changing the way that many artisans and alchemists carried out some types of reactions in the process of chemical pursuits. In this final chapter, the use of alcohol in early chemical and medical applications will be discussed, first as a simple component of fermented beverages and later in its purified form. In the process, the lasting effects of the availability of alcohol on the practice of both medicine and the chemical arts will be addressed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Greek philosopher Hippocrates of Cos was reputed to be the greatest doctor of his time [10]. Although he is mentioned in the writings of Plato and Aristotle, very little is actually known about the man himself [11]. About 60 books have been ascribed to him, although the extent of the Hippocratic Corpus believed to be the work of Hippocrates himself remains uncertain [10, 11]. Hippocrates is often seen as the founder of scientific medicine [9] and some believe his writings constitute the first written expression of scientific thought [12]. The writings ascribed to him reveal a strong belief in the healing power of nature and suggest the primary role of the physician was to relieve pain and strengthen the patient's body and spirit, thus allowing nature to assert itself and function without hindrance to reestablish the body's equilibrium.

  2. 2.

    The Ebers Papyrus, or Papyrus Ebers, is an 108-page Egyptian medical papyrus written around 1550–1700 BCE [8, 18]. However, it is believed that most of the information was copied from earlier texts, perhaps dating as far back as 2640 BCE [8].

  3. 3.

    The Berlin Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus from the Middle Kingdom (2050–1650 BCE).

  4. 4.

    Known also as Vitalis du Four, Vital du Four, Vital du Fourca, and Joannes Vitalis. He was a Franciscan theologian and scholastic philosopher [28] who played a prominent role in the controversy over the Franciscan conception of usus pauper (i.e. the restricted use of goods) [37]. He was born at Bazas in Aquitaine around 1260, about 60 km southeast of Bordeaux [37]. He entered the Franciscan order at an early age and went to study theology at Paris from 1285 to 1291. He taught at Montpellier from 1292 to 1296, after which he was transferred to the University of Toulouse [37]. He was made cardinal-priest by Pope Clement V in 1312 [28, 37] and became bishop of Albano in 1321. He died at Avignon on August 16, 1327 [28].

  5. 5.

    Cheerful or merry.

  6. 6.

    John de Rupescissa or John of Roquetallaide (d. 1362). An often cited author about which little is really known, he lived in the middle of the 14th century and was a tertiary member of the Franciscan order [28, 33]. He was known to his contemporaries for his apocalyptic preaching, for which he was often imprisoned [28, 33]. He was a Catalan, but a significant number of his books were written in Latin [28]. He studied in Toulouse for 5 years [28] before entering the Franciscan monastery at Orléans, where he continued his studies for 5 more years. He was imprisoned for the first time in 1345 [33] or 1346 [28], and again in 1349 and 1356 [28, 33]. His principle work was his De consideratione quintae essentiae, the backbone of which seems to be the medicinal and preservative properties of ‘pure' alcohol [28].

References

  1. Forbes RJ (1970) A Short History of the Art of Distillation. E. J. Brill, Leiden, p 57.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 314–315.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Murray MA, Boulton N, Heron C (2000) Viticulture and wine production. In Nicholson PT, Shaw I (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 577–608.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Sarton, G (1952) A History of Science. Ancient Science through the Golden Age of Greece. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, p 384.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sarton, G (1970) A History of Science, Volume 1, Ancient Science through the Golden Age of Greece. W. W. Norton & Co., New York, p 343.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Nutton V (2013) Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. Routledge, New York, pp 170–173.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 169–174.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Broughton G II, Janis JE, Attinger CE (2006) A Brief History of Wound Care. Plast Reconstr Surg 117 (Suppl.):6S–11S.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hippocrates (1849) On the Articulations. Adams F (trans) The Internet Classics Archive: Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics, Part 63.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Meadows J (1992) The Great Scientists, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 12–13.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Nutton V (2013) Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. Routledge, New York, pp 53–70.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Singer C (1997) A Short History of Science, to the Nineteenth Century. Dover Publications: New York, p 39.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Barker K (ed) (1995) The NIV Study Bible, 10th ann ed, Luke, 10:34.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Nutton V (2013) Ancient Medicine, 2nd ed. Routledge, New York, p 93.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Crane E (1999) The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting. Routledge, New York, pp 514.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Pliny the Elder (1855) The Natural History. Bostock J, Riley HT (trans) Taylor and Francis, London, Book XXII, Chapter 52.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Barnard H, Dooley AN, Areshian G, Gasparyan B, Faull KF (2011) Chemical evidence for wine production around 4000 BCE in the Late Chalcolithic Near Eastern highlands. J Archaeological Sci 38:977–984.

    Google Scholar 

  18. McGovern PE, Mirzoian A, Hall GR (2009) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106:7361–7366.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 184–185.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, p 193.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Hippocrates (1849) On Ulcers. Adams F (trans) The Internet Classics Archive: Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics, Part 5.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Bénézet JP (2001) Vin et alcool dans les apothicaireries médiévales des pays du Sud. Rev Hist Pharm, 89:477–488.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, p 158.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, p 424.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, p 207.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Broshi M (2007) Date Beer and Date Wine in Antiquity. Palest Explor Q 139:55–59.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Partington, JR (1935) Origins and Development of Applied Chemistry. Longmans, Green and Co., London, pp 197–198.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Forbes RJ (1970) A Short History of the Art of Distillation. E. J. Brill, Leiden, pp 60–65.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Taylor FS (1992) The Alchemists. Barnes & Noble, New York, pp 98–100.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Siraisi NG (1981) Taddeo Alderotti and His Pupils. Two Generations of Italian Medical Learning. Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp 300–301.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Neri A, Merrett C (2003) The World’s Most Famous Book on Glassmaking, The Art of Glass. The Society of Glass Technology, Sheffield, pp 221–222.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Read J (1995) From Alchemy to Chemistry. Dover, New York, p 21.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Multhauf JP (1954) John of Rupescissa and the Origin of Medical Chemistry. Isis 45:359–367.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Gwei-Djen L, Needham J, Needham D (1972) The Coming of Ardent Water. Ambix 19:69–112.

    Google Scholar 

  35. von Lippmann EO (1912) Zur Geschichte des Alkohols und seines Namens. Angew Chem 40:2061–2065.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Stillman JM (1924) The Story of Early Chemistry. D. Appleton and Co., New York, pp 187–192.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Traver AG (2003) Vital du Four. In: Gracia JJE, Noone TB (eds.) A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Malden, pp 670–671.

    Google Scholar 

  38. von Lippmann EO (1914) Thaddäus Florentinus (Taddeo Alderotti) über den Weingeist. Arch Gesch Med 7:379–389.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Vallee BL (1998) Alcohol in the Western World. Sci Am 279(June):80–85.

    Google Scholar 

  40. McDonnell G, Russell AD (1999) Antiseptics and Disinfectants: Activity, Action, and Resistance. Clin Microbiol Rev 12:147–179.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Forbes RJ (1970) A Short History of the Art of Distillation. E. J. Brill, Leiden, p 91.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Liebmann, AJ (1956) History of Distillation. J Chem Educ 33:166–173.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Forbes RJ (1970) A Short History of the Art of Distillation. E. J. Brill, Leiden, p 95.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Hart E (1897) Archieologica Medica. XXIX. - Arnald of Villanova, The Mystic Physician. Brit Med J 1:1001.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Roueché B (1963) Alcohol in Human Culture. In: Lucia SP (ed.) Alcohol and Civilization. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp 167–182.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

    Seth C. Rasmussen

Authors
  1. Seth C. Rasmussen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seth C. Rasmussen .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Rasmussen, S.C. (2014). Early Chemical and Medical Applications of Alcohol. In: The Quest for Aqua Vitae. SpringerBriefs in Molecular Science(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06302-7_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation