VMs: RE: Nostradamus as physician...

["GC" <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx>]

Nick wrote:

> On the contrary, according to the introduction to "The
> Elixirs of
> Nostradamus" (Knut Boeser, 1996):-
>
>          [Nostradamus] irrefutably cured the most
> serious illnesses
>          of the time in such an astonishing number of cases that
>          he soon acquired the reputation of being able
> to work miracles.
>
>          [...] His remedies inclued 'rose pills', which
> were to be made
>          as follows:
>
>          one ounce of sawdust from the greenest
> available cypress tree
>          six ounces of Florentine iris
>          three ounces of cloves
>          three drachms of sweet flag (root)
>          six drachms of resinous aloe wood
>
>          These ingredients are pulverised and then 300
> to 400 red roses,
>          which have been picked before the grey light
> of dawn and
>          similarly pulverized, are mixed in with them.
> Throughout, care
>          is taken to avoid undue exposure to the air.
> The mixture is
>          then shaped into pills, which the patient
> constantly keeps in
>          the mouth. According to Michel, the wonderful scent can
>          kill bad breath and fould smells and clean
> rotten teeth.
>
>          Nostradamus was of the opinion that the plague
> was spread
>          by contaminated air, and that clean air
> protected the patients.
>          Perhaps his success lay simply in the fact
> that fleas, which
>          are known to transmit the plague from rats to
> humans, could not
>          stand the mixture's strong smell and thus at least the
>          healthy were stopped from catching the disease.
>
>          Whatever the reason, his reputation and his
> prestige as a
>          plague healer grew.
>
> FYI, the above dates from about 1546. :-)
>

I'd have to dust off my old Nostradamus research, but that's
fairly accurate.  He was a success as a physician, and was called
to the court, an honor he almost turned down - reasons unknown.
There was a lot of major questioning about his astrological
divination.

Several books were written challenging his astrological
assumptions, a couple of which called him a fraud outright.  How
much of this backlash was anti-semetic I'm not sure, but the books
did attack his astrology point by point.  I don't remember the
name right now, but I think there was even one written in English
along the same vein.  It's on EEBO last I knew.

GC