Noble cancer in medical history

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Left: Hortus sanitatis 1491 Cancer . Right: Conrad Gessner Icones animalium 1560 Astacus fluviatilis

Noble cancer in medicine. The Greek doctor Dioscurides , who lived in Rome in the first century, recommended the ashes of the roasted crayfish as a remedy for the bite of a rabid dog and mixed with honey as a means for healing wounds. The crabs, grated raw, should be taken together with donkey milk to help cure snake and spider bites as well as scorpion stings. Cooked with meat stock, he prescribed the crabs for general weakness. The Roman encyclopaedist Pliny drew from the same sources as Dioscurides and he listed the same healing applications for the crayfish as this one. This list of healing applications was passed down into modern times in a slightly varied manner.

The blood of the cancer ("cancer juice") and the cancer stones , calcareous concrements in the stomach of the crayfish, which are supposed to be used for the annual structure of the shell, were also used medicinally . Hildegard von Bingen wrote in her treatise on simple remedies in the 12th century that a structure called "Krebesmar" was found in the head of the cancer, which, when mixed with butter, removes pustules and ulcers. In the 14th century Konrad von Megenberg reported that two white stones were found in the head of the old crab, which had a reddish discoloration and that some would report that if these stones were taken in water they would drive away heartache. The French chemist Nicolas Lémery described cancer stones at the end of the 17th century:

"In the river crayfish, two stones grow immediately below the head, not far from the stomach, which are as thick as peas, flat and round, on one side as if hollowed out, uneven or rough on the bottom, rounded and polished on the other, some see measure as like an eye, which they are not, in that the animal has its eyes, as usual, on its head ” .

As an indication, Lémery stated that the stones would dampen acidity and alleviate diarrhea and vomiting. These indications were generally adopted and the cancer eyes or cancer stones were listed in the Prussian Pharmacopoeia in 1829.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pedanios Dioscurides . 1st century: De Medicinali Materia libri quinque. Translation. Julius Berendes . Pedanius Dioscurides' medicine theory in 5 books. Enke, Stuttgart 1902, p. 156 (Book II, Chapter 12): Krebse (digitized version)
  2. ↑ Pliny the Elder , 1st century: Naturalis historia book XXXII, chapter xix (§ 53–55): Cancri fluviatiles (digitized version) ; Translation Külb 1855 [(digitalisat)]
  3. ↑ Galen , 2nd century De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus , book XI, chapter 24 (based on the edition Kühn 1826, volume XII, p. 356): De cancris ustis (digitized version )
  4. ↑ Avicenna , 11th century: Canon of Medicine . Translation and adaptation by Gerhard von Cremona , Arnaldus de Villanova and Andrea Alpago (1450–1521). Basel 1556, Volume II, Chapters 150-151: Cancer fluvialis. Cancer marinus (digitized version)
  5. ^ Pseudo-Serapion 13th century, print. Venice 1497, sheet 161v – 162r (No CCCCXXXII): Cancer (digital copy )
  6. ^ Charles Victor Daremberg and Friedrich Anton Reuss (1810–1868). S. Hildegardis Abbatissae Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum Libri Novem. Physica , Book V, Chapter 32: Cancer . Migne, Paris 1855. Sp. 1282 (digitized)
  7. ^ Konrad von Megenberg , 14th century: Book of nature. Output. Franz Pfeiffer . Aue, Stuttgart 1861, p. 248 (III / D8): Krebz (digitized version )
  8. ↑ Herbarius Moguntinus , Mainz 1484, Part II, Chapter 80: Cancer (digitized version)
  9. ↑ Gart der Gesundheit . Mainz 1485, Chapter 143: Cancer. Krebsch (digitized version )
  10. ↑ Hortus sanitatis 1491, Mainz 1491, Part IV (De piscibus), Chapter 16: Cancer (digitized version )
  11. ↑ Hieronymus Brunschwig : Small distilling book , Strasbourg 1500, sheet 67v – 68r: Cancer (digitized version )
  12. ↑ Nicolas Lémery  : Dictionnaire universel des drogues simples. , Paris 1699, pp. 140-141: Cancer (digitized version) ; Translation. Complete material lexicon. Initially drafted in French, but now after the third edition, which has been enlarged by a large [...] edition, translated into high German / By Christoph Friedrich Richtern, [...]. Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Braun, 1721, Sp. 219–221: Cancer (digitized version )
  13. ↑ Albrecht von Haller (editor): Onomatologia medica completa or Medicinisches Lexicon which explains all names and artificial words which are peculiar to the science of medicine and the art of pharmacy clearly and completely [...]. Gaumische Handlung, Ulm / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1755, Sp. 275-276: Cancer. A cancer . Sp. 277-280: Cancrorum lapides. Crab eyes. Cancer stones. Sp. 280-283: Cancrorum oculi. Crab Eyes (digitized version )
  14. ↑ August Friedrich Hecker 's practical medicine theory. Revised and enriched with the latest discoveries by a practicing doctor . Camesius, Vienna, Volume II 1815, p. 458: Lapides Cancrorum. Oculi Cancrorum (digitized version )
  15. ↑ Jonathan Pereira’s Handbook of Medicines Doctrine. From the point of view of the German Medicin edited by Rudolf Buchheim . Leopold Voss, Leipzig 1846-48, Volume II 1848, p. 859: cancer eyes. Cancer stones (digital copy )
  16. ^ Theodor Husemann : Handbook of the entire drug theory. Springer, Berlin 2nd ed. 1883, p. 401: Krebsteins (digitized version ) , p. 727: Krebse (digitized version)
  17. ↑ See for example Karl-Heinz Weimann : The German medical language of Paracelsus. Philosophical dissertation, Erlangen 1951, p. 367 f.
  18. ^ Charles Victor Daremberg and Friedrich Anton Reuss (1810–1868). S. Hildegardis Abbatissae Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum Libri Novem. Physica , Book V, Chapter 32: Cancer . Migne, Paris 1855. Sp. 1282 (digitized)
  19. ^ Konrad von Megenberg , 14th century: Book of nature. Output. Franz Pfeiffer . Aue, Stuttgart 1861, p. 248 (III / D8): Krebz (digitized version )
  20. ↑ Nicolas Lémery  : Dictionnaire universel des drogues simples. , Paris 1699, pp. 140-141: Cancer (digitized version) ; Translation. Complete material lexicon. Initially drafted in French, but now after the third edition, which has been enlarged by a large [...] edition, translated into high German / By Christoph Friedrich Richtern, [...]. Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Braun, 1721, Sp. 219–221: Cancer (digitized version )
  21. ^ Carl Wilhelm Juch: Pharmacopoea Borussica or Prussian Pharmacopoeia. Translated from Latin and accompanied by comments and additions by Dr. Carl Wilhelm Juch. Stein, Nürnberg 1805, pp. 86-87: Lapides Cancrorum. Cancer stones (digital copy )
  22. ^ Carl Wilhelm Juch: Pharmacopoea Borussica, 5th edition 1829, p. 27: Cancer. Lapides. Cancer stones (digital copy )