Hoffmann drops

Under Hoffmann drops : (1870 Hoffmann spirit , named after its inventor Friedrich Hoffmann , 1660-1742) or ether alcohol (fachsprachlich alcohol aethereus , rare alcohol AETHERIS specific for medical use mixture of three parts is called) ethanol or alcohol and a portion of diethyl ether understood.

Traditionally, the spiritus aethereus was used as a medicine , for example for weakness, fainting, neuralgia, convulsive affections and severe vomiting . The typical dosage is 20 to 40 drops taken orally in a glass of water or on a sugar cube. According to modern studies, the Hoffmann drops have a vasodilating and slightly hypotensive effect. They are also used in the production of tinctures and essences .

The Halle medicine professor Hoffmann regularly prescribed alcohols , including most often what he called Liquor anodynus mineralis , which he also called “my white spiritus mineralis”. His secret recipe, however, was not ether in alcohol, but a solution of sulfuric acid or sulfuric acid in ethanol that only contained small amounts of ether. He produced them in his private laboratory by distilling sulfuric acid in ethanol. Hoffmann invented the recipe at the beginning of the 18th century and in 1704 received a privilege from the Elector of Mainz to manufacture and sell this medicinal product. He was inspired to prepare it by a comment published by his father on Schroeder's pharmacopoeia and texts by Poterius , in which an oleum is called Vitrioli dulce , but without any details on how it was made .

literature

• T. Kleij: On the history of the development and production of the "Hoffmann drops" and their representation and interpretation in the medical works of the 19th and 20th centuries . Dresden, 2003.
• Th. Mayer-Steineg, K. Sudhoff: Illustrated history of medicine. Munich (reprint 2006).
• Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke : Hoffmannstropfen. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 610.
• Georg Friedrich Most: Hoffmann drops . In: Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine . 1843; critical assessment of the effect.

Web links

Wiktionary: Hoffmannstropfen  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• Radio report ( memento from November 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) of the MDR Saxony-Anhalt from 2015

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke: Hoffmann drop. In: Werner E. Gerabek u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of medical history. Berlin u. a. 2005, p. 610. books.google.de
2. ↑ Herbert Wiezoreck: The pharmaceutical and chemical products German pharmacies in the age of Nachchemiatrie. Braunschweig 1962. Pages 108, 145. Quoted from: Almut Lanz: Medicines in the therapy of Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742) with special consideration of MEDICINA CONSULTATORIA (1721–1723) . Deutscher Apotheker Verlag 1995, also dissertation at the Technical University of Braunschweig, ISBN 3-7692-1959-7 , p. 129
3. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the presentation of the history and the preparation of the drops by Hoffmann is based on: Almut Lanz: Medicines in the therapy of Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742) with special consideration of MEDICINA CONSULTATORIA (1721–1723) . Deutscher Apotheker Verlag 1995, also dissertation at the Technical University of Braunschweig, ISBN 3-7692-1959-7 , p. 129 ff.

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