Milk cure

Central office of the Wille'schen Milchcuranstalt in Dresden (around 1883)

A milk cure , also called whey cure or whey cure , was a popular form of drinking cure in the 18th and 19th centuries , in which warm milk or whey was drunk in a health resort instead of healing water from thermal springs . This cure was introduced in Switzerland. Today, a whey cure is generally understood to be a diet , also known as whey fasting .

Although Paracelsus recommended the use of whey for various ailments, it wasn't until the 18th century that it gained the reputation of being a cure. The first successful healing is recorded in 1749, when a doctor in the Swiss town of Gais in the Appenzellerland cured a patient with lung disease with the help of a whey cure. Whether the cure was actually due to the whey remains to be seen. The place then became a flourishing health resort, the milk or whey cure was considered an effective remedy for lung diseases, especially tuberculosis . The cure was also prescribed for gout , respiratory diseases, skin diseases and stomach and intestinal complaints.

The milk cure was gratefully taken up by a number of resorts that did not have their own thermal springs. But in the 19th century it became so popular that every self- respecting health resort included it in their health program and built a so-called milk cure facility or whey spa facility in the Swiss style (as a chalet or half-timbered house ), including the associated livestock. Goat milk and whey in particular were considered effective. Even in later times and still today, some hotels or inns in health resorts bear the names Molkenanstalt ( Baden-Baden ), Molkenkur ( Heidelberg ) or Molkenhaus ( Bad Harzburg ). After 1920 the popularity of the whey regimen gradually declined; as a medical treatment, it no longer plays a role today.

Meyers Konversationslexikon critically remarked as early as 1889:

"Particularly when the whey is drunk in bathing resorts with a favorable climate, a significant success is seen, which is perhaps for the most part to be seen as an effect of the climate and the changed way of life"

In the 19th century, however, a number of medical writings appeared on the benefits of the milk and whey cure. In 1812, the Swiss doctor and writer Ulrich Hegner even wrote a satirical novella about the then world-famous Appenzell whey health resort Gais with the title: The whey cure, novel in three parts .

literature

• Quirinus Reichen: whey cure. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Baron von Ehrenkreuz: The Molkenkur-Anstalt at Schlosse Schöneck near Boppard on the Rhine . Koblenz 1848 digitized
• Karl Franz Hoffmann: On the history of whey cures, especially in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In: medical monthly 15, 1961, pp. 411-414.
• Bernhard Maximilian Lersch : The seasonal cures with milk and its preparations as well as with fruit and herbal juices: The cure with milk and the beverages made from it (whey, kumys). Henry, Bonn 1869.

swell

1. ↑ Ulrich Hegner: Die Molkenkur , Salzwasser, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-8460-0091-5 .