Charms and Potions

The experiments of alchemists were ultimately fuelled by a desire to produce gold and to attain eternal life and youth. 

The use of distillation, which spread to Europe from Arabic lands, was aimed at the production of the fifth element, the quinta essentia. 

However, these efforts were not ultimately useless: experimenting with chemical methods contributed to the development of pharmacology, i.e. pharmaceutical chemistry.

The laboratory equipment of early pharmacies - in addition to making medicines - also served alchemical purposes.

Several apothecary jars and pharmaceutical books of the time boast alchemical markings and symbols.

Alchemists were allowed to work in the Habsburg Empire until 1768, when Empress Maria Theresa (1740–1780) prohibited their trade.

The works of the most famous Arab alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan (721–813), or Geber in Latin, are among the oldest tomes of chemistry literature. 

Geber paid special attention to the Philosopher’s Stone, which cured all diseases, prolonged human life, and turned metals into gold. His famous work De Alchemia Gebri Arabis philosophi solertissimi was published in Latin in 1541 in Nuremberg.

Mummy powder was used externally for wounds and haemostasis, and internally against tuberculosis and the plague. 

It was used as a medicine up until 1924. However, the expensive, hard-to-obtain Egyptian mummy powder was often counterfeited.

The experiments of alchemists to produce liquid gold were gladly supported by heads of state.  

In the court of the German-Roman emperor, Rudolf II  (1552–1612), aptly named the alchemist emperor, several alchemists carried out experiments. 

Pharmaceutical production began to separate from alchemy from the 16th century onwards. Paracelsus (1493–1541), physicist, astrologer and alchemist, played an important role in this process.

Paracelsus observed the physiological effects of minerals and metals and taking the first steps towards their medical application.

Paracelsus had his greatest success with mercury, treating a major illness of the time, syphilis. Students of the scientist who taught at the University of Basel spread his teachings all over Europe. 

The first pharmacists grew the herbs used in medicines in their own gardens, thus the development of botanical literature was linked to the history of pharmacy. 

The first university department of pharmacology was established in Padua in 1553, where thanks to the botanical gardens, theoretical and practical education were combined.

The microscope, invention of Dutch merchant Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), had monumental significance in herbal research. 

Leeuwenhoek is also considered to be the father of microbiology, as he discovered tiny microorganisms using his microscope that were later identified as pathogens by the end of the 19th century.

Healing substances were basically experientially tested natural substances since ancient times. Up until the 19th century the use of real, potent medicine and cures based on belief and lore ran parallel.

Galen (130-200?), a physician of Greek descent living in Rome, was the first to systematize all known medicines and to develop quality standards for them.

The range of herbs varies greatly in both manuscript and printed drug- and prescription books. Through long-distance trade and the discovery of the Americas several new plants arrived to Europe. Below is a selection. 

In addition to meals, tinctures, ointments, etc. made from various plants, animal-derived ingredients can also be found in large numbers in 18th-century recipes.

Spanish fly is an active ingredient found in many of Paracelsus’ recipes, it is a blistering agent that improves circulation and is also used in hair tinctures and veterinary ointments. It was used in love potions too, despite its toxicity.

In addition to herbs and medicines of animal origin, the so-called coprotherapy was also popular, using secretions, bodily fluids and various metabolites.

The medicinal use of human and animal faeces appears in various pharmacopoeias well into the 18th century, as well as gargling with urine to combat the deadly diphtheria.