Aqua omnium florum
Aqua omnium florum or all-flower water was water distilled from cow-dung in May, when the cows ate fresh grass with meadow flowers. It was also known less euphemistically as aqua stercoris vaccini stillatitia (distilled water of cow dung).[1] This was used as a medicine to treat a variety of ailments including gout, rheumatism and tuberculosis.[2][3]
The 17th century court physician George Bate favoured it and it appeared in the Pharmacopœia Bateana — Bate's Dispensatory.[4] Recipes included:[2]
cow dung, gathered in May, adding to it a third of white wine and then distilled
fresh cow-dung and snails with their shells bruised equal parts, mix and distill in a common still
Rx Fresh cow dung gathered in the morning; spring or rain water; mix and digest twenty-four hours, let it settle, and then decant the clear brown tincture.
The latter prescription was used as a panacea by a female doctor in Bate's time. Many incurable cases were brought to her which she treated in this way and she made a great fortune of £20,000 from this practice.[2]
Urina vaccina
[edit]Cow tea or urina vaccina (cow's urine) was sometimes called aqua omnium florum too.[1] This was used as a purgative for which the dosage would be "half a pint drank warm from the cow".[5] It was drunk by women in May to clear their complexion.[1]
Indian traditional medicine
[edit]Cow dung, urine and other bovine products are still used extensively in the traditional Hindu medicine, Ayurveda.[6]
Cattle urine drinking in Islam
[edit]Similarly, in Islam the drinking of camel urine as the Islamic Prophetic medicine by Muhammad,[7][8][9][10][11][12] has no medicinal scientific evidence according to the World Health Organization.[7]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c Charles Alston (1770), Lectures on the Materia Medica, vol. 2, Edward Dilly, p. 551
- ^ a b c T. Laycock (1858), "On the New Pharmacopœia", The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, XVIII: 312–313
- ^ Samuel Frederick Gray (1821), A Supplement to the Pharmacopœia, Thomas and George Underwood, p. 310
- ^ Saint Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, 1884, p. 299
- ^ Samuel Frederick Gray (1836), "Animal Secretions and Excretions", A Supplement to the Pharmacopœia and Treatise on Pharmacology in General (6th ed.), Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, p. 179
- ^ Rahul Bedi (16 Mar 2005), "Cow dung becomes a cure-all in India", Daily Telegraph
- ^ a b Administrator. "Observational study and literature review of the use of camel urine for treatment of cancer patients". World Health Organization - Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. Archived from the original on 2023-06-09. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
- ^ "Sahih al-Bukhari 5686 - Medicine - كتاب الطب - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". sunnah.com.
- ^ "Abultons (Wudu) What is said about the urine of camels, sheep and other animals and about their folds". Sunnah.com. Archived from the original on 2013-12-13.
- ^ Boyer, Lauren (10 June 2015). "Stop Drinking Camel Urine, World Health Organization Says". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved 28 September 2019.
- ^ The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. Jointly published by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists; International Institute of Islamic Thought. 2007.
- ^ "Sahih Muslim Book of Oaths, Muharibin, Retaliation, and Blood Money". amrayn.com. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
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