I smell a rat! Fumigation in Mesopotamian and Hippocratic recipes for women’s ailments – Part 2

By Ulrike Steinert In this post, I will introduce Hippocratic prescriptions for fumigation from below and compare the uses of this treatment form in Mesopotamian and Hippocratic gynaecology. Some Hippocratic recipes — like the Akkadian BAM 237 discussed in Part 1 —  just list the ingredients, which have to be thrown into the fire, adding … Continue reading I smell a rat! Fumigation in Mesopotamian and Hippocratic recipes for women’s ailments – Part 2

I smell a rat! Fumigation in Mesopotamian and Hippocratic recipes for women’s ailments – Part 1

By Ulrike Steinert In my first post on the blog, I described some of the difficulties in studying Mesopotamian medical texts from 2nd and 1st millennium BCE Babylonia and Assyria. In the following two contributions, I would like to discuss similarities between Babylonian and Hippocratic recipes applying “fumigation from below” as a therapy for gynaecological … Continue reading I smell a rat! Fumigation in Mesopotamian and Hippocratic recipes for women’s ailments – Part 1

The Working of Herbs, Part 1: Did Herbal Recipe Ingredients Really Work?

By Anne Stobart As a clinical herbal practitioner with a research background in the history of medicine, I am sometimes asked the question: ‘Did the herbs work?’. In this post, the first of a series (The Working of Herbs), I consider how we might examine whether medicinal plants in recipes might have worked. The question … Continue reading The Working of Herbs, Part 1: Did Herbal Recipe Ingredients Really Work?