Aqua omnium florum

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A cow pat.

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]

Contents

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

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

Cow dung, urine and other bovine products are still used extensively in the traditional Hindu medicine, Ayurveda. [6]

Cattle urine drinking in Islam

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 Charles Alston (1770), Lectures on the Materia Medica, vol. 2, Edward Dilly, p. 551
  2. 1 2 3 T. Laycock (1858), "On the New Pharmacopœia", The Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, XVIII: 312–313
  3. ↑ Samuel Frederick Gray (1821), A Supplement to the Pharmacopœia, Thomas and George Underwood, p. 310
  4. ↑ Saint Bartholomew's Hospital Reports, 1884, p. 299
  5. ↑ 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
  6. ↑ Rahul Bedi (16 Mar 2005), "Cow dung becomes a cure-all in India", Daily Telegraph
  7. 1 2 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.
  8. ↑ "Sahih al-Bukhari 5686 - Medicine - كتاب الطب - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)". sunnah.com.
  9. ↑ "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.
  10. ↑ Boyer, Lauren (10 June 2015). "Stop Drinking Camel Urine, World Health Organization Says". U.S. News & World Report . Retrieved 28 September 2019.
  11. ↑ The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences. Jointly published by the Association of Muslim Social Scientists; International Institute of Islamic Thought. 2007.
  12. ↑ "Sahih Muslim Book of Oaths, Muharibin, Retaliation, and Blood Money". amrayn.com. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
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