Early monograph on opium

Wedel, Georg Wolfgang. Opiologia ad mentem academiae naturae curiosorum.

€ 4,500.00

Second edition of this early monograph on the pharmacological and therapeutic aspects of opium. "The main text is a reissue of the 1674 edition" (Krivatsy). Wedel not only evaluates the medical literature but also all available travel reports. The chapter entitled "An aphrodisiacum sit opium & mulierem excitet?" provides an overview of the various opinions, including Saar's account from his East Indian journeys noting the use of opium in Batavian brothels, as well as Garcia's contradictory information that opium leads to infertility and impotence (p. 128f.). The title vignette depicts a Turkish opium picker: scratching the poppy seed capsule with his knife, he collects the sap. The appendix contains the first printing of a dissertation on the qualities of opium, written by Michael Ettmüller (d. 1683), who dedicated his work to his colleage Wedel.

G. W. Wedel (1645-1721) was one of the principal physicians of his age. He authored 49 books and was the teacher of several progressively minded medical men. He is credited with the timeless aphorism that "medicine is nothing but the incessant renewal of ignorance." His "Opiologia" won him admission to the Academy of Naturalists, the still-extant "Leopoldina" in Halle. "Wedel stood midway between medieval and modern world views, defending astrology and alchemy and championing iatrochemistry" (DSB XIV, 212). "Wedel appears to have been one of the first to employ the word physiology in its present restricted sense" (Thorndike VIII, s. v.).

Evenly browned throughout; binding slightly rubbed. A fine copy.