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Inventories of the Orphan Chamber
of the Cape of Good Hope


Home remedies echoing the past

by Illona Meyer, TEPC editor

The inventories take us into the home medicine chests and pharmacy shops of the time. We find an eclectic approach and a wealth of remedies: prescriptions from the West, spices from the East and indigenous medicines.

The Hallesche medicine chests contained medicines prepared and distributed by the apothecary laboratory attached to the Orphanage in Halle, established in 1698. These remedies were well-known to the German sick-comforters and apothecars employed by the Dutch East India Company. Haarlemmerdroppels, balsam tillie, wonder essence, milt essence and camphor (MOOC 8/8.9. 1755) are typical Hallesche remedies, still popular  today. The English became acquainted with these medicines through the Dutch: hence the name Dutch remedies.

Spices from the East such as tamarind, cardomum, cinnamon, saffron, ginger and nutmeg, often listed in the inventories, were used in the preparation of medicines as well as in cooking. Well-known indigenous remedies found in the inventories are aloe, buchu (boegoe) and dagga. There are also a few mentions of pulvis besoar which may have been used as an antidote to snakebite.

The inventories seldom mention the use of the remedy. One exception was Carel Hendrik Buijtendag (1780), who brought 32 pieces of slangenhout for gallbladder fever from Batavia (MOOC8/18.4). However, we have contemporary information in the book by John Fredrik Häszner, a qualified doctor in service of the VOC who came to the Cape in 1785. He lists  ingredients that he prescribed and these correspond to items found in inventories of the time: aloe, aluyn, amandelen, anijszaad, swavel, borrie, camphor, castor, cardemomsaad, gember, kina, korianderzaad, manna, mosterdzaad, olijfolij, soete olij, poeder van die skerpte van Halle, rhabarber, rood poeder van Halle/pulvis antispasmoticum, wijnsteen/cremor tartari, rosijnen, saffraan, slangwortel, theriakel, tamarinde, vitrioel en kaneel (1793).

Häszner (1820) owned an estate named Warme Bad in the Swartberg over the Hottentots Holland mountains (MOOC8/37.32). Known as the physician of the Hot Baths, he recommended that those who suffered with rheumatism should travel to the hot springs and he recommended elder tea. Seltzer water, a bubbling mineral water, is sometimes found in inventories.

The following selection from the inventories gives an idea of the variety of remedies found in Cape households:

MOOC8/8.9 lists 1 cas met allwijn in ’t dispens; 2 kelders met lijnolie, 3 vaten alluyn; groentee; duiwelsdrek; 1 packje renosterbloed (perhaps the popular renosterbossie of today, which becomes red when boiled). MOOC 8/15.19 mentions a pot with teriacel, femelioen, a tin with manna (a sweet laxative) and vlier (an infusion of elder). Captain Gregory Page (1819) owned 1 flesje met wat caijpoetij olij (MOOC8/35.34). We know from other sources that this oil is from a tree that grows in the Phillipines, Malaysia and the Celebes and is used as an insecticide and antiseptic and for pain relief and lung congestion. Jamilla van de Kaap (1821) had some Hallesche medicynen in a black sugarpot and other spices. She had a snuff shop, with signboard, in her backyard with many items used to make snuff (MOOC8/36.8). A number of inventories mention tobacco used as snuff and packed in silver containers, and the spuugbalies to go with this habit.

The remedies were kept in any room of the house – in a medicine chest or in a glass or wall cabinet, a medicine shop that was part of the house, a wine cellar, attic or outside room. In some cases a medicine chest would be listed but the contents not revealed. There are references to Hallesche medicine chests and to Hallesche medicines without the name of the medicines. For example, Andries Brink (1789) owned three jars of Hallesche medicines (MOOC8/19.76).

In the wine cellar of Christina van de Caab (1789) were:
1 zak met 10 flessen coriander zaad, 1 zak met 15 flessen mosterd zaad, 1 halfaam waarin 164 lb tamarinde, gekookte en ongekookte lijnolie, gestampte snuyftabak en tabaksbladen, 1 castje met curcuma (MOOC8/19.50). A bag with aluyn was found in a buitekamer (MOOC8/21.2). Sometimes medicines were found op de solder, for instance 1 groot kruije cas en 1 cas met mediceynen (MOOC8/8.18) and others in different parts of the house, except in cases where they had a medicine shop in a separate room.

Part of Jan Haszingh’s house (1774) was a small medicine shop containing een glase kast daarin diverse flesschen en potjes met medicamenten, twee kleijne glase kastjes met medicamenten, een rak, een oude bureau daarin drie mortieren, nevens eenige kruiden, een metale vijsel met sijn stamper, een doosje waarin twee klijne balanse met haar schaaltjes, een kist met kruiden, een flesch kelder met wat rose water, een kasje met chirurgijns instrumenten (MOOC8/16.27).

Other medicine shops can be found in MOOC8/6.18 and in MOOC8/6.120 with items such as chirurgijns instrumenten, pots, jars and doosjes with medicine, and the widely used clisterspuijten/klisteerspuit (enemas) in different sizes. Household items such as kelderflessen, bottels, commetjes, kelkjes en lepeltjes were used to prepare remedies. The vijsels and stamper were used to grind seeds such as aniseed (for digestion). A decoctum kettle listed could have been used to boil up concoctions.

An item which sometimes appears amongst household goods is the gesondheijt: cloths soaked in water mixed with vinegar or red wine were placed on a woman’s abdomen and lower part of the body to prevent or reduce haemorrhage during pregnancy or childbirth.

This brief sketch of the huis-apotheek and the Hallesche medicine chests of that time, as they appear in the inventories, gives us some insight into the everyday lives of folk. It also gives a sense of how the past echoes in the present as many people still rely on these home remedies as simple, effective forms of medication at very low cost. It is interesting to note that although in the past the use of herbs/plants was dismissed by many as quackery, these days traditional healers and scientists are looking at cures together.

 

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