Curing rheumatism with boiled frogs
ALLETZ, Pons Augustin.
L’Albert moderne, ou nouveaux secrets éprouvés, et licites, recueillis d’après les découvertes les plus récentes. Les uns ayant pour objet de remédier à un grand nombre d’accidents qui intéressent la santé: les autres, quantité de choses utiles à savoir pour les différents besions de la vie …
Paris, et se vend à Liege, J.F. Bassompierre and J. van den Berghen, 1769.
12mo, pp. xx, 314, [2]; head-pieces; occasional light marginal damp staining; very good in contemporary mottled sheep, spine richly gilt with lettering-piece, red edges, marbled endpapers; slight splitting to joints, small chips to spine ends, a little wear to corners and edges; ink stamp and label of the College of St Barbara in Ghent to title; neat contemporary ink annotations in French to pp. 66, 93-96.
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L’Albert moderne, ou nouveaux secrets éprouvés, et licites, recueillis d’après les découvertes les plus récentes. Les uns ayant pour objet de remédier à un grand nombre d’accidents qui intéressent la santé: les autres, quantité de choses utiles à savoir pour les différents besions de la vie …
A nice copy of this popular book of secrets by the Oratorian, lawyer, and writer of reference works Alletz (1703-1785), with some interesting annotations.
First published in 1768, L’Albert moderne is divided into three sections, the first on health (‘de la santé), the second providing all manner of pratical tips (‘l’utilité’), and the third devoted to liqueurs, flowers, painting and colours (‘l’agrément’). Running alphabetically from ‘abeilles’ to ‘yeux’, the section on health includes remedies for bad breath, madness, viper bites, drowning, wrinkles, and smallpox. The practical part contains advice on making carrot jam, shoeing a horse, writing gold letters, getting rid of ants, preserving oysters, and preparing shaving foam, while the final section incorporates recommendations on painting furniture, cleaning prints and art works, dyeing, and varnishing.
A contemporary owner has added several interesting annotations. On p. 66 he gives his own recipe for treating rheumatism, recommending boiling fifty frogs in oil for twelve hours to produce an unguent! And on pp. 93-96 he writes at length of the health benefits of Alletz’s ‘Elixir of long life’, his notes clearly derived from practical experience: ‘il fait vivre longtems sain, gai, et alerte’.
