Saturday, June 14, 2014

Dsily Dose

From How to Live or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer, by Sarah Bakewell

MONTAIGNE'S MEDICINE

"Today, stones can be broken up using sound waves to make the passage easier, but in Montaigne's time one could only hope the spheres, spikes, needles and burrs would find their own way to exit... Once, he took 'Venetian turpentine, which they say comes from the mountains of Tyrol, two large doses done up in a wafer on a silver spoon, sprinkled with one or two drops of some good tasting syrup.'  The only effect was to make his urine smell like March violets."

From 14. Q. How to live? A. See the World, Travels

No comments:

Post a Comment