City hospitals: the undercare of the underprivileged

RENATE SMOLLICH, Der Bisamapfel in Kunst und Wissenschaft, Stuttgart, Deutscher Apotheker Verlag, 1983, 8vo, pp. x, 342, illus., DM 58.00 (paperback). As the author has written, it is the modern developments in medicine which have completely displaced the use of pomanders for therapeutic and prophylactic purposes, but at one time the matter was quite otherwise. From at least the days of the Ebers papyrus (c. 1600 BC) perfumes have been used for disinfection, doctors have exercised their wits on the use of scented materials in medicine, and pharmacists on the best method of presentation. Certainly by the Middle Ages, the globular or "apple-shape" was decided upon as one of the most desirable forms, and it was from these that the beautiful pomanders, true works of art, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are descended. Of particular interest to pharmacists is the section on ingredients; from 125 recipes, ninety different drugs are listed and the percentage frequency of use given. Rose flowers, red or white, figure in seventy-eight per cent of the formulae, styrax in an overwhelming ninety-nine per cent, and it is not surprising to find ambergris in sixty per cent; equally, to modern tastes, it is unsurprising that Succus valerianae is to be found in a mere one per cent. Recipes for pomanders are drawn from many countries: Italy, France, Germany, the Arab lands, and England; including one which ends with the helpful advice, "This, if your breath be not too valiant, will make you smell as sweet as my lady's dog." The book has 106 illustrations of pomanders, well over half of which, it is interesting to note, are from this country, no less than twenty-six from the Wellcome Museum. Some of the illustrations, however, do not show the fine workmanship of the pomanders as clearly as one would like. In a world of rising costs this is always a problem, but possibly fewer pictures on an art gloss paper would have been better. There is a fine bibliography, and the book may certainly be taken as a definitive work on pomanders. This book is yet another worthwhile addition to the series "Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Pharmazie" (Bd. 21), which is proving so useful to pharmaceutical historians. One minor defect in this volume is the lack of underlining of even major headings and titles, which does not make for easy identification of particular aspects of the subject. J. G. L. Burnby Wirksworth, Derbyshire