What is it about?
Laudanum was a novel drug introduced in the sixteenth century to help sick patients sleep. It was developed by the Paracelsians, who challenged the established view that opium could not be ingested safely. Potentially lethal substances can be found in sleep recipes from the time, but these were generally used externally.
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Why is it important?
This article links two topics that are currently of interest in early modern studies - the history of sleep and the history of poisons. It shows how the Paracelsians' radical theories on poisons led to the development of laudanum. In the period 1580-1700 this was a novel and experimental drug that held out the hope of relief for patients whose sleep was disturbed by sickness or chronic pain. It broke with traditional Galenic remedies, which relied on smell to benefit from the narcotic qualities of dangerous drugs.
Perspectives
In researching this article, I was suprised to find how little had been written on the early history of laudanum. Early recipes have been dismissed as 'mumbo jumbo' (Martin Booth), but the more I looked into early sleep recipes, and the theories of poisoning on which they are based, the clearer it became that they represent an important departure. In the context of Paracelsian theories of poisons, it is the method of extracting the poison, rather than the exact ingredients, which was important.
Dr Elizabeth K. Hunter
Queen Mary University of London
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ‘To Cause Sleepe Safe and Shure’: Dangerous Substances, Sleep Medicine and Poison Theories in Early Modern England, Social History of Medicine, October 2021, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/shm/hkab064.
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