Pomanders and perfumes

Several ingredients of animal origin employed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period as apothecary ingredients, were also used for perfumes. Thus, some of the ingredients discussed in the "Animals that heal" temporary exhibition at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca, were also presumed beneficial due to their smell. Thus, ingredients such as ambergris or zibethum were worn on one's person in pomanders to ward off pestilence (presumed cause of infection) or simply bad smells. In fact, the word pomander itself, in French pomme d'ambre, comes from Ambra grisea=ambergris, substance obtained from the digestive tract of sperm whales.

Here are some historical pomanders, containers of such scented substances, sometimes combined in several individual containers:

 

Ambra grisea / ambergris in Transylvania

Ambergris (Lat. ambra grisea) or grey amber, is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish color, produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. Like other secretions and ingredients of animal origin, it was mostly used in the perfume industry, but also had medicinal applications.

vintage engraving of a sperm whale or cachalot

In the European Materia Medica, thus including Transylvania, ambergris was mostly used as cure for vertigo and fainting, presumably also due to its strong odor.

The History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca displays, part of the "Animals that heal" temporary exhibition, a small glass with paper lid and the signature AMBRA GRISEA. The apothecary jar, still containing  pieces of ambergris, is dated to the end of the 19th century and was once used in a pharmacy in Turda, not far from Cluj, the greatest city of Transylvania. 

19th-c. apothecary jar with paper label inscribed AMBRA GRISEA from the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca

Animals that heal

"Animals that heal" (Animale vindecatoare) is the title of the new temporary exhibition in the making at the History of Pharmacy Collection in Cluj-Napoca. The exhibition will open in the first days of January 2017 and will be on display for six month, in the center of Cluj, in Unirii Square no. 28.

Rather numerous medieval and early modern apothecary ingredients were obtained from animals and insects. The eighteenth-century written sources from Transylvania, pharmacy inventories, pharmacopoeias, apothecary taxes (lists of ingredients and prices), mention 80 such ingredients, much more than in the era’s Austrian pharmacopoieas for example. Some were exotic, obtained from sperm whales, civet cats, cuttlefish etc., while others were local, obtained from common European species (such as the so-called Spanish fly, bear, deer, pig and others). The ingredients include various organs, secretions or even pathological “products” from the body of the various species of animals, such as the bezoars.

The exhibition shall tell the tale of these less usual medicines and illustrate it with various jars for such ingredients and also historical samples of some of them.

Stay tuned! 

Animal scents

Exploring the history of pharmacy and its strange ingredients of animal origin, I discovered just how many of them are still used in the perfume business (and related trades such as soap making, cosmetics, fragrance sticks, solid perfumes etc). Besides musk which is extracted from the secretions of various species of deer (but also plants with similar smell), there is also civette, from the anal glands of the civet cat group of felines and ambergris, from the digestive system of sperm whales. I guess it has to do with pheromones and the animal in us, but I am still amazed of the great contemporary success of such products. My latest Etsy treasury "Animal fragrance" explores some of these products and the way of presenting them - in a very aesthetically pleasing, sanitized way. Interesting!