Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 164

NICOLAUS POL (ca. 1470-1532) De cura morbi Gallici per lignum guaycanum, libellus. Per Joannem Patavinum & Venturinum de Ruffinellis?] 1535 [8] ll. 14.9 cm.

The place and date of Pol's birth are unknown, but it is believed that he was born in the Tirol about 1470. Although nothing is known about his education, he entered the service of Duke Sigismund at Innsbruck in 1487 as a court pharmacist. When Maximilian I followed Sigismund in 1490, Pol continued in the same capacity and also acquired a medical degree because he was appointed physician to Maximilian in 1495. He continued at Maximilian's court until 1519, when he entered the service of the new emperor Charles V. In this short work of nine chapters, Pol sets forth a regimen of treatment for syphilis with guaiacum, a resin extracted from the tree which is native to tropical America. He states that three thousand Spaniards had been cured of morbus gallicus ("French disease") by means of guaiacum after many of them had tried other remedies without success. According to Pol, most were cured by a decoction of the wood in fifteen days although some patients required as long as sixty days. Anyone who suffered from the disease, even those who had had it for a decade or longer, could expect to be cured by taking the decoction and following the prescribed regimen.

See Related Record(s): 128

Cited references: Cushing P331; Durling 2812; Wellcome 5141

Gift of John Martin, M.D.