Les liquides corporels comme remèdes : l’attitude de Pline l’Ancien et ses parallèles chez Galien

Abstract

Books XXVIII-XXXII of the Natural History show a rejection of remedies made of human liquids implying murder (blood, bile) or man-eating or deemed too loathsome (excrement…); Others are for external use only. In the book X of his treatise upon simple medicaments, Galen’s attitude is the same, but a little more limiting. Pliny mentions internal and external uses for almost animal fluids; in Galen, regard for dignity, rejection of magic, and preference for vegetal remedies limit their usings. Parallel attitudes facing remedies issued from human beings, in the preface of Pliny’s book XXVIII and in the one of book X of Galen’s treatise, result from intellectual and philosophical conceptions spread among cultured people in their time.

Keywords

• animal fluids
• blood
• excrements
• human fluids
• magic
• man-eating