Secrets et remedes éprouvez, dont les prépararions [sic] ont été faites au Louvre, de l'ordre du Roy

Abbé Rousseau’s formula for Baume Tranquille: belladonna, nightshade, poppies, and the abbé’s special touch: large live toads

Rousseau, Abbé [Henri de Montbazon]. Secrets et remedes éprouvez, dont les prépararions [sic] ont été faites au Louvre, de l'ordre du Roy... Dernière edition corrigée & augmentée des Préservatifs & remedes universels, tirez des aminaux, des vegetaux & des Mineraux, Ouvrage posthume du meme Auteur. Avec un Remede Specifique pour la guérison de toutes sortes de Maladie Veneriennes.
Paris: Claude Jombert, 1718
2 parts in 1 vol. 12°: a-d8/4 A-S8/4 T2; 2a6, A-K8/4 L4 [$4/2 (-2A4) signed]; xlv, [3], 220; [12], 123, [4] pp. Uniform contemporary sheep spine and corners and paper covered boards.

The Abbé Rousseau (c. 1643-1694), was an apothecary, appointed as a physician by Louis XIV and the Faculty of medicine in Paris. Known as the “Capucin de Louvre” the former theologian had his first medical practice in the Louvre. Afterwards he retired to an abbey in Cluny where he continued to practice medicine.

The present work, published posthumously for the first time in 1697, based on a manuscript collection of spagyric or alchemical remedies from plants. These remedies, based on the principle of fermentation, quickly gained considerable popularity. The first part of the book is devoted to theory, the second to practice. The present edition of this work, which includes a second section, Preservatifs et Remedes Universels tirez des Animaux, des Vegetaux, et des Mineraux , is corrected and expanded from the previous edition (1708).

Notably, in chapter X. (pp. 129-41), the work includes the Abbé Rousseau’s formula for “Baume Tranquille [calming balm]”, containing in particular leaves of belladonna, henbane [nightshade], poppies, boiled in olive oil with aromatic plants; the abbé’s special touch: large live toads. He writes: “Quand on veut le faire encore meilleur, on y ajoute autant de gros Crapaux vifs qu’il y a de livres d’Huile, ou à peu près. Lefquels il fût faire bouillir [When you want to do it even better, you add as many large live toads as there are pounds of oil, or thereabouts. Which you then bring to a boil.]” p.133

In part two, Preservatifs et Remedes Universels tirez des Animaux, des Vegetaux, et des Mineraux, Rousseau’s discusses among other remedies one for venereal disease which relies on a mercury based tincture, which is said to radically cure all symptoms of this particular maladie.

An admired and influential work of the pre-Enlightenment which has at its base on empirical experimentation and evidence.