By Going to a spa town to take in the healing waters was a well-trodden path for patients in early modernity for a range of illnesses. Throughout the period doctors including the famous Thomas Sydenham, styled as the English Hippocrates, promoted the use of healing spas. Yorkshire gentlewoman Alice Thornton spent
By Fumigating for Health
The Therapies Series In our therapies series we have looked at cupping, bloodletting, pessaries and trepanning. In this post we are going to take a look at another early modern therapeutic method – the use of fumes and smells. Smells were very important in understandings of early modern health. Scent