have earned an extra 12 Louis of gold), also consulted a German friend, a certain Herrenschwand, doctor of the Swiss Guards who protected the King at Versailles.
Because the medicus only showed up twice to visit Wolfgang (Leopold writes it as if his doctor friend had neglected his duties, but evidently the disease was not so serious as to require daily visits) he thought it best to integrate the treatments with a some Aqua laxativa Viennensis (Viennese laxative water), a popular medicine certainly less dangerous as it is composed of Senna (Plant of Indian origin with laxative effects), Manna (extracted from the sap of the ash, with emollient and expectorant properties, slightly laxative), Creme of tartar (tartaric acid with natural leavening properties) mixed in six parts water.
Medicine in the 18th century
Mortality in the second half of the 18th century in European cities was four times higher than today. Vienna, with a population of around 270,000, had a death rate of 43 per thousand. The main reason was the large number of diseases present at the time, such as smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever and, in children, diarrhea. In addition, chronic infections such as tuberculosis and syphilis increased the death toll.
Life expectancy in the second half of the 18th century, especially in cities, was 32 years. The main reason was the high infant mortality rate. In the years 1762 to 1776, the average mortality rate of children under the age of two was 49% and at least 62% of children died within the fifth year. The main cause was diarrhea due to poor hygiene and inadequate infantile nutrition. Breastfeeding by mothers was not popular, so middle and upper-class women resorted to nurses for their children, who belonged to the lower classes and, often, were themselves carriers of disease.
Another method used was baby food, consisting of bread boiled in water or beer with the addition of sugar.
Wolfgang Mozart possessed erroneous notions about it, as evidenced by a letter written to his father in June 1783 on the occasion of the birth of his first child, Raimund Leopold, in which it is highlighted that he was against breastfeeding. He would have liked the baby to be fed only baby food, as it was for him and his sister.
Fortunately he gave in to the insistence of his mother-in-law and the son was entrusted to the care of a nurse even if, unfortunately, it was ineffective, and the baby lived only four weeks.
The therapies used at the time were poorly effective.
Gradually the notions deriving from medieval medicine were discarded, but in their place there were few alternatives.
For example, quinine in the form of Peruvian bark was used against malaria; opium was the only known analgesic, while mercury was used against syphilis.
Furthermore, the theory of mood disorder of the disease was still in vogue, which provided the removal of body fluids in order to expel bad moods and thus restore balance.
Therefore emetics, laxatives, enemas and bloodletting were widely used.
During the 18th century, medical techniques were used that today make us laugh, such as "tobacco smoke enemas", which were practiced in particular to reanimate drowned people (in London, but also in Venice, along the river or canals, in the apothecaries rather than in the parishes, at the piers and harbors, boxes with the equipment necessary to practice this therapy, just as is the case today for the defibrillators used in the case of cardiac arrest).
Leopold Mozart was probably always interested in medical treatments, the newest remedies and, more generally, scientific news, becoming aware of them during his long stay in London during the European Grand Tour.
Given the scarcity of official medicine results, "do-it-yourself" remedies were widely used, and as we have seen, the Mozart family was by no means exempt.
Here is a table of the most used medicines at the time:
- margravia powder (magnesium carbonate, mistletoe, etc.). Originally produced by the Berlin chemist Andreas Margraff (1709-1782);
- black powder, also called Pulvis Epilepticus Niger (seeds of croton, scammonea, peony, animal products, etc.). By far the most used remedy as it contained strong laxatives. It was used against epilepsy and also contained dried ground worms;
- scabiosa tea;
- rhubarb root;
- elderberry tea;
- white ointment (lard, white lead);
- anti gout pills (cooked seaweed or sponge)
Despite the approximation of many diagnoses and related treatments, we must not underestimate the evolution that the rationalistic thought of the 1700s allowed for the development of medical science which, thanks to the experimental method, made great strides forward and paved the way for subsequent progress.
Precisely in the 18th century, especially from the second half, the practice of medicine began to take on the modern characteristics as we know them today.
Characters such as Giovanni Battista Morgagni (1682-1771) founder of pathological anatomy, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) founder of modern chemistry, Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) scientist with many interests who was defined by Pasteur as "the greatest scientist who ever lived", Georges Buffon (1707-1788) the greatest naturalist of his time, Edward Jenner (1749-1823) discoverer of the smallpox vaccine, etc.
The development of medical science is accompanied by the transformation of hospitals from places of segregation of the sick, infamous prisons with very high mortality rates, to health care institutions where, albeit with extreme slowness, increasingly more hygiene and care systems were effectively making their way.
Bedside medicine (in which for centuries the medicus went to the patient's home to administer more or less effective treatments) was gradually replaced by hospital medicine along with consequent changes in the doctor-patient relationship.
The Austrian Emperor Joseph II in 1784, the year in which Wolfgang Mozart lived in Vienna reaping success and glory everywhere, promoted the foundation of the Allgemeines Krankenhaus (General Hospital).
However, the evolution of medical science did not prevent people, such as Leopold Mozart, from continuing to make use of traditional and commonly used self-care practices for a long time, the so-called "doctorless medicine" (diet, bloodletting, purge, ointments more or less dangerous to health, recipes taken from printed booklets, etc.) and characters not always prepared, such as apothecaries, surgeons and barbers continued to perform functions related to health, not to mention the charlatans who peddled concoctions of all kinds as miraculous solutions to all evil.
How can we not cite here a symbol of the charlatans of every era Doctor Dulcamara who, in Donizetti's "Elisir d'amore" staged in 1832, sold flasks of Bordeaux wine as a general remedy in the air "Hear, hear, rustic folk": Benefactor of men, repairer of evils, in a few days I will clear out, I will sweep the hospitals, and I want to sell health for the whole world. Buy it, buy it, I'll give it to you for cheap. This is the marvelous odontalgic liqueur, of mice and mighty destroying bugs, whose authentic certificates, stamped to be seen and read by each one I will do. For this specific, likeable mirifico of mine, a septuagenarian and valetudinary man, grandfather of ten children I am still to become.
For this reason Touch and Heal in a short week more than one afflicted young man ceased to cry. Or you, stiff matrons, do you yearn to rejuvenate? Your wrinkles uncomfortable with it erased. Do you, damsels, want to have smooth skin? You, gallant young people, forever have lovers? Buy my specific cure, I'll give it to you for a little while. It moves the paralytics, dispatches
