Find thousands of books, manuscripts, visual materials and unpublished archives from our collections, many of them with free online access.
Search for free, downloadable images taken from our library and museum collections, including paintings, illustrations, photos and more.
Glass bottle, containing 'anti-hysteria water', Florence, It
- Science Museum, London
- Digital Images
- Online
Available online
Licence
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
You can use this work for any purpose, including commercial uses, without restriction under copyright law. You should also provide attribution to the original work, source and licence.
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) terms and conditions https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Credit: Glass bottle, containing 'anti-hysteria water', Florence, It. Science Museum, London. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Selected images from this work
About this work
Description
‘Anti-hysteria water’ is contained in this moulded glass bottle. It was produced by the pharmacy of the Carthusian Monastery, near Florence in Italy. The water was taken with a cup of coffee with a third of a cup of water and a little sugar. This created ‘an aromatic drink that calms nervous excitation.’ Monasteries often produced such simple remedies and cures for general sale. In the 1800s, hysteria was a broad diagnosis applied to women with ‘nervous’ conditions.
maker: Carthusian Monastery pharmacy
Place made: Certosa, Bolzano, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy