Healing Body and Soul. Medicine and Hygiene in the 18th Century

Pump house

In the inner courtyard (today »Lindenhof«) of the Francke Foundations, shown here in reverse, a water pump house can be seen in the center right – it was both a water tapping point and a reservoir.

Wine glasses

Even during Richter’s lifetime, people recognized the dangers of alcohol addiction for body and mind. However, a little sip was considered invigorating and refreshing:
»For good digestion of food, for the strengthening of nature, and for the preservation of health, moderate use of a good and unadulterated wine also serves, especially in melancholy temperaments, because it pleases nature, and also keeps the blood thin and fluid; therefore they can make moderate use of it during the meal. On the other hand, the superfluous use of wine harms health, and it is to be regretted that people abuse this noble creature, which is given to them for refreshment, as a means of murder, and thereby shorten their lives.«
C. F. Richter: Die höchst-nöthige Erkenntniß des Menschen […]. Leipzig 1710, p. 511

Roast on the table

That a healthy and pleasurable life is possible without meat consumption is something we have known not only since the modern lifestyles of vegetarianism. Even the pietist physician Johann Samuel Carl notes that the consumption of animals is more out of a sinful desire for luxury than out of necessity:
»But just as the apostasy from God led man to all kinds of animal desires, so that his deviation from the image and first order of God became more and more apparent: so the first simple food became more and more disgusting/ that he also sought animal flesh for his pleasure/ since he did not use it for his need…«
In Carl’s day, of course, meat was not as cheap and easy to obtain as we are used to today.  Carl considers the expensive pleasure of regular meat consumption to be disproportionate and therefore also unhealthy:  
» ...if not all/ who handle much slaughter/ and eat much meat and things strangled/ must feel very uncouth hard emotions and animal passions in their mind/ be it gladly or unwillingly? ... Yes/ would not such heated nourishment break health all the sooner/ and predispose to all kinds of illnesses?«
J. S. Carl: Anmerckungen von der Diät-Ordnung […]. Frankfurt/Main 1713, p. 8–12

Painting

»In particular, we find, as something special in man, that a desire burns in him that cannot be satisfied with anything created and perishable.«
C. F. Richter: Die höchst-nöthige Erkenntniß des Menschen […]. Leipzig 1710, p. 3
What distinguishes man from animals and plants? According to the teachings of the orphanage doctor Christian Friedrich Richter, it is not only the knowledge of a higher being and the »radiating« of divine omnipotence from the soul: It is above all also his everlasting striving and desire. The awareness of one’s own role as the »pride of creation« should be dealt with conscientiously, since according to pietistic teachings the human body was only lent by God and primarily there to serve its creator.  Unreflected behavior, dissolute carousing and unbridled indulgence were considered a serious offense against the gift of health. It was always necessary to find the happy medium between too much and too little and, ideally, not to have to consult a doctor for every ailment. Richter summarizes: »The indulgence is a wet-nurse of the doctors.« (p. 604) 

Lavatory facilities

The privy facilities for the orphanage and the schools were located at the extreme northern edge of the complex, facing the city of Halle and separated from it only by the city moat (today Hochstraße/ Magistrale). The facilities were built starting in 1734 and included a total of 220 privies, with the teachers’ restrooms separated from those of the students. Among the pupils, strict attention was paid to gender segregation. The remote location of the lavatories served to avoid contamination and odors. At the same time, it facilitated the removal of feces. In the 19th century, the facilities were extensively renovated and brought up to the latest technical standards.

Baking and brewing house (today House 37–39)

In the baking and brewing house built in 1738–1741, bread was baked for the students and staff of the institutions and beer was brewed at the same time. For the latter, a royal privilege had been acquired, which is why no tax was due for serving the beer in the asylums. Brewing itself was subject to constant quality control. The children were not given the pure beer to drink, but the low-percentage small beer (»thin beer«), which was considered healthier than unboiled water. The bakery and brewery were connected by underground passages both to the dairy in the south of the premises and to the kitchen in the basement of the dining and singing hall building.

Dining and singing hall building (today House 27)

In the dining and singing hall building, the body and soul of the children were equally cared for. Important school events also took place here. The building symbolizes the unity of physical, spiritual and mental care of the young people. Thus, to this day, the central dining room is located on the first floor of the building. The orphans and poor students were fed here at the so-called »Freitisch«. On the upper floor, the large prayer and singing hall was created (today Freylinghausen-Saal). In addition to examinations of the Latin school, this hall was also used for public devotionals and communal singing sessions.

The madhouse (»Tollhaus«)

The madhouse was an institution that housed young people with mental disabilities. In the 18th century, behavioral therapy and psychotherapy did not yet exist. There is little information about the madhouse in the files in the Francke Foundations’ archives, but it seems that only a few people were temporarily housed here. During their stay in the small, two-story building, they were cared for by theology and medical students.

The first hospital and the infirmaries of the schools

The first hospital building of the orphanage was established in 1708. It was located in a former garden. There was already an old barn, a small residential house and stables there, which Francke had converted and expanded for use as a hospital. To cover the high costs involved, he enlisted the nobleman Peter Marquard von Goden from Schierensee in Holstein as a sponsor. The hospital existed parallel to the infirmaries in the various school buildings, such as for the boys of the Latin School (»Latina«), which also prepared gifted orphans and the poor for university studies, and the orphan girls. This first hospital building was only used for a few years and was replaced by a new building from 1721 due to dilapidation.

Laboratories

These buildings, which no longer exist today, housed the orphanage’s laboratories. Here, doctors such as Christian Friedrich Richter worked on the development and production of medicines for the orphanage’s pharmacy, but also for the care of the children and employees of the institutions. Alchemical laboratory procedures were used in the production of the orphanage’s own medicines. These methods were intended to uncover the inner essence of the medicines, which was believed to have a direct effect on the patient’s soul and thus heal him.

Paedagogium Regium (today house 19)

At the Paedagogium Regium, the school for the children of the nobility and wealthy bourgeois, there was a separate infirmary. The parents of the children paid into a »Krancken Cassa«, an early form of solidarity health insurance, for the provision and supply of firewood for heating and candles for light, as well as for the doctor’s upkeep. At the Paedagogium, students received basic instruction in anatomy and botany. In a special subject, the »Materia medica«, the children were also taught dietary rules for a healthy lifestyle.

Orphanage (today house 1)

The orphanage was a multifunctional building. On the left side on the first floor there was a pharmacy where in-house medicines were sold. In this building, from 1716, the free consultation for the poor also took place. The enormous number of 12,000 patients was treated here annually by the orphanage physician Johann Juncker and his medical students, who gained practical experience here. Medicines were also dispensed free of charge. The mansard roof housed the orphan boys’ dormitory until 1734 – here everyone had their own bed, which was highly progressive at the time.

Second hospital – the new (children’s) hospital (today house 51)

The second, so-called »Juncker’s« hospital was built in 1721–23 and, due to its conception and use, is most closely associated with the name of Johann Juncker, the orphanage physician of many years. On the one hand, the hospital is in the tradition of special attention to sick children in care institutions since the Middle Ages, but it is also modern in that it already refers to the more recent, modern hospital history. The two-story building was conceptually intended as a hospital open to poor students as well, but soon only orphans (usually boys, but in individual cases girls as well) were treated here. Thus, the institution developed into one of the first dedicated children’s hospitals ever. Hospital history dates the emergence of children’s hospitals after precursors in London (1769), Vienna (1788) and Breslau (1793) with the famous Paris building of 1802.

Prisoner/Court Scene

In the foreground is a prisoner in foot and hand shackles. He is surrounded by instruments of torture that were often used in criminal trials as a means of forcing a confession. The prisoner’s attention is directed to the middle ground of the picture, where his case is discussed and his fate is determined.

Justitia

Justitia, the goddess of justice, is easily recognized by the sword in her right hand and the scales in her left. Symbolically, the scales represent both the weighing of evidence and the ultimate judgment (conviction or acquittal). The sword symbolizes the secular, judicial power.

The Jurist

Somewhat to the left below Justitia the jurist can be recognized. The book opened in front of him contains the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, the imperial penal code of Emperor Charles V from 1532, which was still valid in the 18th century. Quite obviously he is in a dispute with his counterpart, the physician, under the eyes of Justitia.

The Physician

The (legal) physician can be recognized by the medical commentary on criminal law opened in front of him. The juxtaposition of the jurist and the physician appears at first as a confrontation. However, this is cancelled out by the book Corpus Iuris Criminalis located between the two, which fictitiously refers to the totality of criminal law, encompassing substantive criminal law, criminal procedural law, and forensics. Both contribute equally to the judicial establishment of truth and thus to justice (Justitia).

Infanticide

A probably female person is busy digging a hole with a spade while a baby lies on the ground to her left. Since the baby is depicted with an umbilical cord, it can be concluded that this depiction shows the killing of a child, which the person is trying to cover up – a fairly common offense in the early modern period.

Autopsy/Anatomy and Duels

This part is complex. In the foreground, we apparently see the autopsy of a corpse, the findings of which are recorded by the person on the far left. In the middle ground, two people are depicted with pointed objects, which are probably rapiers. Consequently, it would be a duel. This would indicate, in keeping with the university town of Halle, the tendency to duel that was widespread among students in the 18th century – and these duels, because they were strictly forbidden, took place outside the gates of the town and in the surroundings of taverns (this could be represented by the house in the background). The autopsy shows that the cause of death is medically clarified. If the depiction is interpreted as an anatomical dissection, the scene also makes sense, because the bodies of executed child murderers and killed duelists were bodies for anatomy.

Two Furnaces

The large, open furnace with a fume hood was an important place for alchemical activity. Here, starting materials could be heated in clay or glass vessels in order to mix and combine them, to melt them or to extract or distill substances from them. The picture shows a clay crucible over an open fire. In front of it is a gripper to move the hot vessel. A smaller distillation furnace, like the one in the front, was also indispensable in any laboratory. A vessel filled with a mixture of substances was heated so that when a certain temperature was reached, a portion evaporated. The vapor condensed on the cooler distillation helmet and could be discharged in liquid form through a drain pipe into a distillation receiver (e.g., a glass flask). In this way, different liquids were separated from each other or from a solid that remained behind.

Shelf with Standing Vessels

The shelf contains numerous starting materials for alchemical laboratory work. The standing vessels are labeled with alchemical symbols such as ☿ for mercury and the halved circle for saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Although animal and vegetable raw materials were also used in the alchemical processes for the production of medicines, a particular feature of the alchemical art of medicine was the intensive use of mineral and metallic materials. These included, for example, antimony (salts) as well as mineral acids such as aqua fortis (nitric acid).

Devices and Pentagram

From left to right, a clay crucible for heating or melting solids, a pair of tongs, a pentagram and a mortar with pestle for crushing plant parts, for example, are located here. The pentagram with the planetary signs symbolized the microcosm (man) within the early modern nature magical world view. Often it is linked, as here in the picture, with the planets and thereby with the macrocosm (universe). In the center of the pentagram is the symbol of the sun (☉). In the five points are the planet symbols Moon (☽), Venus (♀), Mars (♂), Jupiter (♃) and Saturn (♄).

Mercury with Winged Helmet

In alchemy, the god Mercury (Hermes), who can be recognized by his winged helmet, stood allegorically for the transformability of matter, which was fundamental for alchemical processes. In accordance with the nature magical world view one assumed correspondences in nature, i.e. interrelations between different parts of the terrestrial and stellar space. Thus planets, metals as well as certain properties were supposed to be connected with each other. The planet Mercury corresponded with the metal mercury, which is liquid at room temperature, which in turn stood for the flowing/changeable and also the soul principle in nature.

View of a Mountain

On closer inspection, small human figures appear on the mountain: miners working on or in the mountain. Metals, minerals and their compounds represented starting materials for alchemy, for example, in the production of medicines. Therefore, their mining and knowledge of materials from mining were of fundamental importance for alchemical work.

The Soul Bird

The bird, just escaped from the cage, leaves it behind and flies towards the horizon. In the form of the bird, the soul appears here as its own immortal being. The so-called soul bird escapes in other representations through the mouth of the deceased. Images of this kind can already be found in testimonies of ancient Egyptian and Greek culture.
Throughout all cultures, people have always imagined the soul in the form of animals. The winged animals have a special role. They are associated as mediators between heaven and earth, as a symbol for the spiritual sphere. They are also associated with the idea of the soul as a breath of life or air, which sets out on a journey detached from its physical shell.
Besides the bird, it is especially the butterfly that embodies the soul in various representations. It is associated with rebirth and resurrection because it leaves behind the dead shell of its larval stage for its first flight.

If your soul were an animal, which would it be? Does this kind of transformation correspond to your desire?

The Terrestrial Cage

The opened cage remains empty. It is deprived of its function. The moment of dying is marked here as the release or liberation of the soul. If body and soul are conceived as separate spheres, then, as in a parable of Plato, the body can be conceived as the prison of the soul. He invokes the image of a cage when he writes that the soul is »shackled to its body and fused with it, forced to see reality through the body as through bars, rather than through its own unobstructed vision« (Phaidon 82e). Everything earthly and corporeal seems to oppose the eternally fleeting character of the soul, the body is only temporarily its abode/home.

What idea of life/body do you see in the motif of the cage? What idea of health do you associate with it?

The Reaper

In one hand the scythe, the other still at the door of the cage, the skeleton looks after the little bird that it helped to freedom. Since the Middle Ages, skeletons have adorned epitaphs and admonished people to remember their own mortality. In the course of the 16th century, the common vanitas motif gained anatomical correctness in parallel with the development of medical knowledge.
Not only the dead, but also death itself is depicted as a skeleton, so that in its allegorical form it resembles its victims – at first, as in the case of the medallion, as a skeleton wrapped exclusively by a shroud, later entirely covered by a cloak and almost shapeless. He appears in various roles: as a minstrel, seducer, hunter, horseman, or lord over time.
Probably the best-known role is that of the reaper. While the reaper – that is, the grim reaper who mercilessly cuts people like cornstalks at the end of their lives – can be seen in action in other depictions, in this case the scythe has only a referential function. The medallion shows him in the moment of a peaceful, even liberating action.

Is this a comforting motif for you? Does life play a role in the picture?

The Sky

Clouds pile up in the sky, while a small glimmer of light fights its way over the edge of the horizon. Is a new morning dawning or are these the last rays of sunlight of the day? The little bird flies purposefully toward that glimmer of light. Back in freedom, it strives towards the sky.
The sky in the picture raises the question of where the soul goes after death. After the act of separation from all earthly things, it passes – depending on the conception – through various stations or dissolves completely. In addition to the flight to heaven threatened by evil forces, which represents a return to the heavenly, divine (as in the present case), the scale of the soul is a common form of representation for the journey on which the soul embarks. The places of passage or intermediate stations are supposed to serve either for purification, punishment, reward or preparation of the soul for a new life, its reincarnation. The latter gained popularity again in the 18th century, which is also reflected in a poem by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. He wrote a poem in 1779, also with reference to heaven:

»Des Menschen Seele
Gleicht dem Wasser:
Vom Himmel kommt es,
Zum Himmel steigt es,
Und wieder nieder
Zur Erde muss es,
Ewig wechselnd.«

(The soul of man / Is like water: / From heaven it comes, / To the sky it rises, / And down again / To the earth it must go, / Eternally changing.)