Jump to content

Nine oils

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Citation bot (talk | contribs) at 18:48, 15 December 2020 (Alter: url. URLs might have been internationalized/anonymized. | You can use this bot yourself. Report bugs here. | Suggested by AManWithNoPlan | All pages linked from cached copy of User:AManWithNoPlan/sandbox2 | via #UCB_webform_linked 568/2989). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In the 19th century, the nine oils was a preparation, or liniment, which was rubbed into the skin to relieve aches, such as over bruises. The "nine oils" were apparently developed in veterinary medicine, for treating horses, but later was adopted for human medical use.

According to one 19th-century druggists' book, oils used in the preparation included:[1]

However, it is certain that many "nine oils" preparations did not contain these ingredients, and in fact it is possible that the name "nine oils" never referred to any specific combination of compounds. The writer James Greenwood, in 1883, put these words in the mouth of the street-doctor "Dr. Quackinbosh", in his series of articles Toilers in London, by One of the Crowd, originally serialized in the Daily Telegraph:

When I first started I worked Woolwich with my "miraculous Nine Oils." Men who work at heavy lifting and hauling, and are likely to get strains and ricks of the back, have a superstitious belief in the "Nine Oils." It is the same wherever you go. What are they? what, the original Nine? Blessed if I know, nor they don't know either. But that don't make any difference. I used to give 'em one – sperm oil – and call it the Nine.[3]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ FRANCIS, George William (1853). The Dictionary of Practical Receipts; Containing the Arcana of Trade and Manufacture; Domestic Economy; Artistical, Ornamental&scientific Processes; Pharmaceutical and Chemical Preparations, Etc. (Third Edition.). J. Allen, D. Francis.
  2. ^ http://www.mspong.org/cyclopedia/distillation.html
  3. ^ http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications3/toilers-19.htm

References