Balneologia oczyma XVI-wiecznego medyka na podstawie Cieplic W. Oczki (1578)

Balneologia oczyma XVI-wiecznego medyka na podstawie Cieplic W. Oczki (1578)

Balneotherapy in the eyes of a sixteenth-century physician as described in Cieplice by Wojciech Oczko (1578)

Anetta Luto-Kamińska

Wojciech Oczko, a renowned sixteenth-century physician and specialist in medical theory, wrote a book entitled Cieplice. The task was commissioned to him by king Stephen Bàtory (Polish: Stefan Batory) who wanted to consult his court physician about the effi cacy of bath therapy, today practiced at spas. Educated at home and abroad, the doctor approached the assignment with due diligence and wrote the book in which he presented the ancients’ opinions on balneotherapy, listed a range of foreign and domestic hot springs, and explained how thermal waters could be applied in practice. He also described the effect of thermal waters on the human body as well as the complications which could result from using them in treating internal and external diseases. Oczko indicated which ailments could be cured with balneotherapy and how it should be applied to achieve maximum effects. He also provided many signifi cant technical details pertaining to the use of waters in therapy and recipes for various kinds of medicine based on thermal waters. Accroding to Oczko, it is worth applying balneotherapy both as complementary therapy and as basic treatment when other methods have failed and there is no hope of recovery for the patient. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the contemporary reader with the medical knowledge of balneotherapy as it was 400 years ago, relying on a direct account of a Polish Renaissance physician. The book is not easy to read due to the intricacies of the Old Polish language that sometimes may be understood only by a linguist.

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