AKEN, Frans Mikael von (1698-1760)

First edition of a popular ”House- and Travel Apotheke” divided into five parts. The first gives some infallible household remedies, the third deals with coffee, tea, chocolate, beer, spirits, tobacco and spas. The fourth part has dietary rules for the sick, the fifth deals with child care. The second part is a translation into Swedish by L.[ars] B.[aelter] of Rosén von Rosenstein’s dissertation De compositione medicamentorum Hallensis (1739), for which Peter Lundberg was respondent. There was much discussion on the balsamic purgatives of Halle, especially the pills prepared there by the famous professor of medicine, Johann Juncker. Halle was the main centre of the Stahlian school and the Stahlians considered that nature itself cured all diseases and doubted the efficacy of strong drugs like opium and quinine, but favoured copious blood-letting and mild purgatives. Rosén agrees that these medicines of Halle can be of certain value but is critical of their extreme cost. These medicaments of Halle which, in spite of not being allowed to import, were offered for sale in many Swedish towns, and were so highly recommended in an accompanying booklet by Christian Friedrich Richter of Halle ’that anyone inexperienced in the Art of Medicine could easily believe that they were endowed with a hidden Divine power, and a panacea for all diseases’. This Swedish edition of Rosén’s dissertation was first published in 1744 but is here reprinted by the business-minded apothecary in his House- and Travel Apotheke. The sixth and concluding part concerns the extermination of vermin and pests, including crickets and finches, who occasionally stole grains of wheat. This part, which also deals with wolf-pits and how to catch ravens, moles, hawks, owls, eagles, etc., was also published separately by von Aken in 1747 with the title Hus- och Land-Apotheque. Frantz Michael von Aken was born in Rostock in Swedish Pomeriana and arrived in 1723 to Sweden, where he purchased the famous apothecary shop Hjorten [The Deer] in Örebro and soon acquired the title of both court apothecary and court physician. He also received the special privilege of having a monopoly on all pharmacies in the towns of the provinces Närke and Värmland. von Aken’s shop was always well stocked. He also dedicated himself to inventions and sold hawk- and sparrow-traps. von Aken was succeeded by his son, Frantz Joachim von Aken, who became famous for several inventions, on which he published numerous pamphlets drawing him into polemics with competitors. Especially famous were his fireworks and the so-called Aken’s Fire Extinguishing Substance, demonstrated for the King, an event immortalized in a large copper engraving in one of his advertisements.

Collation: Pp (14), [15]-368, (24) + extra errata-leaf. Title printed in red and black.

Binding: Contemporary half calf, sprinkled boards.