How to Cure A Cold in 1836

by ROBERTA NEWMAN

It’s 1836 and you’re sick, in a shtetl not too far from Vilna. You have a rash that won’t go away, gout, and a lingering cold. The local feldsher (barber surgeon) hasn’t been of much help and the charm the non-Jewish folk healer gave you didn’t work. You don’t have money to consult a professional herr doktor in Vilna. The wine dealer’s son-in-law, who hacked away all winter in the besmedresh (house of study),  just came back from that new-fangled thing called a spa where he “took the waters.” He looks great and seems to be miraculously cured but there’s no way you’re going to be able to travel to a spa.

But now it’s your lucky day: the traveling bookseller shows you a new book he just got in: Obhandlung iber dem nutsen und heylkraft dos kisinger vaser (Treatise on the uses and healing powers of Kissingen Water). It’s about the waters from the springs of the famous spa of Kissingen and how to use them to treat all kinds of illnesses, ranging from menstrual periods that are irregular to melancholia and liver disease. There are instructions! And best of all, it seems you don’t even need to travel to the spa. You can buy the water from dealers in Liepaja (in Latvia) and in Vilna.

Roberta Newman is YIVO’s Director of Digital Initiatives.