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Scotland's 'naturall elixirs' and 'sacred liquors': Explaining the Medicinal Power of Mineral Waters
- Parergon
- Australian and New Zealand Association of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Inc.)
- Volume 30, Number 2, 2013
- pp. 59-79
- 10.1353/pgn.2013.0067
- Article
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This article discusses the early contribution by Scottish physicians to the literature on hydrotherapy, a genre of medical writing which emerged in the later sixteenth century. In so doing, it analyses the early modern belief in the healing properties of three sources of mineral waters in Scotland, a topic which addresses the themes of this Special Issue in two ways: firstly, the origin of the waters' powers was emphatically interpreted as divine, albeit natural rather than miraculous; and, secondly, these powers were believed to be manifested through occult qualities which were accepted as being beyond human comprehension.