First edition of a very rare medical treatise by Ehrenfried Hagendorn (1640-1692), a Polish doctor and the personal physician of the Elector of Saxony. In the present Tractatus he introduced a new medical application for the popular exotic "terra Japonica" or catechu. Catechu (cachou, cutch etc.) is a substance widely used for all kinds of purposes throughout Asia today and in history. It is extracted mainly, but not exclusively, from the bark of acacia trees. Typically it comes as a reddish powder that dissolves in water. It has been used in Europe for centuries, most commonly as a dye or as an astringent. In Dutch "cachouën" (to cachou) means to boil something in catechu (cachou) in order to make it last longer. This was introduced by the VOC and especially used in the maintenance of ships, which eventually lead to the Dutch fleet turning reddish brown because of the dye in catechu. We traced the first European mention of catechu in a Wittenberg pharmacist's pricelist from 1632: Verzeichnüs und Taxa ... so in der Apotheken zu Wittenbergk verkaufft werden ... Wittenberg, Johann Röhner, 1646. From the 1670's onward publications appeared that aimed to introduce new purposes for the substance, including the present work by Hagendorn, which was one of the first. The list of applications for catechu grew rapidly, with even a use for photography being introduced in 1900.
Spine worn, corners bumped. Scriblings in ink on title-page. Otherwise in good condition. Biogr. Lex. Her. Aerzte III, p. 15; Bradley III, p. 464; Krivatsky 5201.