BRANDY

Brandy

Spirit of Wine

Pharmacy - Brandy. Brandy. Spirit of wine. Aqua vitae. Tincture.

Historical dose: Tincture and all potencies.

Clinical

• Bums
• Colds
• Indigestion
• Insomnia
• Shock
• Toothaches
• Wounds

Homeopathic

Brandy is distilled wine—wine with most of the water removed—which changes the taste and makes the alcohol content higher.

"Brandy is derived from brandywijn, a word of Dutch origin for 'burnt.' Created in a still to leave the water and remove the alcoholic vapor which condenses back into liquid form as it cools. In other languages too, it is the burning that is the essential feature."

Concentrated spirits of wine were used in ancient Greece and Rome, both as an antiseptic and as a primitive anesthetic.

From the 12th to the 14th centuries, alchemists in Europe began experimenting with the distillation of many items, but medicines were still mostly given as infusions or decoctions of single herbs. Arabic writings and universities in Spain began to influence Christian schools of medicine in Italy and France.

Two contemporary 13th-century Spanish alchemists, Arnold de Villanova and Raymond Lully, introduced wine spirits, which they called aqua vitae (water of life), as a solvent into European medicine.

This later became known as brandy, shortened from the Dutch term for "burnt wine." In the 14th century, during the Black Death, brandy began to be used as a medicine by itself. It was thought of as a polycrest, a remedy of many virtues.

Brandy is a stimulant, tonic, and has restorative powers. Teaspoon doses of brandy were given to patients with low fevers, typhus. Sleep aid, helps prevent and treat colds. Warms the body and improves the circulation.

Relations

Compare: (I) Alco., Yitis.

References

Murphy.