Impotence: A Cultural History
book · 2007
LINK
SUMMARY
Scholarly cultural history by the historian Angus McLaren, cited here for its statement of the Cordial Balm of Gilead's composition. The University of Chicago Press excerpt page (fetched) states: 'Solomon's Cordial Balm of Gilead was a mixture of cardamom, brandy, and cantharides, which supposedly favored the production of semen and removed the flaccidity of the muscles', and notes Solomon followed Tissot in listing forms of 'debility arising from self-abuse' and offered the cordial for 'impotency or seminal weakness'. The ISBN 9780226500768 was resolved against a catalogue record and returns the title 'Impotence' (2007), confirming the identifier and work. No page number is asserted in this bundle because the promotional excerpt's page marker is not reliable; the work is cited by ISBN. This is the source for the cantharides identification, which the case attributes to McLaren specifically (one scholarly characterization) and pairs with the brandy-and-herbs/spices consensus from Helfand (via Mugglestone).
NOTES
Angus McLaren’s Impotence: A Cultural History is cited for the composition of the Cordial Balm of Gilead. McLaren describes the balm as a mixture of cardamom, brandy, and cantharides, said to favour the production of semen and remove muscular flaccidity, and places Solomon in the eighteenth-century anti-onanism literature that sold restoratives for “debility arising from self-abuse”. The book’s ISBN, 9780226500768, resolves to the correct title and year. The case attributes the cantharides identification to McLaren rather than presenting it as settled fact, and reads it alongside the more widely repeated characterization of the balm as herbs and spices dissolved in old French brandy.