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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
Burton (1621): ass’s milk in “The Anatomy of Melancholy” – an exception to the ban on milk
In 1621 Robert Burton counts milk and milk products among the foods said to promote melancholy. The only exceptions are whey and, in the view of some physicians, ass’s milk.
- Author
- Robert Burton (1577–1640), scholar at Christ Church, Oxford; pseudonym “Democritus Junior”
- Work
- The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford 1621 (first edition)
- Passage
- Part. 1, Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subs. 1 “Bad Diet a cause”, p. 89; additionally Part. 2, Sect. 2, Memb. 2 (p. 314 of the first edition)
- Time & place
- 1621 (first edition); expanded until 1651 · Oxford
- Type of source
- Medical and literary treatise
In the original words
What the original says
Curds, &c. increase Melancholy (whay only excepted) which is most wholsome: some except Asses milke.
Curds and the like increase melancholy (whey alone excepted, which is very wholesome); some also except ass’s milk.
The rest, to such as are sound, is nutritiue and good, especially for yong children, but because soone turned to corruption, not good for such as haue vncleane stomacks
The rest [of milk] is nourishing and good for the healthy, especially for young children; but because it soon turns to corruption, it is not good for those with unclean stomachs.
rich women bathed themselves in milk, some in the milk of five hundred she-asses at once
Rich women bathed in milk, some in the milk of five hundred she-asses at once.
English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.
A look at the original
What the passage looks like
Page 89 of the first edition, Oxford 1621: in the section on diet as a cause of melancholy stands “some except Asses milke”, with the marginal reference “Piso. Altomar.”
The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Wellcome Collection, via Internet Archive; gemeinfrei (Public Domain Mark)
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
Robert Burton spent almost his entire life as a scholar and librarian at Christ Church, Oxford. Under the name “Democritus Junior” he published “The Anatomy of Melancholy” in 1621, a vast treatise on the causes, symptoms and cure of melancholy. Until his death he revised and expanded the book in several editions; a final one appeared in 1651.
The work is divided into three “partitions” and further into sections, members and subsections. Burton quotes hundreds of ancient and contemporary physicians and writers, usually with marginal references. He was not a physician himself; his book collects and orders the medical knowledge of his time and is at the same time a classic of English literature.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
In the subsection on bad diet as a cause of melancholy, Burton goes through foods one by one. Milk and everything made from it increases melancholy; he excepts only whey and – according to “some”, that is, certain authors – ass’s milk. In the margin he names “Piso” and “Altomar.” as his authorities, probably the physicians Nicolaus Piso and Donatus Antonius ab Altomari.
For the healthy, milk is nourishing, especially for young children, but it spoils quickly and does not suit delicate stomachs. The passage shows the special status ass’s milk had in humoral medicine: it was considered lighter and less burdensome than other milk.
In later editions, in the part on cure and under baths, Burton added the sentence that rich women bathed in milk, some in the milk of five hundred she-asses at once – an echo of the ancient tradition about Poppaea. This sentence is not yet in the first edition of 1621.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
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Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
First edition, verifiable page by page as a scan. Burton reports the opinions of others (“some except”) without committing himself. Its value lies in the fact that a widely read book mentions ass’s milk as a known exception.
A growing text
“The Anatomy” changed from edition to edition, so quotations must be assigned to a specific edition: the sentence about the milk of 500 she-asses appears in later editions, not in the first. The online full text at Project Gutenberg follows a later version with modernised spelling.
Today’s assessment
The idea that foods could produce melancholy through the bodily humours belongs to medical history. Burton’s dietary rules are not advice for today; the passage documents how ass’s milk was classified in seventeenth-century thought.
Our assessment
Burton’s brief half-sentence shows that around 1620 ass’s milk was known in England as a special case among the kinds of milk. We also find it interesting how the book grew: the often-quoted line about the milk of 500 she-asses was added only in later editions.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceRobert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: John Lichfield and James Short for Henry Cripps 1621 (first edition), p. 89 (Part. 1, Sect. 2, Memb. 2, Subs. 1); Wellcome Library copy on the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/b3032712x/page/n190/mode/1up - SupplementaryFirst edition 1621, p. 314 (Part. 2, Sect. 2, Memb. 2): passage on milk baths, still without the sentence about the she-asses
https://archive.org/details/b3032712x/page/n417/mode/1up - SupplementaryProject Gutenberg text based on a nineteenth-century edition, checked against the 1638 edition (modernised spelling): Part. 2, Sect. 2, Memb. 2 with the sentence on the milk of 500 she-asses
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10800/pg10800-images.html#id_2.2.2
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.