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Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source
Krünitz’s Oeconomische Encyclopädie (1777): donkey milk in the article “Esel”
In 1777, the extensive German Oeconomische Encyclopädie describes donkey milk as “lean” compared with cow’s milk and closer to human milk – and reproduces a recipe typical of its time for “artificial donkey milk”.
- Author
- Johann Georg Krünitz (1728–1796)
- Work
- Oeconomische Encyclopädie, vol. 11
- Passage
- Article “Esel” (ass), vol. 11 (1777), pp. 547–548; cross-reference article “Eselsmilch”
- Time & place
- 1777 · Prussia (Berlin)
- Type of source
- Encyclopaedia
In the original words
What the original says
Die Milch der Eselinnen ist, in Vergleichung mit der Kuhmilch, mager, und eben deswegen bedienen sich die Aerzte derselben, um Kranke wieder herzustellen, weil der Magen solcher Personen die fettere Kuhmilch nicht vertragen kann.
According to Krünitz, donkey milk is lean compared with cow’s milk; for this reason physicians gave it to patients whose stomachs could not tolerate the fattier cow’s milk.
In Ansehung der Stärkung, kommt sie der Menschenmilch weit näher, als die Milch einer Kuh
In terms of its nourishing properties, it is said to be much closer to human milk than cow’s milk.
Background
Who, when, what kind of text
The “Oeconomische Encyclopädie” was begun by Johann Georg Krünitz in 1773 and appeared until 1858 in 242 volumes. It is a very extensive German-language encyclopaedia and a key source for agriculture, household and everyday life in the transition to industrial society. Trier University Library has made it fully available as full text.
The paragraph on donkey milk follows Buffon’s French Natural History (1753) largely word for word and supplements it with German literature references from the 1760s and 1770s.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
Krünitz describes donkey milk as leaner than cow’s milk and closer to human milk in its nourishing properties. Its use as a medicine had been “preserved from the Greeks down to us”. For good milk, one should choose a young, healthy she-ass that had recently foaled, wean the foal and feed the animal with hay, oats, barley and herbs.
There follow literature references, including “Anmerkungen über den medicinischen Gebrauch der Eselsmilch” (Leipzig 1767) and a report in the Leipziger Intelligenzblatt of 1775 on the conditions under which “milking she-asses were procured for patients”.
As she-asses were not available everywhere and some people had an aversion to the drink, the article – following a Hamburg periodical from 1765 – gives a substitute recipe for “artificial donkey milk” based on cow’s milk with ingredients such as hartshorn, eryngo root and snails. We reproduce it only as a cultural-historical curiosity, expressly not for imitation.
Like Buffon, Krünitz notes that the powers attributed to the other parts of the ass’s body had been “either destroyed, or at least not confirmed” by experience.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Dependence on Buffon
The core paragraph is an almost verbatim translation from Buffon’s Histoire naturelle (vol. IV, 1753, p. 402). The German literature references and the substitute recipe are original.
“Artificial donkey milk”
The recipe shows how sought-after donkey milk was – and how little was known about its composition. A mixture of hartshorn, snails and cow’s milk has nothing in common with donkey milk in terms of substance.
Today’s assessment
Krünitz’s comparison with cow’s and human milk is based on the observations of his time; today the composition is examined with modern analytical methods. The medicinal use described corresponds to the knowledge of the 18th century and is not scientifically substantiated today.
Our assessment
Krünitz shows how knowledge about donkey milk travelled through Europe in the 18th century – from Buffon directly into the German reference work. The snail recipe is a nice reminder of how much has changed since then.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceArticle “Esel” (Krünitz online, Trier University Library)
https://www.kruenitz1.uni-trier.de/xxx/e/ke01556.htm - Primary sourceArticle “Eselsmilch” (Krünitz online, Trier University Library)
https://www.kruenitz1.uni-trier.de/xxx/e/ke01567.htm
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.