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Ambroise Paré (1634): ass’s milk in hectic fever – historical directions for use
The 1634 English edition of the works of the French surgeon Ambroise Paré recommends freshly milked ass’s milk in wasting, hectic fever. The text also says how the she-ass should be fed and who cannot tolerate the milk.
- Author
- Ambroise Paré (c. 1510–1590), surgeon to the French kings; translated by Thomas Johnson
- Work
- The Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey, London: Th. Cotes and R. Young 1634
- Passage
- Book 10 (“Wounds of each Part”), chap. XXXII “Of the differences, causes, signes and cure of an Hecticke feaver”, pp. 393–395; ass’s milk on p. 395
- Time & place
- 1634 (English translation; French collected works since 1575) · London (original: Paris)
- Type of source
- Surgical textbook
In the original words
What the original says
Asses milke newly milked and seasoned with a little salt, sugar, honey, or fennell, that it may not corrupt, nor grow sowre in the stomacke;
Ass’s milk, freshly milked and seasoned with a little salt, sugar, honey or fennel, so that it does not spoil or turn sour in the stomach;
Let your milch Asse be fed with barly, oates, oake leaves;
Let your milking she-ass be fed with barley, oats and oak leaves;
But for that all natures cannot away with Asses milke, such shall abstaine from it, as it makes to have acrid belchings, difficulty of breathing, a heate and rumbling in the Hypochondria, and paine of the head.
But since not every constitution can tolerate ass’s milk, those in whom it causes sharp belching, difficulty in breathing, heat and rumbling in the upper abdomen and headache should abstain from it.
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 395 of the English edition, London 1634, with the instructions on ass’s milk in hectic fever; in the margin “How Asses milke must be used in a hecticke”.
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
Ambroise Paré began as a barber-surgeon and became surgeon to several French kings. He wrote not in Latin but in French, making surgical knowledge accessible to surgeons without a university education. His collected works appeared in Paris in 1575 and were repeatedly expanded and translated.
The English translation by the London apothecary and botanist Thomas Johnson appeared in 1634 and was reprinted several times. The tenth book deals with wounds of the individual parts of the body. Because injuries to the chest and lungs were often followed by a wasting “hectic” fever, Paré adds a chapter there on its treatment, so that the surgeon could help until a physician arrived.
Content
What the source reports about donkey milk
In the dietary part of the chapter the text recommends easily digested, moistening foods. Among them is freshly milked ass’s milk, seasoned with a little salt, sugar, honey or fennel so that it does not spoil in the stomach, or woman’s milk sucked directly from the breast, about half a pint. Woman’s milk is considered even more wholesome; the margin reads “Womans milk more wholsome than Asses”.
The milking she-ass should be fed with barley, oats and oak leaves. If the patient has diarrhoea, the milk can be made more “astringent” by boiling it briefly and quenching red-hot pebbles in it.
Finally Paré warns that not everyone tolerates ass’s milk. Anyone in whom it causes sharp belching, shortness of breath, heat and rumbling in the upper abdomen or headache should do without it.
At a glance
Figures & facts from the source
Timeline
Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk
Each dot is a source from our knowledge archive – from Greek antiquity to the present day.
Critical assessment
How reliable is this source?
Source value
A print of 1634, verifiable page by page as a scan. It is a translation; we have not compared the French wording for this entry. In substance the passage stands in the tradition of Galen, who recommended ass’s milk for wasting.
Ranking and reservations
The text places woman’s milk above ass’s milk and explicitly names complaints in which ass’s milk should be stopped. In this it is more cautious than many later eulogies of ass’s milk.
Today’s assessment
“Hectic fever” usually meant the wasting of tuberculosis or long-suppurating wounds. The treatment is purely a matter of medical history; donkey milk is not a remedy for such diseases, and raw milk should not be drunk unheated today.
Our assessment
Paré – or more precisely his English edition – gives not only the recommendation but a small set of directions: freshly milked, lightly seasoned, the she-ass well fed, and stopped if it is not tolerated. Few sources of the period are this concrete.
References
Sources to check
- Primary sourceThe Workes of that famous Chirurgion Ambrose Parey, translated by Thomas Johnson, London: Th. Cotes and R. Young 1634, book 10, chap. XXXII, p. 395; Wellcome Library copy on the Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/b30328159/page/n418/mode/1up - SupplementaryBeginning of the chapter “Of the differences, causes, signes and cure of an Hecticke feaver” on p. 393
https://archive.org/details/b30328159/page/n416/mode/1up
More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.