ABSTRACT
Sixteenth-century Europe was repeatedly subjected to acute and chronic infectious diseases, including bubonic plague, which refused to go away after devastating Europe in the fourteenth century. Medical practitioners in sixteenth century Europe analyzed and described urine much as sommeliers today discuss wine. In Europe, chickens and young cocks are considered medicine for the sick; the Japanese consider them poison, and they instead feed fish and pickled radish to the sick. Professionalization was costly in another sense: while it may have reduced the number of 'quacks' practicing medicine, it also drove experienced and knowledgeable midwives and other lay practitioners from the field, leaving the vast majority of Europeans to fend for themselves. Doctors in sixteenth-century Japan usually were called kuzushi or 'medicine-masters', and true to their name, they filled their own prescriptions whenever they could. In medieval and early modern Europe, spices such as saffron, basil, and pepper were considered powerful medicine.
