Aignan, François

AIGNAN, FRANÇOIS. - The ex-missionary Capuchin Father Tranquillo d'Orléans (père Tranquille) was called abbé A.; born in 1644, he joined the Cluniac Benedictines around 1690, and died in 1709. As a Capuchin, together with his confrere Father Enrico da Montbazon (later abbé Rousseau), he directed a pharmaceutical laboratory in the Louvre palace on the orders of King Louis XIV. In order to practice their art more freely they became Benedictines; both at the Louvre and in the abbey of St.-Germain-des-Prés they distributed free of charge to the poor the medicines they prepared, which were eagerly sought after by nobles as well. A. became famous for the preparation of a remedy still known today by the name of "balsamo Tranquillo," composed of solanum racemosum, furiosum maniacum, poppy heads, henbane, mint, tobacco, rue, wormwood, hyssop, etc., and of a large toad just killed. This balm enjoyed enormous vogue; it was administered even to Louis XIV, on the eve of his death. Mme de Sévigné considered it a sovereign remedy, useful against all diseases. The "balsamo Tranquillo" has come down to our own day, though without the toad ingredient, as a local anesthetic (cf. M. Messini, Terapia clinica, 1944).

Under the name of abbé A. he published various works of medicine: Le prestre médicin, ou Discours physique sur l'établissement de la médecine, avec un traité du café et du thé de France, selon le système d'Hippocrate, Paris 1696, with a sketch of the history of ecclesiastical medicine, taken from Du Val's Historia monogramma; L'ancienne médecine à la mode, ou le sentiment uniforme d'Hippocrate et de Galien sur les acides et les alhalis, Paris 1693; Traité de la goutte dans l'état naturel, ou l'art de connaître les vrais principes des maladies, Paris 1707.

Adalberto Pazzini