Does anyone suffer from lumbago any more? I know many people who have from time to time experienced extreme back pain – in fact I had a month of it some time ago, thankfully not repeated since. But lumbago? I eventually found it on the NHS (National Health Service) site and it just says ‘Back pain can have many causes. It’s not always obvious what causes it, and it often gets better on its own.’ I have a look at Wikipedia and I get a definition and etymology
‘The noun is borrowed from Late Latin lumbāgō (“backache of the lumbar region”), from Late Latin lumbus (“lumbar”), Latin lumbus (“loin”)
So it seems as if it’s just a fancy name for a painful back and not a specific something – maybe it was used at a time when doctors would use medical or Latin terms when really ‘back ache’ seemed too ordinary or prosaic. The reason I’m thinking of lumbago is I came across a remedy for it in the little Recipe Index notebook my kind writing friend gave me. it’s actually on a loose page from another note book, possibly some sort of invoice book because across the top of the page it says RETURN. The page is lined but also has columns, Date, Branch No., Name and Number of Pairs., Received by., and another Received by. I’m guessing it must be an account book for a shoe shop or for stockings or maybe gloves.
Handwritten in capital letters at the top of the page is LUMBAGO, and beneath it there is a recipe for what must be a liniment to rub on the afflicted area – it sounds too unpleasant to drink, and would drinking anything that wasn’t an analgesic help back ache?
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- 2D Oil Spikes (presumably spikenard)
- 2D Oil Juniper
- 2D Sweet Nitre
- 2 D Friars Balsam
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- 1²‘³ drops on lump sugar
The D is decilitres, which are 10 centilitres. spikenard also called muskroot is a Himalayan flowering plant and its oil has been used not only as a perfume and in religious ceremonies, but as an essential oil. Juniper is a shrub and most people would associate the use of its berries in making gin, but also in cooking. Sweet nitre is an old fashioned remedy containing mostly ethyl nitrite which comes from ethanol, and Friars Balsam which I was given as a child when I had a cough or cold. Apparently, according to Wikipedia it’s a “tincture of benzoin, a pungent solution of benzoin resin in ethanol. A similar preparation called Friar’s Balsam or Compound Benzoin Tincture contains, in addition, Cape aloes or Barbados aloes and storax resin.”
What a palaver to make that – unless those four ingredients, oil spikes, juniper oil, sweet nitre and Friar’s Balsam were commonly found in most people’s medicine cupboard? I’m sure Agatha Christie would have known!
Lois Elsden 
Funny you should mention it, I am recovering from lumbago!!! The term is widely used in France and in Spain, and no, it does not refer to backache in general, it refers to the crippling pain in the lumbar region that prevents you from standing straight, bending down, or turning round when in bed. My observation over the years shows various causes for it, one of them is a sudden movement to lift something heavy, the other is a sudden change of temperature, like when you leave a warm sitting room and go up a cold staircase, for instance. Fortunately somebody invented a neoprene “cummerbund” (another of those old-fashioned words hardly ever used nowadays) which quickly warms up the muscles in the lumbar region, allowing you to move more or less normally. I can’t think how the mixture you describe was meant to be used, the sugar implies that it had to be taken orally but the other ingredients suggest it should be rubbed onto the area. Certainly a mouthful for just four ingredients!!! Thanks for the interesting post.
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Oh,, how horrid for you, I’ve only had severe back-pain once but it is the most miserable and annoying thing, so painful and depressing. I love the word cumberbund and I will investigate the one you describe as a friend suffers from back-pain very frequently. She’s an artist and I think she sits and stands for long periods, so maybe the cumberbund would help her. Thanks for getting in touch x
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Your friend should be able to find a neoprene cummerbund (not cumberbund, that sounds too cumBersome :-))) at any good Chemist’s. By the way, juniper essential oil (mentioned in your post) is one of the ingredients used to relieve inflammation in joints, along with wintergreen, added to a carrier oil. Anyway, Happy Easter! Nadine
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Thanks, Nadine – I’m blushing slightly at my spelling mistake because of course I do really know how to spell it! Thanks for the advice, I’ll pass it to Fiona, and hope it helps her. She’s a very active person and loves long walks and heading up the hills round here so it’s annoying as well as so painful being debilitated! Thanks for your Easter good wishes – we have already sampled plenty of hot cross buns yesterday, and are now hoping we’ve been good boys and girls and the Easter bunny will call! xx
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