Why did they drink gold, and how did it kill aristocrats

As long as humanity is alive, it will always seek the elixir of eternal youth. Nowadays, there are many means and methods of rejuvenation: unique injections, ointments, serums, designed only for your skin.

Back in France of the 16th century, aristocrats sought to get rid of wrinkles, folds and skin pigmentation with the help of a deadly substrate - gold.

The favorite of the French king Henry II, Diane de Poitiers daily took a solution consisting of gold and ethyl alcohol. Most likely, this destroyed her.

Diana de Poitiers never possessed royal power, but had great social and moral power at the court of the king. Contemporaries called it the "smart whip in the Renaissance." She was a patron of the arts and directed the raising of royal children.

Her beauty was considered canonical. All aristocrats tried to imitate her and meet the following rules: the skin should be pale, light, black eyelashes, pink lips, rosy cheeks, graceful waist, lush arms and hips, miniature head. Diana was considered ageless. Some suspected her of witchcraft.

The French historian Brant once recalled a meeting with Poitiers six months before she died. She was 66 years old. He admitted that he did not know much about “liquid gold” and other beauty-promoting products that she consumed every day. The historian wrote that if this lady of high society lived another hundred years, she would never have grown old. Her face and figure were so well built.

In the fight against old age, pharmacists invented such unusual remedies as scorpion oil and spider elixirs.

The tradition of using gold has existed since antiquity. Pliny the Elder prescribed it as a medicine for papillomas and wounds.

Wei Boyan, a Chinese alchemist who lived in the second century AD, wrote of gold as a potion for immortality. He described those who drank it as "enjoying a long life." The ancient Egyptians referred to the "golden water" as a cure for old age. These ideas came from the fact that gold was not destroyed, was durable.

Scientists Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen write that the use of gold has turned from curiosity into passion, especially when alchemists understood how to turn solid gold into liquid gold. Liquid in the 16th century was advertised as a panacea. It cured everything from epilepsy to mental mania.

Recipes using gold were present in all chemistry textbooks of that time - from the French physicians Jean Begen and Christophe Glaser to the pope from Portugal, John XXI.

His work on medicine was very popular in the Middle Ages. In one of them, dad described a recipe for making water, which included gold. This tool was supposed to help maintain youth. It included, in addition to gold, iron, lead, copper, silver, steel components.

This compound had to be placed in the "urine of a virgin child", then add white wine, fennel juice, egg whites, milk, red wine and egg whites again. And so for six days do it again and again.

Liquid gold has a criminal history. It was used by the Spanish Inquisition to poison witches, sorcerers, and sinners.

Only after many centuries did people realize that the golden essence used for rejuvenation can be fatal.

Apparently, this is what happened with Diana de Poitiers. She died in the castle of Anais in France in 1566. Her bones were discovered during excavations of a general burial in the area. It was believed that her body was exhumed, and the grave was destroyed during the French Revolution.

Examining the hair of Diana de Poitiers, scientists came to the conclusion that, most likely, she died from the slow poisoning associated with the constant use of gold.

This does not mean that drinking drinks with elements of gold is completely a thing of the past. For example, Goldschläger liquor. This Swiss schnapps sells for $ 300 per bottle and contains 13 mg of 24 carat gold per liter.

The consumption of this drink, however, does not give us eternal youth.

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